Spoils from Kyushuu, Japan 2016-2017

Akemashite Omedetoo gozaimasu (Happy New Year)!  This holiday season, Hubby and I spent it on the island of Kyushuu, Japan.  We spent most of our time on the northern part of the island and here's what we found:

In Tenjin, Fukuoka, there was a small-ish Yuzawaya:

(We actually found the scissors at the Hakata Tokyu Hands)

My original tabis in Opal (Tabi Monogatari v8) didn't come out to my satisfaction so, I wanted to try again. :P

In the same building complex, we also found a Daiso (it's a 100¥ store) which had a good selection of craft goods and picked up these items:

T-shirt yarn, jute yarn & ramie yarn - all for 100¥ each!  Granted that for the T-shirt yarn, there wasn't that much yardage to it, it was still 100¥, enough for Hubby to get a feel if he'd like to crochet with it or not. ;)

In Meinohama, Fukuoka, there's an amazing store called: Sankakuya (think of a Michael's or a Ben Franklin but with mostly Japanese goods) and we bought all of this:

various Clover brand hooks

Clover Double Hooks

Tulip Etimo (a Complete) Set (with all their hook sizes)

Hamanaka Crochet Hooks in bamboo & double hooks

Sock yarn for myself (I couldn't resist - the colors just called to me! :P)

(and) various Clover knitting accessories (also something I just can't resist! :P)

We also found another Sankakuya store in the Nishijin area but it wasn't nearly as large as the Meinohama location and as such, we didn't get anything there (although it did spur Hubby to go back to the Meinohama location again - yes, we went there twice!).

In Nagasaki, at another Daiso, we found these:

(can you believe that we got Daiso's version of Amure lace hooks for only 100¥ each?!)

In Kumamoto, we found another Yuzawaya and picked up this:

Actually, I picked up this set for both my yarn buddy and myself;  my yarn buddy needs accessories and I couldn't resist the new color they came out with for the stitch holders; plus I needed a new ruler. :P

Then, finally, in Hakata, Fukuoka, in the Yodobashi bulding, we found another 100¥ shop called Can-Do and found this:

It's a plastic hook in a size 10.5mm - if you can't tell, Hubby's totally into L-A-R-G-E hooks!

It's really amazing how many Made In Japan products you can find in these 100¥ stores and for 100¥ (that's like ~$1.00 USD), you can't go wrong with anything you purchase.  In fact, there have been many other non-knitting items that I've bought over the years from these 100¥ shops that have been amazing and have lasted quite a long time.  Some of these items were the best purchases I've made in Japan! :)  I'm very surprised at (& impressed with) the amount of craft supplies they have in these 100¥ stores now! :)  You can really get a good feel of a type of craft to see if you really want to invest in it or not.  Plus, at 100¥ a piece, if you don't happen to like a particular craft (or never get around to finishing it), it wouldn't be such a big deal. :P

While we didn't buy much yarn this time around, (even though there was an amazing selection of Puppy yarn and even Wool and the Gang yarn(!) in Sankakuya at the  Meinohama location), it appears that this was not the year for yarn.  Instead, it was the year of crochet hooks! :P  As you can see, Hubby went crazy over all the crochet hooks and now, he's got an entire collection! :P  

In fact, there were so many crochet hooks that when we were returning home, we were constantly searched by Security because of them (and because of our USB cables)! :P  It appears that crochet hooks could be dangerous objects and when carried on with USB cables, it looks like bomb making material! 8S  I can't tell you how long it took us to go through Security because I had all these smaller bags packed onto my carry on that contained all of our knitting and crochet stuff that they took nearly everything out, opened nearly each bag and x-rayed each bag.  We even had to explain what the crochet hooks were since they were so suspicious looking.  Thank goodness we knew enough Japanese to explain what knitting and crocheting was! :P  Here's what one of the bags looked like:

(Closed)

I actually bought this pencil case for pens and pencils but it became this:

(Open)

I'm lucky that Hubby didn't decide to shanghai my pencil case when we got home! :P

At one point, I completely freaked out and thought I actually lost some of Hubby's crochet hooks because my bag was opened, closed, and x-rayed (open) so many times!  I thought I had packed the Tulips and the double Hamanaka hooks into my smaller carry on (which I really did at one point and this was the bag that was completely and thoroughly searched) and as we were waiting for our final leg to come back home, I realized that these hooks weren't(!) in my smaller carry on (I had originally packed them in my smaller carry on and then as we were getting ready to leave, I didn't have enough space so I had moved them to my larger carry on - the one that wasn't searched)!  I had freaked out so much, that I actually called lost & found in Fukuoka and Narita airports to see if I really lost it or not!  All I wanted to know was that if they had it or not; Hubby was a tad bit calmer and said that we should just pray that I packed it in another bag and just look for it when we get home (although, he did panic with me enough to search my smaller bag thoroughly to make sure it wasn't in there! :P lol).  Thankfully, when we got home, we had found it (in my larger bag) so, my fears were for naught! :P  (That's what I get for being tired, a bit hungry and for having so many smaller bags with smaller things in them!)

I wonder when our next knitting/crochet spoil will be and what it entail ... ? ;)