My Friend In Kyoto Is Having A Sale

I met my friend in Kyoto via the SewMamaSew Blog.
We have so much in common with her growing up near where I live now. Her family lives in Oregon but she met and married a Japanese dude man over 25 years ago.

She has lived in Tokyo as well as other cities in Japan. She now makes her home in Kyoto which I visited a year ago in March of 2015.

She is in the process of building a house in Kyoto which is seriously different than building a house in Oregon. She blogs about it occasionally - the frustration of wanting a bathroom counter at "high" american standards instead of the lower japanese standard.

We both like to sew. And any other handcraft, for that matter. We love nature. When she travels back to the states to see her family, they make a beeline to camp out at Detroit Lake and make a family reunion of it.

She's having a sale in her etsy store this August of 20% off. Which is a really good deal.

Featuring many items made of Japanese fabrics, she can make you anything. She's that amazing. She usually adds something special to the package and will add Japanese stamps (better variety than in the states) to reflect your interests. I often see airplane stamps on my envelopes.  Packaging is definitely an awesome superpower of hers.

The sale code is AUGUST20. Her store is called CraftyTokyoMama on etsy.

One item she makes is well-made shopping totes - Tight 'n Tidy Totes. I have two and they have lasted quite well. I keep one rolled up in my purse for amazing garage sale luck. Some of the people running sales are so amazed at my tote bag filled with goodies that they start offering me discounts right and left. lol


I notice her store is at 883 sales today. I had a goal of 1000 sales by Christmas last year and reached it in January 2016. I am passing this goal along to her.




Janine makes and sews Japanese Notebooks, book covers, shopping totes, handbags, etc.
She also knits and crochets.



I bought this adorable hedgehog fabric from her.
She also sells some of the amazing japanese fabrics she finds.

 Here is my garage sale bag I keep rolled up in my purse.
It easily unfolds to a large size tote.
I get the best deals when I use this bag.

Even if you can't make up your mind what to buy, could you show Janine some etsy "Heart" love? Just hover over the heart on each photo in her etsy shop and tap on it. This "hearting" really helps move things up the queue in the etsy algorythms. (thanks!)

CraftyTokyoMama on etsy. Use Coupon code AUGUST20 throughout the month of August to get 20% off your purchase.

I would like to see her get to  1000 sales too.

Crafty Tokyo Mama Thank You

Way back in March, I received some early birthday gifts from my dear friend in Kyoto. She knows my fondness for airplanes and fabric and regularly indulges me.

How perfect is this biplane postcard? We never see such cuteness here in the states.

Except - after I put it together and was getting ready to toss the punchout, I noticed it was made by HALLMARK! In China. We have Hallmarks here. I think Hallmark originated here in the states. Do we have awesome biplane postcards? No.

 And she sent me a second biplane - from the DAISO store!
Daiso helps make some  sweet packaging. Everything Janine sends me is perfectly wrapped in kawaii cuteness.. Stitckers, patterned bags, you name it. I need a Daiso store of my own!
{I save all her packaging to re-use}

Even her postal stamps she chooses are perfect. 

Airplanes, japanese geishas, Mail boxes (Red cylinder at bottom left)

She covered a journal book in awesome airplane fabric and then gifted me with the same airplane timetables fabric to play with.  :-)

Look at that Kawaii airplane ribbon.

She always picks out items with birds in them too.
Her parakeet, Trixie, just passed away. Trixie was one extraordinary pet.


When I am putting together a gift to send to her, I keep a lookout for bird fabrics and western/patriotic items. TV series and movies.

 She sent me some socks, a tiny coin purse she sewed for me and two doilies she crocheted for me - such beautiful colors.

My gifts all comes with origami notes, cute notepaper that can fold into shapes. I think she sent me eight different happy mail items. I feel well loved by her thoughtfulness.

This is where we are not similar - I usually am cramming as much as I can into a flat rate package to send to Japan. I'm still learning to put washi tape on my etsy orders...

 She also sent me some Japanese patterns which are read right to left from the top to the bottom and then over to the left. You follow the pictures in numerical order.
This one was for the four pocket card case.

 This one is for a tissue holder.
 
In Japan, you must carry your own tissues and a cloth for wiping your hands for when You are out and about and need to use the restroom. Toilet paper and towels are a rarity in public bathrooms. Of course, you need cute tissue holder accessories.

Again, she sent me the extra fabric - you obviously notice the airplanes?

 

See the Hallmark logo in the bottom right?

 Janine and I met online via the SewMamaSew Giveaway Day. Several years ago now.

I read her blog, She read mine. We both sew. We both like old things. She grew up just south of where I live. Her family is all in Oregon. We had many similar ideas and dreams.

We managed to meet up here in Oregon a couple of times.

I visited her in Japan a year ago and got to see her for an extended time. You can view many of my blog posts about Japan during the last two weeks of March 2015 by looking in my blog archives (sidebar). Her time in Oregon is packed with family events so it was real delight to spend more time with her when I visited Kyoto. I feel like I've know her all my life.

My niece has recently moved to Singapore. To get there, most flights go through Tokyo. I am making plans for returning to Tokyo. {My niece has a Daiso store in Singapore}.

Nomura Tailor And Fabric Shopping

If you get fabric cut, you'll want to watch this video below.
Zippety-doo-dah.


