We’re having a fine time here. The day before yesterday it rained all day, so we spent the day indoors in train stations and shopping malls, poking around, buying a few souvenirs and a couple of rain jackets. (Yes, we didn’t pack jackets. We expected it to be warm here, and we were right. We didn’t expect rain, however. Duh. It is an island, after all…) I bought a jacket the color of matcha, once again noticing that the Japanese tend to favor hues unlike those commonly found in the US.
Yesterday we made our traditional trip to Kamakura to see the Great Buddha. We also spent more time in Kamakura itself than on recent visits. Tracie wanted to go to a particular washi store (since obviously we need more Japanese paper) and I wanted to go to a bookstore in which I’d found a couple of origami books some years ago. We went to both places, found some washi note pads and a book on origami flowers, and also picked up several tenugui at a shop that specializes in the things (since we need more tenugui almost as much as we need Japanese paper). I made the young woman at the tenugui shop very happy by presenting her with a butterfly I folded using paper from the washi shop.
Today we’re heading for Ginza, a part of Tokyo known for its spectacular architecture, spectacular array of high-end retail and department stores, and spectacular ability to part one from spectacular amounts of money.
