Delicious Omiyagi

So tonight was Kaiwa club - a local Japanese conversation group. A member had just been to Japan and brought back traditional omiyage (souvenirs) which is almost always local specialty food. Over the years we have had fancy rice cracker and wasabi flavored things, but my favorite is the mochi daifuku. Usually it is a sweet red bean paste covered in mochi - rice pounded to a fine squishy mass. I can buy some locally, even a variety with marshmallow filling in with the adzuki beans, but these were the best type ever... white chocolate filling! Creamy, buttery sweet goodness in squishy mochi shell - umai! So if anyone knows where to get these locally I am searching...

Nan Desu Kan 2009

I went to my first Anime Convention yesterday, the fabulous Nan Desu Kan! I decided to go on short notice, so I didn't have a real costume. I pulled out the fabulous kimono I got at Toji temple in Kyoto, I hadn't had an excuse to wear it before! Why am I smiling like an über-dork? Because I'm having a great time! We met up with the boys family and good times were had by all...

Any one who thinks craft is dead, has never met a cos-player. There is nothing simple nor storebought about this amazing pieces. A life size (like 7 1/2 foot tall) Tauren and... well I don't know who that other guy is, but it's awseome. Time, dedication, and the willingness to wear a really hot costume to a public place and pose for photos.

Some went for the very authentic and simple fare, well done and sleek.
Others chose more elaborate characters, no less classy mind you. I don't know who these folks came as either, in fact I reconized like 25% of the costumes, I'm not an anime addict. Not that the outfits were less interesting because I didn't recognize them!

Even the littlest got into it! Isn't she like the cutest thing in the world! Having cool crafty parents is so great. Start 'em young and who knows what they'll do when they've gotten old enough to drive themselves! I hope she's learning about the sewing machine as well as the anime...

Wierdos abound, I have no idea what's going on, but the Boba Fett guy had Captain America's shield... And poor Deadpool... who knows?

Then there are the group costumes... Link in many forms! Notice that black link does what black link does best... meld into the shadows! Good for adventuring, not for photos. I am considering the epic knitting challenge from the Zelda group on Ravelry, an entire link cosplay outfit, knit, and handspun for that rustic realism.

Or I could try to make some change...

Dragon Boat Festival

This weekend was busy for me, After the farmers market I spent Sunday afternoon at the Dragon Boat Festival at Sloan's Lake.
Dragon boat racing is actually considered a real sport in Asia with totally competitive teams and tournaments and the like. It dates back more than 2000 years and it's creation story involves the death of a chinese poet. Humble beginnings. The two ladies in front are beating out a rhythm on the drum for the paddlers to follow.

But this is also an Asian cultural fest. Here we have a Thai woman bringing the internet to life as she practices an ancient art form. Must be nice having beautiful ladies bring you delicately carved fruit all day... oh to be king of Siam.

The theme this year was Hawaii to celebrate 50 years of statehood as our foreign-country-that-you-don't-need-a-passport-for. With traditional dance and music.
And these awesome traditional costumes. Best thing about "Asian-American" fest? White kids get to play too!
The finale of the evening was the Mudras Dance ensamble, Indian style and music, fabulous bright shimmering costumes, like a Bollywood Movie with out the cumbersome plot. These dancers were truly great, and the only small time dance group I've ever seen where everyone was smiling... really enjoying themselves dancing! The guy on the side of the stage is a Taiko drummer who joined them for the number, cultural exchange and all that...
Then the Taiko group got their spotlight, full of energy and loud! The group is all young, mostly san and yonsei (third and forth generation abroad) Japanese. There's even two girls! EIYA!
It rained and was windy, but a good time nonetheless. Still haven't tried a Boba tea though...

Out of the Kiln and into The Farmers Market

I got two sets of ceramics out of the kiln Friday night, just in time to go to the Longmont Farmers Market yesterday morning. Both had been mostly finished, the outsides done, for some time. But the lovely textured lavender glaze I wanted to use was out of stock...for months!

Boy am I glad I waited! Many times I thought about using a plain-jane low fire purple, but I finally want down to Mile Hi Ceramics and got Texture Plum. Wow!!!




