Tabi

Big Sister had to buy tabi to wear when she performs the tea ceremony at her high school festival. Only members of her club will perform. They will wear yukata (summer kimono).

This is the bottom of the tabi. There is a fitted toe so that she can wear geta (wooden sandals) with them. Of course, she will only wear the tabi on tatami (straw mats) during the performance. (We never wear shoes or slippers on tatami.)

The package actually has instructions on how to put on the tabi.

Tabi Detail

Big Sister asked me this morning if I wanted to take the tabi out of the package to take pictures of them. Of course! Why didn't I think of that?! I quickly scanned these details. Click on the pictures to enlarge them. These are made of thick cotton. The cotton on the soles have a texture and pattern.

This is how the tabi are fastened. There are flat metal hooks, but no metal eyes. The hooks hook into double threads.

Here are the metal hooks. Note the little man engraved on the top two hooks. He is on bended knees bowing to us.

Tabi Package

The bowing man is on the package, too.

This is on the front of the package. It indicates that these tabi have metal hooks or clasps.

This is the company information. There is a telephone number there for those of you living in Japan.

Bed and House Jackets

This type of coat is worn in bed. It is for sitting or lying in bed. Some jackets are short and made just to cover the shoulders. They are worn while sleeping because blankets don't cover shoulders and neck. Houses here are not fully heated, especially at night.

There are sales of winter pajamas and bed jackets.

This is a house jacket called hanten. It comes down to just below the hips. Some of these are really thick and quilted. The sleeves do not go all the way to the wrists. Some people wear them while sitting at a kotatsu or heater table. Here's a post about our kotatsu.

Here is another hanten.

Summer Yukata

Today was the fireworks display in our area. Some people dress in summer yukata, a lightweight cotton kimono. Crowds of people go down to the river to watch them. You see more little girls and young women wearing yukata. They wear bright colors with different patterns. I saw several young men wearing them, too, this year. The yukata for men are darker colors with geometric or no designs.


These pictures were taken at a department store. The top picture shows women's yukata. There is one black one with a flower design. These are little girls' yukata in the picture to the left. See the big bows? Those are worn around the waist.

We are fortunate to be able to see the fireworks from our roof garden. We usually watch them from there. One year we dressed up in yukata and climbed the stairs to the roof. We sat there fanning ourselves the whole time. It was hot! This year it sprinkled the whole time. We sat under umbrellas.