travel – The Crochet Architect

April 30, 2019

Japan Trip Highlights

My hubby and I had so much fun on our trip to Japan last month! When our youngest son told us that he was going to be in Japan for 3 months for his work, we decided to take a trip to Japan, as well. We just couldn’t pass up that opportunity, especially since we could spend time with our son and have him as a bit of a “tour guide” to help us some days (when he didn’t have to work)! After the 10-hour flight to Tokyo, we took the shinkansen (the bullet train) to Kyoto that same day. We spent 4 days in Kyoto, then took the shinkansen back to Tokyo, where we spent another 7 days. The trains in Japan are very comfortable to ride. Everyone has their own seat and the seats rotate 180 degrees so 4-6 people can face each other. I never got a good photo of the bullet train when it came into the station, but here’s a photo of a bullet train in the railway museum in Kyoto, where we went one day:

As you can see, the bullet trains (aka: shinkansen) are very sleek and stylish!

Here are the highlights from our trip (in no particular order):

Besides touring the Nihon Vogue facilities in Tokyo (which I blogged about several weeks ago), our day in Arashiyama, outside of Kyoto, was the next best thing during the whole trip (it was also what we did the first full day we were there)! We rented kimonos and rode in rickshaws! How cool is that? We saw the monkeys in Arashiyama and the bamboo forest, as well. What a fun day!!!

Another fun thing we did was go to the Toyota Commemorative Museum in Nagoya (on the way back to Tokyo). I thought the museum was only going to have Toyota cars, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of the museum was dedicated to spinning and weaving! Wow! They showed the history of spinning with spinning wheels and lots of spinning machines. They had a ton of weaving machines, as well. It was all so interesting!!! In fact, I decided to look at the spinning and weaving displays/demonstrations again while my husband and son looked at the part of the museum with the cars!

I was fascinated by this manual spinning wheel for spinning yarn/cotton directly onto a drop spindle! I’ve never seen anything like this before and I think it would make drop spindle spinning much faster!

This is a portion of one of the yarn/thread spinning machines. They had so many machines on display and demonstrated many of them.

This machine wove intricate tapestries very fast! It was amazing!

There were way too many spinning and weaving machines for me to show you. This was a VERY fascinating museum to see!

We took a day trip from Tokyo to Hakone, where I saw Mt. Fuji for the first time! My husband had been to Japan while he was in the US Navy back in the 70’s, so he had already seen Mt. Fuji. Hakone was a wonderful place! We rode the cable cars, the rope cars and the pirate ship. If you’re not familiar with the term “rope car”, it’s another name for an aerial tram that takes you to the top of a mountain. Here are some photos from that day:

We saw some other interesting and fascinating things in Japan, too.

One day my husband and I went to the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum in Saitama (Tokyo). It was amazing to see the bonsai they had there! They had an inside museum with lots of information about bonsai. An English-speaking woman gave us a tour that was great! And we got to see all the bonsai on display outside. They were so interesting and beautiful! These are a few of them, along with a view of the outside display area:

We saw lots of beautiful views from the Tokyo Metropolitan Building observation deck and from the 38^th or 39^th floor of the building where our son was working in the Ebisu area of Tokyo!

We went to Yoyogi Park one morning, where we saw the Cherry Blossoms (Sakura) in full bloom! They were gorgeous!!!

We saw a really unique escalator in Tokyo, too. It was surrounded by mirrors that gave a “prism” look to everything around it! It was really cool! This is the photo that our son took:

And our son took us to the largest Starbucks in the world in Tokyo! It’s 4 floors high and opened in February, 2019! It’s a “Starbucks Reserve Roastery”. This one is 32,000 square feet (that’s 2,000 square feet larger than the one they opened in December, 2017 in Shanghai, China)! It’s HUGE!!! If you’d like to read more about this new Starbucks in Tokyo, check out this article by CNN last February.

We even went to the Costco store in Tokyo! That was a lot of fun! My husband and I each bought a shirt/top as a souvenir and some Kit Kats to give to our family and friends. The Tokyo Costco had a different menu in their food court. They had hamburgers, so we decided to split a double hamburger for dinner that night. It was very good!

We ate at all kinds of restaurants, as well as picking up things to eat at the corner 7-11 or Family Mart quickly and inexpensively. Tokyo has convenience stores in almost every block, which makes it “convenient” to grab something to eat when you’re hungry! We even ate sushi with our son one day for lunch! It was really good and fresh, made right in front of us!

Japan was a very clean place. The subways and trains were convenient, clean and not that crowded (even in rush hour). Yes, you feel like a sardine, but somehow it wasn’t that bad (maybe because we’ve already navigated the subway systems in Beijing and London!).

We felt that the people in Japan were friendly and helpful. We even asked a stranger for help when we needed to catch the correct bus to get somewhere.