The depth and cascade is just amazing. The color is perfect for the images outside ( the indigo around the rim was supposed to be a medium purple, but it burned out a little). These bowls will be for sale in Pink's Pots tomorrow. And can you believe it's the same glaze on the cups? I cheated a little, there's color underneath the glaze...
When I glazed these the first time, I grabbed a jar of what claimed to be Texture Lavender. Turns out someone filled it with black slip and didn't remove the label. Oops. At least the slip is matte and takes glaze over it easily.
These are another set of the four seasons, wisteria for winter, plum for spring, iris for summer and thistle for fall. I was working out of my book of kimono patterns, and I have several more sets of cups planned. These sold at the fair (good thing I took a picture first!) and now have a happy home with a lovely lady from Longmont.

I also brought out my big platters for the first time. I had been puzzling over how to display them, until I found some book stands intended for large books. My mother hated using them since they were prone to tippage, but a little tweak on the chain length and they were quite sturdy. Besides, I like to live dangerously!

These platters are made from micacious clay, that is it has mica in it. It makes it a crumbly pain in the ass to work with, but it sparkles just slightly! (I'm a sucker for sparkly.) They're about 2 feet across and 3" deep, carved in relief and glazed. Both are Hiroshige images (what else?) of lovely Japanese women. I have enough clay for one more, I think it will be a lady with a lute...

This show I had a six foot table instead of a 5 foot, and a square card table for ceramics. I also went out and bought a folding camp table, and filled it up right away. I'm starting to have waaaay too much inventory, but you can't stop the creative juices.!

Over all it was a good show, not super hot, and as usual I met lot's of cool people. Plus! 15 lbs. of bruised peaches for $12. Preserves lesson to come...

Pets in Japan

Today at Kaiwa Club (Japanese Conversation Group) we went through a vocab list about pets, and of course has to discuss the cultural significance of the words. Like, they have a verb - mudaboe suru - Which means "Barking at nothing". Useful yes?

And some words of course translate, but aren't really the same. Like -petto hoteru- literally pet hotel, but somewhat more pampered than a boarding kennel. It seems in fact that people going on trips will board their cats instead of just putting out an extra bowl of food. And other non -kaimeshi- (owners) will come and pay to walk someone elses dog for the excercise...

Then we have places like the neko cafes where people pay to drink coffee in a place with cats just hanging around waiting to be petted. Kawaii Kitties are a hot commodity in a nation with small homes and few yards. I admit I was tempted to go to one in Sunshine City since it had been so long without my kitty!

The most popular pet among teen-age boys in Japan? The Kabutomushi, or Japanese Rhino beetle
You can make them battle with each other, a little like pokémon. No, nothing at all like pokémon.

My Day in the Suicide Forest

I recently came across this article on CNN About suicides in Japan and the Aokigahara Forest near Mt Fuji. It is a popular place, as not only is it considered sacred, but it is truly deserted. The forest sits on a lava flow and the rolling ground made of porous and crumbling lava rock. The trees grow over the top of the rocks and the leaf litter hides huge holes. It's eerily silent. The sound of a distant highway is the only indication of direction, no streams, no slope, easy to see how one could dissipear in to these woods.
In August 2005 I went to Japan for the world's fair with some camp friends. We putzed around the countryside and ended up at a small camping joint near Mt Fuji. We go out exploring and find our way to the "Ice Cave" and "Wind Cave" at the edge of the forest. Both were discovered by people who fell into them, both require buying an entry ticket from an automated machine, and both are packed with a line of Japanese tourist. After descending into to ice cave, and waiting our turn to come back out we decided to pass on the wind cave and walk the scenic paths.
We came upon a sign that much resembles the one pictured, and a faint trail leading off into the woods. My Japanese was not amazing, but I did know the Kanji for "prohibited, stop, no mas etc.", aqnd this sign had several. Several dozen small blue and green plastic strips wound off along the path. so what did we do? Follow them. (I was determined to get arrested, everyone back home expected it.)
We follow the line of plastic strips, some began to branch off from time to time, but the bulk flowed together faded and clinging to the tree roots. after about an hour I suddently notice a very strange thing... an umbrella hanging from a tree branch. Always practical, I take it down and bring it along, it rains a lot in Japan.
Another half hour, the plastic strips are dwindaling, and we come upon another strange thing. An empty backpack, some toiletries, and a pair of shoes; all somewhat faded and weathered. I left those, seemed creepy. At this point we've lost all but the smallest traces of our plastic lead lines, and we're a little worried about getting out of the forest. Then we burst through the bushes into someones back yard, follow the road back to the highway, and have some aisu-curemu at a small shop. Later we found out that we were lucky to not stumble upon a dead body. So travel with Pink if you want to see the things they don't show tourist!!!!!

