Tokyo day 3

We couldn't leave Asakusa without a photo beside the Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate).  The red lantern is one of the most well-known images of Japan.

This afternoon, we went to the Amuse Museum to see the boromono and the current 'special exhibition' - Nambu Hishizashi aprons.  Here is a quick look -

They were amazing.  I loved the colour scheme of the last one.  It was good to be able to see this technique in real life for the first time, as I know I got the scale and thread count of my fabric about right in the sample I stitched for 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook', but it feels rather odd now that my modern sample comes almost at the top of Google image search results for this technique, if searched for in romanised Japanese. If you search in kanji, you get these results. I'll write more about the museum when I have more time - we are packing to go to Yamagata very early tomorrow morning.

 

This is where we have been staying - the Asakusa Shigetsu Ryokan.  Our Japanese style room was the one directly above Glyn in the photo below.

We are very close to some excellent shops (for me!)

Unfortunately we weren't close enough to this vending machine - I am sure all the vending machines in Asakusa are all non alcoholic because of all the bars in the area.

After getting new fabrics yesterday, we spent today walking around the area and out to Kappabashi-dori, the kitchenware area of the city, where I got some cute tiny baskets - I'll use them for some new pincushion kits.

Shoes were the last thing I expected to be buying, but we found a great shoe shop with hand made shoes from Kobe.  Prices in Japan aren't as high as visitors often imagine - we could easily have spent more for a similar pair of good quality ankle boots in Perth.  It feels like we have been walking our feet off, so a nice foot treat was just right!

More tomorrow...