Tokyo Sightseeing

It has been almost a year since my last post about my trip to Japan in 2017. I will continue to work my way through the trip but I can't guarantee how long it will take as life does have a habit of taking over.  I hope to visit Japan again in the next couple of years and having a record or where I visited will help me plan the trip.

After the excitement of visiting Shizuka Kusano Studio, it was time for some sightseeing. Our energetic tour guide for the whole trip was Keiko and we soon got used to looking out for her multi-coloured flag. 

The first stop was Hamarikyu Gardens. A landscape garden right in the middle of Tokyo, surrounded by skyscrapers. Gardeners were busy pruning many of the trees. I don't know if trees this size can be classified as bonsais, but they get the same level of attention.

Then there was the opportunity to have matcha, the traditional tea. We didn't have a full tea ceremony, which was a shame, but the matcha did come with exquisite sweets. 

 The next stop was Sensoji temple, which is Tokyo's oldest temple. It is a very popular tourist spot.

I was drawn to paintings on the ceiling inside the main hall and particularly the dragon panel. I wish I had taken more photos now.

The main entrance to the temple is the Thunder gate which features a large paper lantern.

 The street beyond the Thunder Gate was lined with souvenir  shops as well as restaurants, with the ubiquitous realistic plastic food advertising the menu options.

I also found the first fabric shop of the trip displaying some lovely shibori kimono fabrics. After that it was back to the hotel and our first full day was complete.

 

The next morning the official itinerary was a visit to the National museum followed by a trip to Nippori fabric town. Some of the ladies in the group headed off to the Amuse Museum, which specialises in Japanese textile culture. I chose to stick with the official itinerary  but if I mange to get back to Japan, the Amuse Museum will definitely be on my todo list. Although just in the last few days I have heard the Amuse Museum will be closing soon and relocating to somewhere else in Japan.

The highlight of the National Museum had to be the kimono collection . I have to apologise for the quality of these photos. The kimonos were behind glass and it was difficult to take pictures. I am convinced the kimono in the photo above was not hung up at the ridiculous angle it seems to be in my photo.

The embroidery on the kimonos was gorgeous and there were nice examples of shibori as well.

On this this yellow and blue kimono I recognised the blister effect I learned in "Bouquet from the Heart of Japan".

Of course there was also the round and round couching which I did more a little of for "Butterfly Panel". I think this example must be outside in because the variance in shape.

The design subjects were familiar as well. This black kimono reminded me of the new JEC design Genjiko

Genjiko is described as a fragrance identification game based on the Tale of Genji, where each fragrance relates to a chapter in the book.

The collection also included colourful Noh theatre costumes.

Then it was off to Nippori Fabric town, the fabric shopping district in Tokyo. This is somewhere I definitely plan to visit again. We only had one and a half hours in Nippori before we needed to catch the train back to our hotel. I was prepared that this would not be a long trip, so I did not plan to buy much and treated the time as preparation for a future visit.

The main purchase of my trip was fabric for a JE friend's son who has a business called Creations of Curiosity, making accessories out of comic themed fabric. I decided my best approach for this was to head to one of Tomato's shop and show the staff pictures of the fabric I was looking for. It worked well and I found a couple of shelves of suitable fabric.

I wasn't a complete martyr. I did buy myself some bargains from the remnant basket. Two 1.7 m pieces of fabric for ~750 yen each. Both pieces were big enough to make into bags for Japanese Embroidery frames. I have to confess, I didn't make them myself but commissioned Creations of Curiosity to make them for me instead.

There was enough spare for a frame cover, which I did make myself.

Once our time in Nippori was over, we headed off to Tokyo train station to catch the bullet train to Kyoto.

On the platform the train departure sign alternated between Japanese and English.

I was fascinated by the pit crew of ladies in pink uniforms and men in blue uniforms, ready and waiting when the train arrived, so that each carriage could be serviced in a super speedy time.

I had the get the essential photo of Mount Fuji from the train. Maybe on a future visit I will get a chance to see it close up.

Peacock Bauble

This must be some kind of record. I finished my first project of 2019 at lunchtime on New Year's Day. Although in reality it is more of a late finish for Christmas than an early finish for the New Year. I enjoyed making the Dragon Bauble kit so much last year, I made a beeline to the Spellbound Bead stand at the Ally Pally Knitting and Stitching show, to buy their new Peacock kit. I was warned it would take a bit longer than the Dragon kit. It turned out to be true because I started both kits at the beginning of December. While the dragon was completed just in time for last Christmas, the peacock was still coming together on Christmas Day this year. 

There were some parts  I ended up redoing due to silly mistakes - the floral motif at the front of the net was done 3 times. It was the thorax that gave me the most trouble. If I followed the instructions I ended up with too much thread in the covered bead to pass the supporting wire through. After several attempts I came up with an alternative method which required fewer thread passes through the central bead. It looks a bit more organic that the original version but it does the job.

The tail is my favourite part. It used similar techniques to the Emperor Bauble It was however another reason for the slow progress. When I do these bauble kits I leaves the threads on as long as I can in case they are needed to attach later components. It is much easier to do this than start a new thread. But the loose threads were forever getting caught on the tail feathers - another exercise in patience.

I also bough the Vela Star kit at Ally Pally. This was a much quicker kit to do and I was able to make one star for my parent's tree and one star for my tree before I embarking on the great peacock adventure.

Like last year we had two trees in the house. The girls made a beautiful job of the family Christmas tree in a gold and white colour way. It went very well in out newly decorated playroom.

My resolution last year was to "Create a sacred space" by tidying something every day. I can't say that I achieved that but at least the playroom  looks better than last year. I will admit that was due to Graeme's efforts rather than mine. So I will continue trying to get on top of the clutter in 2019.

I am also going to challenge myself to get out of various ruts. Work was very busy last year, particularly in the first 6 months and I gave myself lots of free passes. I didn't exercise as regularly as I should and the weekly menu became very routine. I have already started addressing the exercise part. I started going to a Zumba class just before Christmas and am taking advantage of a small yoga studio which open on the High Street in town. The weekly menu is going to take a bit more effort because my family quite like the routine. Fortunately as none of them read my blog, they don't know what is heading their way!