Back to reality

 I am gradually readjusting to 'real life' after two months away.  I have grudgingly taken up some cooking chores again, and done some housecleaning.  I am still pulling out literal armfuls of giant weeds from the garden - DH took a full carload to the dump today and I've still got another third of the garden to go.  I've been experiencing some aches and pains because instead of standing and walking almost all day, I am now sitting most of the day apart from a daily walk. I paid for some plants with my card today and realised that the till clerk was waiting for me to touch my card, whereas I was automatically waiting for her to rattle off the standard Japanese polite phrases about sorry for keeping you and use your card now etc. before I touched the card.  I had some friends over for a few hours and was absolutely exhausted by the end of it, after two months of largely solo travel I am just not used to speaking to other people for that long.  I have totalled up the number of photos I took over two months and it is 6,031 - even I don't feel like going through that many photos but I have started to weed out duplicates.  I've crossed a lot of boring priority stuff off my To Do list like checking insurance renewals.  I've bought a new phone (mine reached 'end of life' while I was travelling, I am sad because I really like it but without security updates it will become vulnerable) and survived the process of transferring my data over.  It took almost two hours, 90 minutes of which was repeatedly transferring the sim card back and forth between the old and new phone as I tried to convince Whatsapp to back up my chat messages on the old phone then restore them on the new. Got there in the end.

So in other words, lots of tedious real life stuff and very little 'fun' holiday stuff apart from we did have a nice dinner out.  A touch of post holiday blues I think.

I have reacquainted myself with my sewing room, although I haven't found places to put away all the new acquisitions yet.  I needed a warm up project so I made an unlined version of this free Tilda Toiletry Bag to hold some small things in my suitcase.

That was fun so I used some of my new Japanese fabric to make two more with quilted exteriors.

I blocked the little shawl that I knit while I was travelling, using the hand dyed fingering weight I bought in Iceland.  It reminds me of a grand piano with the shape.

I've also been working on a summer kimono (yukata) in quilting cotton fabric that I bought in Tokyo's Nippori fabric town, relying heavily on a video by kimono expert Billy Matsunaga.  There is a lot of hand sewing to catch down all the seam allowances neatly inside.  I also bought  a book in English and Japanese on how to wear yukata which has a step by step guide to getting dressed in one, so I will make an attempt once mine is finished.  If it doesn't work out, I can always re-purpose the fabric as quilt backing :)

I'm back - haul photos

 I got back four days ago, after 24 hours awake. So still waking up at odd early hours although I'm slowly adjusting.  It's great to be back, although having to deal with two months' worth of post, email, paperwork, garden jungle growth etc. is killing my holiday afterglow.  I've unpacked and done all my laundry and  put together a 2.5 page typed To Do list which I am gradually working through.

After unwrapping all the goodies I bought over the two months of the trip, I have now taken haul photos for your edification.  I don't know how I got all of this into two medium size suitcases to be honest.  And it is definitely S.A.B.L.E  (stash acquisition beyond life expectancy)!

A mini tote and zip pouch, a handtowel, a furoshiki wrapping cloth

Random Japan stuff that caught my eye

A beautifully carved transom from a flea market

handsculpted decorative pin heads

Needlework treasures: pincushions, thread winders, a pawlonia wood needlebox, used silk shuttles from an obi handweaving workshop

various kits for beading, sashiko etc. plus a zip pouch and mini-tote

Sumo!!!

Dollshouse miniatues

miscellaneous haberdashery 

including a pile of 'handmade' tags in fabric, leather and metal, and charms to hang on zip pulls

Korean acquisitions including a handmade embroidered thimble

and embroidered thread winder.

Sashiko kits

More hand towels that I will use as wallhangings

Shibori technique (tie dye) fabrics

Pieces of vintage kimono and a full obi

quilting fabrics from South Korea

quilting fabrics from Japan

Stationery (left side)

Staionery (right side)

Airport again, for return to UK

 Yes, airport again, this time awaiting my flight back to the UK.  I'm ready to go home yet at the same time it's been a bit sad the last few days to say goodbye to Japan. 

