Paper Wins!

No normal pair of scissors could win against this paper, not to mention the damage it'd do to the rock!

I went to Higashichichibu last weekend with Danny (one of the other teachers). It was about an hour and a half trip to get there and it was a really small place, but it was totally worth it! It was completely surrounded by mountains and secluded from the neighboring town. We watched the people make different parts of the paper and watched them put the designs of flowers and leaves into the paper. After hanging around the 'factory' for a bit we took a walk around the grounds and saw some of the really old equipment that was used. Then before we left we spent over an hour in the shop looking at all of the different kinds of products that they make and it's absolutely amazing to think that it's all made by hand!

After that worthwhile trip we had to get up early the next day too for a trip to the neighboring bonsai village. A couple of the students said they'd take us over there and show us around, which was great because neither of us knew anything about bonsai trees and one of the students raises them. They drove us over there, and I have to admit I was a little worried at times (the streets are so narrow and they drive quite fast for the amount of hairpin turns and people walking in the street). We spent hours looking at all of the trees. some of them were quite young (10-100 years old) but others were over four hundred years old! These older trees were between three and five feet tall and had huge trunks. the trees were twisted and bent in all sorts of cool shapes and designs as well as planted to grow around and over rocks, but my favorite ones were grown around super old, partially fossilized, dead bonsai trees. the old dead parts were white and hard (not even a little brittle) and they had a new/newer tree growing around it following it's shape so that they started to fuse together. They were so cool! Sadly none of the places allowed pictures (but yet we could touch...) since they were basically considered treasures because of the time that they take to grow and the care that they require (here's the site, with some pics: http://members.iinet.net.au/~jold/bonsai-in-asia/japanomiya.html).

Til next time!