Querida Muneca

My beloved doll, mother with child, hails from Salta in the Andean province of Argentina. The cult of the Pachamama, the mother of the earth, is still practiced in this remote part of the country. I hope my muneca will not mind that I put on a Japanese dress as there are quite some Japanese immigrants in Argentina.

The reversible kimono dress, soft and cosy, is a find from Tokio’s huge department store Isetan. I happened to be there at Christmas time. The main shopping street in Shinjuku was sparkling with Christmas decoration and at Isetan’s coffee shop they served slices of true German Stollen, a special fruit cake making me feel at home. To my great joy the store was a branch of the Holländische Kakaostube, the traditional coffee shop in Hannover, Germany where I use to by my Christmas cookies, Zimtsterne, Dominosteine, Marzipankartoffeln and gingerbread, delicious!

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