2020.2/13 (Thu) Tehran Purchase Day 1 Second Half
Following on from Vol.1, the first day of my stay in Iran continues...
If you come to Tehran's Grand Bazaar, you should definitely visit Nishabri.
Is it around 4pm in the evening?
It was Thursday, the day before a holiday in Iran, so most rug shops closed around 2pm.
Even on a normal day, the rug shops in the bazaar are open from around 9:30am to around 4pm, and they all close early.
It's quiet and lonely.
It was getting quite late, so I was unable to meet Nishabri, whom I had hoped to meet, but I was able to see the rug.
As expected, I found a great rug here!
In particular, the brown tribal rug in the photo on the right was woven in Guchan, a region in northeastern Iran where many Kurds live.
More on this rug later...
I asked Nishaburi to keep the rug until my last day in Iran, and we parted ways, promising to come back to see each other again.
I'm still going to look at rugs!
This is the city of Tehran around 5pm, when the sun has already set.
At first glance, it looks no different from Europe or the United States.
When walking around town, you often come across kiosk-like shops called dakke. Just a short walk away, you'll find another dakke.
It looks like a ticket booth. I'm concerned about the broken glass,
There is a wide selection of sweets and drinks.
Leaving the bazaar, I head to Vahid's place, where I always visit whenever I come to Tehran.
Vahid is the one wearing the purple knit sweater and spreading out the rug.
When I first came to this store to look at rugs,
"Where was this rug woven?" "How old is it?"
When I asked him this question, he honestly answered "I don't know about that" when he didn't know!
It was so fresh and shocking...
There are a lot of Vahids out there, so we decided to call him "Honest Vahid."
The shop carries silk Persian rugs and painting-like picture rugs, but what we're looking at here are tribal rugs.
They lined up a lot of them outside the store!
Of course, the items will be cleaned before coming to Japan, so please rest assured.
This time, I plan to go to Mashhad, a city where many Baluchi rugs are gathered, so I decided to keep a few that caught my eye and promise to come back on the last day.
This is sudden, but!
Here's a little bit about the Wi-Fi situation in Iran!
The area in front of Vahid's shop is a precious Wi-Fi spot for us,
I often rent pocket Wi-Fi when I travel abroad, but most of the time it is not compatible with Iran, so I don't use it.
(Maybe there are some places that support this now.)
Free Wi-Fi is scarce in the city, so when I enter a store, I always ask, "Does this store have Wi-Fi?"
It works reliably in hotels, so when I'm out and about during the day I always hope to get a short connection if I'm lucky.
When I'm in Japan, I tend to look at my smartphone whenever I need something, but I think it might be a good idea to stay away from it for a while when I'm in Iran.
I've digressed, but we went to our last rug shop of the day!
It was quite late, but they were waiting for me.
This is a rug shop whose owner, Reza-Eye, has selected rugs, including Persian, tribal, and Gabbeh, and the selection is quite unique.
They don't usually buy a lot of items here, but if you take a look you'll find some interesting things.
After looking at all the rugs, I chose this one!
This is old Tabriz from about 30 years ago.
This is a mahi pattern with unusual and interesting color usage.
It's customary for me to take a commemorative photo with Rezaei together with the rug he has chosen, and this time we did the same with the Tabriz!
The first item we purchased was this rug from Tabriz.
At the end of the day
That's all for the first day's purchases!
Normally, we would return to the hotel at this point, but whenever we come to Tehran, we are treated to dinner at the home of our interpreter, Mr. A!
Even though it was quite late, Mr. A's wife had already prepared dinner and was waiting for us.
The fluffy rice, flavored with saffron, is beautifully presented and served with stewed okra.
Personally, I prefer this light and fluffy Iranian rice to Japanese white rice.
I'd like you to compare the size of the spoon with the okra, and see how cute the mini okra is!
Lentils, meat, and okra stewed with tomatoes create a mild flavor that goes perfectly with rice.
After eating so much, it's time for chai and dessert.
A bowl full of pomegranates taken out of the refrigerator! How luxurious!
It's fresh and very delicious.
In Japan, it's rare to eat so many pomegranates, so
Even though I was full, I ate a lot. (lol)
We were reunited after a long time and chatted about all sorts of things, and before we knew it, it was already 11pm!
I ended up staying there for a long time.
I thanked him and headed back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we're heading to the Tehran flea market!
to be continued