Fabric and fashion in Japan

Before leaving I researched fabric shops in Osaka and Kyoto. My intention was to buy small off-cuts and fabric to use as background for my embroidered trees. How lucky I wasn’t intending to buy dress material – I could have gone mad! My mental shopping list included vintage pieces, especially in indigo, and I would have loved to find boro fabric. (I am becoming interested in boro material/sewing/quilting, and will talk more about it later. If you are interested this link is a good beginning.)

The first shop to track down was Toraya, in Osaka. Japanese addresses are tricky for the uninitiated so my instructions came from another (English speaking) blogger. This is what I wrote in my book, which seemed perfectly doable on my couch in Melbourne:

Ebisubashi, underground shopping arcade running between Shinsaibashi and Namba stations up the Namba end. Take exit 20 at Namba station, turn right in the street, first right; turn right at ABC Mart; on left.

Mum and I negotiated the subway, with the help of a sweet young woman, and got ourselves to Namba station. Underneath every large Japanese station is a web of shopping malls, with exits leading to hotels, department stores and sometimes even to the world above. We were caught up in this maze and realised that looking for exit 20 was beyond us; we were just longing for a way to fresh air. Eventually, with the help of another woman, we popped up above ground.

A much needed coffee was found at Starbucks. (The coffee-snob in me would never drink Starbucks coffee in Melbourne, but we found in very acceptable in Japan. 😉 ) Out came the map, and, once I had oriented myself, I found out we had come up in exactly the right spot. Right at the entrance to Ebisubashi-Suji! It is a long, very long, covered walkway/mall/pedestrian street, which extended for kilometres up to the area around our hotel.

We were ambling along and then Mum said “Is this the place you are looking for?” I would have walked right on past.

It was material paradise, with the fabric enticingly displayed in lengths. And there was a second floor. The range was extensive, and the prices seemed cheap while the quality good.

 

 

It was hard, but I limited myself to off cuts. I bought this one because it was the colour and weight for my embroidery work.

It is obvious why I couldn’t resist this, even thought the background is quite vivid lime.

And this was an impulse buy. Apron maybe?

In Kyoto Mum and I passed up an opportunity to visit Himeji Castle to go fabric shopping. (Well, we had seen the castle from the train……!) My instructions were more precise but luck still played a part, as we just happened upon Nomura Tailor’s main store. It is another sewer’s paradise and not for the weak-willed! Again, reasonably priced, good quality and extensive range.

 

It was here that I found my scraps and off-cuts, and I had a pleasant time rummaging. This is what I came home with

and…

Quite restrained, really.

The second Nomura Tailor shop, in another long arcade, was more for quilters, and I can  imagine many of my quilting bloggy friends having a wonderful time there! I was only tempted by some threads.

Mum on the other hand…. I have to take some responsibility here. As you know, I love a project, whether it is mine or someone else’s. So, when Mum said in Osaka “I am going to buy this material for a table cloth” I did not say “Hmmm, is that a good idea?” I was all for it. When she saw material in Kyoto that would make perfect serviettes my reaction was “Perfect!” She doesn’t even have a sewing machine! I finally put on my dutiful daughter hat (once we were back in the hotel room, not in the store!) and said that I would take the material and sew it up.

She also bought one of those pre-package, very tempting kits that you embroider and make up into a bag. She loves embroidering, and I was happy to make it up for her. It never crossed our minds that the instructions might be in Japanese!

I mentioned ‘fashion’ in the title. I am never up with fashions and trends, so what I saw in Japan may be common knowledge. I loved the clothes women were wearing.

I had expected to see young women in sailor suit tops and Hello Kitty inspired clothes but I hadn’t expected the simplicity and clean lines that I saw in so many outfits. They were often layered, flowing, lots of wide legged pants, berets and hats, very few florals or bright colours. So comfortable but elegant. The colour of the season seemed to be a mustardy orange colour.

The fabulous fabric stores made me wonder whether many women made their own clothes. I was tempted by a Japanese pattern book, but again, it was, naturally, all in Japanese!

This link will give you a taste of the clothes I was seeing.

