New wins

So I've won what I think are some old odori programmes, but because I can't actually read Japanese I might not get what I'm expecting.
I can recognise kanji but just because it has the kanji for miyako odori in the title doesn't mean its a programme, it could be anything else just related to the miyako odori.
So what I have here are, according to the translation, odori programmes from the 1940's era, Miyako and Kamogawa...
Pics...
Miyako:


Kamogawa:


Also got a 1996 and 2007 Miyako odori programme:


Bidding on some other stuff too... But they finish at about 1.30 in the morning and I choose sleep so it'll be a nice or disappointing surprise when I get up later in the morning.

I haven't received anything from customs yet so I'm hoping that my hiki has slipped thru the cracks and I won't get taxed for it.
Just for reference sake my package was listed at 90,000 yen which is about $1150 AUD, perhaps I just got lucky :)

And after these auctions finish tonight I can't wait to get my things shipped from Crescent Shop! I'm bored without having something to scan and upload on Flickr...I've got heaps of odori programmes, some postcards and odori dvds that'll keep me occupied for a while.
Also will be some white han'eri that will be my test-dummies for trying to re-create my own maiko han'eri.

So expect lots of goodies in a fortnight or so!

Just because.

Firstly, boys. Boy, singular actually. Stupid, mean, awful. Dickhead.
It's been an eventful day.
Damn my nature of assuming the best of people.

In other news...
I uploaded some more vintage maiko postcards on Flickr the other day but forgot to put them here: So here is one set . And here are some other, random postcards.

I mentioned before about wearing hakama to the sakura matsuri and I don't think its appropriate, however I still want to buy a ko-furisode and hakama set that Yamatoku have up atm.
I've got a few that I like so I need to narrow it down to one set, and I spose a backup set if I don't get the first one.

Political news:
Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd resigned today and Australia has its first female prime minister.
Poor Kevvy, just watching the news and its sad.
I don't really give a ** about politics but I want my leader to have a good personality and I think Ruddy is funny.
I hope Julia does well.

I'm also bidding on some more odori programmes... I hope I get them, make today worthwhile.

If I'm busy doing something I can't mope about that boy, so my next project is trying to make my own maiko han'eri. What design do you think I should do?
I think a fan one would be an easy one to start with...
Here's a thread on TM about maiko han'eri, there's a thread for each district
Just for inspiration.
i'll get my sketch pad out...

Its Wednesday.

Ok, so I did sell some more kimono this week, yay!
Again to another Aussie person, which is great :)
I sold the bamboo komon, Black sakura komon and that cute blue komon with flowers... I'll actually be a bit sad to see the blue one go, was a bit fond of it, but not enough to keep so I hope someone else enjoys it.

I'm not much of a girly-girl, nor am I a tom-boy... So it's a bit of a surprise that I've recently started liking nail art. Awesome. So I've bought a cheap gel nail kit off ebay and plan to practice on my toes.
Toes you say? Why not, oh I don't know, your fingernails?
I work in hospitality so pretty nails is a no-no.
So I'm *hopefully* gonna have funky as toes.
I'll let you know how that goes...

I bought a Kamogawa odori today. The 166th and the listing says that is the year 2003.
So my question is did they stop doing two (spring and autumn) dances?
I'm pretty sure they still do both but it sounds like they stopped producing the autumn odori programme?
That's just my speculation, so if you do actually know I'd love to know :)

Hiki arrives and another win.

My waterlily hiki arrived yesterday!
She's beautiful and with only a few, light marks of make-up around the wrists and a few yuzen blotches but she's in great condition.
A little card also came with it but I can't read it so I wonder if you know what it says:

There is also a tag o the hiki, can anyone read that too?
Seen here in my Flickr stream

Sorry for the bad photos... But you should be able to see the writing clear-ish-ly. Hopefully...
I haven't received anything from customs about paying an importation tax yet... Hopefully I don't get one but it should come in the mail in a week or so I'd imagine.

I also did actually win that mystery Miyako odori from the other day.
Because i was using JAC and last time I used them the bidding ID was JAC*something* I expected it to be the same again but it was kon*something* this time so I got all confused, but I won it!
How bout that... It surprised me greatly cuz I honestly didn't think I got it... Anyway...