There were English signs everywhere in Japan, so it wasn’t as hard to navigate as in China, where there aren’t as many English signs.

One of the big differences in Japan was the size of the hotel rooms. They have very small hotel rooms, probably so they can fit more rooms into each hotel. In the US, we’re used to hotel rooms with plenty of room. But in Japan, they’re quite a bit smaller than here. But that’s okay because we don’t travel to stay in the hotel rooms. We travel to see the sights! We just need a clean place to sleep, shower and change clothes. Below are a few pictures of the 2 hotel rooms where we stayed.

This was the very small room where we stayed in Kyoto. The bed was pretty small and was only accessible from one side and the foot of the bed. The bathroom seemed like a bathroom you’d find in a travel trailer or motor home. You had to step up into it! That was very different. It was a clean room and served its purpose for the price we wanted to spend (around $80/night), so it was fine.

This was the room where we stayed in Tokyo. It was close to a subway/train station and had lots of places to eat nearby (I think all of Tokyo has places to eat nearby!). It was clean and a little larger than the hotel room in Kyoto. It even had a small washer/dryer combo in the room so we could do a load of laundry. And the bed was accessible from both sides with small nightstands on each side. What luxury!

Oh, I almost forgot! A lot of places in Japan have “heated” toilet seats! Need I say more?

We loved our trip to Japan and would go back in a heartbeat! What lovely memories we made and beautiful sights we saw!

Where is your favorite place to travel? What do you like to see when you’re traveling?

I hope you’re able to travel (if you have that desire) and enjoy life with the ones you love!

Until next time!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

August 21, 2017

2017 CGOA Conference Afterglow!

I’ve been back from the CGOA Conference in Chicago for 3 weeks now and I thought I’d share some of the highlights of the conference this year for me!

I taught 6 crochet classes this year: Beginning and Intermediate Filet Crochet, Beginning and Intermediate Bruges Lace Crochet and 2 classes of Invisible Repairs. For more information about any of these classes, check out my previous blog post here. My smallest class had 11 students and my largest class was sold out at 25 students! I had the best students in each of my classes this year! I met so many nice, encouraging, friendly crocheters in every class and at every event!!! My dog had run into my left foot the Saturday before the conference, giving me a huge bruise and a very tender foot, so I was hobbling around a lot before and during the conference. My students were very understanding and let me sit down a lot, bringing their crochet pieces and questions to me most of the time! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting each student and sharing my crochet knowledge with them!!!

Here are some photos of my happy students from each class:

Left Side of Beginning Bruges Lace class on Wed night

Right Side of Beginning Bruges Lace class on Wed night

Left Side of Beginning Filet Crochet class on Thur AM

Right Side of Beginning Filet Crochet class on Thur AM

Some students in Invisible Repairs class on Fri AM

All students in Invisible Repairs class on Fri PM

Left Side of Intermediate Filet Crochet class on Sat AM

Right Side of Intermediate Filet Crochet class on Sat AM

Left Side of Intermediate Bruges Lace class on Sat PM

Right Side of Intermediate Bruges Lace class on Sat PM

You probably can’t notice from the small size of these photos that one of my students took all 5 of my classes this year! Her name is Robin and she’s a wonderful crocheter and student! Here we both are in the last class:

Here’s another student, Gwen, from that same class wearing her amazing crochet lace top that she made:

And here is Corina from my afternoon Invisible Repairs class:

Corina is from Romania. She had contacted me through Ravelry a week before the conference asking a question about one of my designs. I noticed that she lived locally to Chicago and told her about the conference. I had no idea that she would actually attend the conference, let alone take one of my classes! And it was her birthday, too! Happy belated birthday, Corina!

I hope to see all of my students at next year’s CGOA Conference to be held in Portland, Oregon from July 25-28, 2018.

Another fun event at the conference, besides classes, is the Design Competition. I entered a shawl that I designed this year and I won an Honorable Mention! Here’s the shawl, which I’ve named Blazing Embers Lace Shawl. I designed it based upon a really pretty doily that I crocheted a number of years ago. Obviously this isn’t a doily! I’m pleased with how it turned out and will self-publish the pattern one of these days/weeks/months/years, when I get the chance!!!

Here’s a photo of the Design Competition display at the conference:

The Design Competition display was set up in the same room as the crochet lounge, which was sponsored by Red Heart Yarn. Red Heart set up an amazing display, designed and crocheted by Gina Rose Gallina called Queen Bee. Here’s that amazing display, along with Gina herself:

Queen Bee display with Gina Rose Gallina

At the end of the conference, on Saturday night, we had our banquet and fashion show, which is always so much fun! We also had the induction ceremony for this year’s CGOA Jean Leinhauser Crochet Hall of Fame award. This year, the award went to Carol Alexander, who was a crochet designer for many years before becoming the editor of Crochet! magazine (a magazine published by Annie’s). Here’s Carol giving her acceptance speech:

2017 CGOA Hall of Fame winner, Carol Alexander

And here’s the loot from the goody bag that I came home with this year! What a haul!!!

