Tonight I painted and installed the torii gate. I had originally planned on sinking it into the base to make it more stable, but there really isn't room enough. Instead, I used some silicone glue to attach it and added some Celluclay to reinforce it. Once the Celluclay is dry, I'll paint it and add greenery to look like low bushes around the legs.
After that, I used the rest of the Celluclay I had mixed up to make more stepping stones. I was running out of the ones I made during the summer.
I also had a bit of a disaster. I was trying to get around the ryokan platform to get to the couch. (I told you it was too big for my living room). Anyway, I tripped over the container of stones I was using for the retaining walls and my hand landed on the corner of the base near the pond. I cracked and bent the styrofoam down in that corner, and it lifted the stream right off the base, and messed up some of the landscaping. The base of the ryokan sticks out a long way over the edge of the coffee table on all four sides, so there is nothing supporting those four sides. Anyway, I managed to even it all out. Then I pushed some boxes under that corner and used those to hold that corner up where it is supposed to be. I'll have to wait until I bring it back to the shop before I repair it, because I don't want to disassemble the ryokan again.
Once it's back at the shop next summer, I think it will stay there forever, because it's too difficult and fragile to move.
Anyway, I like the torii gate, even though it really is supposed to be the dividing area between the regular world, and the world you enter on the way to a Shinto shrine, and not on the way to a simple tea house!
