Kindergarten graduation

Yesterday was graduation at the kindergarten and it brought back memories of my own kids graduating.

In Japan, graduation are a very big deal! Major ceremonies in kindergarten, elementary, and junior high. Not so big in high school or college.

Yesterday's ceremonies started with mothers and fathers arriving at the church (the kindergarten is church affiliated) and settling into the pews. This alone is different from when my kids graduated when only the mothers attended. It used to be that the raising of children was left entirely to the mother, and fathers were almost embarrassed to show an interest in bringing up children, but this has changed over the years. I was surprised yesterday to see so many fathers. (Of course, since yesterday was a holiday in Japan I suppose fathers didn't have to take time off from work.)

Most of the mothers wore dark suits though there was an occasional kimono here and there. The kindergarten teacher even wore the traditional formal wear called hakama which is a dark trouser-like garment worn over kimono. I'm not sure why hakama are considered formal wear but since it is almost always black or dark grey it lends itself to the solemnity of the occasion. Even I have learned that one always wears a dark outfit when attending graduation ceremonies. In contrast, at the entrance ceremonies which will be held the first week of April, all the mothers and teachers wear light colored outfits and look very springy!

After parents and the other kindergarten children were seated, the 34 children in the graduating class filed into the sanctuary with their teacher at the lead. No hand waving and grinning here. The doors were opened and the teacher bowed deeply and then led the children, dressed in hats and gowns, to their seats. Yes, these little kids wear graduation hats with tassels and all! The gowns have always been part of the ceremonies but the hats came into being a couple of years after my kids graduated. Already sniffling could be heard from the mothers and the handkerchiefs were brought out.

The ceremonies started and a couple of short speeches were given by the principal and the board of directors and then the kids were called one by one to the front and handed a diploma. Songs were sung by the mothers, by the rest of the kindergarten children and by the graduating class itself and another speech was given from a mother thanking the teachers for raising these children so carefully. About an hour ceremony in all. Afterwards there was a luncheon party that I declined to attend.

As years go, there weren't as many tears shed as I've seen from some of the graduating classes. I remember one year two or three little girls (these kids are only 5 or 6!) started sobbing and that set off all the mothers and then all the other kids as well as the teachers and it was a grand sea of tears! Hardly anyone could sing at all! This year the kids held up pretty well though the teacher was sobbing quite early in the ceremonies. This is the teacher's last year so she has a lot of memories to go over and in essence it was her graduation ceremony too.

Congratulations my little kindergarten class, and remember when you go out into the big world that a smile is the best way of all to communicate!

Miscellaneous

I guess I have a lot of miscellaneous news from around here.

I started out at the kindergarten yesterday morning and had a last lesson with the oldest class of children. They too were finishing up odds and ends before graduation and a couple of the kids were working on baskets. This project has been encouraged since my kids were in kindergarten and the children bring in long lengths of fabric and they are taught to braid the strips into ropes. (Next year I'll try to get a picture of some child doing that. They sit on the ground and hold the strips or the already braided part of the rope between their toes and then braid!) At this late date, everyone has their ropes braided but some kids were still sewing the braided rope around and around to make a basket. Trying to teach 5 and 6 year olds sewing skills. Also how to handle stabbing yourself with a needle and not making a big deal of it! All the kids are so proud of their finished baskets!

After kindergarten I went out with friends for lunch. My friend (and student), Mrs. Shibahata, is moving to Germany so three of us took her out to a fancy Japanese restaurant. Such a lovely assortment of dishes! I must say, that Japan excels in making a meal look enticing and just the way it is served makes the partaker sort of excited to see what is in the box and under the covered dishes. In yesterday's meal that white tray of food is actually inside a lacquered box and the waitress carried in the box with the other layer of small dishes on top of it. Let's see, some sashimi, some deep fried dish, many vegetables, a sweet egg omelet, pickles, grilled fish, soup, rice, seaweed, salad, and for dessert interesting tasteless jelly strips that are dipped in a sweet molasses-like sauce. Everything was delicious!

Oh, and I was given a gift from my long time friends from kindergarten years. When we were trying to think of a farewell present for Mrs. Shibahata, I mentioned a wonderful compact pen that someone had given me years ago with a tiny Mikimoto pearl on the end. It was so beautiful and very small and handy but I lost it somewhere along the line. I thought Mrs. Shibahata might like it so that is what we decided to buy for her. Mrs. Kamiyama did the honors of going to the department store to buy it and she and some other close friends went in together to buy me a replacement pen for the one I lost. Wasn't that sweet of them! It has my name engraved on it so hopefully I will be able to keep track of this, or at least hopefully I've learned my lesson and will take better care of my things!

Another cute gift I was given this week was this cute little cell-phone strap ornament which I thought was so appropriate for a quilter like me! This is tiny (you can't really tell from the picture) and is made of different colored pieces of wood that have been pieced together like mosaic. Oh, go take a look at the beautiful wooden patchwork pieces that Mary's uncle made for her. They are really gorgeous but this nice little bobble is just right for me!