 I've covered some ground since arriving back from South Korea. I spent a morning hiking the easy bit of the historic Nakasendo trail from Magome to Tsugome, which was wonderful, and visited Matsumoto and its historic castle before returning to Tokyo.  In Tokyo, I had a day at the May sumo tournament, and I took a workshop to make gluten-free ramen from scratch which was delicious. I met up with a friend to visit some clothing shops in the Harajuku area, and I enjoyed a fun evening at the big festival around the Asakusa Shrine.  I moved to Nagoya and did day trips to see the castle towns of Gujo-Hachiman and Inuyama, then had a luxurious one-night stay at a traditional Japanese ryokan in Kinosaki Onsen Town.  I had a few days in Kyoto where I managed to avoid most of the crowds: I did a shibori experience at the Shibori museum, visited the Orinasu handweaving museum, and watched a short geiko (geisha) dance performance at the new Gion Kagai Art Museum which also displayed many beautiful kimono.  I enjoyed visits to big antique flea markets in Kyoto and Kawagoe, and a high quality handicraft market also in Kyoto.  Everywhere I saw secondhand kimono and obi on sale cheaply or items such as bags sewn from kimono and obi fabric, I fear that future textile historians will lament the wholesale selling off and discarding of so much Japanese clothing history.

So my suitcases are bulging as are my memories, I tried to journal every day so I wouldnt forget what I'd done. Unfortunately my waistline is also bulging, its much easier to find gluten free desserts than meals and I have a sweet tooth.  When I get unpacked and sorted out, then I'll post some haul pictures.  I finished knitting my lace shawl, and have just started the heel on my second sock so will work on that on the plane (I use Clover bamboo dpns which seem to go through Security fine).  I've only completed one of the three embroidery panels I brought with me, and didnt touch the cross stitch kit at all.  I did scrapbook most days with my collected paper ephemera but I am undecided if it was worthwhile or not - the resulting book is fairly heavy but it was satisfying to have an end use for all the ticket stubs and pamphlets you accumulate and not just throwing them out.

A visit to South Korea

 Hello, I'm back in the airport again, this time at Seoul's Gimpo airport, awaiting my flight back to Japan.  I've had two weeks in South Korea, and it's been good.  Sorry but I can't post any photos with this post until I get home, because I moved them off my phone onto an SD card for backup (I also back up to Amazon Prime). This was my first visit to Korea, I can see some similarities to Japan but also a lot of differences.  I had three days in Seoul then joined an 8 night tour that went to the DMZ (border with North Korea), then up to Sukcho in the north east, then to the historic hanok village near Andong, then down to the second largest city Busan in the south, then back to Seoul.  On my own, I had one night down in the historic hanok village at Jeonju. So just a taster tour, it had a good mix of the modern and new, the traditional, the coast, mountains etc.  I've enjoyed getting to know a new country a little - apart from the food which I've really struggled with.  There is a fairly low awareness of allergens here, and a lot of Korean cooking uses some basic spice mixtures or soy sauce, all of which have gluten in them.  I tried various local dishes in the early days of the tour with the group, but ended up having to eat a lot of meals on my own so I could choose salads or international foods like sushi or curry to avoid stomach upsets.  The tour leader was helpful but neither he nor I knew what the ingredients were of various dishes.  I only pulled out my allergen card once, which predictably freaked out the restaurant manager and staff and I ended up with plain bean sprouts, plain rice, and plain grilled pork belly.  It was just easier to find somewhere like a Subway and order a salad.  Luckily I'm not a foodie, nor a coeliac.  But apart from that, it's been good.

