Nikko's Sleeping Cat

This weekend when we went to the shrines of Nikko we specifically wanted to see the carving of the sleeping cat known as the Nemuri Neko. It is one the most famous carvings in Japan and is found on the lintel in the inner shrine. The cat sleeping depicts peace in the world and on the other side of the carving there are sparrows so supposedly as long as the cat sleeps the sparrows are safe to play.

I have my own sleeping cat and I have to admit that I like mine more! Not particularly artistic but seeing Velvet so relaxed in his cat house makes me smile!

Let the sparrows play!

Visiting Nikko

Okay. Lots of pictures today. These are of my weekend with Sasha and her friend Katie.

I "know" Sasha because her mother and I visit each other's blogs. I would read Shelina's blog and learn about the quilts she was making, about her daughter's interest in Japan, and about the Japanese home stay students that would stay in their home. And somewhere along the line we realized that Shelina didn't live far from Leiya in Ohio! Two years ago when Tetsu and I went to Ohio for Leiya's graduation, Shelina drove out to have breakfast with us at a restaurant. Shelina is the only blog friend (and I've only "met" one other) who has met Tetsu.

When I learned that Sasha was visiting Japan again I told Shelina to definitely give Sasha my e-mail address and we would see if we could get together. And that's what we did!

The first place we visited was Mashiko the pottery town and we browsed for a couple hours but bought little. For one thing pottery is heavy and bulky and breakable so unless a foreign tourist is really into pottery it is hard to buy things to take home. It is fun to look though.

There was also an indigo dye workplace and it I snapped the girls' picture outside at the drying area. Beautiful dyed fabric but TOO EXPENSIVE!

On the way home from the pottery town Sasha wanted to stop at a fabric store to buy Japanese fabric for her mom and she chose a few things there. Here again, even normal fabric is EXPENSIVE (about $13 a yard) so you don't get a lot for your money but she had fun picking out things. I'm sure Shelina can make something lovely with the choices.



On Sunday it was a rainy day but we went up to the historical part of Nikko and visited shrines and temples. Sorry. Even though these are all famous places the names all run together in my mind. This is a famous temple. Believe me. (I'm a lousy tour guide.)

And here is another famous place though this might be a shrine rather than a temple...

Outside the shrines are places to buy your fortune and practically everyone will buy an envelope. If the fortune is good I think they take it home. If the fortune is bad they leave it at the shrine usually on designated areas but in this case the trees edging the road were filled with fortunes.

And these plaques are bought for good luck and then hung outside of the shrine. On some of them people had written wishes for finding the perfect mate, the healthy birth of a baby, and the most common, for passing the entrance tests to school. (The coins on there also symbolize good luck.)

Our next stop was up the side of the mountain to Lake Chuzenji. Just going up the mountain makes me nervous because of all the sharp curves (40 some) but in the old days the road used to be two ways whereas nowadays it is well banked and one way up and another way down on the other side of the mountain. It isn't as bad a trip as I always am afraid it is going to be.

Lake Chuzenji is a famous resort area and many of the foreign embassies have/had villas or get away cottages for their ambassadors and foreign guests. A little way through the woods is a lovely cottage that once belonged to the Italian Embassy and which is now open to the public so we spent a short time relaxing there. The view was spectacular from all the windows!

And then we went to visit one of the most famous waterfalls in Japan. Small by comparison to some of the wonders of the world but in lovely surroundings. This was the first time for me to get to this waterfall (another elevator breaking through nature to take all the tourists right to the "natural sight") so now I can say I've been to Nikko. (I live here, right?)

I had a lovely time with two lovely girls.

Seeing the sights

I've got tourist pictures today. Maybe people pictures tomorrow.

This weekend I had great fun entertaining two college girls from America. They are in Tokyo for a semester and were able to schedule a visit to Nikko. And one of the girls is one of my blog friend's daughter! Anyway, we did a lot of driving around and looking at the touristy sites... some that I'd never seen before too!

First we hit Mashiko and I think I've shown that pottery town on my blog twice already. This wall (on the outside of the public toilet) we thought very appropriate for a pottery town. Sort of a dangerous mosaic. I wouldn't want to trip and fall against the wall.

And this is a raccoon dog. Ceramic raccoon dogs can be seen all over Japan and they seem to have magical powers but all of them carry an osake jug, a shade hat and are well endowed. This is a huge ceramic raccoon dogs that brings a lot of chuckles from tourists.

And after visiting the pottery town we made a stop at my favorite fabric store to purchase fabric for my blog friend. I wanted you to see how small this shop is and how the colors of the fabric tend to be dark and muted.

Glory, I've got way too many pictures. I guess I'll post more scenery tomorrow too...

Sensei

Yesterday Mr. Furui paid me the extreme compliment of commenting on my blog. I am just tickled pink to think that an esteemed physicist would bow to explain the theory/formula that was the inspiration for his wife's quilt. And that he thought I'd be able to understand it!!! For details look in the comments of the Mrs. Furui's Electric Quilt post.

It occurred to me when writing that post that Mr. Furui is probably Dr. Furui. And his students and colleagues know him as Prof. Furui. In Japanese the title would be sensei. But sensei can mean anything from a hairdresser, to an English teacher, to a sports coach, to a politician, to a medical doctor, to a pastor, to someone with a PhD. It's all sensei in Japanese. A little discouraging after all those years of study and research and university tuition. This is possibly a reflection of the humbleness in Japanese society. (Sensei in Chinese characters means someone who has gone the path of life before).

