Recycled Kimono Sale

Twice a year in Yokohama there is a Recycled Kimono Sale, where Kimono's, Obi's and all sorts of things that would accompany wearing a traditional Japanese Kimono are on sale. This event has been on my calendar for months and I eagerly awaited the opportunity to immerse myself in a room full of Kimono's at bargain basement prices.

This outing was a combined trip for two of the spouse groups here on base, add to the "Friends and Family" invitation and we had a group of 20 U.S. women standing in line an hour before the sale was to start. We'd gotten the skinny ... get there early as the sale is fast and furious. The deal is you arrive early, get a numbered ticket and then await your admission time. If you get there early enough you can be in the first group of 100 and have the opportunity to get first dibs on the items for sale. This was our goal.

Managing a large number of females, drooling for the opportunity to get their hands on Kimonos and Obi's is not for the faint of heart. Our friendly yet firm "handler" was the Japanese gentleman seen in the photo. I felt for him, really I did. He must have started out his day thinking "o.k. it'll be a busy day but we're organized, I can handle this" ... I think he was in a state of shock when our group waltzed in. He tried his best to organize us 4 abreast. That's 5 rows of excited, noisy American ladies chatting away. And while we're all military spouses and know how to follow directions/rules, we're not the active duty members ... we weren't standing in formation as the Japanese ladies surrounding us were. Numerous times he came down off of his perch to try and straighten us up and in the end I think gave up. We were a respectful but rather unruly bunch. There's one thing that is apparent here in Japan, everywhere you go ... bus stops, train platforms, Kimono sales ... they like order. Everyone lines up in an orderly fashion, patiently waiting their turn. No pushing to get through the train door (they save the pushing for the professional people pushers), no group surrounding the bus door – everyone is in line and waiting their turn. Quietly.

The rope went down and the first group was admitted and it was a free-for-all. There were beautiful Kimonos and Obi's everywhere. Some for as little as 500 Yen (in better days that would be $5), some more expensive (I think the most I paid for a Kimono was roughly $20). It was frenzied fun, if you even thought you might want it you'd better put it in your bag because someone else was apt to snatch from right under your nose. I have no idea what I'll do with my purchases (5 Kimono's, 12 Obi's) but the ideas were running rampant. Purses. Art Quilts. Really, I don't know. What I do know is that I came away feeling like I'd won the lottery, excited by my finds. I reorganized our linen closet to make room for my purchases and as I stepped back to look at the beautiful Obi's all stacked up I thought yet again how very lucky I am to have this experience of living in Japan and to come away with another chance to be ... inspired.