Wearing a yukata female style

In preparation for the last day of the Bon-Odori, when there is the costume competition, I practiced wearing a yukata the way women wear them. This turned out to be much more complicated than the male style.

I bought a cute yukata for 500 yen in a recycle shop.

For men, you stick your arms into a bathrobe and tie a belt in a fairly simple knot. That is all. For women, you have to adjust the length of the yukata by complicated folding, tie several hidden ropes to keep things in place, and tie a gigantic obi (belt) into a complicated shape. And it is also very hot under all those layers of cloth...

An almost OK result after several tries in front of YouTube

I had to stand in front of YouTube and follow the instructions over and over until I got things down so I could get into a yukata quickly enough that I could make it on time to the costume competition the next day even after having lunch.

Eye-Makeup also turns out to be quite difficult

Since I had decided to go as the "kuchisake onna" urban legend (a ghost-like creature who has had her mouth slit up and kills or mutilates children with her scissors), I also had to practice girly eye-makeup. I did the same character for Halloween last year, but thought it would be nice to be the kuchisake onna in a yukata too.

My bathroom always looks cluttered near August 20 and October 31.

I found a really cheap and pretty nice yukata in a recycle shop. They also had cheap wigs there. They did not have any obis, though. I went to a used kimono store and asked them about an obi that would go well with my white yukata and with the image of the kuchisake onna (who wears flamboyant red, normally). They remembered me from O-Bon last year, when I was there looking for something white to wear as a ghost. They said they saw me in my ghost costume on TV, and they gave me lots of stuff for free, haha.

Bon-Odori again

During the one week of Bon-Odori, I also met a girl who works at the same university as me. She also claims to have lots of yukatas, so she showed up in one of them. We met when I was doing magic at an event and she was on stage performing with some Latin American dancing group, so of course she also dances.

Furry insect

I found a furry insect slowly making its way across the lobby of the building I live in.

Yukata night in One Star Bar

I have too many yukatas now, so any excuse to wear one is good. A bar where a friend works had an event called "yukata night", so I decided to attend. I first met a guy I used to meet quite often before he moved to the other side of Hokkaido. He was not wearing a yukata, but he asked me to do some magic for his friends and even came to our magic bar later that week with his girlfriend.

After having struggled through some magic (doing magic is not that great in a yukata), I ended up sitting at the counter. A Japanese man in a yukata came and sat next to me. Everyone working in the bar wore a yukata of course, and most women there also wore yukatas, but not so many of the men did. Anyway, this guy did. We looked at each other for a while and decided that we had probably met before. It turned out to be at a bondage club. He works there, and I was there doing research for magic tricks to do at the bondage event I performed at three years ago.

To celebrate the yukata night, I ended up buying yet another obi for my yukatas. I also got some free water melon. A good day.

Bon-Odori

One week ending on August 20 we have a big Bon-Odori (O-Bon dance) event in the Odori park in the middle of Sapporo. Lots of people show up in yukatas and dance for a few hours. Anyone can join. I found some girls I know (one of them used to work at the same place as one of my friends from a dorm I lived in 9 years ago).

There was a guy wearing very hard to walk in geta

Me

Pakistan curry

My Greek colleague found a place that serves Pakistan curry, so we went there for lunch one day. The food was very good.

They also had a magazine about curry, where a guy I know was teaching one of his secret curry recipes.

Puzzles and magic

In the bar Ropossa where I often eat, they have a new 3D puzzle. The standard set has 6 identical plastic bars that you can position so that they stay together in the shape of a cube. I was told that I should use two sets and make this slightly more complex shape. Which was pretty difficult.

Me and the magician Akkey trying to assemble this puzzle

Noticing that someone is taking pictures

Annoying face for the camera

It took me a few tries before I figured out how the puzzle was supposed to be put together. Then it took a few tries to put it together like that, since it would be really great to have one or two extra hands when assembling the pieces...

Incorrect configuration

Incorrect, but still something

The cubes should not be this loose

Finally getting everything right

There were other guests there too, of course, and I was asked to show some of them some magic tricks. They seemed to enjoy that and then took photos with me while wearing poo-shaped hats and weird glasses.

I also met the cousin of my friend who runs this bar. She was funny. She also played along very well when I was asked to do magic for her and the people sitting next to her.

When they were playing with Japanese spinning tops ("koma"), one of the other guests fell asleep. His friends managed to get a spinning to to spin on his head without him waking up.

I was, as is so often the case, asked to show my funny underwear too. I like this design, which has the Japanese symbol for "driver under training" that you put on cars to indicate that the driver does not have his licence yet. The text says "beginner" or "inexperienced" in Japanese.