I thought that this was the purr~fect picture to use for my Japan post. It is a canvas by Brenda Stofft and it combines my love for cats and my fascination with the Japanese culture. Rumor has it that Tony Minieri has a fabulous stitch guide for this canvas and when I’m ready to start it…and who knows when that will be? I will order it from him.

So my trip! We all meet in San Francisco the day before we leave for Japan and you are probably wondering why I’m going the day before when I am so close to San Fran? Well flights quite often are cancelled because of fog, so I am not taking any chances. I am even flying early enough so if worse came to worse, I could rent a car and drive!

I am sure that there will be some sort of celebatory dinner Friday night amongst us. There are 10 of us plus Mary Alice and Midori san, the latter 2 who have planned this trip. Leaving Saturday, flying into Osaka where we will then take the train to Kyoto. Now is that the bullet train perhaps? A regular train would be nice to see more scenery, but the experience of the other would be awesome!

Staying for 4 days in Kyoto where we will experince Yuzen dyeing, sightseeing, making bamboo baskets, Shibori dyeing and more sightseeing.

The 5th day we travel to a new hotel, visit the Icchiku Kubota Museum, experience Mt. Fuji, monkey theater and shabu-shabu dinner.

Next stop is Tokyo where we will enjoy an evening of sumo watching and dinner. A few days here where we will take in the Sky Tree Aquarium, sightseeing and then a Japanese Bead Embroidery project. Next day is onto Okayama and visiting the Hiroshima Peace Park is on the agenda. Toho bead factory is up next which is a great line of beads such as Miyuki. Originally we were told both bead places, but I don’t see the latter on this new intinerary!

Return back to Kyoto for the last 3 days where we tour museums, more sightseeing such as Golden Pavillion, a textile factory and ooh so much more! and then back home where actually we leave on Saturday morning and I get back home on Saturday mornng. Go figure!

As I write this, maybe I am thinking that I need to bring a little notebook with me or a travel journey. I didn’t do this for London, but maybe for this I should. I am almost ready with all that I (think that I) will need… just need to order my yen (Monday!) and add international travel on my phone.

So you know I need to leave you with a cat something, something! I have been seeing these felted cat caves amongst my friends on Facebook lately. Thinking that I will be leaving my poor cat to fend with her nanny for a bit…why don’t I get her one? I was just starting to look for one, when Warwick’s my favorite La Jolla store (besides the Needle Nook of La Jolla of course!) happened to call me to say “we have a cat something that just came in and you will love it!” well of course curiousity got this cat and I needed a look see.

For me, it was love at first sight…but for AlleyCat not so much. She gave it a thorough catscan and proceeded to walk away and that’s it! and that’s why she is known as “the brat.” But it’s cute and I like looking at it! Maybe sooner or later she curl up inside of it, if not it will be here for the next kitty or kitties that come and live with us. Yes AlleyCat sooner or later that day is coming!

So I want to say that it will be well over a month or more before I check in again… soon after I come back it will be off to the summer trade show too. So see you later!