Arimatsu trip (tie-dying)

Cute old women demonstrating the craft of Arimatsu (basically tye dying)

Today again I ate a monstrous breakfast which was amazing and then we headed off by car to this little old part of town with a traditional craft of tie-dying: Arimatsu Narumi Shibori Kaikan. This was an amazing sight to see. I recommend you all look this craft up on the internet and watch a video on how it's made. It's amazing. Basically it's tie-dying fabric but better. They take long sheets of fabric and print a design on the fabric. Then they tediously tie tiny knots (hindered upon hundreds) of knots all over the fabric in a pattern. Next they dip the entire fabric in a dye and then undo all the sewing of knots they did. The result is this amazing tie-dyed fabric. Apparently this is the first dyeing technique in Japan.

After seeing the video and a live demonstration of these two very old women sewing we ventured down this old road to this museum which displayed one of those beautiful carts from the festival I saw on my first day with my home family on our way to the garden.

Another amazing Japanese Garden

They explained these carts and how they are 200+ years old. They even showed us a video of the festival.

Next we went down to this old Traditional Japanese house which was built over 100+ years ago. It was so old and looked for fragile. Everything was made out of beautiful wood and Japanese paper. The Garden in the back was so beautiful; it was a true Japanese garden. I'm getting more and more inspired to have my own Japanese Garden at my house. They are so amazing and moving to be in. After the house we headed straight to lunch. OMG, this was the best lunch yet. It was this great fried chicken with this strange brown sauce. It was the first lunch that EVERYONE enjoyed. Usually at each lunch at least one or two people don't like the selections (usually I'm one of those people:) ).

Since we can't wear our shoes inside the house, we have to wear these tiny shoes to go in the back garden. They were not made of fat huge American feet

After lunch we shopped of course. The Arimatsu Fabric is very expensive, but I did find two small pieces to buy. Then we took the train to Nagoya Station. This station is HUGE, it's like a station and 3 story underground mall in one. We all got lost very easily. But one thing we did find was a nice place to sit and have a beer. The beer is good here, it's light beer which is my favorite, and none of this dark beer crap :). Oh and I had chocolate ice cream too. Mmm beer and ice cream, can't go wrong there.

Once home I got another chance to shower since today was very humid like usual and I was drenched in sweat like usual (I’m sure you all wanted to know that).

Me with some Japanese words that i have no idea what they say. It was pretty though :)

..this is the first day we've seen rain. It was nice and I love rain but I hope to not see much more. It's hard to travel with.

And my favorite part of the day was our party we had with all of our host families tonight. It was so much fun being with everyone. I liked being able to meet other peoples in my group host family and see all the kids. They were running every where, it was hectic. My family surprised me with yukata (Which is a traditional Japanese robe) You don't even know....it is so pretty. I felt so privileged to be able to wear it. They are so nice to have gotten that for me.

Mmmm beer

Two other girls from my trip wore Yukata's too. And two guys from our trip bought the male version today to wear. Anywho, we all talked and ate a ton of food and drank or course. Then we (me and my group) got up and sang Old McDonald in English and Japanese for the group. They laughed a lot and we weren't that great, lol. We all gave a little brief description of our selves to the group too which all the home stay families loved. We took lots of group pictures too.

I'm going to be very sad on Sunday, it's my last day with my home stay family. I have become very close with them this past week. I feel like a part of their family and it makes me so sad to think I may never see them again.

My Host Family. Satomi, Me, Haruna & Yo

They have opened up their arms to me and have taken me in and I don't want to leave. Everyday we laugh so much till I cry and I’m going to miss that. The thought of leaving Japan in a week.....no. I'm having too much fun. One thing I have noticed, all of us in my group including me talk very slow and in abbreviated sentences, even when talking to each other. We're all just so used to trying to communicate with our host families.

Well, off to bed....it's going to be a fun event filled weekend.