Event Aftermath: Japanese Jamboree - the aftermath :D

On Saturday morning, I got up at 8.30am, hurriedly washed up and got dressed. I was all set to wear what the IGers voted for me to wear. Unfortunately, when I put on the kimono and juban, I hadn't counted on the kimono being so sheer that the juban colour was easily seen through it! The obi that had been voted on looked horrid against the kimono, as did the second runner-up, so I picked the third runner up.

At 10am, I rushed out, thinking I was going to be late. Fortunately, the bus came along just as I walked up to the stop I usually use. When I got to the tube station, the train was just arriving too! :D Talk about lucky. I reached Embankment station at 10.20am - a full 10 minutes early! And to think I wanted to leave at 9.30am haha.

I met hellokitty8182 from the IG forums and we both crossed the bridge over to the Royal Festival Hall. Surprisingly, there were very few people about for half past 10 in the morning o_O We walked around for a bit, trying to find an entrance, and when we did, it wasn't open yet (we got there like 1 and a half hours early lol!) so we sat around and chatted. Time passed so quickly!

When it finally opened, we walked around the floor for a bit, and lurked mainly at the kimono-wearing section. Akemi Solloway, who is a well-known and respected professional kimono wearer was there! She helped put yukata on people and let them take pictures, then took the yukata off. I convinced hellokitty8182, who wasn't wearing kimono, to try it out :D

Anyway, there were a few demonstrations: kendo, Ikebana, calligraphy and a koto concert. I only watched part of the first kendo demonstration (OMG cute little yelling kids!) and the whole ikebana demonstration, because I'm fascinated by ikebana. I can never do a nice, simple Japanese-style flower arrangement!

Here is a picture of the GIANT ikebana they did with the huge bamboo construct on the stage:

This was only halfway through the demonstration, as there is still a pot on the floor that hasn't been used yet. I feel inspired to do ikebana!

hellokitty8182 and I had lunch at a Latin restaurant nearby. She had chilli con carne and I had a seafood risotto. It wasn't bad, but now I'm thinking I should've had the vegetable one!

After lunch, aoi84 dropped by and we all walked around a bit before I mentioned I had to get yarn, so we all trooped down to iKnit and spent some time digging up nicely coloured yarn. Ling, I got you 4 skeins of that funky GBP10 yarn :D Only two colours, though, because the colours are so great and it's better to have too much than too little!

We walked back to the Royal Festival Hall and sat around listening to the Koto Concert (yay, more ladies in kimono! Stupid me, didn't take photos!) while chatting about random nonsense, like spreadable marshmallows and how it's like eating clouds :D

We did take pictures of ourselves then. I hope they don't mind me posting their picture :D




Once it was all over, we walked back to Embankment and took the Bakerloo line down to Piccadilly Circus to look at the Japan Center, because I wanted to see if they had kimono books there (nooooo they removed them!) and aoi84 ended up buying some groceries haha. We split up after that and went home.

A combination of lack of sleep and the long day made me exhausted, so when I reached home, I cooked a very small and quick dinner (blue cheese tastes damn good in omelettes), showered and went to bed.

I have pictures of the food I ate for lunch, which wasn't spectacular, but the drink was heavenly! Raspberry and elderflower with crushed ice! I sooooo have to learn how to recreate it!

I'll post pictures of those once I upload them :)

*sighs* Today was crappy. I woke up to see that my monthly visitor has arrived, and she brought a friend named "cramps" too, as usual. What's unusual is that her friend came today rather than tomorrow, the second day, like usual. *grumbles* I could barely move out of bed, and after taking a long nap, despite having slept for 12 hours, I feel much better.

The only thing is that I can't drink anything cold, which means even plain water triggers the cramps! D: The cramps even got so bad at one point that I had really bad backaches and felt very nauseous. I'm glad I didn't sick up my lunch.

Maybe I should go heat up some milk and make hot chocolate? Yum.....