And here is another picture that I was tempted not to show just because you're going to say "She's started something new again!" Shelina told me I couldn't open any mail or look at any sites until I'd finished Bootiful and I am finished so one of the first things that grabbed my interest was this little stitchery from Lynette's blog. It is a Block of the Month project, so am I committing myself to 12 months? I'm not sure, but it is very small, (the embroidery is only a 2 1/2 inch block) and is a Noah's Ark theme and since I am an animal lover (as well as a Bible lover) I had to make a try. These are supposed to be rabbits though someone thought they were donkeys... We'll see how long I last on this newest endeavor.

Piano Key Border

Yesterday I got back to the Wonky quilt and started thinking about borders. I guess I've decided to make a piano key border. Sounds easy enough right? Unfortunately I realized I've never made a piano key border but it shouldn't be that difficult can it? I checked out Tonya's blog and Bonnie's blog and Elaine's blog and got a rough idea of how piano keys are supposed to look. (Of course everyone makes them differently so I was still a little vague about my plans.) Elaine had the most interesting idea of sewing strips onto telephone pages and that got my head turning.

"Hey, I've got a whole ream of computer paper from the old days sitting on my shelf. I wonder if I could use that?"

It looked like a good width to be cut in half for a 5 inch border or so, so I got out my strips bin and started sewing.

Not as easy as I'd thought it was going to be since my strips started slanting. That's okay. This is a very wonky quilt so just even them up maybe at the end of the paper. Then I realized that I really didn't have all that many strips in my bin.

Okay, get out the roller cutter, dive into the stash and start cutting strips. So that was what I did for most of the afternoon. First cut a 2 inch strip. Good. That goes in a special bin for someday's quilt (I've used these strips in a great Pineapple Blossom quilt from Bonnie's website.) Next cut a 1 3/4 inch strip and that goes in the border bin. Next cut a 1 1/2 inch strip and that goes in the 365 Challenge bin (still adding strips to the week entries) and then cut a 1 1/4 inch strip and a 1 inch strip for the border bin again. I continued along this vein and was somewhat proud of my organizational skill. Actually I didn't get much sewing on the paper done for the borders, but my heart's in the right place!

Wonky quilt, I'm back!

God Bless You

One of God's blessings to me (and my family) is that we do not have hay fever. Japan is in the throws of hay fever season and many, many of my friends and neighbors are suffering from the effects of cedar pollen during the month of March. I am amazed at how many people have allergies in Japan and the cedar pollen particularly makes people miserable. Every morning, along with the weather report, there is a hay fever report and the people who suffer, act accordingly by taking hay fever medicine, wearing masks and goggles and generally trying to stay inside as much as possible.

Hay fever really disrupts peoples' lives and many friends spend these weeks either very sleepy (from the medicine) or with boxes of tissues, eye drops, masks, nose sprays, hats, gloves, special teas, detergents, aroma therapy etc. at hand all in hopes of relieving or avoiding hay fever symptoms. Even on sunny days, the hay fever sufferers can't put their laundry out to dry or air their futons and often the conversation revolves around how miserable it is to not be able to sleep at night, not to be able to open their eyes, having to stuff tissue up their nostrils and the constant headaches and sore throats. Those of us who don't have allergies are sympathetic but probably only understand a fraction of the pain the others are going through.

I think there is even a group that is trying to sue the Japanese government because 50 years ago thousands and thousands of cedar seedlings were planted in hopes of raising the economy and now the people with allergies are having to pay through their noses! I guess the hay fever cures and treatments on the market are raising the economy in ways the government never meant but at any rate the problem is intense around here.

Unfortunately for many of my friends, I live near the largest cedar tree grove in the world but even aside from that, the mountains and forests surrounding my area are mainly made up of cedar trees. As I take Choco for a walk I can see the pollen coming off the distant forest in clouds! Sort of a light green mist covering the mountains and it might even be considered beautiful if one didn't know how much misery it was carrying. I can understand why people politely say to me,

"I'd love to see you Tanya, but I think I'll wait to visit until after the hay fever season."

(pictures from the Internet)

Of course, the scientists say that one can come down with hay fever at any time so just because I don't have it now doesn't mean that next year I won't be suffering myself!

This week I'm teaching the term "God bless you!" in all my classes and for a few more weeks it is going to be heard frequently! And God bless you whether you have hay fever or not!

Bootiful Finished!

Thank you for all your advice yesterday about putting in pictures and paragraphing. I tried the hint about using the Edit Html bar and the bracketing and it worked! Today I'm doing this post by putting in the pictures first (and backwards) and then writing. I'll see how it goes. (Except this way takes more organizational skills than I can usually muster.)

Yesterday I spent all day in the sewing room. Such a nice way to spend a day! I got caught back up on the 365 Challenge (why am I always "catching up"?) and then went to work on "Bootiful". "Bootiful" worked out beautifully! It actually looks much nicer than the picture and I am really happy with it! Thank you Cassi!

