My Journey with Japanese Culture From Shodoshima to Portland

Konnichiwa! I’m Takako Watanabe Elting. I’m a kimono and tea specialist in Portland, Oregon USA.

Let me introduce myself.

I was born and raised on a small island called Shodoshima, in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kagawa is part of Shikoku, located in the southern region of Japan.

About 15 years ago, I was an intern at a Japanese immersion school in Portland. During that time, I volunteered at a Japanese festival held at an Asian market. I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, while an American woman volunteering with me was dressed in a kimono. A man stopped by and said, “This is strange. It should be the other way around.”

I remember feeling a little embarrassed. But that moment stayed with me, and it became one of the reasons I wanted to learn how to wear kimono.

I married my husband, who is from Oregon, in 2009 and moved to the United States in 2011. At that time, I was not able to wear kimono by myself, even though I had practiced tea ceremony for many years in Japan. In tea ceremony, we often wear kimono, but I had always relied on others to help me dress.

After moving to Portland, I began taking tea ceremony lessons again and decided to properly learn kimono dressing. I completed a kimono instructor course, became a certified kimono instructor, and started teaching kimono dressing classes in 2014.

I also founded the Portland Kimono Club in 2012. It is a community for Japanese women in the Portland area who share an interest in kimono.

Today, I offer kimono rentals, collaborate with photographers for kimono photoshoots, and teach table-style tea ceremony, a more casual and accessible way to enjoy tea in everyday life.

Through this website, I would like to share ways to enjoy Japanese cultural life while living in the United States.

I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for being here.