Gothic & Lolita Bible and Tea Ceremony

[aimeekitty]

I got my copy of the Tokyopop English version of the Gothic & Lolita Bible this weekend!

I have to say, I'm really happy to finally hold this in my hands. I think the ladies involved did a really nice job with it.
....... I got so much glee out of reading even the simple blurbs from Japanese lolitas next to their snapshots. Some of them find it personally fullfilling... others just like the clothes. They're just like the rest of us silly girls. Also reading interviews that previously I could only guess at... how wonderful! I almost feel like this is a crossing-the-bridge moment. That if this magazine continues, the gap is being closed between all of us.
I'm really looking forward to future issues and I'm looking forward to the non-Japan lolitas getting to contribute and mold this! You can find some more pictures of how it looks here.

Deep fashion thinking aside, the interview they published with me turned out really cute! Thanks to Oscar again for the photo.


otherwise,... today I went to kimono and tea ceremony practice again for the first time in at least 3 months. I've just been too busy to go! *_* I was very out of practice, but it was fun. I wore this yellow kimono (it's sleeves are shorter now) and this green and gold bamboo fukuro obi. My sensei wore a green and purple floral stripe kimono. (one of my favorite patterns of kimono.)
A college student came and wanted to take pictures of me performing tea ceremony for her thesis project she's doing about Japanese-American culture. We practiced normal thin tea (in mid-winter) and I watched them perform thick tea. We had ningyoyaki (pancake sweets, see photo to the left) in the shape of the 7 lucky gods. :) Also, the thick-tea container was lovely. It was shaped like an eggplant. The bag for it had flowers and lions (or perhaps shishi?).

I wish it was easier for me to practice at home. I'm tempted to look for a very very basic tea set when I'm in Japan. I'd love to be able to serve tea, even casually, to friends when they come over.