This isn't something that I would normally think of making and I don't have anything in my house like it at all but it is just wonderful with the cowboy theme. I just love the bandana colored boot and the dyed fabric flowers are so pretty! I don't think I would have even thought up this colorscheme, red and orange and black, but it is so bright and cheery.

I used fusible web on this and then machine stitched the raw edges which was a new experience all around. I am amazed that there are so many techniques that I haven't tried in my 20 some years of doing patchwork. The machine stitching started out tricky trying to get a very narrow zig-zag stitch in black around everything. Did a bit of ripping because I didn't like the black around the flowers so changed colors on that. When I got to the machine quilting I really loosened up! Just quilted around, on, and in the area I was working on and if it needed something more just went over the first stitches and added more. I like the random look!

And I'd like to boast a little about the machine quilting on the black background fabric. I quilted lines across and then went back and put squiggles here and there. My artistic version of barbed-wired fence! Tetsu says that that's stretching it a bit far but it looks nice even if no one else knows I was trying for a fence look.

The outside borders I freely quilted daisy flowers and that was the easiest part.

And finally, following Sharon Schamber's instructions for putting on binding (thank you anonymous and Patti!) I got the binding on and it looks great! It was a lot more work Sharon's way, and I got a lot of glue on my fingers (doesn't that sound interesting. Go take a look at her website) but it does turn out well. Maybe if I do it a few more times it will get easier!

Paragraphs

Can somebody tell me why I have so many problems getting the double spaces at each paragraph? I waste sooooo much time trying to get double spaces between my paragraphs so that the post will be easy to read but even though on the Create page I've got the double spaces (sometimes a huge block of space) on the blog it comes out single spaced.

This happens most often after I put in pictures. I first write a post, then add pictures (which always seem to end up at the top of the page) and then I pull them down to where I want them. In the process of adding pictures, the original double spaces turn into huge blocks of space so I start readjusting the paragraph spaces and then on the blog they disappear. Or if I don't adjust the spaces then the blog has huge spaces too.

I didn't notice this problem when I was still using Mozilla but when I went back to Explorer it really is aggravating and I end up playing around by trial and error.

Should I download pictures first? Should I double space after the pictures are in? Should I do a dance of "double space twice back space three times" or something? Does anyone else have this problem?

I like writing posts and I like adding pictures. Since the posts do get long, I'd like to make it as easy as possible for people to read.

Help please!

Mrs. Harada

This post may be long but I want to tell you about our very good friend and the farewell party we held for her today.

Mrs. Harada has been a good friend for many, many years and she has played an especially important part in our patchwork group. She is quiet and delicate and sensitive to things around her and to people's feelings. She does everything wholeheartedly and I have never seen her "let it all hang out". Always gentle, always caring, always helping. Mrs. Harada lives just around the corner from Mrs. Furui and daily she is in and out of Mrs. Furui's house. The two of them are very close and Mrs. Furui has mentored Mrs. Harada in patchwork, quilting, embroidery and sewing. When Mrs. Harada isn't sewing with us, she is helping at the kindergarten and is invaluable there too.

Less than a month ago Mrs. Harada called me and apologized profusely because she was moving to another prefecture and hadn't told me (or anyone else except for Mrs. Furui) about her plans. Well, this really was a surprise and my first thought was,

"Well, there goest the patchwork group. If Mrs. Harada isn't there we aren't going to be making any more quilts."

She is that important to us. Always taking home more homework than the rest of us, always accepting other people's half-done blocks to free them up for something else. Half of every quilt we make is made by Mrs. Harada's hands.

A couple days after Mrs. Harada's announcement to me, Mrs. Furui cornered me at the kindergarten and handed me a template and instructions on making a friendship block for Mrs. Harada. Great idea! But is there enough time? No matter, let's see what we can get done before Mrs. Harada moves. Spread the word to Mrs. Harada's friends that we need friendship blocks made and if possible, more than two so that we can include other non-sewing friends so that they can just sign a ready-made block.

You should see our group spring to action when called forward! 28 blocks were quickly made and then divied out to people who wanted to sign their names. We said sign, but as it turned out every block ended up being embroidered and what a beautiful array we collected!

Of course all this work was being done on the sly without letting Mrs. Harada know what was going on. That was the hard part. We'd all be together for a patchwork day and Mrs. Harada would run back to her house to get something and the minute the door closed the rest of us would pull blocks from our bags and lay them out to see how many more we needed or what colors might still be incorporated. We'd hear Mrs. Harada step back in the front door and everything would be stuffed behind boxes or even sat upon! Such fun!

Once the blocks were all collected, what to do about the off-set blocks and borders? Mrs. Furui asked Mrs. Harada to accompany her to the fabric store to get some fabric for a "niece's quilt".

"Mrs. Harada, what do you think about this fabric. Do you think my niece might like the green or the purple?"

"Oh, I just love the green. I'm sure she'd like it. And look how nice this fabric goes with it!"

("AL~RIGHT! Two fabrics chosen!") Mrs. Furui is very clever.