Yamatoku has heaps of ko-fursode on ebay atm.
I honestly don't know anything about wearing hakama but they totally rock my socks especially when they are worn with riding boots, Meiji era school girl is a great look.
So in the back of my head I've been starting to put together this years Sakura Matsuri festival outfit, first off it was this pale green houmongi in all shibori, then there was this purple all shibori furisode and now I'm thinking could I wear hakama and ko-furisode?
Last year there were some girls in hakama doing... forgive my ignorance but martial arts doesn't float my boat so I don't pay any attention.
I really only know of girls wearing hakama for graduation and for performances of whatever description so is it ok to just wear anything? Is the a Time, Place, Occasion rule for wearing hakama?
I'll go and see what info I can find, not that they were many people there last year wearing kimono, mostly yukata and people in hakama doing... kendo? Something...
The Sakura Matsuri festival is located in Cowra, NSW and I plan on going this year as well so if you're in NSW, somewhere near by its a great day and I might see you there :)

Movies and what's new.

Went to the movies last night and saw Prince of Persia last night.
I honestly wasn't expecting to enjoy it, but I did.
Usually action movies aren't my thing, but I like knife throwing rather than bullets so it suited me fine.
What I really want to see is Get him to the Greek. Looks funny as.
I also really want to see Toy Story 3...
Which is funny in itself because about a year or two ago I didn't like any of these main-stream, pop culture, dumb movies, I stuck mainly towards quirky, international films.
Speaking of quirky international films I have seen a few more lately.
Nathalie...
I've seen this a few times, not by design tho, it just seems to be on.
I can't say its the best film I've ever seen, good example of the realities of love, not always black and white.
4months, 3 weeks and 2 days
Hmmm, not that exciting...
7 virgins
I only saw the beginning half of this...
A friend of mine
This was one of the Daniel Bruhl movies that I mentioned before.Good movie.
Black book
I quite like this.
Curse of the golden flower
One of my favourite movies.
Eight miles high
Interesting.
Ferpect crime
I think I've seen it.....
Four stars
I really liked this one, it was funny and a fun film.
I served the King of England
Aww, poor guy, always trying to hard to be a part of a group that he'll never get into.

Enough of that...
I didn't win any of my shibori kimono.
Again I'm bidding on a Miyako odori programme, undated again... Just to make things easy for me...
But because another Crescent Shop member has bid on it I can't bid on it using Crescent Shop, so when that happens I use Japan Auction Center and it hasn't registered my bid yet... What? How does that happen?
I'm not happy. I've only used JAC once before and I didn't have any trouble with it and that was for my sha maiko hiki so there was more money than the odori programme.
Why hasn't it gone thru? My bid is more than what the auction is at now, I don't understand why its not working...
I'll stop my whinging now...

Damn my crappy small-town post office not being open on Saturdays...
I was tracking my water lily hiki thru the post and it said it'd reached my post office on Friday, so Friday after work I rush down the street to get it... Alas... It hadn't been put in my box so I'm eagerly waiting for tomorrow so I can check my post office box after work... Yay!

I don't have anything else to say...

Its wet today.

So I'm staying inside in front of the fire.

I went to Zumba again yesterday and nothing hurts today, yay!
They were talking about doing two classes a night but we wouldn't be able to make both classes, we can barley make the one!
There's just a bit of traveling involved.
Ok, picture my town in the center, then off to the left (an hour away) is orange.On the right side of my town is Cowra (30mins and where the classes are) my friend works in Orange, finishes at 4.30, has got to drive home, change and do other little jobs before she can leave so we're lucky if we get there on 6 (usually a bit after)
So when the instructure said they'd do two classes we were hoping for a 6pm and a 7pm class, just to make things easier, instead they made it a 5pm and 6pm classes -_-
Not happy Jan.

