Waking Up in Tokyo Again

Through my hotel window - 14th floor - Tokyo

Yesterday I travelled by fast train back to Tokyo, stopping off at Nagoya for a few hours to go to Arimatsu. This used to be a little village along the Tokaido trade route, but now is part of the city of Nagoya. I went to the little Shibori Museum in Arimatsu and saw one of the artisans demonstrating how to do shibori. I talked to this person (in sign language) for a while and watched her work. It was so lovely really connecting with her without language - through a person who could talk Japanese, the shibori demonstrator told me she was there every Monday if I came again. I loved it and spent time seeing the rest of the exhibition fairly quickly as I had to be back to catch the train at a certain time.

When I got back to Nagoya, I couldn't remember where I left my luggage in a locker, and felt a bit panicky inside as I had to catch the train. The railway stations even in smaller cities are massive, and very ordered. Once one works out the order and the correct signs, it seems fairly simple even though very big. Eventually I found where the locker was, and I arrived at the correct platform etc with about 10 minutes to spare.

On the way back in the train we passed Mt Fuji quite closely but the top half was covered by cloud unfortunately - but could still see a little snow - very exciting to me.

A beautiful painting at Shibori Museum

Examples of Shibori patterns at the Shibori Museum