Kimono Clothing
Our cultural excursion today was to visit the international exchange center for a chance to try on traditional Japanese kimonos. It was a nice day so we walked (even though it was quite a hike). The walk was an event in itself, as we got to walk along an absolutely beautiful park. I also discovered that the Japanese treat their old trees differently than we do in the U.S. — when a tree becomes old and is in danger of cracking under its own weight, we cut it down. In Japan, they cut other trees down to build supports to prop the tree up. So because of this, we got to see a tree that grew up next to a path, turned over the path like a roof, and then dipped back down to the ground on the other side of the path. Amazing!
It was a really hot, humid day and the walk didn’t cool us down at all, so we were all a bit warm by the time we reached the international center. We went upstairs and were given an introduction to Japanese clothing, as well as shone some incredibly beautiful kimonos hanging up on stands all stretched out to show all the detail work at once.
Finally we were separated into boys and girls and were given kimonos to put on. It was so complicated that we just stood there while the women there put the kimonos on us. The guys had much more cool and comfortable kimonos than the girls, who all wore heavy, many-layered silk kimonos. The final result was amazing though, and we all looked quite sharp in our kimonos. 
We pressured Jose to wear his kimono (since he owned his own) for the whole walk home. Yasuko was slightly embarassed and told him people would make fun of him, but we won him over and he did. It was definitely a funny sight to see, as every Japanese person walking by gave a strange look to the Panamanian in traditional kimono.