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Went to the LA ochakai today. Seriously, I go to that thing for the food alone (I'd go for the tea, but as one of the two sempai, and the only one who can sit seiza, I get stuck in the LOOOOOONG honseki on the tatami mat). Wore my blue poly kimono, a blue-and-white obi that has a bamboo print with a few pinkish-red accents, a pink sash (my brain just lost the name for that scarf-thing on the makura), and a dark blue obijime with pink and white accents. I think it looked pretty awesome, myself - the tone-on-tone made up for the bold print of the obi, I think, so I didn't look at little too ostentatious, given that it IS a tea event.
Too bad it was a sweltering 80-some degrees and the temple has shoddy air conditioning at best. Wah. ;_; Sixbajillion layers of poly or poly-blend fabric on a hot California afternoon is teh suck. (As are the control-top pantyhose I have to wear to fit my larger kimono. Blargle. I really need to lose the weight I've put on, for no other reason than the fact that kimono, even cheap polyester ones, are damn hard to find large enough for me, and they're ridiculously expensive. Tangent: I also really need to learn how to sew from a pattern, as I now have 3 different kimono patterns to try out on inexpensive broadcloth or similar, to see how they work.
It was a nice ochakai, though. I'm sempai enough now that the head of the chapters for OC and LA actually recognize me. (Or at least, recognize that my teacher has a gargantuan Viking brunette as a student. It's not hard to stand out when you're not at all Japanese [however tempting it is to lie and say I'm half - easy to pull off with the right eye makeup touches].) Pretty sweet to greet them and get greeted back with something more than a fuzzy 'who is that?' look on their face. And added bonus: I got to be a pest to the bozu there that I hung out with during my zazen days. (Rubbing their head is good luck, dammit! That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
Too bad it was a sweltering 80-some degrees and the temple has shoddy air conditioning at best. Wah. ;_; Sixbajillion layers of poly or poly-blend fabric on a hot California afternoon is teh suck. (As are the control-top pantyhose I have to wear to fit my larger kimono. Blargle. I really need to lose the weight I've put on, for no other reason than the fact that kimono, even cheap polyester ones, are damn hard to find large enough for me, and they're ridiculously expensive. Tangent: I also really need to learn how to sew from a pattern, as I now have 3 different kimono patterns to try out on inexpensive broadcloth or similar, to see how they work.
It was a nice ochakai, though. I'm sempai enough now that the head of the chapters for OC and LA actually recognize me. (Or at least, recognize that my teacher has a gargantuan Viking brunette as a student. It's not hard to stand out when you're not at all Japanese [however tempting it is to lie and say I'm half - easy to pull off with the right eye makeup touches].) Pretty sweet to greet them and get greeted back with something more than a fuzzy 'who is that?' look on their face. And added bonus: I got to be a pest to the bozu there that I hung out with during my zazen days. (Rubbing their head is good luck, dammit! That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
