Bags, Balls, Bunnies, and Subliminal Messages in Asakusabashi

Tokyo's Street of Dolls in Asakusabashi is a mere sixty-six minutes from Yokosuka. You can hop on a train just before 9:00 and waltz into the eight-story paper store just two or three minutes after the shop opens at 10:00. Why don't I go there more often?

The merchants are gearing up for the Year of the Rabbit so we saw lots of bunnies in the doll shop windows and a few sad tigers in the sales bins.  Sakura Horikiri, a three-story craft supply store hidden away on a side street across from the paper store, had bunnies hopping across washi paper in every color of the rainbow and kits for crafty people who want to hang bunnies on their walls or dangle them from their cell phones.  Reminding myself that I still haven't done anything with the washi paper and craft kits I bought the last two times I visited Sakura Horikiri, I bought just a few rolls of paper. 

Self-control?  Not hardly, but credit me with a bit of progress in the deferred gratification department.  Sakura Horikiri is bringing a few truckloads of craft supplies and paper to Yokosuka next week.  Why lug the stuff home on the train when a quick sprint across Route 16 is an option?

 As we were wandering up that little side street toward Sakura Horikiri, Mary Beth and Sue -- I am still working on appropriate nicknames -- started rummaging through a sales bin outside a little shop on the left. They spotted wooden kimekomi forms in the shape of tigers. Could there be balls inside?  Be still my heart.  I have searched high and low for wooden balls since February when the Ikebana ladies showed me how easy it is to cover these balls with fabric. Many stores offer styrofoam balls but they don't appeal to me, i.e., I'm pretty sure the end result would be a table covered with styrofoam crumbs.


Wooden kimekomi balls and holiday treat bags

We ventured into the shop and, lo and behold, spotted wooden balls. Four different sizes of wooden balls, to be exact! But if you are in the market for wooden balls, you might want to wait a week or so before you hop a plane or train to Tokyo. The shop will need that long to restock its shelves.


We hit the paper store on our way back to the subway. Gleefully clutching my wooden balls, I skipped down aisle after aisle of school supplies and paper products until a display of notebooks stopped me in my tracks.

Have you ever heard a notebook try to clear its throat? Trust me, it's not a pleasant sound. "Ahem! What's with the balls? Weren't you supposed to be finding Christmas trinkets for a couple of dozen great-nieces and -nephews today? The generation that's multiplying like rabbits?"

"What can I do? I've squandered most of my yen on wooden balls!" I wailed as Japanese shoppers cast wary (albeit excruciatingly polite) glances in the direction of the gaijin lady who seemed to be conversing with a notebook.

"Make this the Year of the Japanese Treats," advised the notebook. "And don't even think of reaching for the small treat bags.  You have enough yen left to buy the larger bags." Hai.

Sniffing Glue with the Shonan Ladies

The Shonan Ladies recycled cardboard into little trays today at a community center behind the JR train station. Now I know what to do with that ton of washi paper I've been carting around for the past couple years. Now pay attention:





1. Our Japanese hosts cut circles and rectangles from cardboard boxes.










2. We used two kinds of glue, white to fasten bamboo edges and handles to the cardboard and clear to cover the trays with washi paper.

3. Rubber bands kept the bamboo edges in place until the glue dried.

4. We glued Japanese tissue paper to the bottom of our trays to create a smooth surface.










5. We covered the trays with washi paper.









Most of us accomplished this project with minimal assistance from our hosts but one of us just selected washi paper and then sat back and watched two nice Japanese ladies do all the work. Mimi is my hero.