Earlier this week we were running short of time so Mrs. Ochiai and Mrs. Furui spent the whole day cutting blocks, sewing strips and tracing the quilting lines onto the quilt. Yesterday another completely full day of sewing with Mrs. Harada conveniently kept busy at the kindergarten all day. (The kindergarten secretary was given instructions not to let Mrs. Harada loose too early!) Mrs. Harada was told that we were working on the bazaar quilt but in reality we spent the time attaching borders and making a label!

This morning we arranged to have Mrs. Harada come to Mrs. Furui's by 12:00 for a farewell luncheon. Of course the rest of us were there by 10:00 still basting the quilt sandwich together! 10 minutes before Mrs. Harada showed up we had barely finished and the quilt was laid out on the floor ready to greet her.

"Mrs. Harada, we worked hard yesterday while you were at the kindergarten. Take a look."

As expected, Mrs. Harada sort of froze and then dissolved into tears.

"Don't get too choked up. We saved the hardest part for you. YOU get to do all the quilting and we traced some pretty complicated designs! This will keep you busy for the next few months and you may not think of us all so fondly!"

What a wonderful friend we've been blessed with and we are going to miss her terribly.

Much love to you Mrs. Harada!

Passports

Yesterday I “chatted” with Takumi online and discovered he may have some problems that he didn’t know about.

As you know, Tetsu is Japanese. I am American. Our kids have dual citizenship. The U.S. gives citizenship to children born of American parents regardless of whether they are born in the States or not (both kids born in Japan). Of course they have Japanese citizenship because their father is Japanese. Both Takumi and Leiya have two passports, a Japanese one and a U.S. one, and until the kids were 22 it hasn’t mattered which one they use when entering or leaving either country.

BUT... by Japanese law, you are not allowed to have dual citizenship past the age of 22 and Takumi this year turns 23. This causes an interesting situation. At some point, the Japanese government is going to ask Takumi to renounce one of his claims on citizenship... if they find out. Please believe me that I am not endorsing doing anything illegal or under the table. Japan has certain regulations that they don’t really enforce.

Here is what Japanese law says.

Persons holding both foreign citizenship and Japanese citizenship (dual nationals) must, before reaching age 22 (or, if having acquired dual nationality after age 20, within two years of acquisition) choose a single nationality. If you do not choose a nationality, you may lose your Japanese nationality. Because of this, it is important to consider this issue carefully.

And here is what U.S. law says,

The Supreme Court of the United States has stated that dual nationality is "a status long recognized in the law" and that "a person may have and exercise rights of nationality in two countries and be subject to the responsibilities of both."

A solution to this dilemma well known to people with dual citizenship in Japan and/or parents of children with dual citizenship like us, is if you have two passports to just show your passport belonging to the country you happen to be entering or leaving. This way, at least the immigration officers aren't even aware that the person holds two citizenships. Even at the government offices they encourage you make a decision but the officers can't do much else.

The problem for Takumi. He forgot to renew his Japanese passport. (He could have done it at the Japanese embassy.) I think someone's going to ask all sorts of questions as to how he’s been living in the States without a valid passport if he goes to the Japanese embassy now. So he is in the States now as a U.S. citizen with no Japanese passport which is fine until he tries to enter Japan on his U.S. passport and they want to know if he is coming in as a tourist or what. He can’t say he lives here because they will want to see his Japanese passport and then want to know why he has dual citizenship when he was “encouraged” to give up one of them.

It would have been so much easier if he’d just kept his Japanese passport valid!

Family pictures

Oh dear, not to much to show you today. How about a couple pictures from the weekend. Oh well, at least Leiya and Takumi will be happy to see pictures of Tetsu and Obaachan.

I stopped in at Tetsu's office to bring him a Caramel Macchiato Frappe and donut from Starbucks (so much for any diet he might have been on.) He had told me he'd be alone most of the day so I thought I'd bring him a snack. As it turned out, there were lots of people coming in and out so he kept having to introduce me to people. I don't think wives show up at their husbands' offices very much in Japan so everyone found it very humorous that I was visiting.

Then this weekend since the weather was very nice we took Tetsu's mother out to a vegetable stand where she could buy homegrown vegetables. She claims she can no longer cook but she sure bought lots of vegetables! Tetsu's mother is very suspicious of anything edible that is grown or raised outside of Japan so she doesn't trust supermarkets. I guess sometimes she may be right since there was a big scare last month about some products that were produced in China that were laced with arsenic or something. Japan has been very wary of Chinese products since then. Tetsu's mother just says, "I told you so!" and is thrilled with a chance to buy only local produce. After shopping we sat outside and had some vegetable pancakes and enjoyed the sun.

Here are Choco, Velvet and Cleo soaking up the sun too! I don't know where Patora was. I love it when my animals seem to get along and share some camaraderie!

Doing some minimum quilting and I'll be at patchwork tomorrow but we have a secret brewing that I as yet can't show. Tune in at a later date for patchwork pictures!

