Osaka 🚄 Kyoto October 11, 2016

Mäneka:

Travel day today. We indulged in the limited breakfast selection in the Spanish restaurant adjacent to the hotel. The egg yolks were stunningly orange. However I do not like eggs so the whole joint had a rather upsetting scent for me. The mini hot dogs had loose skin on the ends and the bacon was floppy rather than crisp. If you are staying at the Fraser Residence Osaka I recommend eating the expanded breakfast at Namba Parlour instead.

Tangent: Speaking of Namba, Namba has two outstanding malls– Namba City and the luxurious Namba Parks. I purchased a shiny olive bomber jacket from a store called Ciaopanic. Retail outlets have the best names here.They tend to consist of unexpected word combinations such as Opaque Clip, United Arrows, or Hysteric Glamour. Currently they are promoting Nambaland Halloween 2016. This means most stores have inflatable jack-o-lanterns displayed and some special themed items. Bakeries and coffee shops have ghost-shaped or pumpkin-flavored items. They do pumpkin for real, with actual squash and/or pepitas in the food. None of this “pumpkin spice” business. By the end of our stay in Osaka, I was sad to bid adieu to Namba Parks/City, my new favorite mall.

The subsequent train ride to Kyoto was a short one, though it was the first time we had been on a smelly train car. Once we arrived at Kyoto station it was high time to try the McDonald’s Halloween choco-pumpkin fries. They taste exactly like they sound like, i.e. McDonald’s fries with icing squirted on them. No more, no less.

After this quick snack, we stopped at a temple with a small flock of adorable pigeon denizens. This is not the first time I have spotted pigeon-friends on temple grounds. Who knew they were such pious birds. 🐦⛩

Then it was time for our shibori (fabric dying) class at the Kyoto Shibori Museum. We dyed silk scarves using the kyo-arashi shibori technique, a more modern method in which fabric is wound around a pole, wrapped with string, scrunched down, and dyed. A pleasing fishtail-type pattern is the result and the pattern is a surprise when it is unveiled at the end.

We were taught by two able instructors Nina (Nanami) and Ryo, who both spoke excellent English. Ryo had spent a good deal of time in Sydney and had a strong Aussie accent while Nina had studied in Mississippi, but did not have a Southern drawl.

Kamala, Lori and I dyed our scarves blue, while Linda and Balaram opted for purple. This color required a preliminary dip in red followed by the blue dye.

We were then told that we would have to reveal our scarves individually with the director of the museum, who appeared to be a solemn man. A couple of us were nervous that we were about to be chided for sub-par shibori. He turned out to be something of a ham, however, and unfurled our scarves one by one with a flourish.

While our scarves dried we watched a five minute video on shibori techniques in which the audio inexplicably faded out mid-sentence and then perused the museum collection of shibori fabric. The intricacy of the knotting techniques is absolutely stunning. However, it was saddening to learn that there are only a handful of artisans left in Kyoto who know these techniques and this art will likely die with them.

After Kamala and Linda took a short ride with a short (in temperament) driver we settled in at our Kyoto place and opted for a late-night fish dinner at The Cube (or The Box as Balaram erroneously called it). The Cube had a Halloween-themed light show on its steps. We watched until the stair lights gracefully kicked us out with the message “Good night. Sweet dreams.”