Home (with my loot)

 After a very long day on Saturday, including a five hour delay in taking off, I finally made it home and went to bed, 24 hours after I had risen. As it turns out, the 3.5 hours I spent sitting on the runway were fortuitous - the entire UK passport machine network had gone down during the day resulting in headline news about the queues at airports, people passing out in line after waiting hours, etc. But by the time I finally arrived though, they had fixed the passport machines and I breezed through. I may even get some compensation for my delay, which would help pay for some of my loot.

Remember, you can click on photos to make them bigger.

This was the loot situation after emptying my suitcases.

It took some time to go through all the bags and packets and impose some order on seven weeks of random collecting.  It's an eclectic mixture to say the least. But before I get to that, here are some pictures of my plane knitting (socks) and my evening knitting (lacy cowl).  And also the quilt blocks that I took to embroider, from a kit I bought in Paducah (still working on these).

I have tried not to photograph things I've already blogged while travelling, and I haven't photographed most of the gifts I brought back for people.

Ghibli chopsticks, a beautiful tea cup and some vegetable cutters for 

adding detail to bento packed lunches

Some of my sumo related purchases: a sumo knitting bag (left), sumo toys from a capsule machine, a postcard of the current Yokuzuna, sumo washi tape, sumo post-its, sumo fabric and a genuine washcloth from a sumo supply store which is exactly what the wrestlers use while they are prepping for fights.

One of the symbols of northern Japan is the Akita Inu dog, so naturally they are featured heavily in every souvenir and gift shop.  I held out for weeks but finally succumbed to a little plushy.

My collection of bag handles for use with my Japanese bagmaking books

Yardage, fat quarters and small collections of Japanese fabric

Stationery: cat and quilt themed plastic folders, sakura post-its, erasers, 'Thank You' sticker seals, parakeet post-its

Furoshiki: Japanese wrapping cloths, and the book on how to tie them

Tenugui: Japanese strips of fabric that can be towels, bandannas, wallhangings etc.

Miscellaneous textiles: hankies (the little haori jacket is also a hankie, printed and folded really cleverly - I don't dare unfold it as I will never get it to look the same again), a bag and scarf from kimono fabric that I was given, some coasters from kimono fabric, a sumo washcloth that should have been in the sumo picture.

Above and below: the mat and tissue cover made from obi fabric that I bought

Various dollshouse stuff: random 1:12 toilet and cupboard from a discount store, miniature drum keychains, miniature school child's backpack, miniature kokeshi doll, tiny Daruma figurine, stickers that look like tiles, a handmade bento box of character sushi, a resin kit to make three desserts which I think may be too big for 1:12 scale.

These are the handmade kokeshi dolls I bought in Naruko Onsen: the shortest one is
about three inches high

These are the two wall hangings I bought from the historic washi paper shop in Tokyo, both printed on washi paper and highlighted with gold.  The pink one is for me, and the storks are for my sister-in-law.

I'm gradually trying to put things away. I'm still feeling quite stunned most of the time from jetlag, and for some reason waking up at 5am every day.  DH had kept the garden alive by watering but it was otherwise untouched, so not surprisingly had grown into a jungle.  We spent a couple of hours yesterday hacking back the overgrowth on hedges, trees, perennials etc.  but there are still hours of weeding, staking, tying in, pruning etc. to do. I have a long 'To Do' list of things to catch up on, mostly boring things like renewing the caravan insurance and getting the windows cleaned. I'm trying to remember how to cook.  It seems really strange to have a house again, instead of just a hotel room, and to have so much space. I still feel like I should put a face mask on whenever I go into a shop or building, after weeks of wearing one. I transferred my trip photos from my laptop to my PC, which counted them for me: 4,152 photos.  What do I even do with that many photos?  I'm sure I can trim down a lot of duplicates and duds, but it will likely still be thousands. Usually I make a scrapbook after a trip, but this would be an Encyclopedia. People want to see some photos from my trip - I need to try to make a shortlist of 30 or so highlights somehow, so that I don't put them into a coma.  Wish me luck.