A friend's quilt

I made a short run to Mrs. Furui's yesterday and one of our patchwork friends was there getting some batting (Mrs. Furui keeps a bolt for all of us to use.) Surprise! Mrs. Orihashi has been keeping her quilt secret from all of us but the cat's out of the bag since she needed to bring it out to measure batting.

Look at this cute quilt! One reason Mrs. Orihashi wasn't eager to share this with us is because she was embarrassed to admit that she's been working on it for so long (you can tell she isn't a full time quilter since she thought she was the only one who has quilt tops and blocks in their closet for years.) She started this when her daughter was a third grader and the girl is going into high school this spring. That's not too bad. Only five years!

I love this quilt for two reasons. One because Mrs. Orihashi is such a feminine lady and her delicate embroidery shows her personality. Another reason I like this is because the quilt ended up being a joint project between her daughter and herself! I think at the beginning, the little girl just wanted to participate in the making of the blocks and while mom embroidered, the daughter made a couple blocks of her own. Look at the applique that the child did! Isn't that great? And it really shows the girl's efforts and spirit. It isn't perfect and the stitches are very obvious but that's what makes the block so wonderful!

As the years went by, Mrs. Orihashi's daughter probably decided that this was never going to get done and so she and mom chose some fun piggy fabric and cut out the pigs and the little girl stitched those on blocks too. This is just a fun quilt showing a child's interests, her fumbling fingers, and the love between mother and daughter.

I don't know when Mrs. Orihashi's quilt will be completed but I'm pretty sure there's a young girl who is looking forward to having this quilt on her bed and will someday make quilts of her own!

A mama coat

Yesterday I had a fun day with my long time friend, Masako-san, and an American friend, Heidi. Our purpose was to go shopping and find a baby gift for Heidi whose baby is due in two weeks. Heidi has lots of questions about how to prepare for her baby because customs, baby goods, just the ways of thinking are very different. Unfortunately, Masako-san and I are closer to grandmother age and we ended up mumbling

"Um, I don't know how that's done nowadays but 23 years ago..."

If nothing else, baby shopping was a fun experience for Masako-san and me. (Heidi has already been combing the baby stores so she knew was was available but for Masako-san and me, we've haven't set foot in a baby store in years and years!) First off,

"Heidi, what do you need?"

"I don't know. People keep giving me so many things and some of them I don't even know what they are!"

Masako-san and I had a look and we didn't know either so no help from us. At the store Masako-san and I oohed and ahhed at the new space shuttle like baby strollers and car seats, played around with contraptions that attached to baby cribs, car windows and doorposts.

"We didn't have these in my day!"

Somewhere along the line the three of us decided that Heidi might need a mama coat. I absolutely loved my mama coat when my kids were babies and after showing Heidi, she thought that it might be nice to have and we started fitting her for a spring mama coat. What fun!

First of all, a mama coat is a coat that both the mom and the baby can wear at the same time. I have never seen one in the States but Japanese have used a simpler version traditionally but the ones we were looking at yesterday were of more modern style. Japanese mothers carry their babies around on their back, papoose style. This lets baby feel mom's heartbeat, get mom's body warmth and the constant movement as mom goes about her duties puts the baby to sleep. Mom's hands are freed up to wash dishes or ride a bicycle and do something so papoose style baby carrying is the most common way to carry a baby. (I thought this was hilarious the mom was busy at choir practice while baby slept peacefully on her back. That couldn't be comfortable could it?)

The other way of carrying a baby is in a front style pouch, much like you see in western countries now, but back twenty-some years ago, I only saw this way of carrying babies in Japan. This was my preferred style and my kids rode around attached to my front until they were nearly walking. In either case, a mom can use a mama coat because there is a zippered panel that can fit either in front or back and enclose baby and mom together in warmth. (Not a very good picture of me with Leiya in the mama coat 18 years ago.)

So yesterday we checked out mama coats. While we were browsing a young mother, her baby and the grandma wandered by the aisle and either Heidi or I thought it would be a great idea to "borrow" the baby and latch it onto Heidi's back and then try on the mama coat so Heidi could see how the coat functioned.

"Excuse me, could we borrow your baby for a few minutes?"

Mom looked a bit surprised, Grandma looked a bit worried, baby couldn't care less and Masako-san sputtered and explained what her two foreign friends wanted to do. The baby's mother graciously untied her baby and fastened him onto Heidi's back (so in essence Heidi had a baby on her back, the borrowed one, and a baby on her front, the one due in two weeks). Even so, the mama coat seemed to fit around all this bulk so we all clapped and the gift was decided. Baby was returned to the rightful mother and everyone was happy! I'm sure that mother and grandmother had a good story to tell last night about how their baby was appropriated by the bold foreigners with slightly odd ideas.

Heidi's baby will be here soon so I hope I'll be able to show the mama coat in actual use! (Heidi modeling the mama coat)

"Bootiful"

I need to make a correction or at least make an addition to yesterday's post. I showed a picture of all the things Cassi and her mother sent me from the States but it turned out her mother MADE the stationary goods! They were so professional I couldn't tell! Such a lovely set of things. The stationary box looks like it is made of a tin box that has been covered inside and out and it has an inside pocket to hold things. The paper clips are decorated, the pen is decorated and even the file clip has been covered and prettied up too. Isn't that amazing?

