Spring 2012 : Tei-en Matsuri at the Japanese garden in Hasselt , Belgium

Hasselt in Belgium has a long standing relationship as a sister-city with Itami in Hyogo Prefecture , Japan. Twenty years ago this led to the building of a Japanese garden of 25000 m², at this time still the largest in Europe.
Last weekend I went to visit the Tei-en Matsuri at the garden together with a delegation of the KDJ Netherlands. The weather was cold and cloudy, but a true kimono enthusiast won't let that stop her (him).

The garden has been designed together with Japanese garden-architects and it shows.
At the centre a large waterfall cascades down, feeding two streams, that cascade down to the different ponds to each side of the garden.

A path winds along the entire garden, crossing the stream at various points.

The bridge for 'viewing lily's' , leading up to the main waterfall.

Many Japanese and other exotic trees have been planted here .

There is a lovely Shinto shrine at the entrance, which is a scaled model of the shrine at the Shukkei-en gardens in Itami. It's been consecrated, so it can be used for Japanese religious rituals.



A delegation from Itami opened the celebration by inaugurating the new tori at the entrance.

The six metre high tori is constructed in Japanese style without any nails.
There is a smaller unlacquered one in the middle of the garden.

During the opening speeches, I discovered this Japanese woman in an interesting  kimono.

We didn't waste any time getting her to pose with our KDJ NL delegation. The second from the left is Caroline from Belgium , who was visiting the event with her parents.

 

Her musubi.

After the opening ceremony the delegation from Itami city ( the man in the middle is the Japanese ambassador for Belgium ,the Honorable Yokota Jun ) walked back to the garden itself.

By this time Linda and Mei-ing who'd parked the car at the other end of the garden had joined us, so I posed them by a car from the organizing committee.

Back to the garden.

 Caroline and Mei-ing.

Great looking musubi and obi , Caroline !

 Lovely chrysanthemums on her haori too.

Mei-ing had a wonderful little jewel on her obi.



Mei-ing posing with the woman in the green-flower kimono. Quite tall for a Japanese lady.

and with her whole entourage in less traditional clothing.
( On the left the man from Okinawa "12°C ?!! : I'm freezing  ..." ^^)

 The delegation from Itami had a shakuhachi (flute) player with them ( " I'm really nervous " )

but she played wonderfully !

Linda and Caroline taking pictures.

 Very nice hair ornament, Carolien.

After the singing and flute play , the whole party joined in a traditional dance (Bon odori dance ?)
which is a lot of people shuffling around in a circle and doing the same gestures. It's total fun.

 

Even the shakuhachi player joins in.

 After the dance she agreed to pose with the group. Lucky !

After the posing we talked with her and her husband. They were so kind to give Mei-ing and Carolien two unique ten year old fans. (They can start their own fan-club now.)

Alice from the Netherlands in a very nice furisode. Really long sleeves :)

Kawaii !   She has a Hello Kitty on her obi.

The koi pond in front of the main house looked like a great place to pose.

The huge koi in the pond are waiting for their daily bread.

One crumb of bread and it's WAR !

 
The sun wasn't shining, but everyone's lovely smile sure made the day look bright :)

We didn't forget the tabi shot  , but we DID forget the showing of the sleeves.

 

On the other side of the main house.

Ah , finally : sakura trees in bloom to pose by ! 

Stephanie in front of one of the many  water features.

We met this young lady at the ' Have your name written in Japanese'  stall.

Of course we invited her to pose with the entire group.

Musubi shot :)

Further in the garden we ran into a maiko and samurai group from the Netherlands, that was also visiting the gardens.

 Linda and Mei-ing checking the pictures of the visit.

Everyone walks back to the car park for the long journey back home : a great day, but over too soon.

Thanks everyone for coming to Belgium !
You can find some hires pictures at this adress.

Spring 2012 : Amstelveen Hanami

Last Sunday I met up with the Kimono de Jack NL members for a Sakura festival in the 'Amsterdamse Bos' near Amstelveen, close to Amsterdam.
It was cold and grey while I was on the road , but closer to Amstelveen the sky cleared up
and the sun was shining. The gods must have been smiling on us :) .

I arrived fashionably late , about one hour, convinced that everyone else was already there.
They weren't :)  

Together with Anne , Amy , Jeffrey and Caroline we made our way to the garden.

Mei-ing coming to meet us. She had already arrived with her family. 

Because the main event wasn't going to happen before half past one , we settled ourselves on the sitting stones in the sun.
From left to right : Mei-Li (Aha! Great ! Another photographer ), her mother , Mei-ing, Carolien and Anne. 

My first musubi shot of the day :)

I went to look for any flowering trees. There were just two and this was the nicest one.

More people arriving ( even more fashionably late than me : not everyone had switched over to summertime yet , haha ) .
From right to left : Stephanie, Charissa, two new members : Patricia and Coco

 Nadine ( Charissa's 'twin' sister) and friend.

 Mei-ing posing in front of the sakura.

Coco.

Nadine and Charissa.
With their faces in the shade you get no harsh shadows which is nice , but with the sun behind them , the brilliant colours of the kimonos are a bit muted.

 so I had them turn around for another shot.

 Musubi shot. So cute :  even their musubi are mirrored :)

This started out as a pose to get a better picture of her kanzashi. After I equalized and lightened the shadows on her face because I didn't like them , I toned down the colour of the trees behind ,and so on and so on...
Several hours and lots of industrial strength coffee later... Voila : le "soft-focus" !

I love those little butterflies !

Group shot. By this time Amy had gone completely MIA.
( click on the pictures to see a larger version , especially the wide ones are so much better )

 Musubi : 4 taiko and four ,mm, other types :)

I invited this young Japanese woman to pose with our group. Lucky ! She agreed.

Walking away with her husband. AH! I need a musubi-shot !

This will have to do :)

The showing off of the sleeves ( aka : "het schouwen van de mouwen" (Nl.) ) .
Mei-Li goes first :)

My turn.

The KDJ NL signature photo : tabi group shot.

Right after that , more and more photographers and people with film cameras started showing up.
Looks a bit like a war-zone.

And of course more and more people wanting to pose with the KDJ.

From left to right , Anne, Carolien, Linda and Dalischa , who'd just arrived.
Great colour arrangement.

Not quite happy with this shot, I wanted more of the sakura in the picture without zooming out , which would make the people too small.

Frog perspective! Lying down with the camera at ground level and my chin against the grass, everyone does look taller , but now I get the sakura I wanted and more blue sky than bushes. Great !

Hanami means lots of different things to different people : for some it's a great opportunity to get together  , eat and drink and listen to the traditional drums being pounded.

For the KDJ it's an occasion to get together and wear their beloved kimonos.

For Mei-Li and me , a chance to take great pictures.

But for the youngest among us, it's an occasion to run around in the grass with a branch of pretty flowers and  show them to our mom.

Till next time ^^

Some of these pictures are available in Highresolution Spring 2012 Hanami Amstelveen