My Creative Space

Once upon a time there was a girl who lived in an exotic land.  Every couple of months she would take a train that snaked past patchworks of rice fields, tea plantations, industrial estates and one gorgeous snow-capped mountain.  The train would transport her from the little town of vegetable fields and bicycles she now called home to a metropolis of buildings that touched the sky and people that moved in waves.

This not-so-young girl was a Japanese-fabric-ophile and she had arrived in the promise land.  A place that had an entire "Fabric Town" where five story buildings were filled with gorgeous print after gorgeous print.  A city with craft stores so large they needed seven whole buildings to hold them.  Somewhere that you could not only buy materials for almost every craft imaginable, but also be inspired by all around you.

That girl wanted to share her new-found knowledge with the world.  To map out the places to go and how to get there.  To help those navigate the foreign language and customs of the land.  With each trip, she would explore a new area, madly writing notes, subway exits and drawing maps.

But alas, while she had filled notebooks with her excited scribblings, before she could put them in order for others to read, life took over and the guide was carefully put away, but never forgotten.

But now, the not-as-young girl has only eight more sleeps until she visits this exotic land again.  The maps, the writings are all seeing light again and are being put into careful order.  It has been a number of years since the girl has visited the fabric promise land so with the guide in hand, she can see it with new eyes, check her maps, add new findings into the book so that she can then finally share it with the world.

There are many more magical creative spaces to explore, Kootoyoo is where you'll find the map.

Shinzi Katoh Shopping

I'm now into day three in Tokyo. I've been wanting to blog but was having internet connection issues. Fingers crossed they're fixed now. I'm about to dash off to Nippori Textile town but thought I'd leave you with some Shinzi Katoh eye candy. The shop (or actually shops, it's divided into two areas) is small but full of sweetness. I think the only thing that saved my credit card was that there were too many things I wanted so I couldn't decide and that I was so tired by the time I got there.

I'm a real sucker for an Alice in Wonderland design.

...or a Red Riding Hood design for that matter....

I think I'm going to go back there either tonight or tomorrow and pick myself up a tea set. Imagine having a tea party pouring tea from an Alice tea pot and drinking from Alice cups placed on Alice saucers. Then of course, I thought the Alice plate would look adorable with little cup cakes with pink icing and those little silver ball things. It would all have to be laid out on a table in the garden with a red gingham tablecloth of course. Anyone want to join me?

Shopping as an Endurance Sport

So, I'm just going to come straight out and say it... I am the Queen of Shopping. Seriously, I do not know anyone that shops as well and as hard as I do. My cousin does pretty well, she came for a visit the Christmas before last and we fit 24 hours of mad shopping in, in the 48 hour period she stayed with me. My shopping trips are not for the faint-hearted.

Today was flea market day. I love flea market day. It's only on twice a month and if I can go or not depends on the day of the week it falls, and my schedule at school. It works out that I can only go every few months. Today, was one of those lucky days.

By eight o'clock this morning (the time that on a usual day I'm just leaving the aparment to go to school), I had already bought 18 kimonos. By lunchtime, when I was finished, I had bought 40 kimono, 10 obi, 2 full bolts of kimono fabric, 3 partial bolts of fabric and the sweetest coin purse you'd ever seen.

What I am not the queen of, is carrying stuff home. I go to the market via public transport - a train and subway. That also means returning home with all my purchases the same way. Today, I had two small wheelie overnight bags, a super-sized and another large-sized tote bag. In all (I weighed it when I got home), 32kgs of fabric sweetness! Now, one problem with Japan that should be mentioned here, is that at many train stations, mine included, there are no elevators, no escalators, only stairs. I carried my 32kgs of shopping down two flights of stairs and then up another two.

I now ache all over, am exhausted, am windburnt and have broken four nails. But boy it was fun!

