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What are your likes and dislikes about Japan?: I have spent almost twenty years studying some kind of Japanese traditional art. For several years I studied ink painting and following that tea ceremony. Japanese textiles and folk crafts are the things that have kept me here.
It's frustrating to see such gross consumerism and waste when there is such a rich heritage of beautiful architecture, clothing and everyday objects. I know many potters and craftspeople who barely make a living as the general population prefers to buy throw away clothes etc. I wish they would buy good hand made things and take care of them for a long time. It would be small step on being easier on the environment.

About Me:: I live and work in an old farmhouse just outside Tokyo. I grow a crop of indigo every summer, ferment it in the winter and start indigo dying with it in the spring. I dye thread to weave, and cloth using traditional stencil dying techniques(katazome) and shibori. I teach this to the locals.
In spring I raise silkworms and from the cocoons I reel/spin silk and then use roots and barks etc. to dye it. Then I weave it on a traditional loom. I make kimono or obi or material for small Japanese bags.

I have classes at my house to study traditional Japanese textile techniques. I am about one hour from Shinjuku, near Mt Takao on the Keio and Chuo lines.