Fabric folded into Kanzashi flowers

I've been a busy little bee since coming back from Japan three weeks ago.  I've been making Kanzashi flowers from some of the fabric I bought and they have proved very popular with lots of people buying them.  Here's a peak at what I've done.

I just knew this black fabric would look amazing once made into a flower.  I also bought this fabric in a green colourway but I'll way until Spring to release it.

This cream fabric is great for Autumn and looks stunning worn against black.

The red in this cotton fabric is really rich and the weave of the fabric shows through...maybe not in this photo but it does in real life! 

Love love love this blue flower.  The cotton is quite heavy, like linen.  There's also a pink colourway I bought but I'll wait until Spring to release it.

This owl fabric has been around for a long time but is a favourite and I managed to buy the last lot of it at a store near Shibuya in Tokyo.  There's also a turtle version of this fabric which will hatch soon!

Last but not least here's some Japanese Chirimen fabric which I fell in love with.  The flowers are just as amazing as I hoped they would be.  And I love the the feel of the knobbly, bumpy, silky fabric.

Over the past week I've been folding and cutting these little gems, and today I'll finish them off into necklaces, brooches and hairclips.

Kyoto

Last Sunday I took the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Kyoto.  It took about 2.5 hours and was luxury all the way.  I was very surprised at how smooth it was and for the first time in days I had time to sit and research what I was going to do in Kyoto.  My main goal was to find more vintage kimono and I had heard that Kyoto was THE place to find some treasures as it has a culture of wearing kimono everyday .

I arrived at my hotel in Gion later that afternoon and this is how my room looked.  Where's the bed you say?  In the cupboard of course!  The bed was a futon mattress, like what we had in Tokyo, that was mysteriously there when I got back later that night.  Silly me forgot to take a picture though.

That night I went on a walking tour through Gion which cost 1000 yen, about $12, for 1.5 hours.  It was fantastic and I highly recommend it.  The tour guide, Emi, was very knowledgable about Geiko and Maiko and we were fortunate to see 5 in total. Here's a picture of me on the bridge that was made famous in the movie Memoirs of a Geisha.  But as I explain below there aren't any Geisha in Kyoto.  See the red Kanzashi flower on my dress - I think I wore it just about every day.

Geiko and Maiko and like Geisha in Tokyo but in Gion they are called Geiko and Maiko.  A Geiko is an apprentice aged from 16 years to 20 years.  A Maiko is aged 21 years and up and has completed her five years of training.  Emi told us so much and my head was spinning with all the new information I was learning.  We were asked not approach the Geiko/Maiko as they are working and have a strict schedule.  This picture below is a bit blurry as this Maiko was walking very fast and my iPhone didn't really have time to focus!  You can tell this lady is a young Maiko as she is wearing Kanzashi (fabric flowers) in her hair.  Geiko don't wear Kanzashi....unless they're performing a dance.

As well as Geiko/Maiko stalking watching we walked through the beautiful paved streets of Gion.  There were so many tea houses and restaurants and of course a steady throng of tourists.  Below is a restaurant and I love the decorative 'noren' door curtain that the Japanese use.  I'm going to make one for home from some fabric I bought here.

The photo below shows that this house has 13 Geiko/Maiko residing inside.  I think the top 5 wooden blocks are Geiko and the bottom 8 are apprentice Maiko.  The panel on the right hand side means that this residence is also a tea house.  When I was taking this photo I heard a lot of happy laughter so I'm guessing there was a party inside.

The next day was devoted to vintage kimono shopping.  Emi, the tour guide from the night before, told me where the best place was, so I headed there first thing in the morning.  Unfortunately it didn't open until 11.30am so I had a few hours to waste window shopping.  I found this 'engrish' sign at the front of the store amusing.

This store had so many kimono - must have been a thousand or more - but the prices weren't as good as they were in Tokyo. I bought 4 kimono and posted them home as I didn't want to take them back to Tokyo.

I then visited another three kimono stores which took me the rest of the day but didn't find anymore.  All up a sad day of shopping.  I did, however, find some exquisite Kanzashi.  I stood in front of these for ages admiring their beauty.  The prices - way out of my budget!!  But you get what you pay for and this shop supplies the Geiko/Maiko in the area and they are traditionally made by Kanzashi experts.  The technique has been handed down generation to generation and the craftmanship shows.

Later that night I attended a cultural show at Gion Corner where I saw a traditional tea ceremony (Chado), Japanese harp playing (Koto), a flower arranging demonstration (Kado), some court music (Gaguku), an ancient comic play (Kyogen), Geiko dancing (Kyomai) and a puppet play (Bunraku) that was incredibly realistic even though you could see the men on stage doing the puppeteering.

On the way out of the show I found some more Kanzashi.  The double petal on the large flower looks great and the small flowers are so teeny tiny, the maker must have used tweezers!

