3166. Travel Stories - Fashion berets in Japan

Oct 26, 2017

Bright sunny. The typhoon had destroyed half of the flowers in Kuju Flower Gardens. So a 50% admission fee is given. We did not want to visit it. We went to the Aso City mountain to view the hills and valleys and the small Yufuin Floral Village.

Two shops side by side sold some non-wool fashion berets, displaying the 5 or 6 colours you had seen women wearing in my previous blogs. The first shop had poorer quality. Manufacturer of most of the beret is from China. In these shops, I discovered how the berets were worn to fit the head, without falling off.

In Yufuin Floral Village, there was an old thin lady in an art gallery wearing a light brown beret telling me, "No photos" as I was taking pictures of the sole artist she represented. Non-woollen and 80% woollen fashion berets were seen in younger women as shown below:    

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Two shops in Yufuin Village sells berets.

Shop 2

No pure white berets. Elastic bands, inside ribbons to tie and rolled in bend were used to hold the beret in place.

In Aso mountain top, I saw one beret worn.  The other was a cap.

This area is peaceful, has clear air and was good for chantinng.

At a lunch place, I saw a young lady wearing a cloth fashion beret. Fashion berets
 are not taken off during meals. 

Checked into Suginoi Hotel in evening. Sulfur smell of air from various hot springs in this Oita prefecture. I saw a beret-like mist on the mountain top from my hotel.

 In conclusion, it appears that no pure woollen berets are available from the smaller shops. They sell around 1,000 - 1,500 yen and appeared to be the ones worn by the young ladies of Japan.


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Other pictures.

Yufuin Floral Village is a small area which has English-themed shops such as the Owls from Harry Potter's novels, Heidi and the Beatrix rabbit. A Bengal cat cafe is present. It was started by a businessman in 2016. The roofs of the shops are so low such that you can touch it. It has expanded and takes some 30 minutes to explore by tourists in coaches.

A beret-like shrub seen at lunch area.

A small steakhouse next to a resort. Full house during lunch time. So we left. "Hills" remind me of a lady who runs a company called Hills .....This company logo looks like two berets?

Beret seen at Haneda airport

3165. Travel Stories. Fashion berets in Japan

Oct 25, 2017

Travel map from Fukuoka to Aso

From Tokyo, we flew to Fukuoka (1.5 million people), drove to Kumamoto whose famous castle was closed due to a 2016 earthquake. On Oct 25, we drovc from Kumamoto to Aso. 

The drive from Kumamoto to Aso was countryside with clean air, tall Christmas trees whose trunks are used as I saw logs transported. Several vegetable farms seen. A pig transportation truck passed by suddenly and I quickly videoed it.

We wanted to view the volcanic crater at the Aso UNESCO Geopark. The cable car stations were closed.

 The landscape was pretty. A green hill looked very much like a green fashion beret if one has some imagination. Motorists stopped to take pictures of this hill with a crater.

Fashion berets in the Takachiho Gorge
3 young ladies seen wearing fashion berets

Fashion berets at Aso
4 ladies seen wearing fashion berets

We stayed at the Grandvrio Aso Hotel which has a golf course and is a 20-minute drive to a small village with eateries. I doubted that this rural area would have young ladies wearing fashion berets.
After all, ladies who wear fashion berets appear to be living in urban areas like Fukuoka where I saw at least 40 ladies wearing berets (pictures in another blog).


The carpark area was almost empty in this time which was dusk. Clean air. Tall Christmas trees. Stillness. Serene.  I chanted the difficult long chant for around 20 minutes at the quiet carpark area facing the trees and the crescent moon. Practice makes perfect.

When I went to the hotel lobby, 4 well-dressed young ladies were entering the lobby. 3 wore fashion berets. One of the berets had a tassle. As to the quality, one beret appeared to be more solid. Whether they were woollen ones, it is hard to tell.

It was pitch dark when we went to the car park to drive to the village for dinner as the hotel had only buffet dinner.

The village's eateries were mostly closed. We found one which was full but got a place. No more berets at this deserted village. In Europe, October is an off-peak season and so the eateries close early. This could be the case here. Suddenly, a  couple came in and the lady as wearing a beret. A beret in which she attached black satin bows and decorations on the right side. No chance of showing this side of her beret as I was sitting in the corner on her far left. A quick snap.

This short visit to south Japan shows a glimpse of ladies who wear fashion berets. Most are young. As to quality, I can only see the more solid ones appear to be better quality. I saw one young lady wearing dark green "military" type fashion beret at Louis Vuitton shop in Fukuoka. No image.

The two ladies wore fashion berets to breakfast in Happy Pancake shop in Fukuoka.
If you want to see fashion berets, go to Fukuoka and I expect Tokyo too.