On the craft side, there are a lot of traditional Korean handicrafts on sale everywhere such as ceramics, textiles, traditional hanbok costume, knotted work, embroidery etc.  I bought some little embroidered charms and also an embroidered pin cushion and a traditional embroidered thread holder.  I made it to the Insta-famous Banol knit cafe, a very designer space selling knit and crochet yarns from Korea and elsewhere. The emphasis seemed to be on getting beginners started and there were various knitted samples that you could then buy the pattern and yarn for. Also a lot of small crocheted handbags and totes, crocheted in sturdy plasticky rope yarns which must be murder to work with but produce very functional bags.  Here I found some metal sew-on 'handmade' tags to use on bags, and some cute zip pulls. I knit on my shawl for a while in the cafe upstairs and tried out one of the button-shaped rice cakes with honey.  Another day I went to the enormous Dongdaemon market building that has floor after floor across multiple buildings of fabric stalls, haberdashery of all kinds, trims, ribbons, hanok tailors and hanok fabric, everything you could possibly want.  Most of the fabric sellers are aimed at wholesalers and have tables of samples to order from rather than bolts, but on the 5th floor are several smaller retailers with bolts including Happy Quilt.  Here I was able to buy some Korean themed fabric and a panel printed with traditional Korean scenes - they had samples of the panel used in handbags which were cute.  It was amazing to wander the literally hundreds of stalls, and of course most things are quite reasonably priced because the won is weak to the British pound - the fabric was £3.50-£7 a yard at Happy Quilt I think.  It would be a great place to come if you had specific bag projects in mind, say, and wanted to get all the hardware etc. (and had room in your case)

One thing I haven't seen much of is the famous Korean bojagi or wrapping cloths, so popular in the quilting world. Maybe they aren't used in daily life so much now? (in contrast to Japan where furoshiki are widely available and still commonly used as gift wrap, cover ups etc).  Many souvenir shops have cheap bags or pouches with a small panel of pieced striped work, and I've seen a few wall hangings with panels of striped work in the (probably synthetic) silk organza used for the traditional hanbok clothing.  But no actual cloths.  At the Seoul Museum of Craft Art, there was a wonderful exhibition of vintage bojagi in solid, embroidered, and pieced varieties.  The pieced cloths were displayed so the light could shine through them, highlighting the seams like stained glass.  I've ordered a book on how to sew bojagi which will be waiting when I get home.  The actual silk organza feels like it would be stiff to work with, it's very crisp and a bit plasticky, but lets the light through beautifully.  I also saw some bojagi in other museums such as the National museum, mostly being displayed with the item that was wrapped up in them, for example a royal book or tablet.  

I also haven't seen much patchwork or quilting although I haven't actively looked for it.  There are quilted bags in some bag stores, and in Jeonju I saw two artisan shops with examples of Japanese-style Sunbonnet Sue wall quilts and small bags etc.  

I've really loved all the traditional hanok buildings with their elegantly curved clay tile roofs, and vividly painted ceilings.  There are enclaves of these traditional buildings in Seoul, and a whole village of them near Andong where we got to stay overnight in one of them which was fun.

And now I'm heading back to Japan for three more weeks then back to the UK.  I'm really hoping it doesn't get too hot in Japan, Korea has for the most part been lovely sitting around 20C or below which suits me very well.  Sorry this update is a bit garbled, it's hard to remember what I've been doing at this point, lol.  I am missing my sewing room and look forward to getting back to work on my various projectts.  I have knit a little shawl with my hand dyed yarn I bought in Iceland which I just finished a few days ago, so I am going to swap that out for the sock project I bought in Tokyo when I get into my other suitcase (currently in storage).  I've hardly done any embroidery, I probably didn't need to bring it at all.

Hello from Japan

 It's been radio silence for three weeks because I've just found by the time I get back to the hotel in the evenings, and prepare for the next day, and catch up my journal, record my expenses, maybe do some laundry etc., there hasn't been the time or energy for blogging.  But I'm at the airport now waiting for my flight to Seoul, Korea, so I thought I could make a post to catch up.