Nomura Tailor: https://youtu.be/Js49Dyq0GpI


My photos of this batch of fabrics were taken with inside light - sorry -we're off to awaji island in the morning.

We walked over 12,000 steps yesterday.
We ride the bus to Kyoto station and started from there.

Our goal? Fabric.

1st stop: the teeny,  tiny needle shop
Unfortunately, they were closed.

2nd stop: Nomura Tailor

There are two shops. One has more kits.
There is also a remnant bin halfway back inside the store.

The second is around the corner with three floors; cottons, japanese prints.
2nd floor is knits and dressy garment fabrics.
3rd floor is hardware.
We spent a lot of time on the first floor. This is where I shot the video (link above).
The knits were interesting but nothing jumped out and the prices were $18-26/meter.

Our 4th stop was a wholesale hardware shop so we did not go to the 3rd floor of Nomura Tailor.

This one was fun for purse hardware. They also have fabrics on another floor.
It's where I found the airplane fabric.

Our last stop was a department store near kyoto station.

This one had a really good selection of crafting/sewing books. Both of us picked the same one for fun little projects.

We'd stopped for a cup of McDonald's coffee plus ice cream for Janine.
Fabric buying can be mentally exhausting    so we were getting tired. I forgot to take a photo of the last place and the sack with the name is ready to be packed upstairs.

I will come back to these posts later on my laptop to post links.

This piece is a panel of an older kimono my friend was given.

We found some of this newspaper print fabric.  Janine showed it before on her blog because a friend of hers wrote an article for the Japan Times and there it was -on a fabric!
Also articles that mention McMinnville, Oregon 97128 and another for Redmond OR.

I'm sure it's random. It's actually legible and not written over with grammatically incorrect english translations.

We're off to Awaji Island now.
Just a couple of days left.

Kinkakuji

My friend asked me, if you had just one day in Kyoto, which place would you recommend? Which made the best impression?

Difficult to answer. You've got World Heritage Sights (around 20 in kyoto ). You've got numerous temples, each more spectacular than the last.

You've got gardens, shrines, ....

I think the Torii gates made an impression on me. The red painted gates giving off positive energy.

Steak Gusto

I took the girls to dinner tonight at Steak Gusto, a 10 minute walk from their house.

After biking today, a meal out was just what the doctor ordered.

Dixieland jazz, unlimited salad bar and western - style  meals.

My food allergies/sensitivities are so severe with soy, wheat & dairy big no-no's.

Half of my checked bag contained emergency foods.
Soy is in nearly everything here, even on the seaweed.

I've managed quite well with no bad days so far. I could not travel if it were not for the hospitality of my girlfriend who writes the CraftyTokyoMama blog.

A key for me is staying in someone's home.  Being disciplined about eating correctly. Being able to find food in her fridge.

Traveling is hard work and this home - stay makes it possible.

There are not enough words to thank her for the opportunity to experience Japan.

Notice those coca-cola glasses?

My salad. You can order just the salad bar.
Rice
Curry
Mostly the same greens.
Dessert bar is included too.

I ordered a plain steak (no sauce). (Forgot photo).
It was served very hot like in the usa.

Also on the already hot plate is a tiny 'brazier' so you can sizzle your food further.
Crazy? Afterwards, I was thinking of all those restaurant visits where the food isn't done as you ordered - you can cook it longer if you need to - right there on your plate.

Clear jello cubes and pudding.

Thank you Janine and family.

Shibori Fabric Museum

Wow.
I don't recall how I stumbled on this, but if you like to sew, to create, put this on your short list for amazing things to experience in Kyoto.

Shibori means manipulating the fabric from design to finish in the dyeing process.

This piece has been tied off in thousands of tiny circles. By hand, you could create 300 knots a day.

A machine similar  to tying flies (fishing) is used to up your productivity to 3000 knots/day.

300 knots on the above piece measure about 6" x 1.5".

The piece above has been tied and also dyed.

You can carefully rip out the knots in seconds, revealing the tiny eye squares.

Which we were able to do - ourselves!

Our guide - oh - bear in mind, we paid 500 yen to come to this museum - brought over samples for us to not only touch but rip apart!

There are many ways of tying off the fabric. From plastic tube to tiny string knots.

The master designer sketches the design, makes a stencil, applies design to fabric.

He then makes marks on the design for where particular knots go to create the finished design.

The fabric then goes to the knot tyers, then to the dye guy.

When the knots are ripped out, -where the dye did not reach -the design is revealed.

Sneaking photographs here.
This is the spring wall mural.
Made up of maybe ten 36"wide panels.

Please click on each photo to make larger. This is absolutely stunning in the workmanship.
2yrs7mo to create.

And they have the Summer, Autumn, & Winter murals as well. (8 yrs altogether).

They have another mural on display of the Kyoto mountains - maybe 270' view.

Absolutely breathtaking.
Sorry - no photos allowed.

The dyeing accuracy is handled by masters. Definitely not tie dye bulls-eyes.

You can try on a shibori - dyed kimono with an obi.
Such fun.

The reason they can rip apart knots is because of old stock upstairs that was never dyed.
Less valuable than modern shibori with less knots.

I'll post links when I get home.
They do have a Facebook page.