Saturday, June 18, 2011

Paper cranes

I am gradually getting back into the rhythm of cleaning and cooking. Here I have time to clean but can't really get down low enough to do scrubbing. Pushing the vacuum cleaner is about my level right now.

Tetsu has forbidden me to walk Choco. Too bad we were never able to train to her to walk quietly by our side. She lunges and pulls and changes directions in an instant. She also never has warmed up to other people so I can't even ask my other dog walking friends to take her out for a tandem jaunt with their dogs... Poor Choco. The best I can do right now is go out to her yard and at arm's distance give her a good brushing everyday. She needs it! Look at all that shed fur on the ground! For a dog with a short coat she sheds like crazy!!! I guess for the rest of the summer Choco is not going to get an afternoon walk... She'll have to be satisfied with quality brushing time.

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Yesterday's post ended with my roommates and me doing origami (paper folding), one of Japan's traditional childhood pleasures. As a matter of fact, in our room there was a lovely (faded) decoration of a thousand folded cranes hanging by the window. This decoration has been there awhile according to my roommate who was hospitalized in the same room last year also. And no, I did not count all the cranes to come up with number 1000.


I wrote this post in 2007 if you want to read how the tradition of making cranes got started. I imagine that the cranes in our hospital room had been made by a group of friends for someone who was hospitalized... prayers for a quick recovery... and then the person left it at the hospital to cheer on other temporary hospital residents. It was lovely to look at and wonder about how the person who received it is doing now...

Can you tell how the origami cranes have been stacked and then strung together probably in groups of 100? If you make one crane (Haru-chan's table in yesterday's post had single origami cranes on it...) the wings can be spread and it will stand alone. All together like this is a little difficult to distinguish each crane but the message is clear to any Japanese.

"Get well soon!"

...and I did!

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