This is the light in our bus!!! I think they do karaoke in this bus! When our guide got on this morning and starting using the mike it had weird sound effects.

Today we drove an hour out of Takamatsu to an indigo dying place. It was a room in the basement under the man’s house. From the outside it looked like a normal house. The smell was very unusual, a bit like fermented/slightly off plants. This was the natural way to indigo dye not the synthetic way we do it. First we were given squares of plain white cotton which we brushed wax designs onto. We then dipped it into the indigo vats, 5 dips for one minute and holding it out of the dye for 30 seconds. To get the really deep blue we would have needed to dip it 20 or 30 times, but time did not allow us that. Afterwards they washed the wax out with hot water, spin the fabric and two ladies ironed it dry for us, very spoilt, was a fascinating process and the man was very experienced, there were three other Japanese people there who were learning the craft from him.

His blue hands.

These were the hands of a young women who was learning the craft.

Ironing my piece. We then travelled back to the city to have lunch. Most restaurants are quite small but they all have plastic versions of their menu (even the beer has a plastic sample!)

I had a beautiful sashimi lunch, very tasty.

We then went to an Awa Odori performance, they performed various dances to their own music and then got some of the audience up to join them, I slunk down into the back corner!

A few of us decided that tonight we would like a bit of a change from Japanese food and decided to go to a burger place. I have to say, quite ashamed, it was so delicious. The Japanese food is so high in carbohydrates and low in protein its just a reversal of how I normally eat, its very delicious but a bit of an adjustment.

Deb, a lady on the tour, and I went to the hotel bar tonight after dinner amazing views and great cocktails and a few laughs. Good times

We woke today to a hard frost and the lake frozen. I have never seen pine trees look so lovely as they are here, below they are ‘training’ a tree. They also wrap parts or whole trees to protect them in the winter.

We then went to the Doll Museum of Yuki Atae, these were incredible dolls, he captured the figure so well, we were unable to take photos inside the museum so the picture below is from one of his catalogues. Absolutely amazing and intricate work.

We were allowed to take a photo of this one in the gift shop. The figures stood between 30-50 cms high and there were probably over 100 of them, all different ages, some fantasy some everyday.

We then took the bus to a nearby city and caught the bullet train. But before we boarded we had to purchase a bento box or similar for lunch, this was a laugh as we generally didn’t have much idea what was in them. I ended up getting a fish sushi, which was quite good. In the meal there was real wasabi and a little wasabi grater, it tasted fantastic and wasn’t green or like the toothpaste wasabi we get at home.

The train was comfortable with heaps of leg room, it wasn’t the fastest one, apparently we go on that one next week when we go back to Tokyo.

We arrived at Nagoya and proceed straight to the historical area of Arimatsu where shibori dates back to the 17th century. Street was very authentic and quaint and being winter was quite quiet. We had a tie-dying workshop with some Japanese experts (all women), the oldest of whom was 86, they were lovely and eager to share their knowledge albeit with hand signals and lots of laughing. We did all our stitching and tying and they will dye the fabric and have it sent to our hotel in Tokyo waiting for us to arrive there.

We then went to a very famous Kimono designer’s shop (I can’t remember his name) it was in a beautiful old house, complete with zen garden and beautifully dressed men and women in traditional kimono. The prices were steep, but the fabrics beautiful and hand done, so I guess were one-offs. I need to find out more about it, but from what I can gather, when you are 21 you go and get a kimono, some people get more than one but most people only get one, because of the cost. They can graduate in it, get married in it etc.

The picture below is created by tie-dying, lots and lots of tiny knots to create this one.

See the price on these ones, that’s about $50,000 (NZD) but they were mostly a lot less than this – even some sale ones for around 200,000 yen, which is around $2,500 NZD.

Tonight we went to a Japanese Brazilian restaurant, it was a meat-eaters paradise with lots and lots of dishes of meat brought out and a small salad bar you could help yourself to.

At the hotel we were given a little voucher that we take with us to breakfast, lots of hilarity after we read the bit about what to wear to breakfast. Especially after we wore our ‘dressing gowns’ to dinner last night!

Today we left Tokyo and drove to Kawaguchi, the second largest of the five Fuji lakes. On the way we stopped at a ‘truck stop’ which was massive, there were some interesting foods on offer. Lots and lots of sweet stuff and not much savoury.

Had no idea what was in these packages!

What the hell is this!!

At the lake we stopped at a cableway and went for a ride up to get views of Mount Fuji. I felt very fortunate to see the mountain, it was a beautiful clear day, apparently it is fairly hit and miss as to whether or not you get to see it.

You have to leave your pets at the bottom!

It was a smallish cable car and they crammed us all in! But so worth it at the top, stunning views and such a beautiful day, I would love to see this area in autumn it would be incredible.

We had lunch at a local restaurant, this is the local delicacy, Hoto, delicious broth with mushrooms, crab, one piece of carrot and noodles.

We then travelled around to the other side of the lake to the Itchiku Kubota Art Museum.

This guy used an ancient tie-dying technique (very time consuming and intricate) to create huge pieces of art work in the kimono shape. THe building was fascinating and the art works were mind blowing, we were not allowed to take photos but if you click the link above you can see some of them, although as usual, the photos don’t do it justice. It’s interesting, as he died in 2003 and his family sold the gallery but his family held the copyright for his images, so the gallery cannot sell anything which has images of his work on it – very frustrating. Apparently, they are fighting for the rights but it has been more than two years in court. Absolutely stunning building and reminded me a bit of Gaudi’s garden in Barcelona.

I pinched the above image from google

We then headed off to our hotel, which had a Japanese bath in it. Our guide went into great detail about the protocol etc, there is a certain way you wear the Yukata (cotton kimono) which is basically a dressing gown. Helen you would have benefited from this pep talk lol. You then proceed to the bath, wash yourself down and go into the spa, there were two pools one inside and one out – you don’t wear togs but go naked, got to see more of my tour peers that I would’ve thought I would!! Great fun though. Then you wear your Yukata to dinner, looked hilarious with practically the whole dining room in them.

The terrible view from my room.