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Grey skies overhead
Inspiration underfoot
Japanese design
Even drain covers delight
When the eye is tuned to beauty
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Joining in with Ronovan’s weekly haiku challenge. He gave us the prompt words COVER and COLOUR this week.
Ronovan also invites us to write other forms of poems in the haiku family of poetry. I have gone for a Tanka this week, which is a Haiku 5,7,5 syllable pattern, followed with two lines of 7 syllables each.
Pop over to see Edwina’s Haiku using these prompt words as always she makes me smile! And don’t miss Melissa’s amazingly rich, inspiring and varied post, I don’t know how she does it!
Also joining in with Bluedaisyz Weekly Photo Challenge: prompt word this week GREY
Cathy has entered a great photo taken not too far from where I live, how I love that place. So many different greys, love it!
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As you might have guessed – I’m BACK!
Home after the most amazing trip to Japan – what a wonderful country – I have fallen in love with the place and the people. Already I’m wondering about going back one day. If you ever get the chance to go – GO!
I’m so excited about being able to share my journey with you, although right now I am still recovering as I feel exhausted and have spent most of the last two days in bed recharging the batteries.
I travelled with a group of 11 other textile enthusiasts and our superb Japanese Guide, Yuka.
Jeni was the first to photograph a manhole cover and after that several of us were hooked! Our guide told us there was a website with a collection of the cover designs, and I have just looked that up – incredible designs – click here to see some more.
The manhole cover above was found in Nagoya which is well known for its tie-dye fabrics and we stopped here for a tie-dye workshop whilst on our way from Tokyo to Kyoto. I’ll be sharing more about this workshop and others later – ooooh so much I want to tell you about …. but first I need to sort the hundreds of photos out – hurray for digital cameras!
Next Week’s Photo Prompt is REMEMBER.
Ravelry
Wild Daffodil 
Pingback: RonovanWrites 71st #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Challenge Review | ronovanwrites
I love your tanka! Grey is a colour to be cherished like any other, as you show 🙂
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Oh thank you Jane! What a lovely comment – and I agree – grey is often a good foil for other colours too.
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That manhole cover is so cool. It would be nice to do a rubbing of. Nice to put art into such utilitarian places.
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I do agree, we need more art everywhere!!! It would have been great to do rubbings, but the schedule was so crammed, I had to be content with quick-as-a-flash photos, some blurred as I ran for the bus!
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Ha ha! I wasn’t suggesting that you do a rubbing in the middle of the street (I’m picturing a very busy Asian street with you kneeling in the middle of it!) but wouldn’t that have been a hoot and given the locals something to talk about! 🙂 The photo is brilliant!
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Nagoya was pretty quiet, so I don’t think I would have been mowed down in that town! if I’d been going at my own pace I would probably have stopped and done a few doodle sketches. So glad to have the photos though, I’m sure the designs will turn up in a few mandalas before too long.
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Ooh, that will be so lovely!
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Hi! Love the haiku and what an interesting cover.
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Thanks Vashti. Now I’m home, I can’t stop noticing the patterns on our drain covers too! Not so picturesque, but there are definitely patterns to intrigue.
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Not surprised you are exhausted. Looking forward to hear all about it. The Japanese manhole covers are amazing. Interesting that they include western style letters and numbers.
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Like you I was surprised about the amount of western style lettering on all sorts of things, especially shop signs. And English and US pop music blares out in most of the public spaces – don’t think I heard any Japanese music at all – a bit of a shame really.
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Welcome home. Glad you had a great time!
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Thank you! It really was a brilliant trip.
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Who would have known about such design! Welcome home, looking forward to reading about your trip. Not somewhere I have thought about visiting but am prepared to be converted. Thanks for the mention too.
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You are very welcome Cathy!
Having looked at the images of all the manhole covers it looks like an amazingly rich source of design inspiration, we only saw the tip of the iceberg. I’ve also just heard about an amazing triennial land art event that happens there: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/11/the-largest-art-festival-in-the-world-the-echigo-tsumari-art-triennale/
That might have to be my next big trip!
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Welcome back Daffy!!! Thanks so much for the mention. As usual you have done a superb job with the Haiku and photo challenge combination. What an intricate and delightful manhole cover!
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Thank you Eddie, it is great to be home and getting back into the blogging swing. Who would have thought manhole covers would be an inspiration for design!
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I know! So much effort going into something that is seemingly so mundane!
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Everywhere I looked the Japanese eye for the aesthetic was in evidence – it was truly a 2 week visual feast!
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I am looking forward to hearing (and seeing) all about it!! 🙂
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