All good things come to an end - Japan 26 May 2023

 My last week has gone by and soon I'm off home. I went to Kamakura on Tuesday in the pouring rain, a seaside town famous for its many scenic temples and shrines and also a giant Buddha statue.  Even in the rain there were so many wonderful things to see. It's quite a touristy place (for Japanese and foreigners) so lots of tourist shops. I went in a few and acquired some more tourist tat to take home.

A christmas tree ornament

some fun Japan-themed erasers

Some cool stickers for my laptop from a branch of B-Side Label, a brand

that creates a lot of original sticker art

Wednesday was a pottering around day, visiting a few things I missed the first week I was in Tokyo, like Gotokuji Temple, Tokyo's 'lucky cat' temple and the birthplace of the lucky cat legend. People can buy lucky cat figurines and write prayers on them and leave them on display, the massed cats of all sizes are very eyecatching.

I also tried the Japan Folk Craft Museum but wasn't impressed, it was expensive to get in, it's small, the minimalist labels are only in Japanese and the English guide sheet is useless. It sounds like it was founded on similar principles to the Arts & Crafts movement, and has displays of pottery, lacquer ware, some ikat weaving and so forth - but the kind of thing that doesn't look like much if you don't have specialist knowledge on the subject.

In the evening I was wandering around the department store near my hotel, just enjoying the displays and cultural differences, when I ended up back in the Yuzawaya department that I visited the first week. This time I found a set of tatting picot gauges which seems like a handy thing to have. When I was trying out needletatting last year, my uneven picots really ruined the look.

I also stumbled across a department with racks of colourful kimono, not sure if they were selling

them, or hiring them out

Thursday was sumo day but as I wasn't planning to enter the arena until noon, I had time in the morning to pop over to Sakura Horikiri, the craft shop I visited in 2016 and bought a couple of fabric picture kits of Japanese scenes - the kind where you push fabric into slits cut into foam to make a picture.  They have expanded their range and as well as all the cute fabric picture kits, they now do an extensive range of decoupage papers, cartonnage (decorated with paper not fabric), keyrings and small ornaments, wood marquetry and fabric marquetry.  The staff are really friendly and helpful. I ended up buying several little kits which I have made room for in my suitcase by discarding some more clothes.

shop displays at the entrance

My purchases: a couple of Japanese themed scenes, some sumo wrestler ornaments,

and a branch of colourful parakeets/budgies (I don't know what the difference is)

Nearby was a three-floor branch of The Parts Club, a comprehensive jewellery making supply store for the hobbyist - I get the impression it is a popular hobby here.  I don't make jewellery but I was able to get a Santa and some snowflakes for my Christmas porch  dollshouse scene, and some delicate filigrees and a fan which might work for my Japanese dollshouse.

The sumo tournament was very exciting, and I was there early enough to have a good exploration around the arena, visit the surprisingly underwhelming souvenir stalls, watch some of the big name wrestlers arriving from their taxis, and then watched all the senior division matches.  Apart from wasting some money on some sumo-tat capsule machines, the only thing I bought were these silly sumo tea bags, that will look as though the wrestler is reclining in your tea cup.  What can I say, it made me smile.

So my bags are all packed up, and fingers crossed that I don't attract any attention entering the country with all my swag.  I'll do a swag post once I get home, it will be enlightening for me as well since I don't remember half the stuff I acquired seven weeks ago when I first got here. It's going to be strange to be home, in my own bed, not living out of a suitcase, and being able to buy gluten-free food easily.  I can promise that I don't want to eat any more rice or fish for at least several weeks! 

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.