Only a couple of regrets…

• I couldn’t find the handcrafted needle shop Misuya-Bari in Kyoto. The instructions told me to look for a pink shop. I can only hope that the pink shop is now another colour and that the needle shop, which has been in the family for 400 years, is still tucked away somewhere in Kyoto.
• I didn’t see any traditional cloth. That will require more research for the next trip. The closest I came was when a chap sat next to me at a diner. He had jeans mended in the boro tradition. I would have loved a photo, but felt that a stranger asking to photograph his thigh might be taken the wrong way!

More blog posts to come, as I want to tell you about Naoshima, the Art island, as well as tempt you with some of the delicious food we ate. This is a link to my previous post about the cities I traveled to.

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Menindee, outback New South Wales

Keep heading north from Mildura and you reach Broken Hill. Then turn south-east along the Menindee Road, drive for about 100 kms or about an hour to come to the township of Menindee.

Menindee is a small country town in outback NSW. It isn’t the sort of place you just stumble across — you have to know that that’s where you are going. However, lots of people have found it, including Burke and Wills. In 1860 their expedition spent a few months here, as it is where Burke established the supply camp.

The aim of the Expedition was to discover an inland route from the south of Australia to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north. I have written about the Expedition before. So, if you are interested, have a look here. A new plaque has been put up outside the Maidens Hotel, where Burke and Wills stayed. This is the map of their journey, from the plaque.

The route of Burke, Wills, Grey and King. (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

The new plaque, outside the Maidens Hotel 

It was because of the Burke and Wills Expedition that the Fella and I headed to Menindee. A group of botanic artists, including myself, have a project to collect (with permission) and then paint the specimens that were collected at Menindee by the doctor on the Expedition, Hermann Beckler. We call ourselves Beckler’s Botanical Beauts. Again, to find out more information about Beckler and my involvement, have a look here.

Can there really be interesting plants here?

The country is dry, red dirt. As you drive along it seems like only saltbushes and the occasional scrubby tree grow here. What’s to find there? Well, plenty. Beckler collected 120 specimens, and that was only some of the species that are out here. Many of the plants are small, growing up in the protection of the bushier ones; or they creep along the ground. Once you stop to look, you can see lots of beauties.

Or here?

It’s a landscape that doesn’t look very promising.

 

 

 

 

 

But once you get out and look, there is plenty to see,

like these…

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

Heads down, finding lovely plant treasures

Next time I will tell you more about the town of Menindee. It was my third year of staying here, and I am becoming very fond of it.

Odds and ends in Mildura

We went to the market in Merbien, about 20 km out of Mildura. The book stall was doing a roaring trade. We helped out by buying 5 books, for only $18. We also bought some vegetables that were so fresh we were still able to eat them over a week later.

I love asparagus and this was fresh and fat. I stood the bunches in cups of water. (For those of you who don’t know caravans, the white thing in front of the asparagus is the pump tap over the sink.)

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

You can see how fresh the eggs were! (I did wash them carefully before breaking them open.)

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

I loved walking down by the river. This duck family only had 12 ducklings. I saw one with 16!

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

How could you not love it when the light is like this in the evening?

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

Mildura

(I have had a quick diversion because I wanted to let you know about the botanic art exhibition in Melbourne. I went to it this morning and, if you are in Melbourne, it is definitely worth a visit. Now I want to get back on the road, and continue to tell you about the caravanning trip I have just finished.)

In the last post about the travels I mentioned that we were headed almost directly north, through the Mallee Country.

Typical Mallee Country — flat road and a wheat silo. (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

Mildura is so different to the little country towns like Hopetoun. It has a population of over 300,000. It bustles, because it isn’t just a one-industry-wheat-town. While some of the industries, such as the big citrus orchards, might be floundering, there are others that may pick up some of that slack. It is a service hub. It is also a point where many routes cross — north to Broken Hill, west to South Australia and further to Western Australia, east to towns further up the Murray, south to Melbourne and north-west to Inland Australia. It makes it a great place for the grey nomads (is that us?!) to stop and revive, and stock up for the next leg of their journey.

