This was during my study abroad to Japan, and I was wearing a yukata I had bought a week earlier for a summer festival. However, not even three adults and a YouTube video could figure out how the obi (long cloth “belt”) was supposed to be tied.

After a day of trying desperately to fix it, and my yukata splaying out in every direction, I had given up. Then, suddenly, a woman waiting for the bus motioned for me to come to her and started fixing not only my obi, but the entire yukata.

She untied the loose knot completely, and within two minutes had tied a beautiful bow on my back. When she was done, I thanked her profusely in broken Japanese. Her only reply was “It was fun!” (楽しいだた！) before she walked away.

As embarrassed as I was about wearing the yukata so incorrectly, remembering how she fixed without even asking puts a smile on my face.