The Golden Chopsticks

Posted by Emily

We left Ellen's town on Sunday and headed to Kanazawa, a much larger town to the SW of Murakami. We arrived there a bit too late in the afternoon to check out the tourist sights so we did a lot of aimless walking around, part of which involved looking for a decent place to eat. We thought that we were following the directions in the guide book, but anyone who has ever traveled with a guide book knows that they aren't always correct or easy to follow. We found a restaurant that was supposed to be near the one that we were looking for but never the one we wanted. It was also pouring rain so that didn't really help the search. We finally found a place that was open (it was also about 4:30 pm so it was not the ideal time to be looking for a restaurant).

After dinner we walked randomly around the streets near downtown, coming across a park near the famous garden in the city, the contemporary art museum (closed but still cool to look in through the giant glass windows), the mall (I never thought I would see so many designer stores in one spot....I don't think that was abnormal) and finally back to our hotel.

We got up quite early the next day in order to make it to a gold leaf shop early enough in the morning so that we would be able to make our own gold leaf chop sticks. It ended up being pretty long and hot walk but we successfully found the store that we were looking for and got to sit in the air-conditioning once we arrived. Gold leaf is 1/10 mm thick gold. It is created by repeatedly pounding the gold into thinner and thinner sheets over several days and using several different processes. The result is sheet of gold so thin that it is transparent. The store connected to the little shop where you can make the chopsticks is full of many different crafts created using the golf leaf: chopsticks, plates, pottery, golf balls, beads, etc. Most items are only covered partially. The largest and most expensive items were the large screens (the kind that you would put on the floor in the corner of a room as a decoration) decorated with intricate gold designs. Some cost as much as $22,000,

There were other more unusual items as well, such as tea, soap, lotion and candy with gold leaf flecks in them. We were served the tea as we were browsing around the shop. I think it is supposed to be good for rheumatism.

The bathroom also deserves a mention. The walls were also covered in the gold leaf, giving the appearance that the room was created from gold bricks. The door, door knob, decorations and even the air freshener were gold leaf. After using the bathroom, we washed our hands with a bar of gold leaf soap. I think it was right up there on the list of fanciest bathrooms I have ever been in. It might sound gaudy, but it was actually quite beautiful, and I'm not usually a big fan of gold.

The actual process of making the chopsticks was not as complicated as I expected. We each chose 2 chopsticks - either red or black. Sarah chose red and I chose black. The next stuff was to place something like masking tape over the parts of the chopstick that we didn't want gold leaf on. A Japanese couple came in after us and finished a little before us. Because we were so good at it. Once the tape designs were done, the end of the chopstick with the tape on it (the upper part) was dipped in a very thin glue and let to dry for a bit. Then the chopstick was rolled slowly over the gold leaf until it had covered the circumference of the chopstick. This used about half the sheet. The same thing was done with the other chopstick. They were then rubbed/dusted with a paintbrush to remove the excess gold leaf and ensure that the gold leaf would adhere properly to the places without the tape. We were encouraged to taste the flakes of gold that came off. It didn't taste like anything but would be a really cool thing to get stuck in your teeth: "What's that in your teeth?" "Oh, that's just a flake of gold." Then the tape was peeled off and a final coating of lacquer or some such sealant was applied.

They turned out pretty well, though I liked Sarah's better. She had a spiral design with tiny leaves on it. Mine was kind of random curvy lines, which was cool in theory, but it used kind of a lot of tape and I didn't press it down hard enough so the edges weren't distinct enough for my taste. It was a very good activity to do even though there was a language barrier because things could be demonstrated that couldn't be explained to us in English.

We spent the rest of the day at the famous Kenroku-en Gardens, one of Japan's top three gardens (they really like to rank things here). It is a very beautiful, quiet (except for areas crowded with tourists) oasis in the middle of the city. There are several lakes, cherry and plum trees (weren't in bloom), pines, stone pathways and bridges. Sarah's guide book (Let's Go) says, "The garden's name evokes the six features of perfection - antiquity, artifice, seclusion, spaciousness, abundant water, and sweeping views - necessary to any true Japanese garden."

Then it was off to the train station and on to Takefu, the small town where Dan, a good friend of Ellen and Sarah from college, in living and teaching English with JET. It's kind of in the middle of Japan near the coast and about 2 hours north of Kyoto. I wouldn't know where that was without looking at a map so don't feel bad if you have to. I didn't even know where Tokyo was when I landed here.