And even though I have other projects waiting (as you well know because I bemoan the fact every week that I'm not getting more done) I broke into the "BOOTIFUL" quilt kit that Cassi sent and have started putting it together. I must have a sickness that just cannot leave something new just sitting. If I let something sit in front of me awhile (website instructions, blog ideas, kits, ideas from books) my ignition sputters and stalls and I never get around to it at all. If I start something when I first get excited I'm more likely to see results.

Yesterday I figured out how to do fusible web applique so I've cut out all the "BOOTIFUL" pieces and fused everything to the backing. Hopefully before my ignition sputters I can get this machine appliqued. Then it is just a matter of putting on a border, sandwiching the quilt and machine quilting it. Easy right? Please hold me to that. Remember I do get sidetracked easily!

Thank you my young friend!

Look what arrived in my mailbox! A very large package from a young friend named Cassi. I just answered a few questions and she thanked me by sending me all sorts of lovely things.

First of all there is a whole set of matching stationary goods, letter set, pen, clips, magnet, shopping list, key chain etc. They all have matching little flowers and ribbons!

Next there are two craft books, one about scrap booking and another to use with children. I often am wracking my brain to think of crafts to do with my English students and at Sunday School so these books are a treasure trove. Maybe I can get some of my students more interested in English just by helping them make cards (with English lettering) using the scrap booking magazine.

And finally Cassi included a wonderful quilt kit with a cheery Cowboy boot. It is called BOOTIFUL! Hey, this doesn't look too hard and I think it would be a very appropriate quilt to have hanging in my house reminding everyone (and me!) that my roots are in America!

Cassi and her mother were so generous with their lovely gifts. Cassie will be visiting Japan in the near future so I hope I can hear what her impressions are of Japan and pass along any comments from her.

Thank you Cassi!

Money

Yesterday the bank/post office/insurance office (an interesting system in Japan because many financial matters are carried out at the post office) paid in full the money we've been putting aside for Leiya for the past 18 years. This is too complicated to explain, but briefly every month I deposited money and the post office guaranteed some insurance coverage (which she never needed) and then at the end of her high school years (in March) they return a large sum of money supposedly to use for college expenses. It is called student insurance and I don't know how much I've put in over the 18 years nor what percent I got back but the point is that yesterday we were handed a lot of money.

Times are changing in Japan and many people use cards and bank transfers but still cash is paid for many things and there is no personal checking system. Although other families may do this differently, Tetsu every month takes his salary out of the bank and hands me an envelope of money to pay the month's living expenses. It used to be each person was handed an envelope of money from his manager at the end of the month but nowadays the salary goes directly to the bank. Since Tetsu takes it out in full, this means that at some time during the month I have a large amount of money in my home that slowly dwindles away throughout the four weeks. This is not that unusual though I am gradually thinking we are pretty old fashioned even in Japan.

Four years ago when Takumi graduated from high school the post office paid back his student insurance money and I remember being floored that the post office people would just walk in my house ask for my family chop and then hand me an envelope of money equivalent to about $9000!!! I'd never seen so much money at one time so we snapped a picture of Takumi and his insurance money. I told him he'd probably never in his life hold so much cash in his hands again!

Leiya's student insurance money has gone back into the bank since she's not around to flaunt it like Takumi. She'll just have to trust me that the money will be used wisely for her benefit!

Problems getting solved

In all fairness to all the people I talked to yesterday and the day before I thought I'd better report that my frustrations are decreasing. I spent a lot of time on the phone yesterday talking with people in the embassy again, and I ended up corresponding with some nice man at the Social Security office in the Philippines who wrote to me four times even though it was a Tuesday! Between the two of them I may get the social security problem cleared up and yes, Lynn, it was probably my fault because I'm still registered in my maiden name! Nearly 30 years have passed since I changed my name and I've sent in forms and talked to the social security office during that time when I registered for Takumi and Leiya's social security numbers. I don't know how I managed to overlook myself (and why no one else noticed.) So hopefully in a few months I'll have a new card in my hands. In the meantime I got other help for sending a signature to the Students' Federal Aid office.

And I must say, that except for the recorded phone messages, everyone I talked to was very polite, very helpful, and they all went out of their way to make my life easier.

Tetsu is tackling my bank problem and I've sent my package to the States, so my frustrating day was short and things are back on track again today! Thank you, Lord!

I realize I haven't been taking many pictures lately. It is still cold out and everything is gray and brown so I haven't been inspired by any scenery. The quilting isn't moving at any great pace so nothing photogenic in that department. My meals have been simple so the camera doesn't need to record work in the kitchen so what do I have left but... ANIMALS!

Here are Velvet, Patora and Cleo lined up on the sofa trying to keep warm. The sunlight comes in the window and heats up the sofa and that's how I found them when I came back from the day out.

