Quilt Time Festival, Yokohama Japan, 2019

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What do you get when you combine
Quilt Time Festival
in Yokohama...

...with a Taiko Drum Group performance at the Temples and Shrines of Nikko Japan?

Click on Play Below to See

Downtown Yokohama

Above is a quilt from the show depicting downtown Yokohama and below is a photo from our hotel room window. You can see from looking at the green Ferris wheel that these are both views of downtown but from different angles.

In fact, you can see the hotel window that the photo below was taken from, in the quilt above. Our hotel, the Pacifico Intercontinental, is the building on the right of the quilt, that looks like a giant sail. You can also see that the tapered skyscraper depicted on the far left of the quilt, is the same one on the far right of the photo.

Both have graphics I added for the video so don't expect to see a giant, 3-D sign over downtown Yokohama. But, if you visit, you can get the same view you see in the quilt if you take an evening boat tour of the bay.

View from our hotel room window.

Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall

View from the other side of the hotel.

The low, long building is the Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall where Quilt Time Festival is held.

Quilt Time Festival has been back in Yokohama Japan for the last couple of years. Ritzko and I were excited to be able to show our products at Kanda Shoji's booth at this years show.

Kanda Shoji Co., Ltd., based in Tokyo, is a manufacturer of handicraft goods and also imports and exports fabrics, yarns, beads as well as tools for patchwork and quilting. They couldn't have been more delightful to work with, and, we were thrilled to be able to see the show, and share our tools with the attendees in their booth.

Ritzko in Kanda Shoji's booth,
showing the Quilt Ruler Upgrade Kit.

The day after Quilt Time Festival closed, we boarded a bus heading for the city of Nikko which is about 125 miles Northwest of Yokohama.

We couldn't tell where Yokohama ends and Tokyo begins as we made our way through, but even when we could still see Tokyo behind us, the scenery ahead changed dramatically.

Tightly packed buildings abruptly gave way to open farmland and, not long after, we were curving around lush green hills that soon turned into mountains.

The buses, like most everything in Japan, are very nice and clean and, this way, we didn't have to switch trains with luggage in tow.

Do you see the tiny tower, in the distance, across the river ? That's the, over 2,000 foot tall, Tokyo Skytree. The tallest structure of its kind in the world.

The Shrines and Temples of Nikko

Taiyū-in Reibyō Karamon - 1653

One of the reasons for our destination was to see the Shrines and Temples of Nikko. It's no wonder that this area has been a sacred site for centuries and was a favorite of the Tokugawa Shoguns.

The Shrines and Temples of Nikko complex was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1999. The first buildings were erected there in the 8th century, but most were built in the 1600s during the early Edo, or Tokugawa period.

I found this photo by Koichi Sato on the Wikipedia page about the Shrines and Temples of Nikko. I wanted to include it because, any one of these temples or shrines are amazing to see on their own, but here, incredibly beautiful craftsmanship is everywhere you turn.

You can see parts of several buildings in this picture but there are 103 buildings or structures in the complex. Here, you see just a fraction of what was created centuries ago by amazing artists from all over Japan who were called to Nikko by the Shoguns.

As inspiring as they are to see from a distance, the skill of the artisans explodes when you get up close. The incredible detail of every little thing just blows your mind.

There is a visitors center in the town of Nikko that explains the different techniques and materials used by the artists of that time. You can also visit the Nikko Toshugo Museum near the Toshugo Shrine for more about the history of the complex.

One of the most famous carvings is over a door of the famous Tōshō-gū shrine. You've probably seen some variation of this image known as the, "Three Wise Monkeys," but this is the original.

The monkeys are Japanese macaques and the saying that goes along, in Japanese, is mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru, which translates to, see not, hear not, speak not. It's one of eight panels that are believed to incorporate Confucius's Code of Conduct so, it's common to infer that it's bad or evil that they don't want to see, hear or speak.

Lake Yunoko & Lake Chuzenji

After soaking up the man-made beauty of the Shrines and Temples complex in Nikko, the next day we took a short bus ride up into the mountains and immersed ourselves in the natural beauty of the Lake Chuzenji area.

We boarded the bus right outside our hotel in Nikko and, within minutes, we were winding our way up into the mountains.

Lake Yunoko is a smaller lake above the larger Lake Chuzenji, and that is where we got off.

