China Drums and Fire works

This moring we decided not to have a plan for the day. We started out the day by going to Noritake garden and workshop. Noritake makes China. We went through the factory and learned the different steps for plate and decoration making. It involved a lot of steps, a lot of putting smaller piece onto bigger pieces, and a lot of talent. I could not do it! We saw them do hand painting. It LOOKED pretty easy... but when it came time to paint a plate OURSELVES it was more stressful that trying to find our way around Kyoto. We both painted a plate that will be sent to us in the US. I found it very difficult to be creative.... and even more difficult to paint well or straight on the plate. I found most enjoyment in mixing the colors. We went shopping around the Noritake store but many things were to difficult to bring home. We spent about 4 hours on our Noritake adventure... i don't know if it was the best china, but it was interesting to watch.

We went to Osu Temple in Nagoya. It was pretty busy. There was a carnival going on around it. THere was life music at a stage by the temple and then a bunch of shopping arcades with some performers. It wasn't terribly exciting, but there was a live drum group that was cool. Jan also found people who were collecting $$ to train guide dogs... we gave them some of our spare change.

We then jumped on the train to go to Toyotashi for the Oiden fireworks. We met Ted to eat... I had fried squid and chicken skin... not my favorite. We walk through the hundreds of people to try to find a place to sit. Many of the women were wearing Yukatas, but i didn't becuase I don't think i could do it myself.... it has like a 4 page instruction manual! The fireworks lasted for ever. It was like an american "grand finale" for about 1.5 hours. THen we decided to leave because it was still going on and there were 40,ooo people who needed to get home. We left to beat the rush.

I am excited that it is my last week... it has been fun with Jan, but she has her last full day here tomorrow. We will meet for dinner and then Tuesday I am on my own until I arrive home! I can't wait!

Here are the pictures for today. I took about 70 from Kyoto so it is taking me time to get a good representation of them.