Whats else...
Searching YJA and I found this cute little kanzashi, I don't know if its trying to represent a real flower or what.
It actually reminds me of the time I tried to make a fuchsia kanzashi






Oh my Gosh!!!
I love this website ikuokaya! That link will take you to the kanzashi page.
They do have heaps of other stuff and that's probably where I'll buy a maiko obijime and obiage from.
But, kanzashi, these are available for the month of June:













They are all amazing.
Last month for May they had an amazing pink wisteria up... for $540USD... Which would've easily been almost $700AUD once you convert the currency and add the international postage *cries*
They also have these cute pinwheel kanzashi towards the bottom of the page, I'd really like to get them too, I think they'd be really cute to wear with yafuku as well as kimono.
Next month they should *hopefully* have pampass grass up!!!
Here's an example of pampass grass kanzashi for maiko
I bet they'd cost an arm and a leg too. *le sigh*
I think I'll ask Crescent shop for a quote on the maiko kanzashi for this month, they should get back to me in a few days.

Nope, they got back to me today, which is really fast.
Anyway, those cute little umbrellas are 13400 Yen and those flowers are 10500Yen and you can choose a colour if you'd like.
I didn't get a quote for the combs tho, but the red maiko comb looks easy enough to re-create.
Looks like the comb is covered with red chirimen fabric (?) then wrapped with silver thread and the tsumami petals and fan are just placed on top. Easy.
I even have a comb I could try it on... It was originally covered with tsumami petals but they were really old,dirty and one side looked like the tsmami had been shaved off so I pulled everything off it months ago, intent on re-doing the whole thing but I go out of my kanzashi kick so it never happened.

Kimono and obi for sale, again.

Ume haori

Bamboo komon

Black sakura komon

Blue komon







Brown kiku obi

Navy nagoya obi

Purple swirl obi








Yeah, some familiar things.
I've got a few more things in the "I don't like these anymore pile" then its into the "too dirty to wear, best for crafts" pile then possibly into the "I can't decide whether I like these anymore" pile, that's gonna be tricky.

Maiko postcards from 2009

This set of postcards are from the 2009 Kyo odori programme of the Miyagawacho district, which is my favourite.


So here is the set of postcards
And here is the 2009 Kyo odori








It's really nice to see the colour version of the maiko photos.

In other, terribly exciting news:
I sold the kurotomesode and 2 piece yukata obi from last week's ebay listing, yay!
I think they're going to a good home in Melbourne :) and its nice to know there's some more people in Australia that wear kimono, spreading the love!

I made a caramel slice topped with chocolate today because I had the-most-amazing caramel slice a few weeks ago and have been addicted to them ever since.
I wasn't too happy with the one I made, the base didn't work, the caramel didn't taste right and didn't set and the chocolate topping was too thick :(
Oh well...

Details.

Now that I actually own a real maiko han'eri I'm going to give embroidering my own a shot.
I've just bought some white han eri off YJA to try with.
Honestly seems simple enough.
On closer inspection the gold thread seems to be flat gold paper.
I don't know what it is.
I bought some gold thread stuff from Ryu months ago, can't remember what they called it but it's nice and shiny and should do the job fine.

I tried to get some detailed photos on Flickr with measurements if anyone else wants to give it a try too.



I've finally taken the plunge and will get my water lily hikizuri shipped from Crescent Shop.
I've been putting it off for a few weeks because with Australian customs/importing place if the value of the item is over $1000 then you get charged a fee or tax or whatever they want to call it.
My co-worker got me some info about it, because he buys guitar off YJA and they sometimes cost over a grand he guesses the fee will be about $250 so I let it at Crescent shop for a few weeks to put aside money for that.
I can't wait to get it!
Hopefully it should be here in about 2 weeks if it doesn't get caught up in customs

Zumba and bidding opponent on YJA.

Myself and two of my friends went to our first Zumba dance class in the neighbouring town.
Oh my Gosh... my calf muscles don't thank me.
Perhaps it was just the style of the teacher but the workout was really only on the legs, not much work was done on the core or upper body.
Then again I haven't done any physical exercise since high school... so I'll be going back next week and hopefully in a few weeks I won't ache so much.

I swear everytime I bid on an odori programme on YJA I come up against this one person.
Here's my list on how I feel about this:
a) Pissed off cuz I really wanted that one!
b) thankful that clearly they go to a collector ( i hope)
c) wanting some way to contact this person so I can say I want X odori programme so let me have it, please (highly unlikely)
*sigh*
I bring this up because right now I'm bidding on some odori programmes and this person is also bidding...
They are two Miyako odori. They don't have dates tho.
The one I got cheap (cheapish) look like it may be 60's?
The other one looks similar to a 40's one I missed out on a few months ago but that's only a hunch.
Grrr. The other person just outbidded me on the-what-i-think-is-from-the-40's programme, and without a date I'm going to let it go.
There's an awesome all shibori furisode on ebay atm and apart from hikizuri I haven't bought any kimono or obi in months.
I'm hoping to spoil myself with an all shibori some time this year.
I haven't bought any normal, wearable kimono and want to get my wearing kimono wardrobe in good quality.

