Friday Photo: Yukata

I love yukata. Love love love them. And for some reason, it's much easier to find ready-made yukata in my size (or close to my size) than it is any other kind of kimono, even casual polyester ones. Yukata to me represent everything I know about summers in Japan -- the ridiculous heat and the humidity that makes everything cling to your skin, the heavy rains and awesome thunderstorms of the rainy season, the fireworks festivals, Tanabata and all the colorful streamers (and the fact that it happens twice!), the stalls of street food you see at festivals throughout the year. My first experience wearing kimono didn't involve a kimono at all, but rather involved the yukata-dressing class at the language school I attended on my first trip to Japan in 2007. Maybe I'm romanticizing yukata a little too much, but for me every yukata really does bring back a flood of happy memories -- even if it's just a picture of a yukata on the internet or in a magazine.