...or the fear of missing out ... (50/365, 19 Feb 2022)
I seem to be in a bit of a Dame Nellie Melba phase at the moment, knowing the farewell is imminent but just not sure when it will happen. Thanks Covid. Of course, our movements around the country have been fairly restricted these last two years as well as internationally. (In fact, I noticed this week that it is two years since I returned from my last trip to Australia, on what was to be my last flight now, for two years, precisely.)
I'm not quite sure when I am going to get home, sometime this year maybe, but then work seems to think I'll be on the team for another seven years or so. Of course a part of me wants to get home while the academic in me would/could stay for those seven years.
And so it is, that one of the lovely things usually that one can do when travelling the country unrestricted, is picking up on all the lovely local crafts and the stories, the histories, that go with them. So while we can't do that at the moment, in its stead there are arts and crafts exhibitions in Tokyo that bring people together from around the country, to one place. (How? you ask, with all the restrictions...it has mainly been the large metropolitan residents who have had travel restrictions placed on us, it's a numbers thing; people in the rural areas haven't had quite the same restrictions and indeed for a while there, preferred we city slickers didn't visit.)
So if yesterday was a declared research day, then today was declared a recreation day because tomorrow there is more to be done at work. But also because, probably my favourite of all the craft exhibitions comes to the department store down the track and I've been a pretty regular attendee over the years. Everything there is handmade, and made to be used. Sometimes I see the same exhibitors each year, and they remember me and we pick up on conversations from the year before. It is not quite the same as visiting them in their hometowns and their studios but it is a great pleasure nonetheless. I just enjoy the crafts, and the idea of using them. And they'll make nice presents for friends who visit, when I get home. Eventually.
Today's highlight, well everything really, but the one piece I was particularly interested in was the obento box from Akita, a new variation on a traditional theme. This is one of the lovely things about this exhibit, meeting the young people who have chosen to pursue the crafts, and bring a new dimension to it.
Also, I continue to collect the little sake cups (guinomi), I mean, I don't think one 'needs' this many but...arranged in a certain way, I'm sure they will make a feature at home. Eventually.
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| The Akita obento box, a small sake cup from Hakone, and a proper kitchen knife, finally, after all these years. |
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| A tea caddy, also from Akita, but the more traditional Akita-style, from sakura wood, and an Akita brooch; a lovely Edo kiriko cut-glass sake cup, in the 'aizome', blue dye style; Ohashi (chopsticks, because purple) and an 'aizome' blue-dye scarf from Tokushima in the background |
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| The ohashi (chopsticks) in the foreground (also purple) resting on a hashi rest, both from Hakone; two urushi (lacquered) spoons, and under the cloth, in the box, a special Edo cut-glass for mum... |
Of course, being so close to the now famous Kyoto Tea Shoppe, it was appropriate to finish the day there with a luncheon special of tai (bream) ochazuke, tea and rice in a delicious soup.
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| Lunch, as one must |
Meeting the artisans here is always such a pleasure, and there are always promises to visit 'when we can travel again'...that is why it is hard to leave. I was practically booked into the aizome dying class in Tokushima today... I need a clone...
Today taken with the iPhone 12 mini.
