Bits and pieces

The  man hole covers are really fancy but this one is my favorite.

Firemen!

 More firemen.

The most gas stations in Tokyo have pumps like the US but this company has pumps hanging from the ceiling. The attendants pump gas as well as wash and vacuum your car.

We’ve seen these go carts a couple of times, driving them seems to require a costume.

Fabulous obi made of zippers

Etiquette for foreign tourist.

This is my favorite- at the sushi restaurant there were faucets dispensing 

hot water and powdered tea to make your own.

Temples and temples

We’ve been really lucky with the weather. Hardly any rain. Today was cold and blustery but the sun was out. Perfect weather to visit 2 temples/shrines. The first was the golden temple.

Full of school groups dressed in traditional garb or school uniforms. This bunch was from Hiroshima.

The second shrine is a must visit for tourist and was packed with people. It reminded me of Mont St. Michel in France. The walk up from the parking lot was lined with souvenir shops and food stalls.

Our tour guide said the Asian visitors were from China.

This is an iconic view and miraculously without people.

This is one of the temple mascots.

We did a batik workshop using wax and indigo dye.

First we traced the pattern with wax .

Then it’s dipped in the dye, rinsed and boiled to get the wax out.

The finished product. Her apron has the same bamboo pattern. I’m very pleased 

with mine. It’s going in the kitchen doorway.

We visited the house of Yoshiko Jinzenji who is a world renown quilter.  Her works are displayed worldwide.Her students served us tea and cookies while we viewed the quilts. She dyed her own fabrics and even designed a commercially printed fabric when she had a studio in Bali. She focuses on simple modern quilts.

She has retired from quilting and has built a house called the kitchen house up a mountain.

Here is an article about it.

Https://blog.theappollobox.com/2019/10/16/yoshiko-jinzenji-76-year-old-Japanese-quilt-artist-built-her-own-4300-square-feet-kitchen-house/

We visited Aizenkobo and learned about the history of indigo dying. Indigo dye is fire resistant and was uses by firemen after wetting it. Since so many of Japan’s older buildings were made of wood fire was a big issue.

Deborah Dubois tried on the firefighter's suit. 

Then onto Nishiki Food Market where there were a million food stalls.

I bought these okonomiyaki thick roundish pancake made with rice, 

vegetables and seafood. Really good. 

Chopstick holders

Preserved vegetables

Assorted cooked foods 

Fish in a stick

Dried fish

Octopus

We also visited a hand made needle shop didn’t buy any, you wouldn’t want to loose one of those, too expensive.

Food

I love Japanese food and have not been disappointed. We have had great breakfast buffets at the hotels. Big variety of foods. My favorite has been the mini pain au chocolates. Breakfast dessert. I love these plates with 9 pockets for your various selections, I feel like I’m getting a good variety of vegetables and protein.

We made our own sushi as part of our lunch one day.

I think mine looks professional. We had lots of other stuff as well.

We’ve had several fancy multi course dinners

And a ton-katsu dinner where you could select locally produced pork or pork bred somewhere else and “finished” in Japan. Probably from China. 

It came with a mortar and pestle full of sesame seeds that you ground up 

and added either traditional or spicy ton-katsu sauce. 

It was pretty yummy.

Though I am pretty impressed with the options available at 7 eleven

Imari sushi, veggie sticks and rice and salmon wrapped in sea weed.

Pork bun, vegetable and octopus salad and the big beer.

Or the Bento boxes available at the train station

Rice with fish, egg, tiny shrimp, spinach and mushrooms eaten on the train.

Crafty things

We are on a textile tour so we have done a couple of workshops. The first one was a stencil which was a lot of fun and not too challenging. The colors are great.  We had a Dutch instructor who had been teaching English to high school kids but thought this was way more fun.

A real live wire.

Here is my room mate Arline working hard.

The finished product.

The second workshop was a shibori tie dye workshop. This one gets mailed to us after it is dyed.

I have a new appreciation for those people who tie all those knots.

All knotted up

This is what the final product will look like. I picked dark blue.

This is what the real stuff looks like.

Arimatsu, the  town where we did the workshop is a couple of hours from Kyoto by bus. It is full of old buildings which were very attractive, what I think Japan should look like.

This is a 200 hundred year old building

With a beautiful garden 

Phone booth

Many buildings have these stepped shudders to keep out fires. They are closed and sealed with mud. Go figure.

This is the cover for the fire hydrant.