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.

selling kimono, plants and dvds!

*plug*

If it just so happens that you were browsing my kimono collection on Flickr ...
My flickr page ...
and thought "wow, I'd like to own that one" maybe you can.
I'm going to sell off some kimono, obi, vintage maiko postcards, odori programmes and etc in the next few weeks so please check it out.

All items end on the 7th of June.

Check out my things for sale here


In other news:
I was out in my little garden today.
Those wisteria seedlings that I mention at the start of this blog and going quite well now. I did lose a few but have still got about 10 left.
All my deciduous trees are starting to lose their yellow leaves.
My chrysanthemums (kiku) are starting to flower. They were a bit late actually, usually they flower in early May for Mother's day but all the chrysanthemum plants were late to flower this season.
My Ginkgo has lost all its leaves but they are fresh, news ones at the base of the tree... which is odd.
My crepe myrtle has a flush of new growth on it too.
*Just to note, I'm in the Southern Hemisphere so its late Autumn, first day of Winter tomorrow!*
So that's why its odd for my plants to be having new shoots...

I've bought some dvds lately.
What I think is the 2007 Kyo odori?
The seller just said "its 2 or 3 years old". I'm not concerned either way, my favourite Geiko Kikutsuru-san would be around, and that's really why i bought it.

I also bought the dvd of last years Miyako-No-Nigiwai!
As noted in my post abut Maiko hikizuri my latest hikizuri was worn by a maiko when dancing at this performance so I bought it for that reason.
I hope she's on the dvd wearing my kimono!

New additions.

My niece was born on Monday the 24th.
Little Pepper. I'm going to call her Peppermint tho. Much nicer in my opinion.
She looks so much like her father.
I went down to spend a few days with them and I'll get another week off work in a month or so, to give my sis enough time to get used to it all.

The night before i was supposed to leave to visit them ( and get up early to drive -_-) I watched a car racing movie.
Honestly I quite like racing movies. I like Top Gear (UK and Aus versions) I can't tell you anything about cars but I enjoy it all the same.
Initial D was the movie.

My maiko hikizuri.

A maiko is an apprentice Geisha ( or Geiko which is the Kyoto dialect) from Kyoto and are frequently featured on tourism adverts.
Maiko wear long sleeved kimono called "furisode" that trail on the ground like the higher class women would wear back in the day called "hikizuri" or "susohiki" basically dragging hem.

Here is my collection of maiko hikizuri.
My first one that I purchased is one that is from the 1930's or Early Showa era.
It is black with 5 crests which makes it formal, it has designs of matsu (pine) and tsuru (crane) and was probably worn for new years celebrations. It is a winter piece.
I have found photos of this particular kimono being used at a maiko henshin studio (i.e. a place where you can dress up as a maiko,geiko,oiran,samurai, shichi-go-san etc)
The fact that its so old and has been used quite a lot explains why the fabric is in such fragile condition.


My 2nd hikizuri is meant for less formal engagements, it has an all over pattern (komon) and features abstract butterflies and grass motifs. This would be a transitional piece going between lined spring kimono to summer kimono. This hikizuri is "hitoe" or unlined.


My 3rd one is a summer piece made from "sha" fabric, which is an open weave to help cool the wearer down.
This would be a semi-formal piece.
The body is a pale blue featuring "hagi" or bush clover motif in purple, pampass grass in orange and yellow and its very difficult to see in the photos but tiny little wisteria bunches.
The idea with maiko and geiko hikizuri is that they are bold from afar but have fine details that you appreciate when you are closer to them.

And my new baby that I won a couple of weeks ago is a stunning, drool-worthy piece!!!
I found that maiko Fukuhina-san wore this kimono for last years Miyako no nigiwai performance (all geiko districts come together to perform dances each year under this name) so i was stoked to find it actually being worn by a real maiko!!!
The body is an amazing deep purple with blue and light purple hydrangea motifs on the shoulders.
The sleeves and hem are a pale blue with an amazing water lily motif.
I haven't received it in the post yet but i can't wait!