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Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Travel Tuesday - Japan

I’ve been fascinated with Japan and its culture since I was 14. I’m not sure why, but I really wanted to learn the language and remember going to the library to borrow a cassette and bought a book too. I didn’t get very far. I’m reading a book at the moment called ‘Japan, Through the Looking Glass’ by Alan MacFarlane (actually, I’ve been reading it for a couple of years but don’t seem to have time to read more than a page at a time nowadays!). I’ve discovered that Japanese is a wonderfully complex language.

Later, at university, I took a unit called The Japanese Business Environment. It was one of my favourite modules. Every lecture I sat engrossed listening to how Japan’s history has shaped the country and its people today. The Japanese have a unique way of dealing with people in business. I’m sure you’ve heard they never like to say ‘no’.

Since then, I’ve come to love everything Japanese – from fine art to Kawaii. I love their politeness and their not wanting to offend. I sometimes wonder if I was Japanese in a past life! I feel I can really relate to their culture and always feel a kind of empathy when I meet someone from Japan. Although, having said that, there was one thing in the book that surprised me and that was that blood relations don’t necessarily have a closer relationship than a friend. Anyone can become an important part of the family. I can’t quite imagine that myself.

Anyway, hopefully one day I’ll get to visit Japan. For now, I can just read and dream... So... that’s a bit about where I’d like to go, but I'm going to try and blog about a place I have actually been to on a Tuesday. I would say every week, but I very much doubt that will happen! It will definitely be on a Tuesday though, just so I can call it Travel Tuesday!

P.S. If you’re wondering what on earth these notepads have to do with Japan, then I’ll tell you that I handbound them using a traditional Japanese stab-stitch method! Click on the bumble bee notepad to buy in my Dear Duck shop. To purchase the other notepads, please drop me an e-mail.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Japan on Folksy!

To celebrate the first of my new range of Japanese stab-stitched books, I thought I would showcase some wonderful Japanese-inspired items from the talented world of Folksy.

I've been fascinated by Japanese culture since I was 14. I remember borrowing a book and a tape (yes, it was a while ago...) from the library and attempting to learn the language. I'm not usually one to give up on things, but Japanese isn't the easiest language to learn. I thought I'd be better off concentrating on my German and French at school. Then when I was at university I was really pleased to be able to study a unit called the 'Japanese Business Environment'. It was so interesting to see how Japan's history and culture influence today's business world.
Anyway, I'm really happy to now combine my love of Japanese culture, books and photography into notebooks like these:
So here we go. First up, cook in style with this Geisha print apron from Sugarsnap:






Wonderful origami crane earrings made by Satoko's Origami:














A gorgeous way to wrap a present using this red and green floral furoshiki by Myfuroshiki:













Pandas are my favourite animal, so I just had to include this cute mirror by lilidrawspictures:















I love visiting Japanese gardens. This gorgeous mosaic piece represents an abstract garden, made by La Parisienne:












MochiPan's handmade and handpainted Ginger Bun Doll would make a great gift for doll lovers:











And last but certainly not least is this gorgeous 'Friendship' pendant from Wyrley Bird Studios:












Click on any of the images to go straight to the seller's Folksy shop. Hope you enjoyed looking!

PS Does anyone else have trouble with paragraph spacing on their blog??