Last Sunday my in-laws and me visited Tokoname, Aichi (near Centrair airport). The Tokoname Boat Racing centre was turned into a pottery fair. To be fair (no pun intended) it was a rather modest fair market type of fair sporting pots, vases, mugs, etc. Tokoname is famous for pottery, and besides all sorts of pottery a fair deal of Tanuki and Manekineko were on display. Tokoname is proud of it’s huge Manekineko statue, which recently became famous thanks to “Nanikore Chin Hyakkei” variety show.
If you are stuck in Centrair waiting for some reason, and maybe you even brought your camera with a tele-zoom, visiting boat racing grounds during the show can be fun. It is only one train station and about 15 minutes walk away…
But, in order not to deviate from the topic for much longer – I bought a Bonsai tree. His newly acquired name is Tomodachi-kun (The Friend). So far, he (indeed “a he”) is living next to my computer screen in a rather modest fashion. He is not a whingeing type, although is not very talkative either, I must admit.
Today we had a first photo shoot. Being an excellent model, he understood straight away what the photographer was after and did his best trying not to move much around. I think it’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship…
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