{"id":366,"date":"2013-07-18T12:53:38","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T03:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/?p=366"},"modified":"2017-10-01T16:01:06","modified_gmt":"2017-10-01T07:01:06","slug":"about-our-shop-and-me-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/?p=366","title":{"rendered":"About our shop and me 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was my blog for one publisher but they closed \u00a0so I move this on my site. I hope you enjoy it!<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

Is this my life?<\/a><\/h2>\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>Nice to meet you! Thank you for visiting this site. I am\u00a0Kahori OCHI,<\/strong>someone who is trying to become a Kimono shop owner for the second-generation.
You might wonder why I got such an honor to write a Blog on this website, although I am not famous. You know others are an announcer and an model. Today let me focus on this reason.
Now I am helping at my mother\u2019s Kimono shop, though I had been working at a company. As a usual Japanese, I worked at the same company for six years after graduating college. (employment for life is still common in Japan)
In those days, I lacked for nothing, but, when I became twenty-nine years old, I came to have the question\u201cIs this my life?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0Escalating this question, I had found something in
Norway. These aspects causeda chemical reaction that eventually I had given my job up and decided to go to Norway for studying.
Of course this experience completely changed my life.
How my life was changed was not only my occupation but also my thoughts and attitude towards life.
I have never regretted the choice of quiting my job and going to Norway for a moment. I think I can live more naturally than before. At least, I stopped wondering: \u201cIs this my life?\u201d
Recently I have started writing how I can get this thought on the private Blog\u00a0http:\/\/2daime.kimono-sakaeya.com\/<\/a>
Knowing my experience, some strangers give me messages. They also have the same question and they are in sympathy with me. I have noticed there are many Japanese(not only Japanese but also non Japanese\u00a0\";)\"\u00a0that had the same struggle with life.
As it happens, one friend of mine who is working for \u3000Alc asked me to write my experiences on this site. Immediately I thought, \u201cWhy not? It is my pleasure to cheer somebody up by writing my experience. My entire wish is that knowing my experience through this Blog, you find out
what you want to do by yourself.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s me last year, someone who\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0find what they wanted to do.<\/strong>I\u2019m not a fortuneteller so I can\u2019t say what will happen to you tomorrow. I\u2019m not a religious leader or anything, so i can\u2019t say anything is for sure. However, I can say something through my experience.
I want to use all the powers of the Blog. Let\u2019s communicate! Feel free to write what you think about my opinions on the comments or track back.
Lastly, I would like to say thank you to my friend S! I feel honored to have such a special opportunity. Moreover, this is more important!
Thank you S for giving me this title\u00a0\u201d Go abroad with Kimono by Kahori OCHI who is pretty!? Kimono Shop second generation owner \u201c<\/strong>
So it\u2019s time to open our shop. I have to say good-bye for now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prewar generation parents<\/a><\/h2>\n
\n

My childhood\u00a0<\/strong>
I was bored being in a Kimono shop owner\u2019s family.
It was a hot day in July.\u00a0At that time, my father Sakae was 47 years old and my mother Keiko was 41, they already had two boys, one was 17 and the other was 13.
They were too shy to say they had a child again to my brothers.
So giving birth to me had been a secret.
The fist time my older bothers saw me they wondered if we had a new monkey as a pet. They already had a monkey and I looked like it according to them. (Please make sure to know that having a monkey in Japan is uncommon!!)\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00a0(The monkey, Aki. Do I look like him?)<\/p>\n

Prewar generation parents\u00a0<\/strong>
Both Sakae and Keiko were born in Shikoku, a southern island in Japan, before WW2.
After WW2, Sakae moved to Tokyo to get a job. Afterwards, he met one woman who was not my mother and they had decided to get married.
In Japan, the custom is still working where grooms and brides ask their parents for their consent to marriage. Getting married is not a personal matter but a family one.
Therefore he went back to his house to get his father\u2019s permission.
At that time, the US encouraged Japanese to go to church for postwar turmoil.
When he was in his hometown, he went to the church, Keiko was introduced to him by her friend who was the priest. She fell in love quickly.
The priest didn\u2019t know why Sakae returned to his hometown. Oh God!<\/p>\n

How Keiko got Sakae<\/strong>
The reason why my parents got married was because of Japan\u2019s traditional family system.
As I said above, marriage has to be allowed by their parents.
Sakae\u2019s father used to be a sergeant and was very strict and conservative.
Even through Sakae was not the oldest son (for patriarchal reasons, the oldest son\u2019s wife is important), his father could not understand women who were living in the city and working.
On the other hand, my mother\u2019s family runs the biggest liquor store in the town.
The daughter from such a famous family was welcomed!
\"\"<\/a>( Our shop in around when I was bored)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Escape from rural hometown<\/a><\/h2>\n
\n

Escape from rural hometown<\/strong>
After getting married, they started a new life in Tokyo.
Keiko was so happy because she hated her hometown and dreamed of living in the city.
First of all, Sakae was working for a company and Keiko was a housewife.
However, they had an ambition to have their own shop.
Empress Michiko decided what the shop should be doing.<\/strong>
\"\"<\/a>At the same time, the current Emperor got married with Michiko.
Ms Michiko was the first empress who was not from an imperial family.
She was entirely beautiful, friendly and intelligent.
Indeed she became popular among Japanese. The fist time she was
introduced to Japanese by photo, she was wearing a Kimono.
(This photo of Michiko was unvelled on November 22th, 1958.)
My mother was fascinated by her and Ms Michiko had become the women of
Keiko\u2019s dream. Finally they decided what kind of shop they were
starting. It was, of course, a Kimono shop.
The kimono shop, which is named Sakaeya ( the name is from my father\u2019s
name) was born on September 20th, 1959.
At this time, Keiko was 24 years old and Sakae was 31.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0NEXT>><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was my blog for one publisher but they closed \u00a0so I move this on my site. I hope you enjoy it! Is this my life? Nice to meet you! Thank you for visiting this site. I am\u00a0Kahori OCHI,someone who is trying to become a Kimono shop owner for the Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-welcome"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381,"href":"https:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions\/381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimono-sakaeya.com\/Tokyo\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}