Japanese Wood Joinery Course - March 2020
Departing Northern Japan for Kyoto and School
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| Last glimpse of Mt. Iwaki in Aomori Prefecture |
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| Shin-Aomori Train Station |
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| ”Helpful” sign in train station restroom |
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| Shinkansen (Bullet Train) speed going to Tokyo |
Our home for March — (roughly 550sf and about standard for the neighborhood)
Cooking dinner at Korean-style BBQ first night in our neighborhood
The Commute Trail
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| Neighborhood Train Station |
| My stop, with walk through Kurumazaki Shrine to school — best commute I’ve ever had |
| First blossoms of spring — Kyoto will be exploding with color soon |
First Day of School — Welcome, introduction to Japanese tools and woodworking, and afternoon hardware store tour
| Roll Call / Student Sign-In — all 4 of us |
| Assorted Japanese Tools: ink pot with bamboo pen, hammers, chisels, hand planes |
| First stop (of many) for required tools |
Dinner at Chinese-themed restaurant in the neighborhood
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| Google Translate at work — Thanks, I’ll have the “Pork and peppers strangely,” please! |
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| . . . and here they are. |
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| Whoops, didn’t see the sign saying, $100 fine for taking photographs — hope the statute of limitations has run |
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| Game on! |
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| A tie, we both drink! |
Lunch . . . so many choices
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| For example, how to choose between “Tomato slimes” and “Special sesame rot”? And, “Museum of boiling (offshore)” has potential. |
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| Definitely get “Striped hockey ware” over “Burnt” |
Jazz Spot Yamatoya — great bar for Jazz, Pour-Over Coffee and Whisky, with huge assortment of jazz on vinyl and great sound system, that just celebrated it’s 50th Anniversary
School - End of Week 1
After a week of sharpening and adjusting tools, we get
to use them before breaking for the weekend!
| Kanna (Japanese hand plane) — shaves so fine you can see light through the shavings (which have about the same thickness and feel of Saran Wrap), and no sanding is necessary! |
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| Yari Ganna/Kanna — Japanese spear plane for carving |
| Our first (very basic) joint |
Walk and Lunch in Downtown Kyoto
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| They still make them the old fashioned way here . . . fried, that is! |
| Sounds harmless enough . . |
| Now we’re talking! |
| Typical car parks in our neighborhood . . . |
| with this one being the winner at 5 stories. |
| Our neighbor’s gnome garden |
| Our neighborhood shrine |
| Fortune from the red box for 100 Yen (just under $1) |
| Lucky 21 — it’s pretty detailed and long and still needs to be translated . . . |
Parting Shot . . .
