adventures in yukata - me and the women of the Aisho-cho BOE

Yesterday i was told to head over to the Board of Education to discuss my going-away-present, after i finished my last class. Since i already had some papers and questions for my supervisor about my travels home i figured it was no problem. but, as usual, things didn't turn out as i'd planned.

At about 2:30 i show up at the office and am greeted by alot of confused faces. I mean, they know who i as but not what im doing there. I was informed that my supervisor had gone on business to the Echigawa office (a whole 10 minutes away) and that i should wait, though they didn't know when he would return. So i sat at a table and stared out the window as 15, then 30, then 45 minutes passed, and still he hadn't returned. But then another worker who (it seems) is in charge of helping me purchase my going-away-present although she speaks no English and i speak very little Japanese, came back from some errand or another and suddenly the office was in chaos.

I had mentioned to one of my JTEs the other day that i'd like to get a yukata (summer kimono) as a going away gift. So as soon as the woman walked into the office there was a flurry of movement... three yukatas were pulled from shelves and desks drawers, obi (the belts) were located and the corner where i had been sitting quitely became a dressing room. The had me try on all the yukatas and learn to tie the obi (belt) properly. And then i discovered that the 4 women helping me weren't the only ones working on my 'yukata search.' Once we'd determined my size they led me around to, count them, 6 different computers whose owners had been searching different internet shopping sites to show me the yukata design options... did i want red, pink, green, blue, a modern bright design, or a more traditional and simple design... the options were pretty endless.

Of course no one was really sure if the size of the Yukata i'd tried on would correspond to the sizes online (since they all had different sizing systems... some were 'free' size, some anywhere from L to 10L, etc). So, it was finally decided that despite 2hours of work and dressing up and computer searching, and the help of 10 different staff members at the BOE, most of whom i'd never met before, I will have to go shopping for a Yukata next week (during work hours of course). But this time Shannon will come along, partially in role as my decision maker/janken partner and partially as interpreter.

This one is my favorite. So hopefully in one week i will have my own yukata something like it. Where/when i will ever wear it, i have no idea.