[click photos to enlarge]

It was fun to see the sleek bullet trains going in an out of the station but hard to catch a picture. So these are the best I could get.

Kyoto has beautiful shrines and buildings which is what Kyoto is for me. This gate is to a shrine nest to our hotel.

Yoshiko took on a tour of her favorite designers and shops. I did some serious shopping. I need to get money today. Weather is hot but manageable.

We worked all morning to make new patterns. I was surprised I could do it, even though mine were fairly simple and crude. See me working hard to finish a sample to get it into the dye pot.  The photo with 4 patterns is of my accomplishment for Day One. The other two pieces were on Day Two. We visited the Toyota museum in Nagoya in the afternoon. It was heaven! They used to manufacture looms and spinning equipment. Now they make sophisticated power looms. Old and the new were shown and demonstrated. We saw the shuttle-less looms at slow motion. So we could see the rapier actually moving and carrying the wefts. Also in slow motion we saw the water jet method of shooting the wefts. So exciting to see these and other mechanisms up close and in slow motion. A working water wheel worked an old spinning machine! They make big spinning machines, too. All the old and looms as they progressed were there. The photo shows the huge space where the equipment is.
[click photos to enlarge]

We left our Japanese inn in Matsumoto (www.koyanagi.biz) on a train to Hataka and taxied to visit a wild silk living museum in Azumino City– southern part of Nagano Prefecture–called the Tensan Center. Www.city.azumino.nagano.jp tenseness means the Wild silk, I think. We saw things I’ve never known about silk production in a great exhibit and video.  The eggs are put on oak trees to hatch. The silk worms eat the leaves of this oak and make their cocoons in the trees. This variety of silk has a much larger cocoon than regular silk that feed on mulberry leaves and the cocoons and silk are a lovely light green.

They sprinkle the eggs on drops of paste on paper and then attach them to the branches. They left some moths develop for breeding. A pair of moths is put in a small wicker cage to mate and the eggs are taken from the cages.  These eggs are about the size of capers, much smaller the regular silk moth eggs.  It was totally fascinating. It wasn’t the time for feeding on the trees, sadly, or to see them making the cocoons. There were two weavers weaving the lovely spun silk. I bought a gorgeous silk scarf–will need to have another show so I can wear it.Then soba place for lunch and trains back to Matsumoto then to Nagoya.  We met the group at the hotel, and a hot pot-like dinner.  We start class at 8:15 on Saturday.  What a glorious whirlwind it has been!
[click photos to enlarge]

[click photos to enlarge]
This first photo shows my fingernails after my first dyeing! Don’t know if the will ever come clean. The second photo is one of the patterns we learned that we dyed today. The workshop is sponsored by The World Shibori Network. It was a surprise to see the big sign outside the classroom building.

Shibori is everywhere–big banners waving in the train station–even the sign for the restroom. The last picture is of a Shibori pattern on a Noran which is a curtain over a doorway.  I thought it might explain what I am talking about.  We are doing specialized tie dye.  At the end of the week we will come back to the town for their annual Shibori Festival. The town is Arimatsu which is near Nagoya. Class was only in the morning. In the afternoon we went to a flea market at a temple a train and subway from

Arimatsu. I got a Shibori scarf at a bargain price.

[click photos to enlarge]
We took so many trains today I lost count–small, medium and the bullet train. We went to the town of Udea in the Nagano area surrounded by mountains. The name of the weaving company is: Koiwai-tsumugi. Www.htp://~Koiwai-tsumugi.shop-prob.jp/ The photos show the outside of the building which is a large, very old, beautiful traditional Japanese house in a residential neighborhood. The hand hewn beams in the weaving room

were lovely and worn. The daughter showed us around and answered every one of my weaving questions. Cathy’s two friends shepherded us on the trains and taxis and translated. There were about six looms with three old ladies weaving the tsumugai cloth (spun silk weft yarn) for kimono, place mats and coasters. We saw the dying area and the warping area and the show room with things to buy–expensive, of course since everything was hand woven. It was heaven!  We bought bento box lunches at the station and ate in the showroom.

More train rides as we went to Matsumoto. We admired the gorgeous castle (please Google it) on the taxi ride to a lovely Japanese inn. We had a bath, of course, and dinner. The four of us slept in our room on futons and tatami mats. We found WiFi on the second floor–available but not spoiling the tradition of the 300-year old inn.

Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum
Peggy Osterkamp
> click to enlarge

After croissants and coffee across the street from our hotel,Washington Shinjuku, we discovered we were next door to a famous costume museum, Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum, and fashion school. It felt like FIT in New York.  The exhibit was a big one and beautiful–18th century European gowns and dresses in movies we knew and several that Princess DIana wore.  Here is a picture of one of the students studying the show.  I couldn’t resist asking for her picture!

After a lovely lunch of sashimi Cathy’s friend helped buy our train tickets for our advevture to silk weaving places on Thursday.

Then We walked an hour from our hotel to the Minami-Aoyama District. This is an areas on everyone’s list where the Issey Miyaki and other like designers have shops and where lots of young people are walking the streets in interesting costumes. We happened on an absolutely wonderful place.

Aoyama Flower Tea Shop
Peggy Osterkamp

We were looking for a place to rest and have tea and saw a sign in front of the Aoyama Flower Market for a tea shop in the market.  The flowers were lovely but when we slid open the door to the tea shop we were totally transported! These pictures are of the tea shop at the Aoyama Flower Shop. We both had glorious raspberry parfaits. A large, black plastic bucket was underneath every stool–to put your purse and shopping bags in. This is a great idea.  I can’t say enough praise for our experience there.

We got settled in the hotel in Tokyo then went out to explore. It was surprising to see lots of people on the street, at 8:00 maybe going home from work. We are near a big subway station–Shinjuku Station. We knew we were in Japan for sure when we saw all the plastic food 

displayed in front of the dozen or so food places in our big hotel. Cathy and I decided to have pot stickers–perfect for slight hunger before bedtime. The 10
1/2hour flight was easy.  Now to see if we can sleep all night. I love the Frenchi Toasto sign the best!

Just textiles! No shrines, gardens, just textiles and wonderful food and Japanese inns! I’m turning my bog into a travel blog with daily updates and photos of my adventures. From Tokyo we’ll go to a town with silk manufacturing. The tour begins in Arimatsu where we’ll learn shibori techniques and participate in the annual shibori festival. After that, more artists and crafts people along the way. We’ll end after the tour back in Tokyo and go to Yuki City to see tsmugi weaving.