In 2004, I was spending a few weeks in Japan as a cultural ambassador with my town’s Sister Cities delegation of two chaperones and 9 other students. Beyond experiencing the sites of Tokyo for a few days, we all wanted to get some souvenir shopping done before we headed to the smaller, non-touristy town which was our sister city. I had read in a guide book that a store in Tokyo called “Oriental Bazaar” had a great selection of many typical Japanese souvenirs at cheaper prices. So I guided the group there. It was perfect, they had so many great options and I got a lot of my gifts there.
One particular item I was after was a silk Kimono. I knew I didn’t want all the pieces of the Kimono outfit, just the pretty outer shell so I could display it. The store had expensive antique kimonos, as well as modern silk and cheaper polyester blends. I opted for a modern silk one in a pale purple with sakura blossoms. It was beautiful! A few of the other students also got a kimono or summer yukata to wear.
A close up of the back of my kimono.
After we returned back to the hotel we were left to our own devices for a while. As high schoolers are ept to do, we played pranks on each other and goofed around. One of the other students, Chris, joked that we should put on our kimonos (and only the kimonos) and stroll around Tokyo in them. I opted to wear clothes under mine and carry an oriental umbrella, and so we set out. We got a lot of laughs from the locals and were asked to take photos with some people. It was all great fun going to 7/11 and shopping for snacks in the kimonos.
But suddenly an upset older Japanese woman can running up to us and untied my kimono. Chris was stunned, and I was thankful I was wearing clothes underneath. She re oriented my kimono so the left side was over the right side and re-tied it. My Japanese class skills kicked in and I realized I had tied my kimono wrong. I quickly explained to Chris that Right Over Left is how the dead are buried in their kimonos and it invites bad luck and spirits to tie it that way. He moved to a private area and switched his kimono, coming back to get it approved by the old woman. Satisfied she moved off into the crowd.
To this day, I still don’t know if Chris was wearing anything under his kimono, but I’m so thankful I didn’t cave into peer pressure because that would have been very awkward. Â So remember to always position your kimono left over right!
Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.
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