No, we aren’t really going to adopt children, or even pets, in Japan. But we are adopting … or rather collecting… Kokeshi dolls. We started when we saw one at a festival, and decided to buy it. After that, it has started to become sort of an obsession.
Kokeshi dolls are wooden figures, many of them decades old. They were originally produced by onsen public baths as souvenirs in the Tohoku region in Japan. They have unique sizes, shapes and each one has a different face. Different locations have different kinds of faces. It’s fascinating to see these, and they are plentiful at flea markets.
There are may kinds of things that people can buy as souvenirs of Japan. For us we will have some Kokeshi dolls as a remembrance of our time in Japan.
Four Years in Japan ... and now Three Years in London 