On the road again - Japan 14 May

 School is over! I survived! It was a bit sad at the end, when everyone was saying goodbye and various people were leaving over a couple of days. We also had a couple of meals out, and a small graduation ceremony to mark the occasion. Some people have to go home almost right away for work, others had some more time for travel, and a few people were planning to stay as long as another two months.  I've got another couple of weeks, so I'm back on the road again. I had wondered how I was going to feel after four weeks of constant company and semi-torpor, but it feels good to be exploring again. I'm also using more Japanese since I'm not surrounded by people speaking English all day.

Before I left, the woman who sews items out of recycled obi brought in a bunch of her sale items, including gorgeous runners, bags, pouches, tissue boxes etc. Sorry about the glare from the plastic. Of course I bought a runner and a tissue box, the fabrics are so gorgeous.

Yesterday I came down to Kakunodate, an old samurai town, on a cute little one-carriage scenic train that felt right out of a Ghibli film.

The ride was two hours long and incredibly scenic, coming down through northern Japan past flooded rice fields, mountains covered in green forest, rushing rivers and streams, old and new houses, big and small towns - I really enjoyed it.  When I arrived, I saw an example of a former local craft in the tourist information office, and subsequently saw many more examples today in the various samurai homes and their museums.

I don't know the Japanese word for it but the translation is 'relief painting'. They are fabric sculptures fashioned to look 3D but really they are less than 1cm thick.  Apparently it started as a court pastime amongst court ladies in the Edo period and then spread wider, and was very popular in the samurai town of Kakunodate.  It starts with an outline or a painting of the figure done by an artist (see above).  Then each component is cut in cardboard, which is covered in fabric, but padding is inserted between the fabric and cardboard. Finally, it's back to the artist who paints in the facial features and other details. Most of the figures I saw were 12-15 inches high, and were incredibly detailed. 3D effects like fabric pleating or armour were most realistically rendered.

In one of the house museums, there was a beautiful collection of kimono on display. Google Translate suggests they are all wedding kimono but I'm not sure if that's true.

You may heard of the thick padded 'sleeping kimono' used in the winters in the past, like an olden days version of a sleeping bag. I saw one of those as well, in coarse indigo dyed cloth.

Another famous regional craft done by the samurai since 200 years ago was fashioning items decorated with cherry tree bark veneer - the craft is called Kabazaiko.  It is still done today, and there is a cherry bark museum here in Kakunodate where an elderly craftsman was busy glueing polished bark to decorate containers.  The shops are full of decorative items veneered in cherry bark - the bark can have many different patterns and colours depending on when it is harvested.  And the museums had many antique examples including furniture.  I bought a little brooch at one shop, inlaid with lighter bark to look like a cherry blossom.

A rural offshoot craft was called (I think) 'itaya' which started around the end of the 18thC as a way for farming families to earn extra money. It is weaving various items out of strips cut from young maple trees.  One of the samurai houses had a little workshop with a woman making various items. I bought a little woven pincushion from her. She said the fabric is a traditional woven fabric typical of Fukushima.

Depite having spilled out of both my suitcases, I continue to be seduced by fabric. I am surrounded by temptation, so many shops are displaying fabric wallhangings, and wrapping cloths, and hand towels, hankies, bags, etc etc.

a shop in an old house, with typical fabric wall hangings on display.

a little thread-wrapped temari ornament I bought for the christmas tree

a cat hankie, and two wall hangings that are coming home with me

a modern tablecloth featuring Japanese motifs.

Fans sewn from kimono fabric - wouldn't this idea make a gorgeous Dresden Fan quilt?

I've seen very few miniatures, mostly just expensive key chains, because dollshouses are not a common hobby here. This  c 1/24 model samurai house complete with water wheel was on sale for 43,000 yen in a gift shop which is about 275 pounds, and was a bit crude in scale.

An old merchants house was displaying miniature kimonos on stands in their front tatami room.

In the afternoon I had a walk along the stunning Dakigaeri Gorge, with hawaiian blue river water and a magnificent waterfall at the end.  Altogether I took about 250 photos today and I'm a bit tired, ha ha ha.