Lake Yunoko

From Lake Yunoko we followed the trail along the Yukawa River all the way down to Lake Chuzenji.

Waterfalls, along the way.

Last, but not least, Lake Chuzenji and, Kegon Falls (318 ft)

Before leaving, we had to try the shaved ice.

There are many beautiful places in Japan and around the world. But few offer the combination of man-made and natural beauty you'll see in and around Nikko.

(And the shaved ice was delicious)!

What do you get when you combine Quilt Time Festival in Yokohama...

...with a Taiko Drum Group performance at the Temples and Shrines of Nikko Japan?

Click on Play Below to See

Downtown Yokohama

The image above is of a quilt from the show depicting downtown Yokohama and the image below is a photo from our hotel room window.

View from our hotel room window.

You can see from looking at the green Ferris wheel that these are both views of downtown but from different angles.

In fact, you can see the hotel window that the photo was taken from, in first image of downtown depicted in the quilt above.

Our hotel, the Pacifico Intercontinental, is the building on the right of the quilt, that looks like a giant sail. You can also see that the tapered skyscraper depicted on the far left of the quilt, is the same one on the far right of the photo.

Both images have graphics I added for the video so don't expect to see a giant, 3-D sign over downtown Yokohama.

But, if you visit you can get the same view you see in the quilt if you take an evening boat tour of the bay.

View from the other side of the hotel.

Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall

The low, long building is the Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall where Quilt Time Festival is held.

Quilt Time Festival has been back in Yokohama Japan for the last couple of years and, Ritzko and I were excited to be able to show our products at Kanda Shoji's booth at this years how.

Ritzko in Kanda Shoji's booth, showing the
Quilt Ruler Upgrade Kit.

Kanda Shoji Co., Ltd., based in Tokyo, is a manufacturer of handicraft goods and also imports and exports fabrics, yarns, beads as well as tools for patchwork and quilting. They couldn't have been nicer to work with and we were thrilled to be able to see the show and share our tools with the attendees in their booth.

The day after Quilt Time Festival closed, we boarded a bus heading for the city of Nikko which is about 125 miles Northwest of Yokohama.

The buses, like most everything in Japan, are very nice and clean and, this way, we didn't have to switch trains with luggage in tow.

Do you see the tiny tower, in the distance, across the river ? That's the, over 2,000 foot tall, Tokyo Skytree. The tallest structure of its kind in the world.

We couldn't tell where Yokohama ends and Tokyo begins as we made our way through, but even when we could still see Tokyo behind us, the scenery ahead changed dramatically.

Tightly packed buildings suddenly give way to open farmland and, it seemed, just as suddenly we were curving around lush green hills that soon turned into mountains.

The Shrines and Temples of Nikko

One of the reasons for our destination was to see the Shrines and Temples of Nikko. It's no wonder that this area has been a sacred site for centuries and was a favorite of the Tokugawa Shoguns.

Taiyū-in Reibyō Karamon - 1653

I found the photo below by Koichi Sato on the Wikipedia page about the Shrines and Temples of Nikko. I wanted to include it because, any one of these temples or shrines are amazing to see on their own, but here, incredibly beautiful craftsmanship is everywhere you turn.

You can see parts of several buildings in this picture, but there are 103 buildings or structures in the complex. Here, you see just a fraction of what was created centuries ago by amazing artists from all over Japan who were called to Nikko by the Shoguns.

As inspiring as they are to see from a distance, the skill of the artisans explodes when you get up close. The incredible detail of every little thing just blows your mind.

One of the most famous carvings is over a door of the famous Tōshō-gū shrine. You've probably seen some variation of this image known as the, "Three Wise Monkeys," but this is the original.

Lake Yunoko & Lake Chuzenji

We boarded the bus right outside of our hotel in Nikko and, within a few minutes, we were winding our way up into the mountains.

Lake Yunoko

Lake Yunoko is a smaller lake above the larger Lake Chuzenji, and that is where we got off.

From Lake Yunoko we followed the trail along the Yukawa River all the way down to Lake Chuzenji.

Waterfalls, along the way.

Last, but not least, Lake Chuzenji and, Kegon Falls (318 ft)

Before leaving,
we had to try the shaved ice.

There are many beautiful places in Japan and around the world. But few offer the combination of man-made and natural beauty you'll see in and around Nikko.

And the shaved ice
was delicious!