Sunday, December 18, 2011

Hidemi's Rambling No.384

My hometown is in Kyoto, which is a popular tourist destination in Japan. There is a big historic festival called Gion Festival in summer. Because it attracts visitors all over the world and the venue is too crowded, my family had never gone out to see it. When I was in high school, my friend suggested hanging around the venue on the eve the festival. The evening of the eve is also a popular attraction with the parade floats parked on the street. To go there, it was common to wear a yukata, which is a casual kimono for the summer season. I didn’t have one of those and asked my mother to get one. Before the festival, she bought a yukata for me so that I could go. I liked its design very much. Usually, a yukata had a pattern of morning glories or goldfish, but mine was unique and fancy with a fireworks pattern. It became my treasure as I wore it again a couple of years later for the festival with my first boy friend. Meanwhile, after my younger sister failed the TV talent show audition, she hadn’t stopped learning Japanese dancing against my wish. My mother convinced her that she failed because we were late for the audition that day. According to my mother, the judges weren’t taking enough time to see how talented my sister was. So, she had still taken lessons in Japanese dancing. It’s danced with wearing a kimono and for practice, with a yukata. My sister had some yukatas as her casual practice wear for the lesson. One evening, when I was left at home as usual, my sister came home with my parents from a lesson. She was wearing my yukata. She used my treasured fireworks yukata as her casual practice wear. I cried, “It’s mine!” My mother explained she was out of fresh yukatas and made her borrow mine for that evening only. They were too insensitive to care about my feelings toward her Japanese dancing lessons and my yukata. I’ve never worn it since then…