Social Balance as a Gaijin

[RealJames]

I have a student who makes a point of wearing her Kimono every weekend in the winter and Yukatta every weekend in the summer, since it's like 35c here O.o

she knows it's unusual but she loves wearing them

When she wears them it's not the way I'm used to seeing people wear them for special events, it's more comfortable and habitual for her, so she moves very gracefully and wears it more like skin than I'm used to seeing.
It's kind of like how an experienced businessman wears his suit compared to a university student going to his first few interviews haha.

Honestly the way the vast majority of Japanese people I meet wear their kimono and yukatta it seems awkward. Definitely compared to how people 100yrs ago might have.

Along the lines of what GoNative said though, if I go to a major train station I can probably spot one every hour or two.

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by RealJames

I have a student who makes a point of wearing her Kimono every weekend in the winter and Yukatta every weekend in the summer, since it's like 35c here O.o

That's pretty interesting; is she Japanese or a foreigner?

On the note about it looking habitual, I ended up chatting once to this old lady selling stuff just down the road from Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto. She was watching me maiko-spotting (there were lots about that day, some kind of event) and came up to see what I made of it all. She pointed out that a few of them were just women in costume, not real maiko and pointed out a few key difference, mainly, how they walked in their geta. Boy, was she ever right! You could really, really tell who was used to it and who wasn't.

[RealJames]

Originally Posted by Columbine

That's pretty interesting; is she Japanese or a foreigner?

On the note about it looking habitual, I ended up chatting once to this old lady selling stuff just down the road from Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto. She was watching me maiko-spotting (there were lots about that day, some kind of event) and came up to see what I made of it all. She pointed out that a few of them were just women in costume, not real maiko and pointed out a few key difference, mainly, how they walked in their geta. Boy, was she ever right! You could really, really tell who was used to it and who wasn't.

Yeah that's one of the easiest ways to spot the habituals

My student is Japanese yes, in her early 30s and quite beautiful, and very aware that what she is doing is full-on strange and she gets laughed at by a few friends of hers but the entertainment value is worth more haha. She is far from shy.

What feels so different with her is how she moves with complete awareness of what her clothes are doing, I mean she isn't always checking everything to make sure it's still in place or something.

[protheus]

Can you post a pic (of her if she accepts or any on the net similar) with what style she dresses? I'm just curios how much out of the line would it be to get odd looks from friends.

[RealJames]

Originally Posted by protheus

Can you post a pic (of her if she accepts or any on the net similar) with what style she dresses? I'm just curios how much out of the line would it be to get odd looks from friends.

It's not what she wears that gets the looks, or the way she wears it, but how often she wears it.
Wearing traditional clothing every weekend as her casual day-off clothes is incredibly rare in Japan, only really old people do that lol.
It's like she's making a statement to resist the westernization of Japanese fashion, but really she just likes the way she looks in her traditional clothes I think

She looks just like any other woman in a yukatta/kimono, but she wears them much more gracefully.

By the way I'd never ask her to put a pic of her online, simply asking her to do such a thing would be really rude, she'd feel pressure to say yes even if she didn't want to do it because of my position as her teacher.

[protheus]

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood. I thought that she is wearing something very unusual for that area and I was curios.