Silk painting (katazome) at Kaga Yuzen Shop, Kanazawa

Sometimes I just can't believe that I'm living in Japan and I'm struggling to find traditional Japanese gifts for Christmas presents! Yes I'm Christmas shopping and with a shopping list as long as a double decker bus and a family of all ages and varying tastes I've found it hard.

As I pass through Kanazawa station every day I had seen some beautiful Japanese silk hankercheifs and scarves for sale which I thought would be perfect for my Nanna as a present. I had heard as well that you can try silk painting for yourself somewhere in Kanazawa so I thought I'd give it a go.

So I decided to go along to the Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall a short walk from the Kenrokuen to see if I could practice the art of 'katazome' (stencil cutting and and painting) on a silk handkerchief.

Admittedly I find turning up at these places with my limited Japanese always a bit daunting but I had practiced my "hankachi o tsukritai onegai shimasu" (I'd like to make a handkerchief please) and it worked a treat!

I was ushered to the basement floor and a lovely little old lady showed me to my paints and explained everything in Japanese. I politely kept saying "wakarimashita" (I understand)but only actually understood about a quarter of what she was saying.

The lovely lady at Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall

Basically they have the outline of the patterns already set up on the hankys. You choose whether you have 3 basic colours ( ¥1050) or 6 colours that you can mix ( ¥1890) I went for the latter.

Note to anyone thinking of going- give yourself at least an hour to do the painting and if you're super pedantic (like me) and want to mix the exact shade of green for one of your leaves then give yourself 2 hours. The basic patterns are nice but if I'd had more time I would have made my own sakura (cherry blosson) stencil.

Anyway I set to work mixing my colours which is sooooo hard but the classical music playing in the background calmed me down and made me feel like one of those boho arty types. Didn't last long though. I then realised (after it was too late) that there's an actual knack to painting onto the silk and you have to mix it with this white paste BEFORE applying to the silk to stop it running....as a consequence one of my leaves was a bit messed up.

Painting the leaves!

Next the flowers....

Anyway, heres the end result! I found it a relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon instead of my usual running about.

My finished silk hanky

By the way, I should really mention that the ground floor of the Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall has yuzen kimonos on display. Yuzen is a type of dyed textile unique to Japan and used for kimonos. In the 18th century, Miyazaki Yuzensai, an excellent dye craftsman developed a technique to draw ordinary flowers and trees on textiles. It was revolutionary at the time and yuzen was named after him.

Also worth a mention and something I really want to see is that in the winter season in Kanazawa, you can apparently watch the locals washing out the starch and dye from silk directly in the river, one of the last steps of the whole hand dyeing process.

The Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall website is http://www.kagayuzen.or.jp/english.html

The kanji sign outside Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall

The entrance of Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall

Map below

View Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall in a larger map

Bowing in Japan, STILL getting used to it!

Every morning on my train journey to school I still watch with fascination the train conductors walking down the train (normal in my book) and before reaching the door to the next carriage turning around and taking one long bow (not normal in my book!)

I have got used to the custom of bowing (o-jigi or お辞儀) when meeting someone for the first time but still haven't quite got used to Japanese people bowing before they go out of a door. The swimmers all do it before they leave the pool at my local leisure, the gym instructors do it before walking out of the door of the gym and the supermarket checkout assistants also do it after handing over your change.



One lady, Fumi who I chatted to whilst I was doing my pool jogging, (new sport for me since I can no longer run) told me that they do it to express gratitude, like a "thank-you for the opportunity to share this pleasure with you" type humility.



So I have now started doing a bit of bowing, probably looking totally amateur but it makes me feel as though I can show some respect in a body language that is native to the Japanese.

Fun shinkansen sushi train at Mori Mori restaurant, Kanazawa

Saturday night I was invited to join the lovely Kimura sensei and family for dinner (along with Nori, my assistant aka the assistant's assistant) in Kanazawa. It's so nice to mingle with teachers out of the school staffroom. They always seem so stressed at school, well its no wonder really. They don't have a single break the entire day and just run about like headless chickens. I'm so glad just an ALT.

