Yanai Nishigura Cultural Trip

This month (March) I went on a cultural trip to Yanai to view and make their famous goldfish lanterns.  We have been to Yanai a couple times before, it has the store Mr. Max which is the closest thing to a walmart around, and it's only about 45 min away.  So on the 8th a bunch of us went out there to the old town and had a good time.  The city became known for the goldfish lanterns a very long time ago, when they used to make them for their children, now days they hang all over the city for holidays and special events, and they are even on the sewer covers and other areas of the city.  When we first got there we went immediately to an old soy sauce warehouse that is now a community center of sorts where they make the lanterns and also teach about weaving techniques and other things.  They had already put together the wooden structure of the goldfish with the washi paper covering it (thank goodness, because I would have messed that part up good!)

A and I starting to paint our goldfish!

 

After we painted the red on they had to dry before we could do the rest.

 

All of our goldfish drying

 

Once they were dry we painted the fins and added the black lines and glued them onto the body of the goldfish, and then they were done!

 

My finished goldfish, when I got home, Kyle named him Bubbles :)

A giant goldfish!

 

After we made our lanterns we went out and explored the old town and saw all of the lanterns hanging, which were awesome!

 

Little baby goldfish

Lanterns in the old town

Beautiful mosaic on the street!

 

We decided to save some yen and time so instead of going out to lunch we made a quick stop at a 7-11.  These stores are ALL over Japan, and wildly popular, and for good reason!  They have a huge selection of hot and cold drinks, sushi, salads, sandwiches, all sorts of fresh food items and other yummyness.  We took what we bought and just ate lunch on a park bench in the sunshine before we went to our next stop, it was nice.  So after lunch we made our way to a place called "the willow and the well" which is now in the courtyard of a shrine, but is where Yanai got it's name, apparently Yanai actually means the willow and the well.

 

The willow and the well (behind the willow)

 

A dragon water fountain (to wash your hands before entering the shrine)

Some cool masks that were there

 

 Over all it was a really cool trip, I LOVE when the trips include making something traditional that we get to keep forever! 

"Bubbles" is currently hanging over our dining room table, and Kyle just loves to look and point at it and say BUBBLES!!