Kamakura Bori Wood Carving Class

Today N was very lucky that our wonderful friend E organised for her to join in with E at the Kamakura Bori wood carving class at the American Embassy Compound.

This is the design N was working on (an autumn leaf floating down a river) 

Part way through the carving (no, I didn't cut my thumb, you actually use your thumb to push the knife, so the band aid is there to make sure you don't hurt that part of your thumb)

N's name in Katakana on the bottom of the plate 

 E hard at work on her large plate

The time went all too quickly.  E is working on a very elaborate design.  N finished her simple design today.  Eniwa Okunishi, the teacher, is holding a finished plate that has been lacquered.

 N's finished carving on the right will be sent off to be lacquered & will look more like the plate on the left (which has had over 30 layers of lacquer applied by a master in the technique).  Apparently the plate will last 400 years.....

Part way through the carving

The U.S. embassy Employees' Welfare Association provided the location for the class.

The Embassy compound for US Embassy staff and their families.  E & A could have lived here, but ended up at Ark Hills, which is so swish it has its own website here, and even a wikipedia entry.

KOFU!!!!

In 1987 I was an exchange student for a year with Rotary to the town of Kofu, in Yamanashi prefecture.  Today we all headed to Kofu for a few days of catching up with my host family and enjoy exploring Kofu together.  

We had quite an adventure in Shinjuku station - we bought our tickets for the train to Kofu (including chosing our seats), but when we tried to go through the ticket barrier it just wouldn't let us through.  After speaking with the staff a kind lady took us to the machine - it seems we had bought tickets for the express train, but we also needed a ticket to get to Kofu as well (much muttering under S's breath about what a stupid system it was).  The problem was the kind lady couldn't work out how to use the ticket machine (she was a train information desk staff member, so we had no chance).  In the end at 2.58 when all seemed doomed, she got us to buy a 130yen ticket to just get us through the electronic ticket barrier, and then we would pay extra on the train, or at our destination (which is what we did in Kofu).  However, this required us running like crazy Gaijin through Shinjuku station racing for the train (poor J, she had to do it all on crutches, and it really hurt her foot).  We got on the train at the first available car (car 4), and 10 seconds later the train left, with us walking through to car 11 - but we made the train to Kofu!!!!

 Here are our train tickets - really we did book and pay for them.

We were very excited to see that there was snow on the ground as we approached Kofu.  There was no snow on the ground in Kofu itself, but it was snowing on the hills around Kofu.  Tomorrow we will try and take photos of Kofu so you can see what it looks like - it is in a basin, with tall mountains around it, including Mt Fuji.

Nikki got very excited when we went into Yamanashi Prefecture - it felt like coming home. 

 Getting closer to Kofu and getting excited

 A glimpse of Mt Fuji over the mountains.  It was a beautiful clear day, but the sun had set by the time we reached Yamanashi.

Nikki & her host sister Haruyo in the family kitchen.  Haruyou was 12 the last time she met - she has grown up into a beautiful young woman.

Haruyo's daughter Aya and J 

Aya loves her handbag :-)

More photo's off J's phone to follow tomorrow - too tired now... good night.

The Mitsukoshi department store food court ($250 a kilo for beef slices!!!!)

Today we went to the Daiso store in Harajuku to buy origami paper for H & C's wedding, and to buy more kitchen supplies (we cook a lot of Japanese food, and the only place to get some of the kitchen tools and ingredients is in Japan - well that is our excuse anyway).

On our travels today, we found the most beautiful park tucked away between some enormous sky scrapers.

This poor guy had to scrape up all the leaves, whilst separating them from the gravel - it seemed like a never ending task.

Us enjoying Takeshita Dori in Harajuku (there are a LOT of funky people walking around in Harajuku)

On the subway we saw this advertisement (for what we couldn't work out), that had cats on it, with fur (synthetic we think, not real cat fur).

 Takeshitadori in Harajuku

We went to the Mitsukoshi department store (which is like a combination of Harrods and David Jones), and had a wander around their food department.  Everything was AMAZING.  I could have spent all day just photographing the food, but was very restrained - I may go back after the New Year to take more photos if I can.

New Year Apples, with the date and the year of the horse grown into the peel. 

Around $13 for a punnet of strawberries (each one was perfect)

 A mound of salmon roe (I soooooo wanted to buy some of this to put on my rice .... yum!!!)

Checking out the tea section of the Harrods part of Mitsukoshi department store. 

Thinly sliced beef - at $120 a kilo!!!

And then I found the $250 a kilo Beef 

 30 perfect strawberries, all in a row, for around $184.00

I've never seen ripe strawberries like this before (I assume they were ripe at that price).

 $5.25 for a single strawberry - I bet they taste delicious

 Yep, that is $420 for TWO rockmellons

 Some of this fruit (the mango & the papaya) are from Australia

Tasting Tasmanian Honey :-)

At the Fortnum & Mason tea department in the Mitsukoshi department store

We had high tea with our lovely friends E & A.  It was delicious (and we were sooo full we didn't need dinner).  It was very different to the High Tea at Adore in Gold Creek, but we LOVED it.

The Teapots come labelled so you know which tea is which - this is a very clever idea.

Baking HEAVEN

When we were at Kappabashidori, the lovely Marina directed us to the Baking supplies store, and we were like kids in a candy store.  We actually were very restrained (and might go back for more tomorrow).  Here are some selected photos of this store (it was on the first floor above the Toyo store, and is a baking supplies specialist). Nikki even got some supplies for Hannah and Connor's wedding cake.

 Baking rounds of every size

 A pastry cutter (just like granny used to have)

 There were three rows of flan tins (they must be very big in Japan right now)

 Bread baking tins of all sizes

There were so many silicone moulds they had to use a stick to lift them down for customers

Bread prooving baskets - I'm kicking myself now for not buying one of these

 Cake tins of all shapes and sizes

 Bread tins for baking bread in odd shapes

 Jelly and cake moulds

Bundt tins

There are hundreds of shops on Kappabashidori, all specialising in something

 Massive stock pots - I need a new stock pot, but don't think this would fit in my luggage, and I'd have no where to store it at home

 Balconies in the shape of tea cups

There are even ceramics specialty stores - H would have been in heaven too.

You know you are at the beginning of Kappabashidori when you see this guy greeting you

Here is our haul - a new cake cooling rack, piping bags & tips, silicone moulds, pastry cutters, aprons, electronic scales (from3kg to 0.1g), knives and bonito shaver.

 

We finished off the day going to the green grocer in our building, to take a photo of the $9 turnip