Obi Fight!

Went to Texuba today. Texuba is an annual travelling sale of obi and kimono. I think this may be the last year since the folks who run the show are retiring. Anyhow. I knew it would be popular, but I didn't know it would be quite the shove-and-grab fest that it was. We got there at 9:05, and the doors had opened at 9, but already it was packed and there was the general maniacal feeling of the day after Christmas in there. It was a medium sized room with racks of kimono and obi lining the walls and people were madly going through the racks. Everyone seemed to know what they were looking for, and none of them were going to get out of your way. A few were polite, but basically if you didn't jump in there and go through the racks, you'd just miss out. I told my friend who came along, I'm looking for red obi, and I swear this guy who was next to me picked a red obi off the rack right in front of me and he threw it violently in his laundry basket--as if to spite me, or to try to stave off the competition or maybe to intimidate me. All the super serious folks had laundry baskets and they were just pulling stuff off the racks and throwing them in there, barely looking at what they were getting. There was no browsing. No contemplation. No comparing one item with another. It was complete cutthroat madness, but I was game. I told my friend that we should split up and if she saw anything at all that looked like what I was looking for, that she should just grab it and we would meet up later.

Let me tell you, I hate shopping like that. It's ugly and greedy. But you don't just go to the department store and get obi. You can't make obi. And there not entirely easy or cheap to get on the internet. So if you want obi, you gotta just roll up your sleeves, jut your elbows out, and dive into the racks with the rest of them. I was looking for green obi, since green is my favorite color, but alas, I couldn't find any. As we were leaving, I saw a beautiful green obi in someone's basket, but I think that if I had even looked at it for any longer that the split second I already did, then I'm sure I'd get my right arm bitten off. But I didn't do so bad. Here's what I got:

There's seven there. I know I can't wear all of them with my costume, but I was thinking about future costumes, and also about the fact that the Texuba people are retiring. I found a green stripey one that's nice. And we need red for our costumes. Oh and Janet had given me the postcard that Texuba had sent her reminding her of the event, and apparantly she's a VIP member, so I handed the lady at the cash register the post card and I got a 50% discount! Woo hoo! I was scared she'd ask for ID like they said they would on their website, but there was too much madness in there and she just knocked off the 50% and I paid with cash just to be safe.

Sheesh. No wonder it's an annual event. Wouldn't want to do that again for at least a year.