And here is Choco curled up in Lemi's old bed. I made the cushion out of an old towel stuffed with thread ends and seam allowances and then tucked it into an old sweat shirt. I left the shirt as is because I like the way the arms can embrace whichever animal sits on it. And look at the cute logo on the shirt! Isn't this a great dog (and cat) cushion cover?!

(It was a cute sweatshirt when I wore it too.)

Serenity

Hmmm. I had a frustrating day yesterday. Let's just say God was teaching me patience.


First off I needed to get in touch with the Social Security office to find out why Student Federal Aid (for Leiya) doesn't like my social security number. Leiya tried to handle it from her end but they suggested since it's my name and my number that I try to solve the problem.


So I called the American embassy. They told me everyone was at lunch and to call again at 2:00 so I called again at 2:00 and someone connected me to the Social Security office recorder who gave me numbers to punch. So I punched the number telling them I wanted to talk with someONE and then was connected to a recording that said,


"Good-bye."


So I called the Embassy again and hurriedly explained my problem (before I was connected to a recording again) and finally was connected to a person. ...Who listened politely to my problem. ...Who told me that there is no Social Security office in Japan anymore (so why all the buttons to push) and that I should call Manila, Philippines. Oh boy, this is getting complicated. But never fear, there is a free dial number so give them a call and they can solve my problem.


So I tried to call Manila only to get a recording (from my own telephone, the traitor!) telling me that my phone company will not allow free dial numbers. So I called my phone company and got a recording to leave my name and telephone number and state my problem. (I have so many now!)


I left that situation to boil and instead called my travel agent to see about airline reservations to Ohio in May. Sorry. Your agent has the day off. Call tomorrow.


Ok. Maybe a trip to the post office will make me feel I'm doing something worthwhile today. Nope. The post office didn't like my package since I wasn't sure where I was sending it. (My fault. I wasn't sure if I was sending mail to France or to America).


Bank stop. Nope. They didn't want to talk to me, they wanted to talk to my husband.


Back home to finally talk to the phone company who said Nope. There is no way you can make a free dial call from your phone. Find some other phone.


Go to the American Embassy website and get an e-mail address for the Social Security office in Manila and send them a desperate e-mail asking for help. No answer yet on that and the website informs me they are closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays and weekends anyway so I may not hear back for awhile.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference."

Serenity Lord, I need serenity!

Driving

I had a nice chat with Leiya yesterday morning. Talking with her and her American family makes me think how different America and Japan really are. So much of what she tells me I have to say "What do you mean? I don't understand that system." Simple things like getting a drivers' license, applying for scholarships etc. She explains and I don't understand and she explains again.

Let's see if I can give an example.

Bessie suggested that maybe the summer might be a good time for Leiya to get a driver's license. Ok. From my point of view this is going to take a couple months and runs into lots of money. But yeah. It's about time to think about that. Leiya is 18 now. She'll be 19 in July. In Japan kids can get a license from 18 and they use the break between high school and college to go to driving school. But driving school is a very expensive business in Japan and I've heard that it is runs around $2000. The driving school has teachers and special cars and special courses to practice on. At the end of the course you can go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and take a test. If your are in your 30s this may cost you $3000. If you are in your 40s you can expect to pay about $4000. I don't know where this leads since I don't know any people who have gotten their license past age 40.

So as I talked with Bessie all this was running through my mind.

"Ok, yeah. We can use some savings for this. Should Leiya go to driving school in Ohio or in California? (she may visit California this summer.) I think the local community college gives driving lessons. She could register there and maybe be finished in two months."

As I was fumbling to make a comment to Bessie's suggestion she said,

"I think we could drive around with Leiya for a couple weeks in the neighborhood and then take her down to the DMV to get her license."

Again my head starts spinning.

"Oh that's right. Leiya may not have to go to driving school like in Japan. I could give her practice on the California roads this summer. But she'd need a driver's permit wouldn't she? I wonder how the California laws work."

In Japan you're not allowed out on the streets unless there is a licenced driving teacher beside you.

Bessie pipes up again,

"I don't think she needs a permit since she is already 18. That's only for the younger high school students. We might even be able to take her down to the DMV over spring break."

It is all so easy in the States.

I have a foreign friend here in the city who decided to bypass all the drivers school fees by just walking into the DMV and taking the road test. She figured she'd driven in the States the past 20 years, how bad a driver could she be? Hah! She was frustrated to tears. I think she took the test 6 times (over a six month period) and she'd get in the car, start the engine and the examiner would say,

"Ok. You failed. Try again next month."

"What! I haven't even released the break yet!"

It seems that there is a certain routine taught in driving school that you have to follow to get the examiner to even consider you. Something like: Get in the car. Put your seat belt on. Adjust the center mirror. Test the brakes. Look over your right shoulder. Hold the steering wheel with your thumbs pointing up, etc. etc. If you get one point of the routine out of place, that's it for you. Too bad. I can remember my friend practically crying and when she finally did get her Japanese license Tetsu's comment was,

"Wow! That's fantastic! She got her license after only 6 tries? I've never heard of that before. Unless you go to driving school I didn't think anyone had a possibility of getting a license at all!"

