SO freaking EXCITED

Ok I got THE MOST amazing gift ever today. I still can't believe it, it was so out of the blue and completely unexpected. Today, I was given a full kimono outfit. HOLY COW!!!!! I was inwardly freaking out with excitement for the rest of the day :-)))))

Ok so to start off my tale, I have to tell you a piece of advice that Minori gave me a few months ago. "It's good to talk about things you like."  Seems simple enough, right? Minori said that if you do that, sometimes people like to show how thoughtful they are by giving you those kinds of things. For the sole reason of being nice and remembered positively.

Over the past six months (six months to the day, actually) my "Things I go crazy over" list consists of…

Japanese fans. I'm starting to wish I had a wall of fans.

 Kiyomizudera

Studio Ghibli Artwork

Dachshunds. Sometime in the next few years I plan on getting one. 

Harem pants. Soooooo comfortable.

Obis

Riding trains

Buying presents

My students.

Korean Seaweed

….and last, and certainly most addicting…

Anywho. About a month ago, as we were waiting for parents to pick up their kids, one of the mothers had stopped to chat with Minori. This mother is gorgeous (they all are!), and she occasionally comes to school wearing simple but elegant kimono. It's due to her status I think, but I'm not supposed to give names. Anyways, Minori called for me because she knew I'd love to admire the kimono the mother was wearing that day. Of course I came, and of course I was like, "wooooow kirei desk!!!!! sugoi!!!! So beautiful!!!"  After that, Minori mentioned to the mom about how much I loved yukata and kimono, and about my awesome geisha photoshoot in Kyoto. The mom was very interested and asked if she could see those photos in the future.

Fast-forward to today, the 10th anniversary of Chubu International Preschool!!!  Ms. Minori, Ms. Mihoko, Ms. Michiyo, Ms. Julpha, and Ms. Jakka are upstairs dealing with cooking and selling foods, as well as books, presents, and games. Meanwhile, Ms. Jaciel, Ms. Elma, and I are downstairs managing art time, story time, dance dance, and the presentation about poverty in the Philippines (all the money being made upstairs is being sent to the Philippines). Many people brought clothes and other things to donate, it was great! Anyways, once the crowds started to die down, Minori came downstairs and asked me to come upstairs. On the way up, she said that this mom I told you about wanted to give me a Kimono. I had to ask her 3 different times, in 3 different ways, just to be absolutely sure she was serious and it wasn't a misunderstanding. But yup. I went upstairs with these wide eyes, and I was already trying not to breathe all deep and crazy from excitement. Turns out Minori had also told this mother about some of the specific styles of Yukata that I liked, and it turned out that she had many of those kinds of Kimono. I still cannot believe how generous she was to have given it to me!!

I got a further surprise when we went into a classroom so that she could show me how to properly put it all on. I had my school clothes on the whole time, so that made me feel a little funny, but once the robe was on, I forgot about my uniform. I was thrown for another loop when I discovered that she wasn't just giving me a kimono, she was giving me a gorgeous obi, and like 5-6 other pieces you need to complete the outfit. I was in shock, and starting to talk really high ha ha. Since she couldn't speak much English, I was saying as much as I could in Japanese to express how excited I was and how beautiful and amazing everything was.

The obi has these gorgeous flowers sewn into it, and it's a two piece obi, which I've never worn before!   It all looked soooooo nice!  I was seriously so excited and determined to show my gratitude, I was bowing every few seconds ha ha ha! She even bought me some cherry blossom Geta socks to go with my shoes ha ha, how thoughtful!!!

After I was fully dressed, and she'd she'd shown me what to do (it was very similar to what I need to do when putting on a yukata, just a few new tweaks and materials), I did a little turn around in the kimono, all excited.  And I kid you not, that's when I heard some "eeeeeh?" and "oooooo!" and "aaaaah, sugoi!" from the volunteer mom's in the room next door. I turned a little red, and laughed a bit more when some of my students had wandered in and their jaws dropped.  One of the 6 year olds actually gave me a slow clap ha ha ha ha ha!!!! I laughed my head off.

Minori helped me by taking some reference photos of the obi in the back, so I could check to make sure I could do it right on my own.  God bless that woman.  And God bless the amazingly thoughtful woman who gave it to me!