Yokohama Silk Museum

Tim had to work today.  Not Cool.  

With a Saturday to myself, I decided I didn't want to just sit around and do nothing. Really, we only have so many days in the country and there are many, many things to see before we go.  So I decided to challenge myself.  I rode the trains to Yokohama, the subways through the city and found the Silk Museum and all by myself!  Yay me!

I got to Yokohama without any problems and found my way to correct subway station.  

Once I got out on the street, they had these nice signs to point my way.  Too bad none of them actually had the silk museum on them, but I found a map and figured out where to go.

Here's the map.  See, isn't it obvious?!  I thought so. :-)

I literally stumbled onto the building, because it looks like a giant box.  From the outside, it is definitely not the kind of museum you would see in a place like New York.  A hidden treasure, perhaps?

I quickly realized that no one at the museum spoke any english, but I didn't let that stop me from trying to learn a few extra things.  One of the docents was weaving a Obijime, a thin rope that ties around the Obi.  This rope obviously has many threads to it, the one I got to weave had only 8 pieces.

Here's a reference picture of a kimono that was on display in the museum.  The obijime is the red rope around the center of the obi.  Obviously, this is hanging, so the obi is the folded cloth hanging from the neck.  Oh, and the white egg shaped things at the foot of the kimono...that's 9,000 silkworm cocoons, the amount it takes to make a single kimono.

Following this, I was instructed in the art of loom weaving, but opted out of trying it.  I also didn't take any more pictures.  The museum had a lot of conflicting signs about picture taking, so to avoid getting kicked out, I decided to stop.  While I was leaving, the receptionist at the entrance to the museum handed me a silk worm cocoon!  She kept pointing to the woman in the cocoon area and wouldn't let me give it back, so I'm thinking it was a gift?  The language barrier is difficult.

Overall, it was a fascinating museum.  They had several different kimonos on display, a silk dress from France worn in the 1700s, and some really interesting displays on the manufacturing of silkworms and their cocoons.  I even got to see live silkworms and thread being spun from cocoons.  From an educational stand point, it was really interesting and I'm sure Tim is super glad I didn't drag him there! :-)

After I left the museum, I had some time to kill before I needed to head back to Yokosuka, so I wandered towards the bay.  I happened to come to a ferry/cruise terminal! 

And a map of the area...

The area shaped like an elephant's trunk is where I was, the ferry was off the map on the left-hand side.  At the end of the trunk was an amazing view of downtown Yokohama, the same area where we went out first weekend.

The other direction is where a lot of government buildings are and the largest chinatown outside of China.  :-)  We're going to head there sometime in the future.  The Yokohama BayStars baseball stadium is also in this area.  

I had a really good day in Yokohama and I'm super proud to say that I got there all by myself!  I have to confess though that I did take the wrong train home and ended up adding about 30 minutes to my commute.  Whoops!  I got stuck in, what I like to think of as, "Jumanji."

  

But don't worry, I had some company...

ICHI-RO! ICHI-RO!