Hitachi Seaside Park

Trip out of the city!  Tokyo is so big and FULL, sometimes I forget there is the whole rest of the country outside.  Took a train north to the coast to this amazing flower park.  They have things blooming all year, and give you a brochure when you enter that tells you the expected showtime for each month.  The mix of colors was amazing.  So much so my camera wasn't quite sure how to handle it all.

This reminded me of a pool at Yellowstone National Park. 

This is where my camera just wigged out at all the color.

I want to plant these someday. 

Standing on a bridge.  The grape hyacinth were planted to be the stream flowing underneath. 

The AMAZING fields of Baby Blue Eyes. 

The difference a polarizing filter can make.

Pilgrimage to the top of the hill to ring the bell.

Children's Day is coming up, and one of the ways to celebrate is fly these koi windsocks. 

I honestly forget I live on an island until I come across the coastline.

Taking their "babies" to the park.  To push them in a stroller.  Oy. 

While walking up the hill I couldn't help but hum the old "The Bear Went Over the Mountain."  And what I saw was COUNTRYSIDE.  So amazing to see green open spaces!

I liked the bands of color.

Wisteria just beginning to bloom!

Train ride home though rice paddies.

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Commute

So, public transportation.  The Japanese are quite restrained on subways and trains.  Quiet rules.  You can be in a packed car during rush hour and there is NO noise but the sound of the train itself.  And you very rarely see anyone eat or drink--or do anything that might disturb their fellow passengers.  I've even seen a school girl put a finger to her lips to remind her chatting friend to pipe down.  But girls will regularly put on makeup while riding the train, which I can totally understand. Anything for a few extra minutes' sleep in the morning.  But this is the first time I've seen false eyelash application.  The girl on the left was holding the mirror for her friend at first, and giving instructions.  Methinks someone's mother doesn't want her wearing these things.  At least, that's the story I made up in my head.

Kappabashi

Day trip to hunt down the restaurant supply district. Stores to buy everything you need to open your own ramen shop. Or any other kind of restaurant. Or let's be real, stock your own kitchen. Oh so fun!

I do believe we've found it.

The knife chooses the chef, Mr. Potter...

The little ones are smaller than a fingernail.

Blinged out coffee pot?

Not even sure what they're selling, but I want it.

                                                            Street after street of shops like this.

Indigo

Remember when you were a kid and first learned about the color called indigo?  Mysterious, regal, more than blue but not quite purple, making the rainbow into "ROYGBIV"?  Love it.  Thrills me in my guts.  One of my favorite Crayolas.  Japan has a centuries-old love affair with indigo.  Deep like a summer's night sky, indigo-dyed textiles were traditionally made into work clothes, but also kimonos and noren (fabric door curtains) and pillows and table linens and all sorts of glorious things. 
Near my home there is a small shop called Blue and White that specializes in the best of Japanese blue and white crafts, including indigo textiles.  Not machine dyed, but dipped and steeped in huge jars by the few artists who still make it this way, their hands dyed black from years of work, celebrating this color that reminds us of sea and sky.

And I had to buy this book, written by the shop's owner.