Dressing up like Maiko

The Maiko dress up thing is really something I have wanted to do for ages. I was running out of weekends. Thankfully, right before I left, Allison, the PA for Nara arranged it! I was really excited, as Josh and Katie Weller were going to do it too! We listened to a lot about the photo and preparation process, before we got to go get ready. First, we got changed into a slip type kimono, and then got to choose our kimonos. Choosing our kimonos was really hard, because there were so many beautiful ones! Katie chose a really beautiful blue one which matched her eyes,

and after a lot of deciding, I chose a gold and red one. Then, we had to get our makeup done! It took a long time, because we had the white base layer, a bunch of pretty red eye makeup, and the bright red lipstick! It got all over our teeth, which was really funny! Then, we had to get dressed.

There was several base layers, which were all very pretty, as well as a lovely under kimono, which was also red and gold, which was for when you lift the main kimono up, what you can see underneath. It was pretty tight! Then, they put on the main kimono, tie it all up, and then add the big Obi.

The big long tail at the back is thankfully not hand tied, and actually pretty heavy! Lastly, we got to put our wigs on, which were incredibly heavy! But really very beautiful! Thankfully, they had made my eye brows really dark, so they didnt look too terrible with my hair! Then, we headed into the studio.

We had twenty photos taken by the proffesional photographer, which were great. I felt like I shouldnt smile, because white teeth between the red lips look really bad! Instead, I didn't seem to smile enough! But it was really fun! Even better, was that Allison had come along to

take photos of all of us in our Kimono. So she took awesome photos of Josh, who was dressed up in the traditional wedding kimono. It was so lovely on him and he looked really handsome! She took lots of cute ones of us together, and some adorable ones of me and Josh together! We were really lucky, in that there was a special discount for foreigners. We were able to dress up, and then we got all of our photos on a CD later.