CHANGE of plans for tomorrow Kimono Jack!

Hello Everyone,

Since it looks like it will be raining, we will not be going to Kensington Gardens :( Instead, I've made a reservation for 1pm at Benihana in Piccadilly area. We are meeting at 12pm by the Eros Statues, so if you want to go to the restaurant with us, meet us there. :)

More details can be found on our FB page.

I'm bummed that we will not have a picnic, but at least we will be dry! And I'm sure we'll see some trees around London :)

See you there!

~ Lyuba

Kimono de Jack at the Christmas Market

Hello Everyone,

Kimono de Jack group in the UK loves the Christmas season, because it means the start of many Christmas markets, abundance of mulled wine, hot chocolate, and the opportunity to dress up kimono with all kinds of winter accessories. This year we went back to the Frankfurt German Christmas Market over at Birmingham.

Kimono de Jack Anniversary Meetup October 29, 2011

Hello Everyone, 


October marks a major milestone for us because KDJ will be exactly ONE YEAR old! 

To celebrate, we are coming back to the city that started it all, London, and going out to the celebratory lunch at Nizuni.


Once we had lunch, the day will be open for us, as always. There is a pretty good chance that we will go to Haagen Danz afterwords, since it's a traditional of sorts now. If not, there are plenty of things to do and places to see in London.  


Meeting place is at Trafalgar Square, and we need to make sure to take photos there since this is where our FIRST meetup happened! :) 

When: 
October 29, 2011

Where: 
Trafalgar Square, London

Time: 
11am - ?

Wear your kimono and come to hang out with us!

~ Lyuba @ Kimono de Jack UK

Hyper Japan KDJ meetup!

Phew having two Kimono de Jack meetups within two weeks of each other meant that I didn't have a chance to write up the July meetup.

Nevermind!

July KDJ meetup was at Hyper Japan in Olympia Two, London on 23 July. It was billed as being bigger and better then Hyper Japan 2010 so we were very excited! To make it better we were able to secure a table for Kimono de Jack goers to meetup and allowed to organise a mini kimono fashion show!

So what happened on the day?

I turned up around 10.20 to drop off my stuff for the show at the press office and I was glad that I had a performers pass to the event because the queue to get in was huge! Then I went to find our table which was in the manga and origami area. This was a little disappointing because if I didn't ask for help from the press office then I wouldn't have found it. Next time, I will need to ask for a table off to the side!

Now about the event, it was a mix of modern and new Japanese culture. On the ground floor there were the big stalls were the big companies were plying their trade. There was food and drinks on the left hand side while the right hand side had clothing, gadgets and other bits and pieces. Also the main stage was on the ground floor. I didn't get a chance to see any performances on the main stage because it was far to crowd for me to get a good view.

Then the lower ground floor had the independent traders and the game booths/stations for people to entertain themselves with.

There was one big name here and that was Square Enix and they were selling merchandise for their various games like Final Fantasy.

Such as this cute moogle.

However the event was incredibly busy and crowded, in fact I'm pretty sure the organisers where surprised by the turnout. As such people had to queue for 2-3 hours just to get in which was very frustrating for a lot of people who brought advance tickets or those who just popped out for some fresh air.

As for the Kimono Fashion Show, Liz and I were run off our feet organising it but we managed to pull it together.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I spent most of the day stressing out about the fashion show that I didn't get a chance to take pictures.

I hope next year Hyper Japan improve on the venue and organisation because the UK needs more conventions!

June Kimono de Jack in Stoke on Trent!

We have been very lucky with the weather for our kdj events however this good fortune could not last and this weekend we had the forecast of rain!

And sure enough, as all our trains rolled into Stoke on Trent the heaven opened! It was good that we all wore kimono that would withstand the rain because the walk to the taxi was wet.

However that enough about the weather, what about the event?

For this KDJ, we visited the potteries museum and art gallery in Stoke on Trent as they were holding a Japanese day. The event was split into three parts. At the entrance there was the sushi, calligraphy and Japanese armour display. Then there was was a performance area where there was the koto, shamisen, taiko drumming and traditional dancing. Finally there was the ikebana demo. We didn't participate in this as none of us had the ability to arrange things nicely.

However there was the sushi demo at 12.00 and dancing at 12.30 which we were interested in. Therefore we had to whittled our time away by looking at the rest of the museum.

This was a good museum as it had a lot of different items on display from lots of stuffed animals to the famous Staffordshire Hoard. We even found some costumes but they were only for children :(. However this didn't stop us from having fun!

Of course all this walking made us tired so after visiting the gift shop we decided to have a rest in the coffee shop before watching the sushi demo. Somehow we managed to turn up a bit late so we only managed to catch the chef making nirigiri. Even so, he made it looks so simple!

Then after that was the music and dance. It was wonderful! The lady who played the koto and shameisan was brilliant with her explanation and the dancer was a familiar face from another event we visited back in London. I didn't recognise her because she was in full make up but April did and used her blackberry to find the photo to prove it. However I don't think she recognise us.

With time still on our hands we wandered around the first floor where there was a lot of potteries which you would expect in a potteries museum. There were quite a few pieces that were clearly made for people who had more money then sense . Take this peacock, it is a lovely piece of work but where would you put it?

By the time was 14.00 so food! And this is when our day went downhill.

