1/11 Got to wear kimono again!

Thanks to N-san's friend, who studies at a beauty school, we were given the chance to try wearing kimono again! This time, we had our hair set up by said friend and got to act as "practice models" for the other students at the school.

1. Pretty hair-ornament that N-san's friend brought with her. Expensive, too.
2. Real human hair on the wigs in the background...
3. KE, one of the JLSP:ers, was the first to get styled. So pretty!
3. Amy's turn! In the background, KO and boyfriend DS.

My turn! We were sharing the room with another group of beauty school students. Seemed like they were practicing for something, a contest perhaps. There was a teacher walking around clocking their performances.

Hair finished! KE, KO and A all had longer hair which gave N-san's friend more to play with, whereas mine was too short to have any advance setup. Still got it curled on the side though. :D

1. Getting dressed up! I as stiff all the way through. Need to think more about posture!
2. I got to wear a pink kimono. :D I don't think I've worn so much pink in all my life. But it looked really fresh and modern in terms of colors.
3. Tying the obi. It was really beautiful, such handicraft! These girls have been trained to help people get dressed in kimono for two years, so they were really smooth for the most part. As when we got our hair styled in the classroom, a teacher was walking around examining the students' work. There seemed to be a kimono-dressing contest coming up, so a lot of people came to practice on their free time even though it's a Saturday.
4. Stiffetystiffstiff. Underwear showing in the sleeves, oopsie. My hair ornament is matching the obi!
5. Group picture! Everyone looked so nice and pretty and elegant.

Amy was wearing a wedding-kimono. So elegant. *_*

The whole hairstyling and kimono-dressing process had taken about three or four hours, and it was all free of charge for us! We're really grateful about receiving this unique opportunity to try one of the most traditional aspects of Japan first-hand. It makes the our first kimono-dressup seem kind of cheap though... But this was definitely more classy and thorough.

After this, we all went to an Italian pasta place in Shibuya where they had this really tasty nasu pasta! Mm, the best pasta I've eaten in Japan so far! (Although I feel that the pasta in the school cafeteria doesn't really count...)

Yummers.

Then we went to a Cold Stone Creamery nearby to try their ice cream. Cold Stone apparently has quite a nice reputation worldwide (I didn't know about it until coming to Japan) because of their unique store concept and delicious ice cream. You pick your desired ice cream and watch while the staff mixes and puts the whole thing together on a cold stone (hence the name!). I had the Mud Pie Mojo, which must've been the best ice cream ever created in the universe!

Coffee ice cream, oreo cookies, almond, peanut butter (!!!!) whipped cream and chocolate fudge. Mmmm! It's rivaling the crepe as the top must-have-dessert, it was that good! Why can't Stockholm have a Cold Stone? Why is the world so cruel? ;_;

Ended the day with some purikura. It was my first time!

It feels like purikura machines have some kind of a built-in photoshoppy skin edit function. My skin looks way smoother than what it actually is. @_@ How controversial...