Graduation Day

It's my graduation day.  I'm a PhD now although it all feels pretty distant from Muromachi era Japan.  I am patiently awaiting my virtual hooding via cyberspace.

Congratulations to all my fellow graduates -- I do wish I could have been there with you to saunter out the Van Wickle Gates, even though so many of us are already on to the next challenge.  Time is weird like that.

advanced pathologies of kimono

 This is the box of kimono stuff we all 7 girls ordered from the internets.


We have recently had a visitor who has the most severe case of schooner obi I have ever witnessed in my long career in kimono medicine.

And in other news, experts have recently detected one of the first few diseases of male kimono:

Subobi. This is the obi that is sliding down so far that one is worried it will fall right off. (from "Suberi obi-- sliding obi"

Marilyn.  This is when the wind blows the bottom half of the kimono so hard that it flies up and away like Marilyn Monroe's 7 Year Itch white dress. I'm afraid I witnessed a severe case of Marilyn a few weeks ago with one of our new students while we were carrying armloads of flowers and sweets to class in freak gale force winds.


Some additional diseases of kimono:

Slobi. This is the girl version of subobi.  It's when the layers of the obi try to slide apart, revealing the layers underneath the outer one.

Peekabage (pee-kuh-bah-gay)  When your obiage (the scarfy bit at the top) won't stay tucked and keeps peekaboo-ing up.

Osaka:  this is when your collar starts to gape open so you look like some louche Osaka lady instead of a buttoned up, straight laced Kyoto woman.

See this lady we met at the sumo in Osaka?  She has OSAKA.

Seasonal diseases:

Summer sausage leg. Sausage leg exacerbated by the hot summer weather and resulting sweat.

here's what happened when I tried to use google to get the best bus route across Kyoto.

Driving Directions here:

Alternate methods.

Don't try this at Midorikai

壬生狂言

Mibu Kyogen!