Oh Old Photos – Kaori Square Feet

The Old Photos: Kobe 2009

Guess where I’m headed tonight?

I’m off to Kobe for the weekend to see my lovely friends before heading down to Imabari to spend Obon with family! I do love this city so. It’s a beautiful blend of Japanese and foreign culture, due to it being one of Japan’s early port cities. These pictures are from when I was there in December 2009.

There’s a typhoon headed our way but I’m hoping we miraculously have great weather because I really want to go to Koshien stadium to see the high school baseball tournament that starts this weekend! I was on the baseball team in high school (as a “manager,” not a player) and it’s every team’s dream to make it to koshien one day. I’ve actually never been to Koshien stadium before so this is huge. I mean, HUGE. Early morning practice, weekly practice games, handmade omamori. All of it was for that summer koshien dream, and although my high school never made it past the prefectural tournament, even to this day we still bond over those memories. (Although there have been questions lately regarding this culture.) So even though the forecast says 80% chance of rain, I’m hoping it clears up just a little for me!

We’ll have to see how the typhoon feels. But whatever happens, I’m excited to be heading to Kobe! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend as well! x

The Old Photos: Hinamatsuri

Today is Hinamatsuri (雛祭り) in Japan!

Hinamatsuri is also known as Girl’s Day in English, which doesn’t sound quite as festive. But it’s a special day where families pray for the happiness and health of their young girls.

I personally haven’t celebrated this day in awhile but I remember we did when I was younger. I even found this picture of us kids posing beside a beautiful display of Hinamatsuri dolls!

You’ll notice tradition becomes a bit more casual when you’re living on the other side of the Pacific, as we have both girls and boys in the picture. But a celebration is a celebration and this is how Hinamatsuri in rural Michigan looked like in 1988 (or somewhere around there!) 😀

The Old Photos: After Church

When was the last time you took a family photo?

I found these old pictures from our family photo sessions we often had after church. One of the reasons I think I take so many pictures now is because my daddy was a big camera person. This was before we even knew what digital was, so he had a Fuji film camera that he would take everywhere with him.

He took tons of photos. Everything from our family trips to just normal evenings at home. But one of the things he liked to do is take family pictures after church. Probably because we tend to look nice when we go to church. And probably also because the church is such a nice backdrop for a photo session!

Nowadays, all us kids live in different prefectures of Japan and we only get to take a family photo once or twice a year. I guess that’s normal. But seeing these pictures made me nostalgic for family photos!

The Teacher with the Same Outfit

(via swissmiss)

Oh gosh, this is fantastic.

PE teacher, Dale Irby, wore the same outfit for every yearbook photo during his 40-years of teaching. I cannot get over how great this is. And yes, I secretly wish I would have thought of that when I was still taking school pictures. I mean, look at it!

In this Dallas News article, he said that it all started out as an accident when he wore the same outfit the in his second year…and his wife dared him to wear it again. And on it went. You can see many of his yearbook pictures on News.com.au. Seriously awesome.

So of course I had to go look for my old school pictures. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I only found the one of me in 7th grade. But it was good enough to have me laughing my head of for a good 10 minutes! Teehee!

Aren’t school pictures the best? 😀

What was going on with my hair?

And how patriotic was I? ;D

The Overalls

Today I took the morning off work to go to my monthly doctors appointment…and decided to go shopping before heading back to work!

I have been eyeing these overall shorts at Zara for a while now. They go with anything and I’ve been looking for the perfect pair of overalls. It could be my look this summer.

But when I tried them on today, it was like deja vu…I could swear I had the same pair back in grade school. Well…apparently I did!

I posted the picture above with my suspicion of having the same overalls on facebook and guess what my grade school friend T posted on my wall?

In response to your photo you just posted, you are correct.

You did have the exact one in grade school.

Please see exhibit A below.

(you are in the red if you don’t recognize yourself).

Oh the good old 90s. Don’t you love how crazy old pictures like this can just pop up on your wall like this on facebook? The overalls, the big tshirts, the socks with Birkenstock look. I love it all because it all reminds me of how much fun we all had growing up together.

Do you sometimes walk down memory lane and get nostalgic over old photos? 😀