Japan 21 May - one more week

 Yes, I have one more week before I fly home. I'll be heading back to Tokyo tomorrow evening. Then I have a few days still. I'm going to do a day trip to the seaside tourist and temple town of Kamakura, take a guided tour of a Tokyo neighbourhood, and spend a day at the May sumo tournament, and I'm squeezing in a trip to TeamLabs Planets art installation after seeing a video about it.

I've had a great week and have taken hundreds of photos but they are pretty much all travel pics rather than crafts. After Kakunodate, I paused at Lake Tazawa for a rainy bus tour around the scenic lake, then onto Hiraizumi to see the UNESCO world heritage sites. From there I travelled to Naruko Onsen for two nights of relaxation, onsen bathing and a hike around Naruko Gorge. Then I came here to Sendai from where I have visited Matsushima Bay (another famous beauty spot) and today I watched a lot of the Sendai Aoba Matsuri (festival) parade. Tomorrow I will visit Yamadera (a temple on a mountain) and see if I can manage the 1000 steps to the top without passing out.

Naruko Onsen is famous for making the traditional wooden 'kokeshi' dolls, which are turned on a lathe and have a separate head which swivels at the neck.  They are handcrafted and handpainted.  

A selection at the Kokeshi Doll Museum, which houses over 7,000 dolls from

around Japan

I bought this little doll from a family shop who have been

making dolls since the Edo period.

A display of dolls at the railway station. 

In one of the souvenir/doll shops, I spotted this felt creation sitting next to the cash register, so cute! It's about 3.5 inches across.

And in Furukawa station, they had an art installation of little fabric dolls - Google Translate suggests the installation was about re-using and recycling, in this case re-using little fabric squares.  I expect you could figure out the pattern and make all kinds of people and animals.

I visited several shops  here in Sendai over the last few days trying to buy a cheap bigger suitcase to accommodate my excess purchases but no luck. Even at the bargain store, the cases started from £100 and they are all hard shell (although at the bargain store it was more like tupperware quality) - no one seems to stock the cheap fabric and wire frame cases we can buy in the UK. So I will have to make do with what I've got. I can take a second small carryon into the plane, so I'll likely squash most of my clothes into that (and maybe discard a few more).  I realise now that no matter how many Youtube videos I watch about packing minimally/travelling light, I am just a natural hoarder and a small carry on is just not big enough for anything longer than a long weekend for me. Know thyself. I was torturing myself this afternoon by wandering around Seria (a discount homewares store with really cute stuff, ingenious storage solutions, organisational solutions, stationery etc.) looking at all the things that I would love to have but just don't have room for. I did buy one more tenugi (printed fabric rectangle you can use in a variety of ways like headwear, handtowel etc) at the festival but it's only little and flat.

I'm about halfway through knitting the lace cowl I brought along as an evening project, and I'm almost finished embroidering my third quilt block. I tend to spend evenings in my hotel room relaxing, getting ready for the next day, watching Netflix and stitching - I'm not a nightlife person. And of course currently I am watching the sumo tournament every evening - it's exciting to think that I will soon be there in person.