Monday morning dawned wet and
windy, and I set off through the oh-so-green park one last time for my coffee
from Starbucks and Family Mart sandwiches. Great sandwiches - crusts cut off,
awesome eggs - gonna miss those! And the rockmelon buns. Our luggage stored, we
went to get our airport bus tickets before catching the train from Shiunjuku to
Roppongi - luckily we could walk undercover most of the way. Not so much when
we got to Roppongi, where the weather got a bit wilder, and we got pretty damp!
The first two sections of the Issey Miyake exhibition, I was more fascinated
with the cardboard and perspex mannequins than the clothes, but when I rounded
the corner into the large room - WOW! It was huge, there was stuff everywhere,
and the first major display was 'Pleats Island', with the most spectacular
shibori pleated sculptural pieces! There was a display of the pleating process,
with the actual machine in operation. Hanging from the ceiling were huge rolls
of his APOC dresses, which roll of a machine only needing to be cut out, for
minimal wastage. There were amazing sculptural pieces in horsehair, wool, jute,
ramie - I circled the room many, many times. It was so sad not to be able to
take photos, but you can imagine the chaos it would cause! So I've nabbed some from the internet.
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| Tokyo National Art Centre |
I resisted getting
the exhibition catalogue, as I had already bought another excellent Issey book
at Bunka. Most of the others I can get online too - so didn't risk the extra
weight! It was a cold walk back - the first time I have felt cold here! My
sneakers were absolutely sodden! We had a little time to kill in Shinjuku, so
walked through one of the station malls, and back down into the food hall - a
more upmarket one than the one we went to at Halc, where the food looked like
works of art - and oh, the patisserie!! I succumbed to a cheesy roll, and then a
box of crab leg meat and rice - sadly, the crab leg pieces had been marinated
or dressed in very strong rice wine, I suspect, which completely disguised the
lovely fresh crab taste!! Sad face. I consoled myself with my cheesy bun -
cheese is a rare and expensive beast over here!
We were back at the hotel in
plenty of time for me to change out of my damp clothes - thank goodness I had
planned that - and to weigh our suitcases in the foyer - ALL hotels should have
this!! I originally came in at 29.85kg, then just over that - pretty happy with
that! The walk back to then New Washington Hotel to get the bus to Haneda
airport was excruciating, as I had my suitcase, hand bag full of books, and
backpack with laptop, and of course, heeled shoes. The bus trip was shorter than
expected, although I did manage a sneaky nap, and we arrived at a very quiet
Haneda airport 5 hours early!! I enjoyed my book, and a little walk around,
finally getting into a Lawson's kombini (I have been quite loyal to Family Mart
in my time here) before checking in (31.2kg, no problems!) then queuing up to
go through the departure gate, which consisted of passport and boarding pass
scan as well as the usual palava of laptops and cosmetics out. Of course, they
wanted my shoes off, and twice offered me some sandal/thong things to put on
for the few seconds they were off - errrr, no thanks!! Although I passed
through the scanner with no beeps, there seemed to be some problem, and I got
the pat down. Of course. We then walked
seven miles to our terminal to dump all of our gear, then back another five to
find the bar. And here I sit, plugged into electricity and bubbles, about to
board in half an hour! Sayonara Japan - see you very soon, I hope! Haneda to Sydney went fairly well
- we had great staff looking after us (onya QANTAS!) and after watching 'Carol'
and 'Dirty Harry', I felt tired enough to nap a bit. I had two spare seats next
to me, but no matter what I did could not get comfortable - bits of me kept
falling out into the aisle! I awoke to the smell of coffee and breakfast, and
enjoyed watching 'Red Dog' until landing. We electronically scanned our
passports, but when we got to the gate to be recognised by the camera, it
couldn't recognise me - apparently my new cat ears threw it somewhat! After
clearing through the human gate, it was customs clearance - I was a bit
concerned when they directed me towards the side of the search aisles, but it
was because I had ticked that I had spent more than $900, and after admitting
to buying fabric, shoes and kimonos, no electronics, I was free to go. We then
had to catch the shuttle bus from the International to the Domestic terminal,
just in time to board our next flight. Again with QANTAS, we had awesome staff,
who let me change my seat from my worst nightmare (very back row, middle
seat!!) to an aisle seat next to no-one, and spoiled me by giving me the only
two bottles of bubbles on the flight! It went quickly, and we were touching
down in next to no time, and I was so excited to see my boy! I got straight
into the mission of unpacking, and boring Matt with hundreds of photos! It was
part of my ploy to keep myself going until the TAFE fashion parade, and it
worked. 
My mother, sister and Bunneh
Jenelle were also there, and I think they really enjoyed the show! What an
amazing way to end an incredible semester at TAFE! I was very proud to see my
work and that of my colleagues strut down the aisle. Congratulations all!
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