January 26, 2008

• A shop that has the best geta I have found, including (and especially) bankara geta. Mine 12cm high ones have black extra-wide hanao and the delightful rubber grips (which also function to some degree as silencers) firmly attached. They exude awesomeness. Samue is are GREAT casual clothing, and consist of a top with is somewhat robelike, and comfortable loose pants. They're fantastic to wear casually or when working around the home. They're sold online in various places. I got mine from J-Life International, and they're my favorite thing ever. Also, don't forget to check out fundoshi, the ultimate undergarment. These come in a number of flavors, but the most important ones are ecchu fundoshi and rokushaku fundoshi. Ecchu fundoshi tie on with a band around the waist and fold over into a loose flap. Very comfortable. Rokushaku fundoshi are a long piece of 9" wide (or so) material that's wrapped and tied cleverly. They're comfortable too, but in a more snug way. I don't know a lot about japanese culture or language, but I know good/fun ideas when I see them, and these are some of my favorites. Enjoy.
• "is are"! This is/are/am/be what happens when I post before I'm sharp.
• Steely Duran - your first link gives me lots of ???????! But your second is wonderful. Am off to look at the rest!
• Yep, that page is the home page, so the encoding's probably different. The rest work okay when you switch over to English. A great little shop, somewhere in Morioka. JoJo and Masa are some of the nicest people ever, and they were super helpful in helping me pick out just the right geta, and then they built them to order. They cost a little extra, but they're done truly right, with a paulownia footbed and magnolia teeth, and a good strong extra-padded hanao knotted in properly. They feel *great*.
• "a paulownia footbed and magnolia teeth, and a good strong extra-padded hanao knotted in properly" Do explain.
• Well, the footbed part of geta is the biggest part, and so it's heavy. To make it all work out, you need a wood that's light enough to make the shoes not too heavy. It should be a little soft, too, so your foot wears into it slightly and it gets comfortable. But then you don't want it to wear out too quickly over time -- and most importantly, it has to be strong enough to stand the strain of having this set of really tall teeth joined to it and not slop around. So generally, you'll see the footbeds made of paulownia because it's really well suited for this task. It's light and tough and feels really good to the bottom of your feet for some reason. It even smells good! Meanwhile, for the teeth, you want a wood that can get wet, then dry, then get wet, then dry, over and over. It has to be hard, and can be denser because the teeth aren't the largest part of the shoe, but it shouldn't be too heavy. So magnolia is a great choice there. The original purpose of geta, from what I understand, was to get you up high so your kimono, which was a substantial investment in both time and money or both, wouldn't dip into the mud. (Also, there's a delicious height advantage of high geta when you go to reach for something in those top cabinets!) The hanao is this sort of padded strap that secures your foot to the footbed. It should be strong in the center (there's a piece of really tough cord in there), but also padded on the outside, because you're lifting a block of wood by this strap at every step. (Underneath, it's knotted securely, but adjustable so you can make it as tight or loose as you need.) Hanao shops abound, because it's the major wear part of the shoe, and also because you can change it out for esthetic reasons. You have HUGE choices in hanao. I went with black; black goes with everything. It's pretty interesting, as a thing, because there are all these design and materials choices, and you have to balance a bunch of physical properties and make a thing can can be practical and comfortable. That's maybe my obsession with them -- not only are they fun to wear for some reason, but thinking about these trade-offs is interesting and pleasurable, so it leads to my appreciation of them on that level as well.
• This all looks like it would be great fun to play with. Except for the guy's thong thingie--anybody that wants to wear butt-floss is crazy, IMO. So send me the ticket to Japan, and I'll be glad to model! (even if I would sound like a blue horse clacking around in a pair of geta!)
• I love kimonos, and so the patterns on the first link intrigue me-- wonder if I could make one? Great links! thanks.
• I've got s Simplicity kimono pattern moldering away somewhere. I should dig it out.
• I feel my life would be much improved by a marked increase in the number of flowy robes in my day-to-day wardrobe.
• I'm told of a Mikado my G&S society did a few years before I got involved. They apparently made a huge effort to remove anything offensive (to the extent of changing the line about people who have flabby hands), but at the end of the production two angy Japanese people asked to talk to the director. They weren't upset by the play's content, but by the fact that the kimonos were closed in the wrong direction. (The most recent production was done in 1940's dress, with even more offensive stuff added in, and no complaints atall. I guess it really does boil down to the kimonos.)