Here's a flower similar to what I make but haven't put out for sale as yet.  Instead of being rounded, the petals are pointed.  Expect to see my version of these in the coming months.

My short time in Kyoto came to an end so I took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo, met Anna at our hotel then we were on the train to the airport.  We needed to spend a little bit of leftover yen in our wallets and we found this - a green tea Kit Kat!  Surprisingly good.

The flight from Tokyo departed at 8.30pm and we arrived home at 6.30am.  I was dreading the red eye but managed to sleep about 6 hours.  Home sweet home, here's the sunrise that greeted us as we woke up and flew into Queensland. 

What an amazing trip to Japan.  Can't wait to go back one day!!!

Saturday in Tokyo

Last Saturday was our 3rd day in Tokyo and after an exhaustive two days of fabric shopping we decided to play tourist.  We hired bicycles from our ryokan and rode through the streets of Yanaka.  It was so beautiful, serene and clean!  We watched people sweep the outside of their home to remove any leaves and there was not a spot of rubbish anywhere.  We really could learn at lot from the Japanese.

 

We popped into the local chemist to pick up a few supplies (bandaids for sore feet and hairspray!) and I found these.  Even though I was getting used to face masks I still found them a novelty.

We then went to the supermarket and bought some lunch for later in the day.  The selection of fresh food was amazing!  And the prices were really good too.  On average a lunch like this costs anywhere between 300 and 500 yen which is between about $3.50 to $6.00.

These strawberries were so perfectly shaped and tasted so sweet, I ate them all in one sitting!  

We then rode to Ueno Park and fortunately there were still cherry blossom trees flowering.  Here I am sitting under the trees eating sushi with my red bike and a temple behind me.  This is something I'll remember for a long long time.

We rode around for most of the day and it's truly the best way to see Tokyo.  In the afternoon we went to a local temple and stumbled across a vintage kimono shop - excellent!  I met these ladies inside who didn't speak any English but were happy to pose for a photo for me.  And yes, I bought a kimono - a lovely purple and yellow one.

I also met this young girl dressed in kimono.  In my left hand is a snack of octopus balls.  Yummy but really strong in taste and I could only eat three of the six.  As much as I like seafood, by day three in Tokyo I'd had enough!

When we arrived back at the ryokan later that afternoon, the fabric we had bought the day before had arrived by courier.  You can see that it was way too large for us to get back to the hotel by ourselves!  It was so funny carrying it up the stairs to our room.  Anna had the front half under her arm and I had the back half.  We joked that it was a dead body which it does look like!

On Saturday night we went out  with friends of Anna's to a restaurant which was about a 10 minute bike ride away.  Below is the front of the restaurant and we had a room on the second floor.

There was course after course after course.  The dish I liked the most was this cucumber salad.  At first I didn't know what the meat was - it was quite dense but I couldn't fathom what it was so I asked.  Abalone!!!  So tasty and I'm so lucky to have been able to go to a restaurant with a Japanese family. 

 

When we rode home hours later it was dark and we were a little tipsy from the sake. It was truly a night to remember.

 

Tokyo!

Last week I went to Japan with Anna from Momoko to buy fabric for our labels.  Oh my, it was amazing.  After a 9 hour flight we arrived at Narita Airport and we made our way into the city via a shuttle (photo below) to the subway, then I think another three trains.

We landed at 8.30pm so by the time we got to where we were staying, Ryokan Sawanoyar, it was quite late.  Our room looked so beautiful and cozy.  Comfortable futon beds with soft and fluffy feather doonas were ready for us on traditional Japanese tatami mats.

On our pillows was a beautiful origami crane.  So sweet, welcoming, and typically thoughtful.

The next morning at the Ryokan I was treated to a traditional Japanese breakfast of salmon, white fish (not sure what type exactly!), green tea, a very tasty strawberry, crunchy pickles, miso soup and hot rice. It was so elegantly presented.

It was then time to do what we came to do - go to Fabric Town which is an entire street devoted to fabric!  We shopped till we dropped.   We spent two days going through each shop and selecting what we wanted.   So many beautiful fabrics at great prices. 

There was a lot of cotton to choose from...

Here's some of my fabric being cut up.  The man behind the counter had either an allergy, due to lots of flowers blooming in Tokyo at the moment, or a cold.  At first it was a bit weird seeing the masks on so many people but in the end I got used to it and didn't bat an eyelid.

I also bought some chirimen...which I'm going to start making flowers into asap as this fabric is just so a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

And of course vintage kimono.  I was like a kid in a candy store.  I kept giving the store owner kimono to put aside for me so I could cull.  At the end I took everything I initially chose as it was just too hard to leave any behind.

Here's a sneak peak of one of the kimono I bought.  I love it, it takes my breath away. 

That's a summary of our first two days in Tokyo.  Please keep checking back over the next few days to read more about the rest of our trip.