Did you know Ramen and Art Go Together? Making Glass Beads Nobuko

 A fun-filled day with Nobuko!!!

We were going to stop in Tochigi for lunch but the restaurant was closed due to time flood damage caused by the typhoon.  We ventured on and have arrived in Sano which is a small town before our final destination of Ashikaga.  It's now lunchtime and we are all hungry.  Nobuko has decided to take us to a famous ramen shop that makes their ramen noodles by hand (not a machine). When we arrived there was a long line.  We got there at 20 after 11:00am and the place opened at 11:00am. We decided to stay and got in line.  It gave us plenty of time to talk.

When we finally were seated we were lucky.  First, we didn't have to sit traditional Japanese style (on a pillow on the floor) and were at the counter where I could watch them cooking.  The chef would make 4 plates of gyoza at a time in one skillet. 

 The chef was very fast and went to the back for the fresh-made ramen and came back out to boil them in batches.  He made 12 orders with one batch of noodles.  I ordered the curry ramen which is unusual to combine together.  The Japanese told me I was adventurous with my food because they would not order that combination.  

 RAMEN IS SERVED FOR ALL.  We are lucky we got to sit at the counter, I feel uncomfortable sitting at Japanese style tables. LOL

Nobuko surprised us with a trip to a glass art studio.  We had no idea about this surprise until we arrived here.  We went into the studio and up the stairs to the glass class.  

I was thrilled when I saw the glass torch and items that we will use to make something?

Here are a few pictures of Marlon making his tonbodama (glass beads).  In Japan, these beads are made by melting glass rods called satake.

Hajime Saitoh our sensei put the finishing touches on our beads. They needed to be filed and the inside of the bead cleaned out. 

 Master burner Hajime Saitoh was taught in the USA how to be a glass artist burner. He is very famous now in Japan and has won many awards for his glasswork.

 Look how perfect his beads are the same diameter, very impressive.

 These beads will be added to our bead to make a necklace or key chain.

While our beads are cooling down we dived into another project.  Kazako and I designed glasses to be sandblasted so our design will be permanently on the glasses.

 Our completed glasses.
  Our beads are cool now and we can make a necklace or key tag with them.   Long - story -short- this is why I made a bead with dots.  I was eating curry ramen and had a white shirt on.  The noodles are long and hard to eat with chopsticks.  I dropped them from my chopsticks and they fell in the broth and splashed little dots on my white shirt.  I made this bead to remember my experience with curry ramen.  My necklace to me is called curry ramen DOTS>

 Finished art glass made by Donna & Marlon!

I gave Nobuku the keychain I made.  I hope whenever she sees it, she will think of me and all our good times together.  She immediately attached it to her purse.