First the taxi was really slow in picking us up. This was a problem because we were getting hungry! When the taxi arrived, the driver didn't have a clue where the restaurant was even when we gave him the address. We were beginning to wish we got the bus!

When we finally made it to the restaurant we found it to be closed! Oh why us!

So since the restaurant was closed we though going back to the train would be a good idea. The train station must have a pub nearby surely. Guess what, we were wrong once again. We walked 15 mins in one direction only to find nothing that resemble a food establishment apart from takeaway pizza and kebab. So we walked back the other way to grab something to eat in Subway.

Oh well at least we spent our time having a good chat before going back home.

So this KDJ was a hit and miss. Hit, we had a good time at the museum but a miss with the provision of food.

Our next kimono de jack will be on 23 July at Hyper Japan in the Olympia Two. You will need to buy a £12 ticket (online) to gain entry for Saturday but the event will be full of things from Japan.

From cosplayer competition to the sushi championship award there is everything. The organiser have even given us a table at the event which we can use as a meeting point.

So I hope we will see you all there!

June Kimono de Jack in Stoke on Trent

In our quest to unite the kimono wearers of UK we will be visiting Stock on Trent.

Stoke Museum will be holding Japanese Day and we are going to invade it!

The event starts at 10.30am so lets meetup at the train station at 10.30 and then we can make our way to the museum either by foot or bus.

When: 
June 18, 2011

Where: 
Stoke-on-Trent Museum

Time: 
10:30 - ? 

Wear your favorite summer kimono and we'll see you there!

Kimono and Chocolate or Kimono Jack goes to Cadbury World

Hello Everyone,

For our fifth Kimono Jack meet up we went to Cadbury World in Birmingham. Can anyone imagine a better combination than kimono and chocolate? I sure can't :)  We saw chocolate through the ages and chocolate in 19th century London, as well as got to see how chocolate is decorated and even got to try some. At the end of Cadbury World tour we got ourselves some nice chocolate to take home.

After Cadbury World we went out for lunch and a nice chat. :)

Next Kimono de Jack event will be at Manchester Antique Textile Fair on March 6, 2010.

~ Lyuba

Third Kimono Jack in UK

Hello everyone,

I can't believe that this past weekend we had our THIRD Kimono Jack event in UK! You might ask where are the photos from our SECOND Kimono Jack, and I will tell you that this past few weeks I've been slacking significantly.... so I promise to be a good organizer and post them very soon.



This time the road took us to Birmingham for their annual Christmas Frankfurt Market. We walked around, had some German sausage, I had a nice cup of mulled wine, and generally had lots and lots of fun.

We even had few new people join in. I'm hoping we will see these ladies again at the future KDJ events.

One of the wonderful things about Christmas Markets is that we get to try a lot of different foods. These here are Dutch pancakes.

 

The January KDJ will be held in London on January 22nd. We have not worked out the details as to where to meet and what to do, but I will update as soon as I know.

~ Lyuba

Second Kimono de Jack UK in London

Tomorrow is the day of second Kimono Jack in London. Come join us at the KEIKO Tea Bar in Camden Market at 11 am. We will check out the teabar, maybe do some early Christmas shopping (or just shopping) and go to lunch at 2pm at Sen Nin http://www.sen-nin.com/?LBReferrerId=twitter-4256397

As always, wear kimono is you have one. :)

We are looking forward to seeing everyone there! 

First Kimono de Jack outside of Japan

Now that the very FIRST Kimono de Jack in UK officially happened, it's time to take a deep breath, relax, and start posting about it right?

Yesterday was a historical day in life of UK kimono lovers and Trafalgar Square became the meeting place for the very FIRST Kimono de Jack outside of Japan. Five kimono enthusiasts meet up there at 11 am to promote and enjoy wearing kimono.

We walked around National Gallery a little, then went to to our favorite Piccadilly Circus area and finally got lunch at SO Restaurant (which was super yummy and reasonably priced). After lunch some of us went to get ice cream at Häagen-Dazs, the best ice cream place in the world if you ask me :)

Next Kimono de Jack will be on November 13th, at Camden Market.

First Kimono de Jack tomorrow!!!

Are any of you as excited as I am? And I'm VERY excited :) :) I'm looking forward to tomorrow because Kimono de Jack will be held for the first time outside of Japan.

If you are in the area, come to Trafalgar Square at 11am and hang out with us. Wear kimono if you have one, but if you don't we will get you addicted in no time!

It will be FUN! 

First Kimono de Jack in London

Kimono de Jack events are becoming more and more popular in Japan, spreading from Kyoto to Tokyo and other prefectures. But Japan is not the only one country that could have de Jack, after all the essence of Kimono de Jack is to create more reasons to wear kimono for kimono lovers.

The  very first Kimono de Jack in United Kingdom will be held on October 23rd in London. There are no rules, no obligation to stay. It is encouraged to wear a kimono to the meet up, after all, the event is created as a reason to wear kimono. But if you don't have one, do not despair. Come anyway and enjoy the day.

When: 
October 23rd, 2010

Where:
Trafalgar Square, London

Time: 
11:00 - ?

What to do: 
Possibly visit the museums at the Square, get a cup of tea of coffee, and enjoy the company of fellow kimono lovers.