アンドリューの日本ブログ: Three Cheers for Kimono Contests and Beer Vending Machines!!

This weekend I competed in a kimono wearing contest in Fukuoka City. I had been practicing wearing a kimono every week for the past three months in a nearby village. It's been pretty fun but Sunday (Dec. 14, 2008) the contest was still definitely nerve racking.

I competed on stage (in front of a packed audience and 12 judges!) in the foreigner category with about 12 other people from around Kyushu. I finished in a very fast 3 minutes 33 seconds. And that's pretty fast even by Japanese standards! Unfortunately, this also meant that I had to wait in the front of the stage for another minute and a half while the others finished. This would be fine if it meant just standing there looking pretty, but no... it instead meant that I would be interviewed for 1 1/2 minutes by the Japanese host (picture below).

If you don't know already, you might be interested to know that Japanese kimono contest hosts do not speak English... go figure! Shocking, right?! Well, let's just say that it was interesting and I understood the majority of the questions (where are you from? what's the hardest part of wearing a kimono? etc.), however, the questions I didn't understand I just responded to what I thought she asked. Turns out that at least one answer was different from the question. Oh well, whatever. I got the audience to laugh and it was pretty fun, actually. I think that people thought it was kind of interesting that I could wear a kimono so well but barely speak the language and have only lived here for about 5 months.

Anyway, I ended up winning third place (men and women are judged together in the foreigner category) and I was the only male entry to win. Winning 3rd place means I will now be going to Tokyo in April to compete in the national competition. It should be fun and I am glad to have a reason to visit Tokyo.
so, YAY!!

Just thought I would share the news that I am the top 3
foreigner-wearing a kimono-champion of 2009 in Kyushu!

Oh, also...
my time was 3:33
the fastest Japanese men's time was 3:40
yay!

backstage!

My lovely, beautiful and hilarious kimono teacher, Mori Sensei. Speaks no English but is one of the few people who gets my humor and laughs at my bad jokes in broken Japanese.