Japan and shopping.

My first day in Japan, Tuesday.  Monday evening at 5.20 pm, we landed at Narita International airport. It was pitch dark and cold, Japan is 2 hrs ahead of us in Oz. We caught the Narita express from the airport to the Shinjuku area and our intentions were to walk to the hotel, believed to be only one kilometer, on exiting the Shinjuku station from the east, we found ourselves on a Main Street with five intersections. DH also known as Daniel Boone said we would go this way, and pointed to a street, after a 9 hour flight, a 2 1/2 hr train ride and getting up at 4.30 am, I was not in the mood for walking endlessly up and down streets to find our hotel, so promptly got a cab. The cab ride was 10 mins and the walk if we would have known which way to go would have also been 10 mins. Of course, now being familiar with the area, we now know where the station is located, so will walk tis time as we are off to Kyoto tomorrow.

My goal today was to go to a shopping centre called Takashimaya Times Square, inside this shopping centre is a place called Yuzawaya, which is a bit like an upmarket spotlight at home. The whole 11th floor is dedicated to this shop. I found out about this store by reading an earlier edition of a Quilters  Companion. Liuxin Newman had visited Japan and wrote a column about Japan, in particular this article was about this department store being a craft lovers delight. I was not disappointed and it was very hard to contain myself, 2 hours later and DH wandering about and passing comments. I made a decision to not buy a lot as I would be hauling it all over Japan and made a vow, on our return to Shinjuku in 4 days time, Yuzawaya would be visited again. The stores do not open before 10 am, but this I itself was not a deterrent as whilst we were waiting we were bowed at and presented warm tea. I did mange to buy 4.2mtres of fabric as there was not much on the bolt and felt that it may not be there in 4 days time. I also purchased some sashiko thread and "d "rings for a bag that I am making, the fabric is Yuwa and my little shopping spree set me back $37.

Gourmet delights.

Shinjuku Station, South exit.

Takashimaya, Times Square.

Yuzawaya 

Fabrics galore!

Today we travelled to Kyoto and had a little Japanese culture.

Kimono being modelled.

Some Sumo wrestling, we were amazed at the number of western men competing and training as Sumo's.