I was in time to see the cherry blossom which was thrilling, even though the first three days it poured rain steadily.  In a way it was good, I was able to go to some of the top blossom sights like Nakameguro which would normally be mob scenes, but due to the weather they weren't that crowded.  I even got into the famous Starbucks Roastery building there, which is normally a timed ticket, and enjoyed a Sakura themed iced tea.  I viewed blossom at several spots such as the Imperial Palace moat, the East Palace gardens, the nearby temple, Yoyogi Park, Shinjuku Gyoen Park, Yanaka cemetary and other locations.  It was always beautiful, whether rain or shine, the graceful blossom laden branches waving in the wind.  The main blossom is almost white in colour but there are other rarer varieties that are shades of pink.  On nicer days, it was wonderful to see the Japanese out in droves celebrating 'hanami' or flower viewing, having outdoor picnics on blue tarps with friends and families under the blossoming trees.

Some other things I did that first week or so were to attend a full kabuki performance at the famous Kabukiza theatre in Ginza - I was afraid that the almost four hour performance would be too much but there were two long breaks so it was actually fine and quite interesting as well to see the Japanese ladies dressed up in their kimono for the theatres.  I went to the Edo Tokyo Open Air Museum where they have collected a number of old buildings, many of them from the 20thC, that you can view and go inside such as an old Sake shop, a couple of upper class mansions, some folk buildings and farm houses - and set in a park full of beautiful blossoming cherry trees.  I've hit up several craft and stationery shops including Odakaya, Yuzawaya, Craft Heart Taito, Loft, Hands, Otoya - and visited a new to me traditional Japanese artisanal craft shop called Bingoya.  The latter was full of high quality examples of traditional Japanese crafts such as lacquerware, ceramics, textiles etc and is set up as a traditional Japanese store inside so quite interesting to look around.

I took a Japanese mochi making experience in the teacher's home (booked on Viator) which was quite fun and we got to eat our results which were delicious - two with fresh strawberries, one dango in a savoury (GF) soy sauce and one coloured for sakura season.  Hopefully I can recreate these when I get home.  I had a pleasant day at DisneySea, which I didn't like as much as Tokyo Disney when I went with DH a few years ago, but still fun.

Then I spent five days on a course to handsew a Japanese summer kimono or yukata.  This was really a marathon of handsewing and only a few of us reached a sufficient point of being finished to wear it on the sixth day to a tea ceremony experience, luckily I was one of them.  The teacher is European but has studied remotely with a Japanese kimono sewing instructor.  She was very nice but her teaching occasionally got a bit muddled as she was teaching from memory rather than a written course plan, we were given no notes so everything was passed on verbally and piecemeal, and English is not her first language so there were several instances of minor miscommunication.  It was still fun to learn one method to assemble a traditional kimono fitted to our personal measurements, but it was a whole lot of 'hand sew this really long seam and then blind stitch the raw edges down into a felled seam', rinse and repeat.  We joked that all the blind stitch was making us go blind.  It was also fun to go to Nippori fabric town as a group to choose our fabric, Ive been a few times before but on my own or with DH, it was different going with a pack of enthusiastic sewers all discovering different treasures.  I played it safe and chose a quilt-weight cotton on the theory that I could always use it as quilt backing if it was a disaster.  I had a few hiccups and my collar came out a bit too wide (my fault) but I got it finished and hemmed apart from some interior seam allowances not finished.  Three of us got to that point, and on the final day we went to a kimono and tea ceremony experience where the professional kimono dressers dressed us in the kimono we had sewn (they were very impressed that we had done it because they don't know how) or in a rented kimono if you hadn't finished.  I was so glad that I got to that point, DH would say its because I am a completionist. I can't really imagine wearing it in the UK as it requires a whole lot of cords and pleating, not to mention tying an obi, but at least I've had the experience of handsewing a real kimono and wearing it in Japan.

