Tokyo Quilt Show 2012 tour

Here are more details and photos about the Tokyo Quilt Show. If enough people are interested I am going to lead a tour to the 2012 Tokyo show. This would be for people who are nervous about going there on their own but who are fairly independent with a minimum number of 6 and maximum of 8.
The itinerary would be something like this...

Fly into Kyoto
5 days Kyoto with day trips to Kurashiki and Nara
Visit Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji and Kiyomizu temples.
Various textile venues including shibori workshops

2-3 days Nagano or Matsumoto
Visit Matsumoto castle, buy fabric in Matsumoto, visit the snow monkeys near Nagano

6 days Tokyo
2 day visits to Tokyo Quilt show
Visit Asakusa temple, Amuse gallery
Visit an antique dealer who deals in antique fabrics.
Fabric shopping and antique kimono exhibitions (depends what is on)

If you are interested let me know and I can send details. Costs would depend on the number of people.

Here are some more photos of quilts from the quilt show to inspire people. They are all from the framed quilt section. Probably they would be in the miniature quilt section in NZ.

Other things of interest in Tokyo in January are the displays of dolls and temari balls. They are leading up to Girl's Day or  Hina-matsuri on the 3rd of March.

The picture below is from an exhibition in Ginza at Matsuya department store (7th floor) . The maker is Aiko Sakai who is 87 years old and has published several books of her designs. We talked to her daughter who was minding the exhibition, her name is Makiko Tada and she has been to Nelson teaching Kumihimo braiding.

There are also displays of Emperor and Empress dolls in many of the department stores.

Tokyo Quilt Show

I managed to miss a week or so, with no access to the internet or limited access via Ipod touch. So this is a catch up. My kids and I flew back to Tokyo where my elder son went missing for three days while he attended 3 Jazz gigs and went to 7 Jazz bars (despite being under age in Japan). His brother tells me that he came home at midnight and was still in bed when I got up.

I caught up with  Chris Kenna from Wellington and the 'Toerags' from Lower Hutt and we went to Tokyo Quilt Show. I first tried to go on the Saturday but after seeing the  queues to get in, went off with my son to the Hakone area (near Mt Fuji) for the day. I finally got to the quilt show on Monday and it was amazing. Although the Japanese quilters are not so hot in the non-traditional 'art quilt' area and some of the machine quilting was pretty bad, the hand applique and hand quilting sections would blow us out of the water. Here are just a few that caught my eye. I'm doing a talk for Cotton On quilters in Wanganui on saturday so will add more photos as I get myself organised.

Here is a picture of the inside of Tokyo Dome with the booths in the middle and the crowds of people. The main people to watch for are the little older ladies. They are a head shorter than me so about 4ft nothing and their elbows are at kidney height. They have no qualms about bulldozing their way through.

Here is the winning quilt - Twelve Days of Christmas' by Osami Gonohe. Most of the day, you couldn't get closer than 4 metres because of the crowds but I stayed till closing time one night so I could get a shot of it without the crowds.

Above is what it normally looked like.

Above is 2nd place winner which was even more amazing in my opinion. Unbelievable points!It is by Emiko Yoshino

But what about this quilt in the Tradtional quilt category which didn't get a prize? The pieces are smaller than my fingernail (don't worry, I'm not touching it, my finger is about a cm away). I'm sorry, the catalogue name is in Japanese.

I think this is based on Ainu decorative work. The Ainu are a tribe from Hokkaido.

This is made using a lot of antique indigo cottons

I think I like the detail even more

This looked like a prizewinner till you see the one that actually won!

 This quilt is incredible - it is - Scherenschnitte (Chris Kenna told me) - like a papercut.  It didn't win a prize!

Centre of the Scherenschnitte quilt. 

There were also a large number of amazing quilts from famous Japanese quilt makers who were invited to show their prizewinning quilts. The one below is called 'Nostalgia' and is by Tsuneko Shimura.

