Samurai Debut

Asia » Japan » Yamanashi » Tsuru
November 20th 2008

Published: December 1st 2008

Konnichiwa! Sorry, I know I'm really slow with posting entries, but I think you'll forgive me after the amazing-ness of the tales I am about to tell. You're gonna love it, I swear! Sunday (08/30/2008) This day was the start of a festival in Tsuru called Hasaku-Matsuri. It marks the beginning of fall and is a 2-day festival that we were gonna get to have all sorts of fun in. For this first day... Read Full Entry

Photos are below

Photos: 50, Displayed: 21

Samurai get-up

There it lies. Everything I needed to become a Samurai. :D

Kimmai becomes an attendant

Kimmai and Allison's process to become the Princess's attendants was much more complex than ours. Here she is waiting to be made-up and wigged before being dressed in layers upon layers. Samurai was definitely the way to go.

Wiggin' Out

These were the wigs made specifically for Kimmai and Allison. I'm not kidding. It says on the boxes behind them "Kimmai" and "Allison". They went to special head-measuring fittings and everything.

Michelle half-way to Samurai-ness

The women that helped us get dressed (Actually...it was more like dressed us...those outfits are complicated!) were experts! It was crazy to watch how detail-oriented everything was and they did it all fairly quickly.

cool bow thing

I liked the way they tied the string that was holding up my Samurai pants, so I took a picture. Good thing, because they decided to change it like right after and it didn't look as cool.

Am I a Samurai yet?

Nope...and I needed help putting on my pants apparently.

the expert on Samurai clothing

This woman seemed to be the leader of the Samurai-dressing brigade. Lucky for me, she did pretty much all of my costume, so it turned out really well.

Katanas! (Swords!)

We were just a little excited about getting to carry these puppies around.

photo break!

Sayo (one of the tutors) with us almost done Samurai and only about half-way done attendants.

Yay! Everyone's dressed!

Kimmai and Allison were finally fully-clothed and make-uped and wigged, but us Samurai needed our hats and swords. We were waiting for a sword-wearing consult.

attendant's Obi

My, what a big bow you have!

protectors of the princess

That's right. Come near our princess and we'll be forced to take you out. With smiles on our faces.

what you lookin' at?

We may have chin-bows, but we also have swords.

Vanessa's thoughts on the chin-bow

I think her face says it all...Luckily, a few minutes later we found out that we didn't have to wear the strap like that.

cute kid

Even the kids got fancy outfits!

the girls

Trying to be serious in our seriously hot outfits.

quite a group...

Take note of the special orange make-up that some of the guys got to wear. We weren't aware of it before, but apparently there were oompa-loompas in ancient Japan.

lookin' good

Allison's protectors: a tanning-bed addict and a ghost

Sayaka, Tomoko, and I

Both of my tutors! I love this picture.

the half-way point

After walking for an hour in the heat, (seriously, it was about a zillion degrees and ridiculously humid) we spent our break time trying to figure out how to sit in our outfits and finding a way to get our swords out of their sheaths. (They were tied quite well, but where there's a will...)

Jimmy the Yako-San

As a Yako, Jimmy was supposed to be kind-of like a jester, but even jesters want to play with Samurai swords, so we lent him a couple.

3rd December 2008

Stephanie Talley
non-member comment

You're so cool Megan. I hope you're having a blast. Oh and did you hear our moms hung out at some scrap book thing? Haha.

Tot: 0.133s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0541s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb

Do not copy images or text from this page without requesting and receiving permission. All rights are reserved by the author and photographer.

Contact Megan Simpkinson (Megamuffin) - a lack of a response does not mean that you have permission to use material from this page.

Samurai Debut

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved