Oukakimono rental — Local services in Kyoto

Short review: I had a great experience! There were 1-2 staff who spoke English and none of them spoke Korean (I speak either), so go with a few phrases and relevant terms under your belt and they'll really appreciate your effort! Not the greatest number of kimono selections but their quality was high, and you can get hair done for around 1500 yen which you definitely should (I have shoulder length hair and they put it up flawlessly into an up-do). I don't know if they do makeup and I didn't want to take the chance so I did my own makeup before going. You can rent a purse and they let you do so for free if you give them a positive rating before you pay, so I say do it and you can always adjust your review afterwards if you need to. The kimono I chose was only for 5000 yen, the lowest price range, and it was lovely! I looked through their 8000 yen options and I just preferred the one I picked. I just wanted to point out that you don't have to pick the most expensive ones to have a great time!

Few extra points to help clarify some other reviews I saw: "free gift" for 5 star review As I mentioned above, before you pay for the rental, if you want a bag to go with it, they offer a free rental if you give them a good review. I just went with it so I'm not sure how much the rental fee would be, but just do it and adjust the review after!

1-2 star reviews: After my personal experience, I cautiously wonder if most of these were written by people who were not very familiar with what to expect when you wear a Kimono. There are many comments regarding the tightness of the Kimono but please keep in mind, Kimono are beauty-wear, not comfort-wear, and they are meant to be worn very tight. Think corsets for Victorian wear, as an example!

Some other reviews were regarding the staff being rushed and not very communicative, or where the visitors felt they were being ignored. I can see that if the shop were to be very full and busy, perhaps it would feel rushed since it takes awhile to get fully fitted and have your hair done, so I can only suggest that you do try to reserve and to go as early as you can. I had a reservation for I believe 1 hour after their opening (11am) and just headed there around 1030am, and they did confirm if I had a reservation before letting me look around. There was a lady who walked in soon after who did not have a reservation, and I heard the staff let her know that she could look at the kimono, but not rent.

In terms of the attitude of the staff, again from personal experience, the moment I tried to speak what little Japanese I could to the fitters and hair dressers, they showered me with praises and tried so hard to communicate with me and to help me as much as they could through the entire process. My general impression from Japanese staff no matter where you go was that when they see you attempt to learn their language, they're very appreciative! There were several other women getting dressed when I was, and they spoke Korean (I don't believe any of the staff spoke Korean there) and I did not notice them trying to speak any Japanese. So while the staff didn't appear rude at all, they also did not try to communicate with them. Try to learn simple phrases and words related to kimono and hair dressing before you go and you may have a wonderful experience!

Some people may just have had a negative overall experience during their visit, which is unfortunate, so hopefully others can have a great time...

By far the worst kimono rental experience I've had.

I booked 10am timeslot for a full day rental and a 1hr photoshoot through Klook. I arrived at 9:30am and waited for 10am opening and got to be the first one to be dressed. They are extremely overbooked and understaffed. The place is chaotic and there are no privacy at all. There's only 1 dressing room for both men and woman, unlike all the other kimono places I went to which had separate dressing rooms for men and woman. I kindly asked the staff if she can help me coordinate colors with my husbands outfit and she had no idea what I was saying. When me and my husband were changing in the dressing room they told another girl to come in to change which made everyone really uncomfortable. When the staff was dressing me I kept telling her that the strings (there are 3 strings that were tied under the actual belt) was tied too tight and I couldn't breath to which she got annoyed, walked away and left me to be dealt with by another staff member. Extremely unprofessional, staff was not friendly or helpful at all.

The vanity room where girls get their hair done is really small with no privacy. There were at least 8-10 people sitting inside the vanity room while I was the only one getting my hair done and having strangers watching me was really uncomfortable. I also did not get to pick out my accessories such as the handbag and hair accessories that I normally get to pick at other kimono rental places. They kept rushing me and tried to push me out as soon as possible. We returned the kimonos right after the photoshoot because it was so tight that there was no way we could've sat down to eat comfortably. Even my husband said his outfit was also very tight. So while we paid for a full day rental we only wore it for about 2-3hrs before returning it.

The whole process felt extremely rushed and was not enjoyable at all. It's really about quantity and not quality to them, they try to crank out as much people as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Only reason I gave 2 stars is because 1 star is for the photographer that did such a great job. But it seems the photograpgher is a freelance and doesn't work under the studio.

The reason this place has an overwhelming amount of positive reviews is because they offer a "free gift" to leave a review. After we returned our outfits I just wanted to leave since I didnt have a good experience but I was pressured into leaving a review even though I didnt care for the "gift" they're giving. I ended up leaving a positive review for only the photograpgher on klook. The review really felt more mandatory...

Packed, unhygienic and unprofessional

Our booking with Ouka Kimono are not satisfied at all. Several issues happened made us never want to visit this shop anymore

1. Overcrowded We were given option to pick our time when we place our booking, guess what? They are overbooked. Literally everyone comes at 10:00am in the morning and the crowd in the shop are so uncontrollable and the workers can't cope at all. Every customer simply place their shoes in front of the shop and being kicked around to the point the shoes are overflown out from the shop.
2. Handling of customers are bad. As bad as they will not guide you on the matching of kimono colours, inner layer, outer layer are badly matched by the customers themselves with no help from the shop. Shop workers simply point where are the kimono based on your package and you're on your own to pick what's on the shelf. It takes longer time for the customer to bring in the kimono and ended getting kicked out from the changing room because they picked the wrong item / mis-matched
3. Shop workers who dress you up are completely in rush, which is understandable because it's peak season. But our kimono were not tidy up property, halfway walking, my belt fell off because they did not tuck in properly.
4. Unhygienic, this is the worse I've ever seen. After a long day of wearing kimono, we head back to the shop and remove our kimono. Guess what? The staffs told us that changing room is occupied by female, and male have to strip ourselves by the counter reception where people passby. It was so uncomfortable but we have no choice because they are in rush to close the shop. After that, they literally throw our kimono on floor so they can fold it up and hang it up back to the hanger for people to pick tomorrow. The floor was stomp by hundreds of customers daily, the carpet was a total mess already, yet they place the kimono on floor so they have suffice space to fold it up. The problem lies here, THERE ARE NO CLEANING JOB DONE TO THE USED KIMONO AT ALL, OR EVEN A FABRIC FRESHENER. 4 of us got rashes appeared at night after we returned the kimono. I can't imagine how dirty it is, wore by several customers and no deodorising or dry cleaning job done at all (Unless MAYBE you stained it, only they will wash with the penalty money they obtained from client?????)

All in all, I NEVER WANT TO COME BACK TO THIS...