As for me, thirty years ago I went to the DMV and handed them my California drivers' license. The DMV kept it for two weeks, decided it was legitimate and gave it back to me along with a Japanese license. No test. No asking if I'd ever driven on the left-hand side of the road. No checking to see if I could recognize a Japanese stop sign or not. I shake my head now to think what a danger I was those first couple years of driving in Japan. The stricter system of today may be a pain but all in all I think it may be safer for everyone involved!

And for all the new drivers out on the road, there is a badge (about the size of a person's hand) that has to be visible to other drivers on the road to let them know you may be a hazard to the cars around you. It is called a young leaf mark!

And this is an autumn leaf badge that also should be displayed on the cars of older drivers, also to warn other drivers of your possible delayed reflexes!

I can't imagine either of these badges making a big hit in the States.

Blocks

I've been catching up on promised and procrastinated blocks. (Actually have one more to do that didn't make it to this post but maybe I'll get to it today.)

First off, I'm sending these wonky letter blocks to Tonya tomorrow. She asked for any stray letter blocks left-over from other projects and I had a pile that have no immediate use and if I can show my appreciation to her in any way at all, she has my support!

Then Tonya suggested a house warming party for Bonnie and I got on the band wagon and have made a wonky house to send to Bonnie. I'm not sure if I missed instructions but I couldn't figure out what size the block was supposed to be. I did get the red background right. Along with the wonky house I signed a signature square and I'll put that in the package. Also some crumb blocks. The crumbs are something I've been wanting to do but I really rushed through this job and maybe I don't understand crumb making yet. I have so many crumbs that I'd better get the process under my belt. Do you think these look like they're supposed to?

Then Clare invited me to make a square for her Leukemia quilts. Clare has suggested before and with good intentions I put the idea on the back shelf. I was really glad Clare suggested again and it made me think that the extra push is all that is needed to get a lot of things done in life but sometimes we aren't bold enough to make the push. Thank you Clare for nudging me. The instructions were to make a 8 1/2 inch block in red and white and I decided to make a square that depicts Japan. An origami crane! I'm quite pleased with myself because although I've made this block before it was a smaller version and I lost the instructions. Can't be too hard can it? I've made it before and I have the quilt right in front of me so I can see what I did so... I designed my own block! I'm going to keep this around because I can see me making this again.

And finally my basket block for the bazaar quilt. Mrs. Furui gave out homework on Thursday and I volunteered to do a basket. It is supposed to be a basket but I didn't have enough room for the basket handle (this block is going to be cut back a bit more) so it is more like a vase. Yeah! Homework finished!

And I needed my name on one block so I pulled out the embroidery thread.

Back to quilting.

Holding hands

Oh goodness. I do want to write about this today?

I'll have you know, on our very first date, Tetsu and I held hands. So what? 30 years ago this was unusual in Japan and Tetsu thought me quite the forward girl. Actually we were on a skating rink and I couldn't skate so I took his hand. Tetsu and I met in the winter and the season had a lot to do with how our romance went. I was fresh from sunny Southern California and living in very cold Morioka, Japan. The roads and sidewalks were icy. I was constantly slipping and falling so when Tetsu turned up at my side... well, I grabbed onto his hand and I still have it!

The first couple years of dating, on the weekends Tetsu and I wandered around holding hands even after the snow melted. On weekends. If perchance we should meet during the weekday when he would escape from his office to a coffee shop lunch wearing a suit, then NO HANDHOLDING! At first I felt rebuked that this young man I was falling for would shoo my hand away like it was a vicious dog!

"In Japan we do not hold hands in public and especially during work hours."

Well, he had obliged me enough to hold my hand in public on the weekend (even Tetsu realized that by becoming involved with a foreigner he'd have to make allowances) but not when he was an upcoming businessman.

After we were married the tune has never stopped.

"Tanya, we do not hold hands in public now that we are married."

What!!!

"Tanya, we have children now, we do not hold hands in public."

This is getting bad.

"Tanya, consider our age. We do not hold hands in public now that we are in our 50's"

I heard this just the other day.

Ok. I've gotten used to it. I'll still sneak a quick hand holding session on our morning walks with Choco at 6:00 in the morning when it is still dark and no one else is out yet. Occasionally some jr. high student or farmer will pass us and you watch how fast Tetsu can drop my hand!

"Excuse me. I'm your wife! If you were holding hands with some other woman I could understand your reaction but you belong to me!"

I'm teasing him. He should be happy that I still want to hold hands with him.

Kissing?! Hah! I am allowed to walk Tetsu to the car and wave him on his way to work.

"Tanya, no kissing in public."

"I know, I know. Good-bye honorable husband. Battle bravely at your office again today."

And I give him a quiet wave of my hand much like the Queen would give her subjects.

But I do get one public kiss a year. With many sidelong glances and a quick peck, Tetsu sees me off at the limousine bus when I make a trip to the States. I guess he thinks if he didn't accommodate me I might not come back!