Crafty Interlude

I have been crafting! Things have been made for swaps and giveaways, things have been made for friend's babies.

Ravenhill was the winner of my 2nd blogiversary giveaway and I promised a baby blanket of her choice! She chose a Little Red Riding Hood blankie. Then I promised another to Beth over at Red Yarn for the opening of her new studio....check out her blog to read all about Hatch Studio and Gallery - a place for kids to learn art and to participate in creative past-times! It opens this Saturday in Lancaster, Pennsylvania - check it out if you are in the neighbourhood!

Blankie for the opening exhibition at Hatch Studio and Gallery

Blankie made for Ravenhill.....

I am running out of felted pre-felt, I will have to buy some more pre-felt and take the chance of it getting smooshed up in a ball or completely wrinkled in my washing machine...sometimes it comes out all right, sometimes it doesn't. Stitching it to a sheet for the felting process helps some, but it's still a learning experience for me in terms of getting it right every time....I hate to think how much pre-felt has been wasted in the washing! I also want to try to dye some of my own pre-felt because I'm running out of the colours that have been inspiring me so much!

Japan - Part 3

It seems so long ago, my marvellous trip to Japan, 2 weeks back and it seems like a lifetime ago. I have been formulating plans for my return but that will have to wait until after my summer weddings - one in Basel, Switzerland and the other in Athens, Greece! At least I'll see some sun this summer!

After 3 days in Kyoto we took our first trip on the famous Japanese shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima and Miyajima Island.

 

The shinkansen we took wasn't the fastest train, they can get up to speeds of 300km per hour, but enroute to Hiroshima from Kyoto the trains can get to about 270km although I don't think we went that fast. We arrived in Hiroshima about 10am and caught a local train to the ferry terminal for Miyajima. Crossing the Seto Sea towards Miyajima (meaning shrine island) you get excellent views of the island and of Hiroshima....as you approach the island, the floating Torii Gate of Itsukushima Shrine , another UNESCO World Heritage Site (there seem to be a lot of them in Japan) comes into view - one of the prettiest views in Japan apparently!

At high tide, the torii gate looks like it floats on the water, whilst at low tide you can walk across the sand to it. The shrine is built on stilts and dates from the 12th century and it's unique because of it's "floating" style, the elements of the shrine being linked by boardwalks. 

 

The island itself is has a number of temples and shrines and in order to maintain the purity of the island no-one is allowed to be born or die (although I am not sure how they avoid that) on the island. We visited the shrine and then walked through the woods to Daioshin Temple and along the shopping street to buy lunch. The island is famous for a number of foods, filled cakes shaped like maple leaves and congor eels! 

We were lucky with the weather, it was mild with blue skies. However, later in the day as we visited Hiroshima, the A-Bomb Dome and the Peace Park and Museum it started to rain, it seemed appropriate given the circumstances. The A-Bomb Dome is one of the very few buildings that remained after the bomb. Providing witness to the bomb, the remains of the Hiroshima Commercial Exhibition Hall has become a symbol for peace and recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

It was sobering to actually be there, the location of one of the worst atrocities ever visited on man by man, but I also think it is somewhere that we should all see.

Japan Part 2

The jet lag the first few days had us either wanting to sleep at inopportune moments or not sleeping at all! But hey, you had to just keep going because there was just so much to see and do.

From Kyoto we took a day trip to Nara, the ancient capital of Japan between 710 and 784, home to eight temples and shrines which form the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The train journey took about 50 minutes from Kyoto on a local train (our first trip on the Shinkansen (bullet train) would have to wait for another day. We discovered on that journey what Japanese people do when they get on trains, in fact, they seem to be able to do it just about anywhere.....

We were so lucky with the weather in Nara (indeed our whole trip), the sun was shining and the sky was blue....and it felt warm.... we had seen cherry blossom in Kyoto but the weeping cherry tree we saw in Nara was something else....