Some of the girl's kimonos I bought today

Some of the boy's kimonos



The two new bolts of fabric

Today's Shopping

Ahh what a fabulous day! I'm feeling so indulgent this weekend and treating myself to things I haven't done in a while. Wayne and I had another late lie-in this morning, which I have to admit is getting easier in this cold weather and then we were off to Starbucks for a treat.

When Iiving in Australia, I never go to Starbucks. I believe in spending my money on local businesses and let's face it, we have so many great coffee shops of our own. Living in Japan however, Starbucks is a haven. It's one of the few places I can get an Earl Grey tea and certainly the only place I've found scones, and their cinnamon rolls keep me coming back.

This morning, I thought I'd try something new. I had a Chocolate Mint Mocha. Yum! I'm not a coffee drinker but I think I could get hooked on this. Wayne had a Gingerbread Late.

Then, for me it was time for a spot of shopping. The local craft shop was having a 20% off everything sale. The catch is, they send their members (which I am one) a postcard, which essentially acts as a once-only voucher for the sale. I was caught out in the past thinking I could buy things over the two weeks of the sale and wasted my one chance on only a few little things.

This time I was much more careful. I only picked up a couple of fabrics. It was hard but I restrained myself. This gorgeous green fabric with the owls I'm going to use to make a reading pillow as a Christmas present for my Grandma. She just loves owls. I also found these gorgeous little owls that I thought would go fabulously on the pillow somewhere.

I don't have a plan for the other fabric yet, I just loved it and I'm sure I'll find something fun to do with it over my upcoming holidays.

The book you see, is of all bags made from recycled kimono and obi fabrics. I've been drooling over it for ages and now it's all mine! I also picked up some wooden bag handles, stocked up on black cotton, bought some fabric covered button makers, a chenilling tool and a thing to make flower shaped yo-yos.

You can also see my new CD in the picture, Volume 2 of Beautiful Songs, a great mellow compilation, perfect to create by. The fuzzy, spotted blue things are the most luxurious warm socks, and KitKats great new flavour, Cookies and Milk. I did also venture into the supermarket and picked up the ingredients for my favourite Eggplant dish which my wonderful husband just cooked up for dinner. All in all, a great day!

I'll leave you with some pages of my new book.

Shopping Injuries

You know you have a serious shopping habit when you wake up sore the next day! My shoulders, my neck, my arms, my back, my hands, they're all aching.

I went to my favourite antique flea market yesterday. I'm working on buying as much as I can with the possibility that we may be moving back to Australia next year. I have the flea market down to a fine art now. If I am lucky enough to have the same day off from work that the flea market falls (twice a month), I make sure to go. My husband drops me off at the train station on his way to work, so I get there nice and early before the crowds. I have my favourite sellers and now go around the market in accordance to who I like to buy what from. By nine-ish, I've usually done the market and head off for breakfast. There is a little cakeshop near-by that offers a choice of tea or coffee and a buffet of different bread, sandwiches, boiled eggs and cake for under $4. Just before 10, the first second-hand store opens and I visit a few of them until 10.30 when my favourite one opens. By 10.25, I'm lined up outside that store with a lot of mostly women, ready to fight the crowd, with my 100yen coin ready for the locker to put my morning purchases in. In the shop, I even have my pattern figured out. Children's kimonos first, then obi, followed by kimono, then haori and lastly the accessories. By the time I've then sorted through my purchases, an hour has flown by. I'm then out of there, go back through the market in the temple grounds to pick up heavy purchases I've left behind.

I struggle to the subway station with a large tote on one shoulder, a smaller on the other, a small bag with wheels being dragged with one hand and two large shopping bags in the other. I have to stop a number of times in the short distance because of the weight of it all.

Last month, I took the lift down to the subway station, knowing that I couldn't tackle the stairs. A sweet old woman in her 70s started a conversation and commented on all the bags I had. I agreed and told her how heavy they were. When the lift door opened she took the wheelie bag out of my hands and helped me with my parcels. I couldn't believe I had bought so much that I needed a little old lady to help me carry my shopping! Yesterday, of course she wasn't there and I really wished she had been.