Kyoto Temples Day 1

For our first day we started at the Kyoto station and began walking. In Kyoto a map or a plan is not really needed to see huge historic Temples. There is literally a sign on every major intersection to point you the right way.
Here is the Higashi-Honganji Temple. This sect of Buddism was founded 700 years ago and the temple dates back almost that long. Next to this hall you can see the metal building covering the main hall while it is restored.
Under the metal building is the largest wooden building in the world. The massive center post were dragged out of the mountains on huge sleds in the dead of winter.   The Gate is also larger then most, considered suitably large to match the Great Founders Hall.

A few blocks away is a Temple of the same sect and founder, built at about the same time. There was appearantly one government grant from the shogunate and the two were fighting for it. This is the Nishi-Honganji,  nishi being west and higashi east. It was also undergoing renovations, both temples are preparing for the 750th anniversary of the birth of Shinrin in 2011.  

It's temples and gates are smaller, but still very nicely detailed.  And the grounds are equally  large and lovely.  


Next we wandered down to the Toji Temple. It is one of the big ones here so the parking lot was stuffed with tour buses and late new years revelers. Lots of small buildings and statues dot the grounds, with many people still selling new years shwag. One  building host several ancient statues that are national treasures (no pics of course). Luck would have we arrived on a day with a flea market in full swing. People had pulled up cars and set up tents, some had vintage (post-war) everyday stuff, newer used clothes, vintage kimonos, antiques, and somewhat historical debris (sword pommels and statues). I picked up an awesome vintage Kimono and Obi for only 25$. There's a slight bias against wearing  used kimono, especially for special occasions. Many used kimono shops are offering bargains of only a few hundred dollars for a set, but nothing was quite this good a deal.

New Year's Visit to the Temple

Now, we in  America love our New Years Eve. The staying up all night, the champagne, the fireworks. But in Japan this is a two week plus affair. The first through third is day to go to the shrine. Though, some people stayed up til midnight at the shrine to eat soba at midnight and hear them ring the bell.We however went to the shrine on the 2nd, it's appearently less crowded then the first. We still stood in a line around the block, and the police were leading us up the stairs to the shrine. This is the most importent time to visit the shrine and ask for luck in the coming year, so not many miss out on it.Up top was a particularily fancy New Year's charm (for lack of a better word). For about a week people have been buying these decorative pieces made of twisted straw, pine branches, oranges and other assorted plant materials and decorative paper. They hang them on the doors and gates of homes and bussinesses, and on the 14th bring them to the shrine and make a donation. Then they make a bonfire out of the whole pile. I love religions that involve making noise and burning stuff.After coming down from the shrine we wade through a street of vendors selling traditional yummies. It is almost required that people buy a box of sweet mochi treats. Mochi is considered lucky to eat for new years, so it is featured in every meal for about a week. Unfortuneately they were not making mochi at that shrine, but it is quite an immpressive show.

Imperial Palace Tokyo

Whew... It's been a few days since the last post... I'm actually back in Denver now, but I'm still catching up on blogging about our trip!  So let's travel through time and space to Dec 29th right outside of Tokyo Station.Here is the Imperial Palace, the historical and current home of the Emperor. It has two moats snaking around it, though now you can drive across the outer one and go straight through the outer park.The area around the park is completely built up, but the park has only a few small buildings that depart for the classic design. It is meticulously pruned and kept, and the buildings are mostly tourist centers restaurants and the like.Despite it's current accessibility, the original fortifications are evident. Against an army of Samurai it would be about the safest location one could find. And these are just the outer walls.The inner walls sport a wider moat and the walls vary from this size, to nearly twice that height! The bridge in the distance, like all the other ones into the inner area, are now fenced and guarded by more mundane security guards. The smaller pines in the public park were pruned sparse and round, in the common style of gardens here. But the older trees looming above the walls have been pruned to hang long and low down over the walls, this one is about 10 years from touching the water!

This is the old Imperial Castle. I believe the imperial family now lives in a more modern western-style mansion. But this is the far more impressive local. The white house is small potatoes in comparison...This guy gets his own (marvelously sculpted) statue because of unfailing baddassery and loyalty to the shogunate. And all the statues in European town squares, the ones with powdered wigs and button up coats on horseback... This guy is going to destroy you. Your musket will fail in the face of such an overwhelming foe. He will eat you for breakfast. Seriously.