Nagoya Shibori

After breakfast we met our new guide Makiko ('Kiko') in the lobby. While waiting for her our bus driver from Kyoto arrived to meet another group and recognised us all. Many smiles and nods all round!

Our first trip was to the Arimatsu Shibori Centre south of Nagoya where we all made a shibori decorated handkerchief. Quite a slow process for our novice hands . Once they are dyed they will be sent home to us. Of course the centre had a shop where I was able to find a small piece of fabric and a handkerchief both dyed using the shibori technique. The centre is on the old western highway, a very narrow minor street now, that is flanked on both sides with original buildings that were the main shibori district of Japan for hundreds of years.

Next we went to the Nagoya Castle, the tower of which has been rebuilt after it was bombed in WWII. It is now a museum with a viewing area on the top floor and 6 museum floors below. There was a chrysanthemum show on but the bonsai chrysanthemums were very impressivel

 

 

We were then dropped at our hotel for a free afternoon but we were first desperate for some lunch. We headed for the food hall under the 'twin tower' station building then Robyn and I sat outside to eat our chicken. It was very windy!

Back into a large DJs style department store called JR Takashimaya where we were astounded by the goods available. A fabulous science section with plastic embedded skeletons of very tiny fine animals, an art section with every conceivable art material then a tiny fabric section. Exhaustion set in by mid afternoon so we headed home to put our feet up and have a coffee – ahhhh!

I left Robyn to have a nanna nap while I went down to the foyer to update blog and catch up on diary writing.

A number of us met at 6:30pm to find dinner. I left most of mine as I am not feeling very hungry this evening. Hopefully it is not a sign of things to come! Robyn, Lynn and I then did a quick trip to the mini mart for something sweet to have with our tea and some more milk for tomorrow.

Back 'home' to collapse.