If you’ve never been to a CGOA Conference, I hope you’ll take the plunge and attend one (or more)! You’ll learn so much, meet awesome crocheters and make life-long friends!

Until next time!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

May 22, 2015

Jetlag is No Fun!

Have you ever taken a trip to somewhere very far away (like on the other side of the world) and had major jetlag? Well, I think I’m finally over the jetlag and things are looking up (at least I can think mostly clear again!). Let me tell you about my trip and the fun that I enjoyed there!

My husband and I just returned last week from a 2 ½ week trip to China. That’s right, we were on the other side of the world! It’s so amazing to me that you can get in a plane on one side of the world and arrive 10-12 hours later on the other side of the world! That just blows my mind!!! We stayed with our 2 sons and daughter-in-law who are currently living in Beijing. We had so much fun there with all 3 kids (they’re actually young adults in their 20’s)! The food was amazing and the people were very friendly (at least all of our kids’ friends were). We went to the great wall (at the Badaling location) just outside Beijing and saw the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi’an. Both of these were amazing!!! Here are a few photos of those two places:

These 2 places were some of the highlights of our trip. But we went to see so many more places than just these two. We saw the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City, both in Beijing. We also went to the National Museum of China in Beijing, just across the street from Tiananmen Square. And we rode bicycles on top of the city wall in Xi’an, too! There were so many interesting things to see and do. We rode the subway in Beijing most days (sometimes like sardines at rush hour!). We took buses and trains, too (including a sleeper train from Beijing to Xi’an and back). We walked and walked and walked! My husband had an app on his smart phone that counted our steps. We walked between 10,000 and 17,000 steps most days!!! We really got our exercise! And speaking of exercise, our kids live on the 6^th floor of a building in Beijing (with no elevator), so we walked up and down the 84 steps to get to their apartment every day (and sometimes twice a day!). The soles on my new shoes got a year’s worth of wear in just 16 days!!! But I’m not complaining. The trip was fabulous and we enjoyed the time we spent with our kids tremendously!!! We wouldn’t trade it for the world! We even learned to use a “squatty potty”! If you don’t know what that is, here’s a photo of a clean one at the Great Wall:

Believe me, they weren’t clean everywhere we went, especially at the train stations! If you’ve never used one before, it’s very interesting! They aren’t terribly comfortable and easy to use like our “western” toilets, but you get the job done and get out right away! And hopefully you don’t lose your balance while squatting (ask me how I know)!

Here are some of the “delicacies” that we saw in Beijing and Xi’an:

These are scorpions, starfish and squid on sticks! Some people actually eat these in China! Yuck!!!

Anyway, I did a few “fibery” fun things while there, too. First, I taught about a dozen Chinese women to crochet. My daughter-in-law helped set up the dates for me to teach the women while I was there. These women have been exploited in the past and are finding new ways to earn a living, like making jewelry to sell. It was a huge blessing to be able to teach them to crochet. They all loved it and 2 men there learned to crochet, as well (one of the men was very excited to crochet a necklace). I can’t show you photos of the women (for their own safety), but I can show you some of the projects they made during the 2 classes.

Chinese Women's Coasters — Chinese Women’s Coasters

Chinese woman with her necklace and coaster

I taught them to make some beginner projects. We made chain necklaces and single crochet spiral coasters. Some of them had crocheted before and some spoke English, so they could help each other and translate for those who didn’t speak English (I only know a small amount of Mandarin; just enough to be “dangerous”!). They all enjoyed learning to crochet and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching them. I’m so glad that I could play at least a little part in these young women’s lives.

I took a suitcase full of yarn and crochet hooks for them. Before I went, I asked my local knit & crochet group if anyone had some extra H, I or J crochet hooks for these women. The ladies in my group donated over 80 spare crochet hooks! Wow! I was blown away by their generosity! So I took all of the hooks, along with a few extras of my own, and left all of the hooks and yarn with the women in China! I pray that God will bless these women through this small act. Here’s a photo of the donated crochet hooks for China:

The other fun “fibery” thing I did was buy some Chinese knit and crochet books (I can’t decide which one I love more: yarn or patterns!). One day while we were in Beijing, my husband, youngest son and I went to a Chinese book store that was many floors tall. After looking around for a long time, we found the knit and crochet section of the store! I felt like a kid in a candy shop!!! I bought 6 knit and crochet books that are fabulous (and cheap!). All 6 books cost only $39.50 total! They would have been more than double that price here in the US! Here’s a photo of the books I bought:

No, they’re not written in English! But they have knit and crochet charts that I can read just fine (well, I’m still learning to read knitting charts, but I’ll learn more about those very soon). The projects inside these books are very nice. Here are just a few of my favorites: