Yumeyakata

Shortly after college, an online friend who was teaching English in Japan posted pictures of her and her friends dressed up as Geisha while visiting Kyoto. The pictures were gorgeous - clearly taken by a professional - and I decided that if I ever made it to Japan, I needed to do a similar photo shoot.

Fast forward about fifteen years. I still wanted to do some sort of photo shoot to commemorate our trip to Japan, but full Geisha makeup felt... weird, if not quite wrong. Over the past decade, we've all become more aware of social justice issues like cultural appropriation. While some things are clear cut and have been for a while, outsiders dressing in kimono still seems like a grey area. Some people argue virulently against it, while others don't see what the fuss is about. 

Maybe in five years, I'll hide these photos in embarrassment, but for the present, I did my research and made a decision I'm comfortable with. Next up? Deciding which of Kyoto's many kimono + photo studios I wanted to go with. 

I looked at websites, Facebook pages, and Instagram. Yumeyakata's photography really stood out to me, plus they had reasonable prices. I'd looked into their packages enough to know that the given price was for the bare basics - there were lots of possible add-ons, like hair and makeup. I chose one of the simplest photo packages, a couple of hours walking around Gion. I checked in with Monica to see if this was something she'd be interested in doing. She said yes, so I went ahead and made our reservations. We each paid for our own rental and hair styling, but I paid for the photography package, since this was my must-do.

On our last morning in Kyoto, we woke up around 8:00 and hopped on the downtown bus for our 9:00 appointment at Yumeyakata. We arrived right on time and after completing our paperwork, we were rushed upstairs to dress. First, an older lady helped us pick out our yukata (a lighter, summer version of kimono). 

I was a little crestfallen that my height + weight put me into Japanese plus-size territory. Instead of having hundreds of yukata to pick from, I was limited to choosing from about forty. I knew I wanted something blue and floral, of which there were about three options. I ended up choosing the one with large flowers - our hostess complimented the choice, saying I could carry it off because I was tall (5'5"). LOL... she came up with so many complimentary ways to step around the fact that westerners are generally larger and "curvier".

I helped Monica decide on a yukata and we both picked obi, then we were led upstairs to get dressed. Loads of padding was involved - "straight, no nice curves" - including towels and a bib-like cotton cloth. There was lots of giggling involved, both from us and the ladies. Once we were all strapped in and bowed up, we headed up the stairs - walking sideways to avoid tripping in our narrow skirts - for hair styling. We chose styles and the ladies separated, curled, and ratted our hair. I chose to buy a kanzashi for my hair. I picked the floral ornament by color and was happily surprised to see it included little dangling flowers, once it was unwrapped from the plastic.

Next, we chose handbags to stuff our things in. By this point, I was starting to understand the manner of pairing things - you don't want to go too matchy-matchy, but aim for complementary colors and patterns instead. Then, we took the elevator downstairs to try on wooden zori. They were not as uncomfortable as I'd expected. These sandals were the very last step, as you chose them, then stepped into the entry to put them on. Our photographer was waiting for us. We grabbed some water from a vending machine next door, and caught a cab to Gion.

Being my obsessive self, I'd plotted out the route our plan would take before choosing it, comparing pictures on the website to Google street view. We followed it to a T, starting by the Tatsumi Daimyōjin shrine. I was thrilled with the few photos our photographer showed us. There was lots of hand arranging and foot popping required on our part. It was ridiculously hot and the shoot seemed to stretch on and on. I was having fun and happy to be getting my money's worth, but Monica was wilting.

We ended up at Yasaka Shrine, which I hadn't been expecting. My favorite pictures were taken there, with the rows of orange lanterns. Once the shoot was over, we cabbed it back to Yumeyakata and changed into our day clothes. Technically, you can wear them till 7:00, but it was just too hot.

At about 6:30 that evening, we took the bus back to Yumeyakata to pick up the SD card with our pictures. The card wasn't readable on my camera, which would have caused me alarm if they hadn't included a note that said files could only be viewed on a computer. We had to wait till we got to Lara's house in Matsue to check them out. It ended up being perfect - enough time had passed that we were able to cackle at the subtle journey Monica's face took, from mildly uncomfortable to wanting to kill someone to just giving up.

Yumeyakata featured one of Monica's photos on Instagram. It's a stunning portrait. Later, when Monica's phone - containing most of the photos of us in Japan - was stolen, I was so glad we'd done a photo shoot. It was an experience, and to me, that's what travel is all about.