Once paddle steamers sailed the Murray, transporting cargo up and down the river. Many of them carried wool from the inland stations along the Murray and the Darling Rivers to ports like Mildura and Echuca, where the bales were shipped to the major cities.

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

There are some quite nice art deco buildings. I even found a latte that was so good I had to have another. And they did suspended coffees!

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

Sunset over the Murray (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

Coffee in Hopetoun

The Fella and I were in the Grampians. Now, in your mind, travel a few hundred kilometres north, away from the craggy outcrops of Mt William and the Pinnacle, through the Mallee country. Flat, wheat growing country. No waterfalls here!

Our coffee stop was at Hopetoun. We went through towns that looked like they were struggling to survive, empty shops with dusty windows. In fact some hadn’t made it. All that was left was a plaque on a fence with something like “Site of the Methodist Church of  (insert town name here)”, or “Site of the (insert town name here) Primary School”. However, Hopetoun seemed to be living up to its name. It appeared to be a town that people cared about and wanted it to survive.

A good example is the coffee shop where we stopped. It was unique in that it was in the butcher’s shop! The shop was huge. They wanted to do something different with the space and decided on the coffee shop. It sounds strange, but it worked (and no meat smell either). The decor had a funky feel to it and the coffee was pretty good. As well, they served slices of local sponge with strawberries and cream!

The coffee shop in the butchers (photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

However, the thing I really loved about Hopetoun was their fountain in the round-about. It was such a sweet little thing that it brought tears to my eyes! I was even more delighted to read about it in the local paper — along with the results of the netball and football teams. Apparently the fountain has only recently been turned on again, after many years of drought.

What a little sweetie! Hopetoun fountain. (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

So the Fella, Alice and I bought some bread and headed off — further north, to Mildura, on the Murrary River.

Introducing Alice

For our first trip to Menindee the Fella and I decided to camp in a tent. We scoured camping shops to find the right one. For me the main consideration was that it be easy to put up and take down. We eventually found one. October came, we packed everything in the back of the ute and took off. Well, the result of us camping in a tent was to decide to buy a caravan!

My main memory of why is of the packing up. We would begin early and still be putting things in boxes, taking them out of boxes and getting frustrated with each other, while caravans smoothly hitched up and went on their way. Also there was no proper lighting in the tent, and that didn’t help either. Thank heavens for the back lighting on my iPad.

The tent (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2012)

So Alice the Caravan came into our lives. We looked at lots, in fact an overwhelming number. We quickly decided that we didn’t need three rooms in the van, nor a washing machine. I decided that I didn’t like most of the interior decoration and colours. You know how it is when you are looking for something, nothing seems right. Then a friend told us to look at a van in the front yard of a place near him. And there was Alice!

Alice at the Flinders Ranges  (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2012)

Like us, she’s not young, but loves an adventure. She doesn’t have an indoor shower or loo, and sometimes, at night, that’s a nuisance. Nor does she have a washing machine. But she does have a little wardrobe with a mirror, and lots of cupboards, a microwave and a dinky exhaust fan over the stove. Everything is very compact. When we are sitting at the table we can reach the sink and the fridge without getting up!

There is a good light over the table. It is a great place to sketch and write. And her crowning glory is her colour scheme — light blue and grey. Not the horrid salmons and pinks of other vans. She has the cutest little blue curtains, with ruffles along the top. Awww…..

On the road. An art-farty shot of Alice travelling behind us. (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2012

The view of Copi Hollow Lake, Menindee, taken out of the window. (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2012)

Why did I call her Alice?

After my grandmother. My grandparents were early caravaners. My grandfather made his own and took the family away to have adventures down at the beach or up in the bush. My grandmother loved travelling, and nothing would faze her.

“Alice, let’s go to the beach,” Grandpa would say, and Nanna would pack up the van and the kids.

Her spirit is strong in Alice the caravan. The name seemed right, from the first time I thought it. I love the idea of saying to Alice the caravan “Let’s go to the beach…the Grampians…Menindee” and her saying back “Yep, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

So let there be lots more adventures!

Alice’s name plaque always brings a smile to my face. My lovely sister cross-stitched this Christmas present for me. :))    (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2012)