Renting a kimono in Asakusa: your questions answered
Each guide answers one question the way our staff answers it at the counter, using the rules we actually run day to day.
Which part are you stuck on?
What follows is not the answers themselves but a map of where they live. The groups below run in the order a first-time visitor meets them, not by topic. If you already know what you want to ask, jump straight to that group; if you cannot name it yet, work down from the top.
The first two are for people who have not decided to come yet: work out what a kimono actually is, then work out what the day will cost.
Once the booking exists, the question changes to what you need to bring, and by the morning itself it narrows to what to do next. Anyone hiring a photographer follows a separate line, so that one sits at the end.
Still deciding whether to wear one
Each of these three rules something out for you: kimono or yukata, how far down into individual styles you need to go, and whether this trip is the one to wear it in Asakusa at all. If you leave with fewer options than you arrived with, this stage is done.
Working out what the day costs
This is the one group ordered by kind of money rather than by time: the going rate first, then what the listed price already covers, then the money you leave with us, then how you settle up on the day. No figures on this page — each of the four carries its own.
Choosing a date, then booking it
"When do I come to Asakusa" and "when do I book" are two different questions. Season and cherry blossom answer the first; the booking flow and walking in on the day answer the second. If your date is already fixed, the last two are enough.
What to sort out before you arrive
Five guides for after the booking is made. Read them in order — fit, what goes underneath, hair, luggage — and what you need to carry that day settles itself. Anyone coming with children should read the last one first; it changes how the day is shaped.
On the day, in Asakusa
Once you are dressed, the things you look up narrow to about three: when the day ends, what to do if it rains, and where to walk next. If you are reading this in a kimono right now, these three are all you need.
If you want a photographer
A shoot is decided when you book, spent on the day and delivered afterwards, so it does not sit anywhere on the line above and gets its own group. Start with the first if you want to settle on locations, the second if you are wondering how the images reach you.
Read enough? Now pick the kimono
With the questions out of the way, the next decision is what to wear. The plans can be read in price order, or entered by group size or occasion — the same set of pages, reached by two different questions.
