Kimonos in Kyoto

We had planned on going to the Arashiyama area and the golden temple while we were in Kyoto, but time was running out to do everything and Melissa and I really wanted to wear the traditional kimonos and we knew that would take up a lot of the day, so we decided to skip the sightseeing so that we could do that.  

I had looked up whether the Japanese people minded that tourists dress up in the traditional dress, and everything that I read said that they find it a sign of respect and interest in their culture. It was the last thing that Melissa had on her bucket list to do in Japan and Harri was happy to join us. 

Jalen was out of action this day and just slept for most of the day and Kobe was happy to tag along and be our photographer. 

There were so many places in Kyoto where you could hire a kimono, so we just walked into one of the first ones that we saw as we didn't have a booking. 

 

One lady was running it and showed us to where we could choose our kimonos and then she went back upstairs to dress someone else. Melissa straight away picked a pretty blue one. 

She was able to speak quite a lot of English, and it was so interesting listening to her tell us about the kimono and the traditions behind it. She explained that even in Kyoto today, many people would wear the kimono in everyday life. 

She told us that her daughter lives in Australia and kept telling us how much she missed her and that whenever she has Australians come in, it makes her feel a little bit closer to her daughter. 

I can't remember what colour kimono I picked to start with, but when the lady went to dress me, I remember her saying something like 'oh' and I jokingly said (but knew it was the truth!) 'I'm too fat-o' (we loved putting an 'oh' onto everything) and she laughed and said, 'no, I have a lady who was six xl'. She then told me she would just get a different kimono for me and came back with one that I loved even more. 

We started off wearing the traditional shoes (which we couldn't even fit in) but quickly learnt that there was no way we could walk any distance in them, and went back and swapped them for our regular shoes. 

It felt so special walking around the Gion district in our kimonos.  

I had read about Kodaiji Temple which has its own bamboo grove and thought it would be nice to go there to get some photos.  

I'm always amazed as to how much care and pride Japanese people take in everything that they do. 

Kobe got some great photos for us. It's always busy here, but he made it look like no one else was around. 

This was one of my favourite things we did on this trip as it just felt so special. 

Later we went to do a little bit of shopping as it was our last afternoon in Kyoto.  On the bridge was a busker singing Wonderwall by Oasis which made us stop in our tracks.  Oasis was Aaron's favourite band and I know he would've been with us on our trip. 

I had a quick walk through Nishiki Market which was super busy. 

I loved walking back to our accommodation around all the beautiful streets. 

I was so excited to see a geisha walking along the street.  Despite Jay getting sick, I loved our time in Kyoto. On our first trip we ended up just doing some day trips, so it was nice to be there to just spend more time wandering around and not feeling so rushed.