1st Kilted outing in Japan

[Moosehead]

Saltwater?

Never heard of them? You have to wear your genuine Bolex watch with 'em.

Sorry KK, just playin' with ya. Well done. It can be strange enough wearing a kilt in a predominantly Celtic society like here on PEI. Can't even imagine doing it in the Far East.

[James Martin]

I'll soon be finding out what the Japanese think of kilts.
Going there for a holiday quite soon, and having nothing else to wear ...
One excuse, if needed, will be Scottish country dancing, which, believe it or not, has quite a following among the Japanese, and I shall be treaching dancing in a few places while I am there.
Should be fun -- if they understand what I'm talking about! I'm sorry to say, I certainly shan't understand much of what they are saying; my attempts to learn a few phrases from a book were quite without success! :confused:

Martin,
in Grenoble, France.

[flairball]

I plan to bring my kilt along on my next trip to Japan. I would imagine Japan to be one of the easier places to be kilted. I doubt a kilt would hardly be noticed in a city like Tokyo. My biggest problem with wearing a kilt will be my fiance. She is Japanese, and appearances are important to the Japanese. By apprearances I mean not appearing crazy, or too individual. Anyway, she conceeded that my kilt looked nice, and has offered a bit of kilt accessory fashion advice so,...
KK- If you get to Matsumoto there is a great biker bar there called Little Feat. Lots of fun, but I'd expect the regulars there would require a bit of kilt lifting. Lots of fun, but a lot more crazyness. There's an Irish joint there too called Old Rock, or something like that.

[auld argonian]

Let's hope that I express this in the spirit that it's intended...I love the Japanese People...find them just great...that being said, the fact that appearances, as you note, are so important to the Japanese actually should make your wearing the kilt quite acceptable...assuming that you observe all of the formalities of kilt wearing. I'm sure that any deviation from good kilted form will be noticed...not to generalize but it seems very "Japanese" to have a very good working knowledge of the ins and outs of all of the world's cultures and i wouldn't be suprised if you ran into folks who would know whether or not your gear was correct or not. In fact, I would think that wearing the kilt would be considered very right on and that you will get a lot of very positive feedback....smile and bow, my man, smile and bow.

...and don't forget your business cards!

...and be prepared to be photographed a lot...you'll probably have folks wanting to get into the shot with you so that they can show their friends that they met the kilted guy.

...and by all means try to go to Kyoto and Nara!

Best

AA

[Riverkilt]

You'd think the Japanese folks would be used to unbifurcated garments on men...weren't the samuri unbifurcated too?

We get bus loads of Japanese tourists here in the canyonlands. When my lady and I go out dancing at the local western bars they are always sneaking pictures of us. They don't ask, they pretend to be taking a friends picture and then sneak a sideways one of the funny man dancing in a kilt....at least that's what my lady reports...they like to take my pic from the back with the pleats swinging.

Ron

[Riverkilt]

Hey, an idea for Hank....we find out what the Japanese characters are for "Its a Kilt dang it!" and print them on the back of a t-shirt.

Maybe add my email addy at the bottom for the Japanese ladies back home who'll swoon looking at the pics....? Oh, no...sorry, my lady says, "No way!"

Still, a cool shirt.

Maybe a whole line of shirts for foreign travelers that says that in a lot of different languages...

Ron

[ByDand]

Must have been fun. I was kilted in DC a while back and a group of Japanese tourists had just got off of a bus when a group of young ladies came over to me and asked to have their pictures taken with me. After about 15 minutes of picture taking they thanked me, giggled amongst themselves and walked away. Very nice experience.

[auld argonian]

re: Ron's comments about being photographed...let me tell you a story...

The one time I was in Kyoto...and I saw the ONE time lest I give the false impression that I'm some kind of world traveler...I experienced a brief moment that I'll never forget.

We were headed to what turned out to be a really big drinking party (God, I love the Japanese!) that was on the grounds of a shrine that had a weeping cherry tree that was said to be hundreds of years old. Our group came to a very wide street...more like a boulevard...about four lanes in either direction with a big divider in the middle...extremely busy...traffic everywhere...people everywhere. Out of a small side street came...no foolin'...two Geisha in full regalia...they were going to cross this very busy street.

And time literally froze. I have never seen anything like it. Everything stopped. Every car...every pedestrian...everybody stopped and watched these two almost divine women cross the street. It took a while because they were taking very measured steps...between the restrictions of the ceremonial dresses and their wearing those wooden elevator shoes that you see in old block prints they had to walk very carefully. And everybody was standing there watching...like there was an opening in time and these two visions walked through it and no one was ever going to see anything like it again...and this was Kyoto...I figured that this sort of thing must be reasonably common but it wasn't...it was a gentle brush with the grace of a past time and all were affected.

So maybe there's a phenomena that also happens when some folks see some of us in the kilts...maybe, ideally, they get a sort of a vibe of the history attached to the garment and it stirs some of those deep ancestral memories...visions of times gone by. And I think that an appreciation of this feeling is more acceptable in some cultures and societies than it is in others and that Japan is one of those cultures where that is the case. Hard to reconcile the images of kilted men and geishas but...

So if the tourists are surreptitiously taking your picture, I'd take it as an appreciation of someone who's honoring his culture and heritage. Maybe they want to show the folks back home that there is still some diversity and color in this too homogeneous world.

Best

AA