Tokyo post - 9 April

 Happy Easter - I'd forgotten all about it until I got a few emails from home. It's just a normal Sunday here of course. And the sun was out but not too hot, so a nice day for walking around.

Yesterday was a lot more blustery with a bit of rain. I headed over to the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum which is one of those places where they have relocated a lot of traditional buildings and bunched them together as an open air museum.  Quite interesting to walk around although the houses are pretty empty for the most part.  Volunteers lit an open fire in one which immediately filled the house with smoke (no chimney) which was very evocative - but reading the English descriptions of what life like, it sounds like it was pretty harsh for most people back in the day - especially women.  They do indigo dyeing workshops at the museum and I was able to buy this lovely dyed cloth with traditional motifs.  I think it is a 'tenugi' which is a multipurpose cloth that can be used for everything from a head scarf to wrapping presents. The fabric is like a coarse cotton - I might make a bag or pouch out of it.

Then I headed to Shinjuku to visit a few craft shops.  First of all, Odakaya, a multi-floored labyinthine sewing and craft store which has expanded into a nearby building since I last visited.  It is quite fun just to poke around all the different departments, everything from hatmaking to macrame to dressmaking to cosplay, jewellery making etc etc. I bought a few things here and there, like a little quilting ruler marked in centimetres, some little metal samurai helmets and demon masks for my Japanese dollshouse, some more little bag zips and so on. I also found a sashiko printed cloth for a sumo wrestler so I had to get that, along with some sashiko threads and needles. I've never done Sashiko before because I didn't think I could master the geometric perfection that is normally required, but they had a sample made up and this one looked a lot simpler.

I got some rustic bag handles as well, for making Japanese style bags from the books I already own at home.

They've moved their fabric department into the new space next door.  I didn't see anything I couldn't live without, especially once I saw the queues for getting yardage cut. Japanese people love to queue even more than the Brits I think.  But I did see these strange panels printed with large food items to make up lifesize baked goods and cakes (pictured) and there were also sushi and raw meat panels which was a bit bizarre. I guess they are for children to play shopkeeping with.

While walking around Shinjuku, I saw this display of plain canvas totebags but in all different shapes including a few we don't see in the UK like the styish drawstring version.

I headed over to the large branch ot Tokyu Hands in Shinjuku, which bills itself as the home of creative living.  Tokyu Hands is a bit like IKEA without furniture only more upmarket, floor after floor of attractive little bits and pieces including stationery, toys, home decor, all kinds of craft items, Muji-type items and so on.  Quite fun to wander around in.  I was quite tempted by their display of Chinese dollshouse roombox kits, especially this tea room. But it would be too big and heavy to pack and I expect I could order it in the UK.

I enjoyed looking around but didn't really buy much apart from some cherry blossom stickers and a zipper pouch for my knapsack.

Today I headed over to a neighbourhood called Monzen-Nakacho and  wandered around a big outdoor flea market/antiques fair in the grounds of the Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine. Very interesting, although a bit strange to see all the stalls set up amongst the gravestones and sub-shrines in the grounds.  I had a good rummage in some secondhand kimono stalls but couldn't find any cotton yukata, everything was polyester or silk.  I did get some little remnants of synthetic and cotton kimono fabric which were only about .64p each.

I also found this adorable little mini Japanese cast iron kettle.  Apparently it wasn't actually used for tea or sake, I couldn't understand the vendor's full explanation but judging from the miming, it was used for something to do with brush painted calligraphy. Maybe for adding warm water to mixing inks?

After that I headed over to another even bigger temple, the Narita-San Fukagawa Fudo-Do Temple where I followed the tour route around the inside.  I bought two luck charms, one has a miniature version of the classic Japanese school child's leather knapsack which I will put into my dollshouse.

I also enjoyed visiting the nearby Fukagawa Edo Museum, which is a life-size recreation of an Edo-period town that you can walk around, quite neat.  They had a dollshouse-sized room box replica of a early 20thC shop.

And in the exhibition area, this beautiful sampler of classic Japanese joinery typically used for sliding screens or for room divider panels.

You won't be surprised to hear that I popped into Daiso (equivalent to a £1 shop) and bought another small folding bag because I am beginning to doubt that all of this stuff is going to fit into the folding bag I brought with me.

My big adventure today was to visit a public baths not too far from my hotel.  Bit nervewracking but they are used to foreigners (no English spoken but some English signs). Womens baths were a variety of temperatures, some too hot for me at 42C, others more like a jacuzzi, but it was really nice to just relax after all the sightseeing.  Nobody looked funny at me even though I was the only westerner in there at the time. I don't want to get my blog flagged for language so I will just say that everyone was equal and happy in their natural state, quite liberating in a way. I might go again if I have some more free time.