Kimono rental store reserved.

The whole story started when we were looking at the photo shooting agent... The typical wedding photo shooting takes place in HK, TW, ... but the recent trend is in JP and SE Asia, and even EU. Since I being a Japanese, would be both convenient for me and is also good for Carol to shoot under the cherry blossoms (櫻), we decided to go with an agent - 浪漫一生 - who had gave us a pretty good deal for shooting pictures in 奈良. Carol gave a good idea, "It'd be goodo if I can dress in Japanese Kimono n shoot under the trees..."

Well, ... a good idea became a desire for both of us. She too started wanting to wear the Kimono, and I also want Carol to take the Kimono pictures and be included in our album.

So, the search for Kimono place started from searching "where I can find a Kimono rental stores around the 奈良 area...". The main problem I had was that I hadn't been to 奈良 before. Thus,
I don't know how many stores are available around the city, since I had no idea what the city has around. Secondly, I did not know how much the Kimono rental would cost... So, having Internet as my main source of information, I started searching on the web over and over and over and over again.

I do not know how many sites I had looked over... Using Google, Yahoo J!, goo.ne.jp as the main portal, I think I had searched over 300 links of the terms 奈良 振袖 レンタル etc... I recall finding over several stores, but most of them are extremely expensive... Even taking the average, the typical ones are from 80,000JPY just for Carol's furisode (振袖**). However, just by having the 振袖 is not enough, since she cannot wear it herself. Helping Carol wear the Kimono, called ki-tsuke (着付け) is a requirement, and this can be done typically with the Kimono rental, or a Japanese hair salon can also do so. Next, during the 着付け, the Kimono itself requires all sorts of accessories. The Kimono belt, called obi (帯) requires strings to hold itself. This is called obi-dome (帯止め), other small accessories called komono (小物) is needed, as the Kimono is worn with all of these small accessories. Furthermore, Kimono requires a special hair arrangement (ヘアーアレンジ), along with hair accessories (髪飾り). Then, small prop to accompany with the kimono, like the bag. Finally, Japanese socks and sandals for the Kimono - ta-bi (足袋) and zo-ri (草履). All of these as a total, would cost over 150,000JPY - 250,000JPY.

By the way, since we need to take pictures of BOTH OF US, it's not only Carol who needs to wear Kimono. I also need one, so I also looked for my Kimono, called mon-tsuki-hakama (紋付袴). Men's Kimono is a lot more simple, and I only need ta-bi and zo-ri to accompany the Kimono. Even such, mine is still around 100,000JPY.

Just as an information, it takes typically 1hr - 2.5hrs for lady to wear a Kimono and set the hair.
However, men only take 15min... mmm, ...

Well, in all sense, lady's fashion costs more time and money... Thus, a "dress" always has an implication of feminine focus... So, it's an important mission for me to search for the "best" Kimono for our best memory. My mission starts at my desk.....

Just as an archive of sites searched, here are some sites in consideration....
http://takazen.jp/fct/leah/index.html
http://www.kirara-n.com/frs/20hkm.html
http://www.watabe-wedding.co.jp/dress/list_waso.html
http://www.premiere-grp.com/s03_guidance/longsleeved/index.php
http://www.premiere-grp.com/s03_guidance/longsleeved/index.php?page=3
http://www.a-steady.com/comming_of_age/furisode/index.html
http://www.c-claire.jp/dress/gallery.html?mode=uchikake
http://www.recycle-kimono.jp/rental/
http://www.kyo-roman.com/
http://www.japankimononet.com/new/01/index.html
**Aside: I even found a parody of Yahoo called Wahoo, named because the Japanese character "和風" is pronounced this way: http://www.wahoo.info/

All in all, there has been lots and lots and lots of good Kimono. However, most of them were out of our reach at this time (if the time were to be a bit later on, then we could have afforded more budget in this project), thus we had to balance out the budget amongst all of what we needed to do. Hence, it was our decision to make a reasonable price range that we can be satisfied of.

So, long story made short, we decided to go with one store which takes recycled Kimono from very authentic and well known places. Their philosophy is that through their own connection, they were able to get once a very precious and costly Kimono at a low low price. So, they have a stock of very precious Kimono, however they had no use in the stores, since they were just sitting in the warehouse. They take these Kimono, arrange them, and make them affordable for us at a low price so that we can "enjoy wearing Kimono". Their price range - below 100,000JPY for both of our Kimono, with everything but ta-bi included - is reasonable as well as the quality of the Kimono were acceptable for us. The affordability and the location of the store (being just several minutes from the hotel we will be staying) also made our decision (although we had to discuss over and over and over again, asking the store to provide lots of information so that we can make this decision).

Here it is, the "reserved" furisode at this time.

They will be providing us with further update if any new stocks are available. Since March is the graduation season for Japan, there may be lots of newer design kimono's ready... We just have to cross our fingers.


**Furisode (振袖) is a Kimono which the sleeves drape down to the toes. This type of Kimono is a sign of pre-married lady often is worn on a special day. This is typically used nowadays for Graduation ceremony, Coming of age day (成人式), for friend's wedding, or for photo-shooting for wedding arrangement by parents called "omiai" (お見合い).