Postcards from abroad
We spent our last day in Tokyo shopping for fabric! For those not in the know, Japanese fabrics - particularly cotton - are absolutely wonderful but inordinately expensive in the UK. Here, there is a whole area of Tokyo which specialises in fabric: It’s not only fabric but every sewing related thing you can think… Continue reading Goodbye from Tokyo
We spent a beautiful autumn morning in Tokyo walking through our neighbourhood, Ryoguku, which is home to sumo wrestling - our hotel is right opposite the sumo arena. Unfortunately all the sumos are in Fukuoka for the sumo competition there, so it’s a bit quiet here. But there are signs everywhere that this area is… Continue reading A Tokyo morning
We flew from Fukuoka to Tokyo this morning on the last leg of our Japan trip, to meet our friend Maki and a new friend, Mao, for an early evening walk round Iriya, one of the quiet old towns in Eastern Tokyo. We visited three shrines: one dedicated to the rooster which has its festival… Continue reading Shrines and a Buddhist meal
Alongside many other visitors, we took a train to a very popular shrine outside Fukuoka and once the capital of Kyushu. Everyone buys and eats umegaemochi, a pounded rice cake filled with sweet bean paste and decorated with a plum-flower motif in honour of Tenjin, the person to whom the shrine is dedicated: Tenjin was… Continue reading Dazaifu and three-five-seven celebration
Despite being the capital of Kyushu, Fukuoka is a surprisingly accessible city with walkable streets, bridges and rivers. It’s best known for its yatai which are tiny little bars on every side street or set up each night from mobile street kitchens: Fukuoka has a vivid ‘entertainment’ area or - as our friend Sachie told… Continue reading Fukuoka insights: art, water business and Ampanman