Anyway we went to もりもり (Mori Mori sushi) restaurant for dinner. Embarassingly I have to admit this is the first conveyer type sushi restaurant I have been to in Japan, yes and I've lived here 9 months! My friends here are just not that into sushi so we never end up going (although I do buy mountains from Omi Cho market and my local supa)

So I had been doubly excited when I found out we were going to MoriMori as this is restaurant renowned in Kanazawa (probably amongst kids in playgrounds) as the restaurant with a mini shinkansen (bullet train) that delivers sushi to your table. Wicked!

I could hardly contain my excitement when I saw it chug along the track for the first time that evening and I actually screamed with delight. In fact I was more excited than the kids who probably thought it was so old hat.

The girls were adorable though and the elder one Mizuki (10 yrs old) had been learning English and bodly chatted away to me in English. The younger sister Haruka (5) just wanted to practice her ninja dance she'd learnt at nursery school, shes soooo cute!

The sushi was fab. One dish that Nori ordered was called "Hotaruika" (ホタルイカ) which literally means "firefly squid". In my defence I thought I was just eating regular squid sushi at the time but no this is a special squid.

About 4 cm in length and the smallest in the squid pack, these little blighters illuminate the sea just like their firefly pals do on land. They're common both in the Noto Penninsula area as well as Toyama Bay but are apparently expensive in Tokyo. I just read that apparently in Toyama you can go on a tour where the local fisherman will throw them in the air to light up the pre-dawn sky. Yes they went down the hatch. Don't worry my mouth didn't light up like Blackpool illuminations, they were dead!

I can't say they were that tasty, a bit salty but apparently we're eating them out of season. I guess I'd better try again in March....

Mori Mori Sushi on the 6th floor of Forus Shopping Mall, right next to Kanazawa station.

Map below





View Mori Mori Sushi Restaurant, Kanazawa in a larger map

My little niece Tegan's show class. I study.....

Today I had to teach a "show class" at my elementary school. The show class itself is a 45 min class where teachers from around the prefecture come and "observe" your class to get ideas as well as give you constructive feedback. (although the feedback is in Japanese so I rarely get to hear it) Show classes tend to involve a string of gratuitous meetings beforehand, a lot of stress (from the homeroom teacher) and last minute panic!

Note: Only one not wearing those awful masks

This lesson was a 5th grade lesson and was team teaching with my favourite teacher Kimura Sensei. The topic was subjects (I study maths, I study English etc), part of the Eigo Note curriculum, so I suggested I talk for 10 minutes at the beginning of the lesson about my niece Tegan's school in England, their timetable, what they study, what they have for lunch etc and they agreed.

I sent my documents to Nori for translation and to put into Powerpoint and then it dawned on me that most teachers (I guess this is global!) are computer illiterate! Nori had spent half a day trying to lay out a slide so I showed him a few shortcuts. Word went around in the office and the next minute I had been hailed as the computer super whizz kid in the staff room! Hilarious, lots of "segoi's" (amazing) Even kyoto sensei (deputy head) came over for the scoop.

Back to the lesson. All went pretty well. The kids in this class are usually so loud and genki but because it was a show lesson they were sat in some kind of petrified silence, shame! They enjoyed hearing about Tegan's day at school although they couldn't believe that Tegan (unlike most Japanese pupils) doesn't have to clean the school after lunch and that in England kids start primary school as young as 4 1/2 years old.

My "Tegan theme" English board at school

Thanks Benji and Tegan for sending all of the information over!

It's now time to cut the....tuna?!

Is this ACTUALLY for real? Can someone who speaks better Japanese than me please confirm?

From what my eyes are telling me (well this is what I filmed from my TV) these recent newlyweds decided to do away with the customary wedding cake and replace it with, yes believe it, a huge 100kg, 2 metre slab of wet slimy tuna fish (maguro in Japanese). Priceless!

Only in Japan could something as crazy as this ever happen. All respect to the couple for daring to break away from the norm though.....