Anyway, back to the odori programmes:
Whenever I lose an auction I make sure to save the photo of the cover of the programme, I'm thinking, with permission of some people, trying to compile a list of District, year, and the cover photo of each programme so if someone comes across an auction that doesn't have the programme dating ( like i have above) they might be able to track the year.
Just an idea, plus it'd be interesting looking at how the cover art evolves over the years.

Anyway, I must be off to bed or I'll be very cranky tomorrow.

Maiko ro han'eri

So that pretty little decorative collar that maiko wear under their kimono are rare and expensive... but I was lucky enough to get my hands on one, used but I'm not complaining.
Ro is a summer fabric, my favourite fabric for kimono in fact, I just love the feeling and the coolness of it.
So this should go pretty well with my sha maiko hikizuri.
Disappointing that the week I bought my water lily hikizuri a ro maiko darari obi was listed on ebay, but I couldn't buy both items.
So here is my pretty collar and some close up photos, apologies for my crappy photography skillz.



What I found dissappointing about this was the gold flecks through the red- I thought they were woven into the fabric, but hopefully you should see in the photos the gold flecks are just sewn on. If I'd known that I would've embroidered my own ages ago.
I expected the Karyūkai to be extremely lavish and want the best, no offense or anything but just embroidering the gold flecks seems lazy, I honestly would've thought weaving the gold thread through the red fabric would be more extravagant.

If you would like to buy a new maiko han'eri or obiage or obijime then please check out this site.
Next on my list are darari obi, obijime and obiage.

More kimono for sale.

Dark green fukuro obi:

Here

Green/red michiyuki:

Here

2 piece yukata obi:

Here

Kurotomesode with pine:

Here

A long movie list.

I racked my brain, coincidentally remembered and went thru cupboards to look at recorded tapes to get some more movies that i've seen to add to my major list.
Here we go:
Time out
Nice little French film.
Blue Gate Crossing.
A Chinese film about the difficulties of knowing your sexualitly when still at High School.
The Weakness of the Bolshevik
It doesn't have a happy ending.
Hana and Alice.
Hmm, was a long time ago I watched this...
The Kite.
Again, a long time ago. I did like this one tho.
Borderline.
About a young woman dealing with her personality disorder.
Shadowless sword.
Yeah, liked that one.
One missed call.
A little Japanese horror for you folks outs there...
I don't do horror BTW...
To specify, I don't like blood and gore, I don't really like the supernatural stuff cuz I think a ghost will get me when I sleep, so if the movies involves those two things I call it horror.
13 Tzameti
This is not a happy movie.
Filmed in black and white if I remember right, its grim but I found it amazing.
He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not
I do seem to enjoy dark movies.
This one is about a mentally ill girl who forms an obsession over this guy.
Very clever film and stars the beautiful Audrey Tautou.
Crónicas
Meh.
Dragon Tiger Gate
Can't remember it honestly. Kung-fu.
Shadows of Time
Bittersweet ending. Think Slumdog millionaire but without the happy ending for everyone.
Nobody knows.
I balled my eyes out.
Only reading about it on Wiki now, I didn't realise it was based on a true story.
That's horrible.
The King.
A fantastic example why people should track their family tree.
Reprise
Anoter mentally troubled movie. I didn't get the ending. I don't knwo if something got lost in translation or what...
The eye
Horror...
Italian for Beginners
Sweet movie.
Dear Frankie.
Lovely movie, heart warming and all that jazz.
Manual of Love.
Sweet.
One last dance.
Great moive. Go and see it.
Who is an assassin's easiest and hardest target? Themselves. Beautiful.
One stays, the other leaves.
The grass is always greener on the other side kinda movie. I liked it.
Special escort.
Lol! Such a funny movie. Go and see it.
You bet your life.
I think i only watched the first half... or I just can't remember the ending...

Right, that's all I got for the moment.