After the tour finished I had a couple more days: I went on an organised food tour in Shibuya and also travelled out to Yamato (south west of Tokyo) to visit a huge antique fair held there every month.  There is a glut of secondhand kimono and obi on the market,  Japanese women rarely wear them except on special occasions and my Japanese friend told me that most women are not able to dress themselves in a kimono.  Coupled with COVID and the very small apartments, people don't want to store their family kimono any more.  So at the antiques fair, there must have  been at least 20 stalls selling secondhand kimono and obis, many of them for as cheap as £2.50 or £5 each.  I had already bought a secondhand obi in Nippori, and they are surprisingly stiff and heavy, so I didn't buy anymore.  I did bring an empty suitcase but it was already mostly full by the end of week 3 even though I have already discarded a few items of clothing.

This past weekend, I took the bus up the Kawaguchiko to visit the Kubota Isuchiku museum of art kimono, a museum purpose-built by the artist himself to exhibit some of his amazing output of stunning dyed silk kimono.  This is also ground zero for view Mount Fuji, which looms over everything.  I was surprised to find the cherry blossom (already over in Tokyo) was still going here so the prime spots were pretty busy as everyone jostled to get photos of Fuji-san floating above the beautiful blossom.  I spent two nights and went to some of the prime spots around the lake and also out to the famous Chureito Pagoda which I'm sure you've seen photos of - surrounded by blossom with Mt Fuji in the distance.  I went early to avoid the crowds and was lucky that Mt Fuji had decided to show off against a blue sky that day, really incredible.

And now I am off to Korea for two weeks - I have a few days in Seoul and then I'm joining a short tour to go to some of the locations around the country such as Busan.  Unfortunately I have caught a head cold, which is difficult in a country where blowing your nose is on a rudeness level equivalent to letting off a bit f*rt in public - luckily sniffing is perfectly acceptable. I'm hoping it will be over quickly.

Fewer posts for the next few months

 Tomorrow afternoon DH is driving me to the airport then Monday morning I am off to Japan.  I will catch the cherry blossom in full bloom - yay! - but the day I arrive will be raining all day and heavily overcast - boo!  The following day is supposed to be a little better.  I'm still looking forward to the experience.  Meanwhile I am working through my 'to do' list to get ready.  Hopefully I won't forget anything crucial.  Due to the late change of departure date, I am now arriving in Tokyo at 7am and not my preferred late afternoon arrival time.  So I will be stumbling around cherry blossom sites suffering from jetlag as well as getting rained on - instead of collapsing gratefully into a hotel room.  Wish me luck, I'm not as young as I once was :)

On previous trips, I have tried to maintain the every-weekend blogging schedule but I don't know if I will this trip.  It's laborious to blog on the road, especially having to resize each photo on my phone prior to upload. Also I find it hard to  balance the topics of crafting and craft shopping versus travel blogging.  So there will likely be fewer posts for the next few months.  I am planning to hit up some of the craft places I've been to previously such as Nippori fabric town and Okadaya, and visit some new ones such as the massive stationery store Otaya, in Ginza.  I don't think I will go to the quilt shops again this time, because I am still working through what I purchased last trip.  I am taking a second empty suitcase for purchases but overall I need to keep things to a manageable weight.

I finished the embroidered houses canister.  It's turned out pretty well apart from the fusible fleece I used isn't very stiff so the canister is a bit floppy.  It's nice to use the embroidered panel for something that isn't a zip pouch.

I sewed the binding onto the Primrose Cottage tablerunner and we've been using it on the dining table for a few days.

And I finished quilting the Lori Holt My Happy Place Quilt - the pics are from straight off the frame, I haven't trimmed it or washed it yet.  There are also a few more embellishments to sew on now that it's quilted, such as buttons onto the button jar. Her designs are so cheerful, they make me smile.  The quilting is a mixture of ruler work and free motion background meanders.  This is intended as a wallhanging although it is a little big big on my hanging rod in the hallway.

See you in Japan!

