January 30-February 3 鶏始乳 The Hens start laying eggs

I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but traditionally, Japanese aristocracy would use the 72 micro seasons as a guide to change their outfits. I originally thought about following that guide as well, but quickly realized changing my outfit once every 4-5 days is hygienically unsound. So that's not going to happen.

I found no chickens, so no photos of hens and eggs.

I did get to go on a tour today around East Osaka, visiting small local crafts workshops. It was surprisingly tiring, spending about 10 hrs traveling to 6 very different types of workshops to view their products and working conditions. We got a bunch of souvenirs out of it, and now I have a very heavy hollow metal "pen stand" I could possibly use as a self-defence weapon. I did get to weld the stand to the bottom, which was neat.

Our first stop was a place that

manufactured burner plates for things like Taiyaki and Takoyaki. The workshop was small for sure, and bloody cold. Remember, no central heating. And I guess sure, when you're actually working there and firing up torches to weld metals together and not just a visiting tourist, it wouldn't feel nearly as cold. Souvenir: small copper dog-tag-like piece of metal. To be used as a keychain, I guess?

The second stop was the place I was most exited to visit on the tour: A Doll Manufacturer. They specialized in the traditional Hinamatsuri (Girl's Day) display doll sets, and we got to see some of the specialists working on construction. They have specialists for each part of the doll, so only a wig master works on the hair, a props specialist works on the props, and so forth. Most of the fabric they use is also especially made for doll-clothing scale, and of course, super expensive. Cutters cut the fabric to make sure the prints on the fabric line up well with the doll body, so really just the same as real

clothing and nothing surprising. It actually looked really fun and I desperately wanted to try putting a doll together too, after watching a worker nail-gun down layer after layer of a doll's kimono collars.
One fun tidbit: the wig shapes are different for Kanto-styled dolls and Kyoto-styled dolls. The wig base for Kyoto-styled dolls do not have the pre-formed front part of the wig, because that allows the real hair that is put on top to be hand-styled, rather than just take the base's shape. Oh how very Kyoto.

Our third stop was a place that manufactured coloured wire. They made colour plastic-covered wire of various core strength, including a type of annealed aluminum core type for crafting. They started out supplying the crafts store Tokyu Hands, and it really took off.

The fourth stop was a place that manufactured nuts. They had a giant nut on the side of their building. The manager who was giving us the tour was so excited to show us the way they marked the side of their binders with a diagonal line as a quick visual way of making sure your binders were in order. We all took photos of their binders.

Stop five was where we welded our metal pen holders. I must have been exhausted by this point because I'm realizing now that I have

no photos of this place. The best part was that they also gave us cups of udon to send us on our way. It was probably the best part of the day, because that afternoon snack came at just the right time and I was starving. Now I'm sad I didn't photograph the tiny cup of udon.

Our last stop was a place that cut sheet metal, and I couldn't hear the majority of the tour as I was shuffled into a corner and beside a computerized water bath die cutter. I heard lots of water. They let us make our own pin badge. I drew Okon (haha~), or a daikon (radish).

I'm really glad I got to take part of this tour, and that the doll stop was so early so I could actually focus and pay attention when I was there. Sadly there wasn't enough time nor opportunity for me to ask any more questions regarding the fabric and motif choice of the doll kimono.