Todai-ji Temple - the Todai-ji Temple's Great Buddha Hall is the largest wooden building in the world, housing the world's largest statue of Buddha at almost 15m tall! It was rebuilt in 1709 and is 57m long and 50m wide it's 30% smaller than its predecessor!   The entrance to the temple complex is through the Nandaimon, the Great South Gate which is also a massive structure. But nothing compares to the hall itself.....

We then wandered through the park (full of tame deer, the messengers of the gods) to the Kasuga Shrine,  a Shinto shrine within the park. In Shintoism renewal is key and this meant in the past that shrines were rebuilt every 20 years. The Kasuga Shrine was last rebuilt in 1853 but prior to that had been rebuilt approximately 50 times. The shrine is famous for its lanterns, whether they are the stone lanterns that line the walkway to the shrine of the brass and copper lanterns in the shrine itself.

Japan Part 1

I have so much to tell.......I don't however, want to give you a day by day step by step account or you may end up as exhausted as I was by the end of the trip.....so, here's the start of the highlights (and believe me there were plenty of those!)

Kyoto - how do you start to describe this beautiful city - so full of character, so full of life, so full of history...... perhaps pictorally is the best way to do it, so beware photo laden post coming up.

Kyoto was busy, no hotels room to be had in the city, cherry blossom beginning to peak, attracting visitors from all over Japan and all over the world....we joined the throng.

Night time cherry blossom viewing at the Kiyomizu-dera Temple....a miracle of ancient engineering, the main hall's veranda towering on nailess stilts, above the garden offers views across Kyoto.  According to my guidebook "to jump off Kiyomizu's stage" is the equivalent of "to take the plunge".

Geiko (Child of the Arts) - knowledge and skill in traditional arts such as shamisen, the tea ceremony and dance, traditional costumes with maiko wearing under kimono's with embroidered collars, long hanging obi and tall koppori clogs. Much of the fun of touring the geisha enclaves of Kyoto is trying to spot one. 

Gion - the famous entertainment enclave in Kyoto, full of tea-houses where geisha entertain their clients, including the famous ochre coloured ochaya (teahouse), Ichiriki. 

Fushimi Inari Shrine - avenues of torii gates leading to the shinto (Inari being the God of Rice) shrine that sits atop a hill on the edge of Kyoto, their vermilion red gates number in their thousands, sponsored by local businesses and the stone foxes, the messengers of Inari. We wandered through the gates for over an hour and didn't reach the hilltop shrine, but there was just to much else still to see and do in Kyoto to stay any longer!

Kinkaku-ji - The Golden Pavillion - this ancient pavillion, covered in gold leaf, is it turns out not so ancient. Burned to the ground by a priest jealous of its beauty in 1950, so the story goes,  the original building is therefore history. The reconstruction does however, remain breathtaking - the sheer beauty of the temple sitting in glorious gardens - a classic of Muromachi-period garden design.

Japan - A Brief Interruption to the Blogging Hiatus

Here's a snapshot of the photos I took whilst I was away. I hope to get some posts written at the weekend - I have been sleeping for Scotland since I got back and am enjoying my memories of Japan......I promise I'll be ready to share them soon. I've posted some photos over on my Flickr account and on my Facebook page. Be back soon with all the news and some new crafty goodness!

Back from my Travels

I am back from my 2 weeks in Japan - boy, it flew past in a blur!! I will report back on the travels once I have managed to process it all in my mind. Needless to say, I had an amazing time. Japan was everything I expected and more. Highlights included visiting the Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto at night, lit for the cherry blossom season; the snow monkeys at Yudunaka and the buzz of Tokyo!

Before I left for my trip I managed to send off another little baby blankie that was part of a swap with Heidi over at Spiritual Knitter. She had requested one with a pig theme because her son Sam was born in the Year of the Pig, so I went with the Three Little Pigs. I love how it turned out. There was a little squeaker (a new addition to the baby blankies courtesy of Twist Fibre Craft) in the straw house and a little piggy hiding in the wooden house....whilst the wolf can be seen stuck in the chimney of the brick house......I think Sam likes it!