One week to go

 One week until I fly (assuming Heathrow airport is back to normal operation after the big fire that completely closed it recently) and I am officially now in the 'oh sh*t why did I ever think this was a good idea?' phase of preparation.  I know from experience that once I get there it will be fine. But in the meantime I am full of worries and anxieties about everything from overpacking to feeling burned out once I've been there a while.  In case you are catching up, I'm off on a two month trip to Japan with a side couple of weeks in South Korea.  This is also the week where I need to get through my 'to do before I go' list, finishing up craft projects and not starting any new ones, stop ordering anything online, cancel my online sale postings, sort out paperwork for things that will happen when I'm away.  And I've been printing out all my confirmations and advance research to take with me.

There have been some interesting discussions in the travel groups online about how to take your trip information with you on a longer trip.  For many these days, particularly younger people, it's all digital and all on their phone - cue agonised posts when they lose or break said phone or can't recharge.  Some people use apps in the cloud that they can at least access from a cyber cafe if their phone goes.  But a number of us of all ages still print everything for quick reference and just in case of phone issues.   There are equally interesting discussions about how much research and pre-booking to do before a trip, which is a broad spectrum with people at one end who grab a last-minute flight and arrive eagerly at their destination with just their passport and credit card, to people at the other end like me who want to do as much research as humanly possible and pre-book all the main requirements.  There is no right answer, it's down to your personality and comfort zone.  I'm very risk averse, and would rather enjoy myself when I get there, and not have to spend time all day peering at a phone screen trying to work out where to go and whether it's open. I would also rather avoid the known tourist traps and disappointing sights, and instead visit the best sights and the hidden gems.  And of course these days you often need to prebook well in advance for the big sights. The downside is that my pack of printed documents is over an inch thick and will be heavy on the plane when I have to carry all of it (due to the risk of a checked bag going missing).  But day to day I only take with me what I need that day plus some overall itinerary information.  I also email myself everything important as a back up, in case I somehow lose my hard copies.  Additionally, I find going through my itinerary to assemble my paperwork is a great way to doublecheck I haven't missed anything or mis-booked anything (I have been known to mistakenly book a hotel for a wrong date!) since I do my own bookings.

Anyway, on the craft front, I finished my little Japanese redwork zipper pouch.  This apparently simple pouch turned out to be a bit difficult.  The patches on the front, which I had assumed were all the same width, are in fact all tapered, in addition to having curved top and bottom seams.  So I had to dust off my very rusty hand-piecing skills and trace individual templates for every piece then hand stitch the two panels together.

I could do some of the main assembly by machine including adding the narrow piping, then the bias binding finishes and the zip had to be done by hand.  But I'm fairly pleased with how it's turned out, it's cute and looks like the picture.

 

While working on the redwork pouch, I came across a video tutorial, possibly Korean, for a canister-shaped pouch with similar assembly methods. I realised that I could adapt it to feature my embroidered houses panel that I had just finished.  So I've been working on that the last few days.  This is the side piece of the canister with the zip installed.  Again, there is a lot of hand work to do the finishing work, which is enjoyable to do in front of the telly.

I've quilted my Primrose Cottage tablerunner in a crosshatch pattern, so I just need to bind it now.  And I'm almost finished quilting on the longarm frame my Lori Holt My Happy Place quilt - I just need to stitch the borders. I'd like to get it done and off the frame before I go.

We went to visit DS and his girlfriend yesterday, and at their request I took along 7 or 8 quilts for them to look at in case they wanted any of them.  They surprised me by asking for four of them: two smaller ones including my Spoondrift BOM by Janet Clare, and a Stack'n'whack kaleidoscope design by Beth Reynolds, and two bedsize quilts including the supposedly 'Easy Stars' quilt and the big William Morris gridded squares quilt I made several years ago.  His girlfriend doesn't come from a quilting or crafting family, but has embraced the idea of wrapping in quilts for warmth while working at the desk, watching TV, on the bed etc.  DS of course was brought up right :)  It felt good to pass them on to a good home and see them right away being enjoyed and used.