Yukata Matsuri 2007

June 22nd - 23rd


I went to the Yukata Matsuri last year. I posted about all of the great food booths, games, beautiful yukatas (cotton robes), and other stuff I saw but I didn't wear a yukata.

This past year, Julian and I dressed in yukatas. It was just as much fun as last year, but this time we got to be apart of the excitement.

The festival is for 2 nights. I didn't dress up the first night, but as I was walking around I ran into some of my Junior High School students. They are so cute!

The second day, all of the teachers got ready together at our apartment building. Some Japanese friends came over to help us get dressed. It may look like a simple robe, but it's not that easy to put on. There's a lot of adjustments and the obi or sash takes a bit of time to tie properly.

We fooled around a bit in our yukatas.

Then we all headed downtown to eat yummy festival food, play games and people watch! Julian and Jason with their game prizes; and Tsutomu, Sato, Hisashi, Masae and us.

Afterwards we went to a ramen shop for our friend's good-bye party. We lit sparklers there and had a great time drinking, singing and eating.

Here's a slide show of the festival!