All I can say is - wow.
It's been full on!
First of all, it's a lot different from the last time I was in Japan, most notably because that was when I was 15, and didn't to worry about anything more than trying to decide which keroppi plastic fantastic to buy.
Nowadays I get so into thinking about what Xi needs that I forget things for myself - most recent example, today in fact - my jumper and we WENT INTO THE SNOW TODAY!!!!!! First time I've ever seen it falling (more on that later, will try and keep things in order)
So, yesterday we went wander shopping/looking, happened upon a fabric store, had to have a browse (of course). We can get beautiful Japanese cottons now in the quilting stores and speciality shops at home, so I was interested in seeing what was in a store here.
And these lovely ladies were. They thought my baby was 'kawaii desu ne!' They are of the gothic lolita persuasion, and it's a pretty hilarious fashion/life, like little bo peep crossed with .....not porn, but something close to it.
The process of buying the fabric was really interesting. I didn't understand our friend when he tried to explain it to me (I think it's maybe because he'd never bought fabric himself)
but the whole shop is just samples, so I was looking through the designs, thinking, wow, there's not much here, or this one has more, but geez these pieces have got terrible cuts on the edge (thinking where it's been cut to be sold). In actual fact, the person comes to you (like DK's) cuts off a sample, staples it to a card, tells you to wait x minutes then you go to the counter and your order is dropped down a little shute, already bagged up. ..........Tom just told me that the sample card gets sent upstairs by vacuum tube and the order drops down - I missed that bit, I was probably back to fondling fabrics. So there's basically two stores of fabric on top of one another!
Other things that happened:
We went to a toy store,
and a grocery store,
And today we discovered a wall of greenery, (DC these are for you) which was really cool and looked very successful, on our way to Kyoto Tower, which has an observatory up the top.
This is what the individual plants were living in.
This is Xi holding a can of hot coffee from the vending machine as a hand warmer, since I couldn't get mittens on him. I think he's going to be a can-a-day boy.
Then we met up with Aogu and went to find Kurataniwashi, which is a famous paper making village, which was an adventure. First we had to drive about 2 hours out of Kyoto, and we started to pass little bits of snow, and then it got 'real countryside' (Aogu) and very rural, cold and more snow, and actual flakes hitting the windscreen!! (remember, girl from NQLD, this is my 6th meeting with snow)
We went to the old centre first, not the new tourist one, and we found it pretty deserted, and kinda twin peaks weirdy, but had a peek around before going to the new one, look at the snow on the vegie patch - frozen lettuce!
The GPS to us along a very winding road, where we only passed one old man on a kinda motorcycle into some hills, we were surrounded by more and more snow on the road, and it wasn't looking like we'd end up somewhere at all, but then we hit a main (ish) road, and found the place, only to find out that they only are open on Fridays and Saturdays (but don't advertise that fact).
However we were lucky enough to run into a papermaker who stayed on for the afternoon and she gave us a personal tour, so we saw the studios, but were not able to see the process, and were sad to hear that the school (which the new centre is) will probably be closing down soon due to lack of students (and possibly funds).
It was a full on day, and I am hoping not everyday will be like that!
Tomorrow is Costume Museum and temples.......!
