Day 10, Saturday 19th October

Well, now I am my own boss again, I will have a chance to catch up with you all! It has been so hectic, you wouldn’t believe. What with normal getting up and munching something for breakfast, dashing to Haitopia, 5 storey building which is venue for conference, not far away, but you still have to get there and not be late!, then lecture immediately followed by class, lunch, class and pause for breath after 4pm. Can’t relax as something else scheduled ...bazaar, lecture or social. Don’t forget you have to eat, especially if the lunch or Japanese breaka not your thing!  Thank goodness for the bakery!  Then when back at your hotel, dealing with technology enough to drain the brain, backup photos, charge everything including self (Japanese whisky not bad with lemonade!).....and then you get homework!! After that you might need to talk to folks back home or read emails to keep up with life at home. Next....thing Uk news....then typhoon continuing issues especially when it rains again as northern Japan still suffering landslides etc. Is where I am going next ok...and after that?  So if you are still awake, you do your blog - and then you get more technical issues, tear your hair out and go to bed!

That has been life for the last 5 days! Now I also have to say it has been brilliant - to meet fellow Braiders from all around the world, Japan, UK, USA, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Israel, India,Australia, South Africa to mention those countries I remember spotting!  The classes did suffer from the effects of the typhoon, but substitutes were found and you may not have done what was advertised, but you still had teachers of repute to take your class.  Nobody knew that Hagibis was going to visit our conference - and she, he or it didn’t even bring any samples to show and tell!

Our conference ended in a splendid farewell party. We all had to wait outside the hall and were a little inquisitive...what is happening?  Well, what a treat when suddenly the doors opened and we filed in to the accompaniment of a Japanese drum troup. Loud, you could feel it thro the vibrations in the floor. I loved it...then a few speeches and then Kanpai! time to down your sake!  Not my favourite, but not bad. It was served in little pottery tumblers made of the local Iga pottery.

Food and mingling followed! Returned to hotel slightly fuzzy headed, red wine and sake, along with not overly much to eat as there was lots of prawns and other stuff I don’t eat! Was some lovely Iga beef though, just not enough of it!  Salads are very good and I hadn’t realised that you ciuld do so much with sweet potatoes! Getting better with the chopsticks, but the last little bit is always a challenge! I think the Japanese are so thin as it takes so long to eT anything.  They also love fried stuff or very sweet things....but protein is always in small portions!

So here is the local mayor- a jolly chap who seemed to enter into the spirit of things. This time he arrived In his Ninja gear!

Some of the buffet lunch dishes...

President of Japanese Kumihimo Society, Hirosawa sensei,  he also has some other title which escapes me at present! He told us he didn’t expect to make a speech so he would make it up! As it was in Japanese then being translated he could have been listing his next weeks shopping list for all I know!  Hirosawa-sensei is the reason we were all in Iga  as well as being a master craftsman

Even dog statues  sport ninja- gear!

Ninja park and in case you didn’t guess, it’s a shrine! 

This weekend the locals celebrate the end of harvest with the Daijiri festival. Sadly it rained this morning and the festival processions were cancelled. Hopefully they will take plac3 tomorrow, but I will be on my way to Kanazawa on the west coast of Japan (well north east to south west coast!

Ninja are everywhere

Don’t know if video work for you!

Hirosawa  invited us all to his home and studio where he demonstrated how silk was reeled and made into the warps that we all lust after. He also demonstrated his agility as well as the takadai!

People amassed for the Daijiri procession and all the side stalls. Many were food but there were also side shows like we have at a fun fair.

One of Basho’s haiku (sorry about spelling!), on a plaque ....

Shrine to the Fox god

Ghost ride or walk...

Sweet stalls..

Toys...

And at last, one of the traditional old carts that normally are pulled through the streets, this like all the others was parked near to where it is stored so that it could be protected if it rains again.  After a wet start, the day was sunny and hot but by early evening the air was wet aNd rain felt imminent.  It is so humidity!

To recap, Pat Hart and I spent the day together today. Lovely to have some company and it turned out that we had similar ideas etc!  We went to the Ninja museum and show, the Kumihimo shop, in case we hadn’t bought enough for our stashes, then brief stop for a drink and cheesecake (Oishi! - delicious. Then we toured the streets looking at all the stalls and what carts we could find! We just had to sample some food as time was getting on and Pat was leaving for Kyoto at 8pm. We dined al fresco Japanese festival style. 

This was the classroom at Kumihimo school

A shop window...

A print we both liked in a shop window

This is all braid!

Steam punk samurai!

Ninja museum guide throwing stars

Part of the embroidery on one of the carts...

Kumihimo frogs....just for you Ruth, but sadly far too expensive!

Father and son at the shrine for the cow/bull

Closer look at top of a cart

Colourful stalls

Interesting geographical information outside a booze shop! Could be useful if you were lost!

Miniature carts - all 9 from various sectors of the town.

Material shop where we both spent,

Another cart but in it’s ‘garage’!

Pat and I had Iga beef skewer followed after short walk by bbq’d sweetcorn and  a bit later a bag of chips!  Not at all bad ...apart from calorie intake but as both of us will be doing a lot of suitcase moving,walking with bags etc etc, we thought we deserved a treat.  Earlier in the day I discovered that Pat likes ice cream nearly as much as me, I still prefer the orange but she opted for strawberry! Hopefully as she continues her trip she will try many more flavours!