Okinawa City and America Town

I have been searching for information on other things to do from Nago and found this blog for a tour guide, which gave all sorts of useful information about Okinawa which I wish I had known before...http://blog.livedoor.jp/marshcnet/

We spent most of the day on buses and it cost a fortune ( 3 people X NZ$60 return trip by bus). We went from Nago  to Okinawa City first and it took 1hr 15mins, all I can say is 'don't bother'. After over an hour of passing American army bases we got to Okinawa City which seems to have been badly hit by the recession, or maybe it just closes up for the winter. No-one in the tourism ofice spoke any English but we managed to get a timetable for the free bus which does a circuit of Okinawa City. Didn't see any reason to get off the bus but the zoo might have been Ok if the kids had been younger. The zoo is at the stop labelled (on the English timetable) 'Children's Playground'.

I did find some nice pieces of kasuri fabric in the shopping street near Goya bus stop (also opposite tourist information).

From there we went to Mihama/America Village on the other side of the island. Pretty deserted, very American. Complete contrast to Okinawa City. Didn't stay long. No-one in the tourist office spoke English - they had to call Okinawa 2 Go, Tourist information 098-916-6180 who translated the bus information to us which was great except that we were specifically told that our bus (number 120) would not go past the Ryukyu Mura park that we wanted to visit. We were sitting on the bus when we heard it anounced by the onboard bus info system so we hopped off the bus and found it was a lovely place worth visiting. The bus trip up the West coast to Nago was much nicer than the trip down the East Coast past the army bases. That coast is all prettified and covered in resort hotels, nice beaches and cute eateries.

My recommendation for Okinawa? Stay in Naha! If there is more than one of you, hire a car.

Some interesting things

Pucho flavours in Okinawa - from top - mandarin, Pineapple, mystery flavour, a different version of pineapple

 My kids are mad on these chewy sweets called 'Pucho'. They are chewy fruit flavoured sweets with small jelly lumps in them. Everywhere we go we have to go and check out the flavour available in the local convenience stores, because there are different Pucho flavours in different parts of the country.

Appropriately, Okinawa is the only place we have found pineapple flavour and  Shikuwasha flavour (a tpe of orange grown in Okinawa).  We also try to find the local flavour for the chocolate bar -  Kitkat. In Kyoto the flavour is green tea, in Okinawa it is purple yam. The Kitkats here are purple coloured but to me they taste like white chocolate. In Takayama which is north of Kyoto, Kitkats were white bean paste flavour. You can also get red bean flavour and Oolong Tea flavour.

Cigarette warning signs

How does the Guide Dog know where the toilet is?

A big cushy Kokeshi doll

Thigh length furry boots

A very low beam in Matsumoto Castle. Even I had to duck and James could see over the top.

Chiraumi Aquarium, Okinawa

I took the kids to the Aquarium today. It is variously listed as the largest or second largest in the world. My son remembers that the Genova Aquarium in Italy we visited a few years ago listed itself as the second largest in the world as well.

This aquarium is amazing because of the huge Whale Sharks they are breeding. Here is one swimming overhead. It is like a small cruise ship.

There were lots of amazing real fish and then in the grounds some weird flower sculptures including this one.

There were amazing dark clouds, not much rain fell but it is still quite cold and windy.

For those fabricaholics out there, Nago is a fabric wasteland. The only shops of any interest are bakeries and second hand musical instrument shops and both shop types are really only interesting to my kids...

Nago, Okinawa 16/1/11

Er....I don't recommend this place at all. After  a couple of hours walking around we hopped in a taxi and went to 'Pineapple Land' which is what the kids call 'incredibly cheesy'. We rode in a special pineapple car which runs automatically although you can pretend to steer. After the ride in the cart, you get to taste pineapple wine, biscuits, fruit drinks and cake. The food is the best bit, the rest is good for a laugh only.

Pineapple car

Pineapple soft toys

Then we went to Fruits Land. The butterfly house was semi-okay.

The Chrysallis looks like it is made of gold.

At this stage the kids and I are wondering whether we should have stayed in Naha but if the weather improves and the shops open (it is Sunday today) things may improve :-).