Thanks for a lovely day, Pat!

And now my dear readers I must sign out as the clock is ticking and the glass was emptied some time ago. Now a final cuppa and some shut eye as have to be at bus stop for trip to Nagoya for 8.57 a.m.

TTFN

Day 8, Thursday 17th October

Just a general view from my walk the other day, back entry to the station.

 Raccoon figure holding bottle of Sakae, almost like a good luck omen!

 Sculpture of Ramses III, not perhaps his best side!

Looking out to the countryside from inside Minho.

Butterfly haven on the walk from hotel to Haitopia building

View from inside Minho museum showing the architecture.

Posters for upcoming Daijin festival

View of some of us waiting for the bus at Minho, to take us on our way. Note the umbrellas!

 Another manhole cover for your collection.,

Ninja statue quietly minding his business! He stands guard by the car park near to Haitopia building, venue for conference.  Sorry folks, that will have to be all for tonight as am falling asleep over my iPad!

Will continue tomorrow, final day of the conference. Much as I am enjoying it, the pace is hectic and brain certainly over stimulated! Night night!

Day 6/7 Tuesday & Wednesday15th October

Another technical hitch tonight! Nothing serious, but I had homework to finish from the end of Tuesdays lace class. When I had finished and reached for my I-pad, I realised there was only hotel wifi (abysmally  slow) and my mobile WiFi was like me, exhausted....I had forgotten to plug it in when got back tonight!  Photos will have to wait as I might die of old age while the little bod running round making the power does his best! Hope to be able to do a little before 9am lecture, but no promises!

Tuesday was lace day 2 when we moved onto a mini project.  The lace has to be finished for the construction to take place. Also the block, not pillow, needs to be returned first thing as it is needed for tomorrow’s class.

Terrible photo, this is Reiko  Indagaki or her surname is similar.... going from memory here!  She was my stand-in lace teacher for two days. Original tutor didn’t make it due to typhoon so Reiko stood in for her with about 48 hours notice. Her English was sometimes less than desired, but she was a good teacher, and her own work was lovely. Very much 3D!  We did better the second day as we were following Reiko’s style of work rather than the notes that had been sent by Gil Dye. Think it’s better if you are learning from the horse itself, rather than the monkey riding on its back!  The typhoon had caused everyone lots of problems.,

This was our much described Ninja bento box lunch!   Packaging as usual was excellent and the instructions bade you lift off clear plastic lid , cover with a place and invert.....hey presto your meal awaits! It was good as nothing spicy and I was able to eat about 30% , mainly because I wasn’t over hungry. Lunch was early, felt like I had only just had breakfast!

This was the outside view of our lunch, the idea being that the ninja is hidden and only discovered by those that complete their meal!  It was filling so many of us struggled, even though it was delicious! Broccoli, lotus root, pickled plum, roasted chestnut, egg, squash, mushroom, Japanese potatoes, yam,and I can’t remember what else!

Bazaar time!

On Sunday there was a small market in the square, some interesting bits to see, but also reminders of pals left behind!

This is a strange gadget....can you guess what it is used for? Answer later!

This is Kathy Warner (USA) admiring the hat band of another delegate followed by the maker as the model!

Another sweet tasty morsel of 10, these are sweet potato sticks that’s have been fried then dipped in syrup, sweet and scrumptious!

Wednesday was the day off, and an arranged bus trip into the mountains to the Minho museum, an incredible museum built in 1997. Designed by the same architect as the pyramid at the Louvre, the building was magnificent and the contents were few in number but incredible in their condition and age. Egyptian statues from 3000 years ago or more, also artefacts from Persia, Iran, China and other countries, but sadly we only had an hour and a half. You could have spent the day there! 

Noboru and I posing. She was one of the makers of the gifts I received.

Busy bees on market stall had been needle felted and I thought the stall holder was the maker.However it turned out she bought the felled objects from the makers in Kurdistan (I think that’s right!)

Lovely well felted slippers...

Catching up!

This is the much awaited picture of my room from hotel in Nagoya. I stood in the passageway to take the picture. Not much space in any hotel room unless perhaps you are paying for a suite, but even then you could be disappointed!

This picture sums up how one can feel when you are on holiday, trying to fit lots of things into the day. Taken in Science museum while I stopped for ice ream break!

Ice creams anyone? This was in the Science museum, I had the one in the bottom left....vanilla with toffee swirling through it. Mmmmm....tasty!

This was a picture of the bus driver as we were just leaving Nagoya.....you might just be able to spot his white gloves!

These two pictures are about a minute apart and show the returning calm after the typhoon.

This was breakfast on Monday morning. As you can see it looks delicious....just realised picture is upside down!  Red box has white rice init

 This is a sample of an Iga manhole cover....ninja!

This is a garage or shop shutter....kitty is very popular here...close up too!

Apologies for my somewhat fulsome appearance but the other person is teeny!   All non Japanese delegates received a goodie bag, part of which was a gift from a Japanese delegate. Everyone got something different. We are challenged with finding our friend and having a photograph taken with her. Her names is Nobuko Bessyo and she made the necklace I am wearing. She uses a maradi and disk and currently is learning ayetakadai using one borrowed from her teacher. Luckily her English is good and we plan to stay in touch by email.

To some of you, these might seem disgusting! They are sweet potatoe chips, like crisps but sweet as they are sugar coated....a bit like Frosties!  Very more-ish, photo taken so I can identify them in a shop!