I couple of years ago I did write a post about titles in Japan and how they are used in everyday conversation and why I refer to my quilting friends as Mrs. So-and-so. My English students call me "Tanya-teacher" being a literal translation of "Tanya sensei" or sometimes I'm just "Teacher" to them. I can't seem to get any of my younger students into the habit of calling me Mrs. Watanabe though I would prefer to be plain ol' Tanya.

Anyway, I feel like I'm cheating Mr. Furui from his proper title but still I call him "Furui-san" and he is just Mrs. Furui's husband to me.

Begging apologies, Furui-san.

Drinking

You wouldn't know it from my blog but Japan is a very alcohol oriented society. Neither Tetsu nor I are drinkers so we are pretty much out of the drinking culture, but drinking plays a large part in social and business relationships. I was reminded of this last night.

Yesterday I had to attend a general meeting of the Traffic Safety Association. This is a slow moving, extremely formal recitation of last year's programs, this year's budget and general approval of the new chairpersons. Many formal speeches given by various members, formal introduction of new members (me), and formal asking of guidance (by me) to the rest of the members in the association. Lots and lots of bowing... Formal is the word.

But... after the meeting, everyone shed their formality and we moved into a banquet room for a sit down Japanese dinner and general party to welcome the new members (me).

It was a delicious meal but I'll be glad if I don't have to do it again for another year! I sat across from two men (assigned seats) and the man in front of me never touched his dinner at all. He bounced to his feet after the official opening of the banquet and came back with two individual bottles of osake. He must have gone through at least 8 on his own during the evening but that wasn't all.

Besides osake (warmed and iced) there were an infinite number of beer bottles on the tables and one could call for a Japanese style aquavit too. True, there were a few bottles of tea and soda but except for a couple of us, those were basically ignored!

Since I'm not a drinker I don't really get the etiquette right but pretty soon the 30 some people in the room were making the rounds of greetings. There I'd sit and someone would come by and say hello and grab a bottle of something (anything) and try to fill my glass. I persuaded everyone that I really was enjoying my sodas but the man across from me eagerly downed his glass and held it out for more. And he wasn't the only one! For the next two hours people milled around filling each other's glasses and getting more and more rowdy (and raunchy...) I mean, these were the somber faced businesslike men and women whom I'd met at the city hall and police station a few weeks ago and now they were yelling across the room, laughing uproariously and getting slightly beyond my comfort zone in the topic of conversation...

I tried my best to properly fill my dinner partner's glass, (stand when serving the other party, hold the bottle in two hands). And I was reminded that it wasn't polite to refuse the reciprocal drink nor was I being polite if I tried to fill my own glass with more soda.

I came home with a slight headache and I was one of the few people in the group that wasn't going to be nursing a hangover!

Mrs. Furui's Electric Quilt

Yesterday we had a patchwork day but didn't get too much accomplished. Sigh... The Mini-Round Robin isn't finished yet. Rats. I was hoping that those could be revealed. Some people can't keep to a schedule~♪～♪～♪ So no pictures.

Instead we went ahead and discussed out next "game" and yes, even the slower members were eager to particpate again.

So. We've decided to do a block swap... I guess that's what it's called. Each person will choose a block that they want made and send around a pattern and instructions. Month by month other members will make blocks to add to the person's envelope while having their own blocks worked on by still other members. You know what I mean... Is this called a swap? A friendship something or other? Anyway a couple of the ladies were pouring over books trying to choose what blocks they want made.

I don't know! What do I want made? Not something that can be pieced on machine because most of these ladies don't do machine piecing. So no nine patches or strip blocks. Something more complicated but not so intricate that the less experienced and slower members will get frustrated. I thought about a Drunkard's Path but can these ladies do curves? I really like the block called Alabama Beauty with LOTS of curves but maybe that really is too difficult... I've thought about Lemon Stars and Friendship Stars but another person has chosen those. Any thoughts on what would make a good, scrappy, fun quilt? There are only 6 or 7 of us participating so this is not going to be a huge quilt but with smaller blocks we agreed we'd make 5 or 6 each...

And on a completely different vein...

Mrs. Furui's husband is a physicist. A brilliant physicist! He works in the world of numbers and formulas and theories etc. And you know Mrs. Furui's delicate, intricate, feminine handwork. Usually the Furui family's two interests rarely cross but a couple of months ago Mr. Furui became very excited about a physics book (lots of numbers and formulas so that even though it was in English I didn't understand a tad!) The physicist talked about a QUILT that his wife had made for him that showed the correlation between electric pathways and perfect squares within squares or some such thing.... Our quilt group thought it very funny that there are other physicist/quilter couples like Mr. and Mrs. Furui in the world!

Mr. Furui asked Mrs. Furui to make him a quilt that he could use when explaining the physics theory in his lectures... All very complicated and I don't think even Mrs. Furui understands but she made him this quilt of all perfect squares, every one a different size (the smallest being 1 centimeter large.) The things a quilter will do for her husband!

I hope you are happy with your quilt Mr. Furui!

Vending machines

Let's see... What do I want to talk about today? Any questions about Japanese life?

Depending on how you look at it, an unfortunate part of the Japanese scenery are the vending machines that dot the landscape. The are always so glaringly bright and gaudy!Some people think these are the gods' gifts to weary drivers. I think they are one of the worst inventions ever made! (Tetsu loves them.)

Vending machines will sell anything and everything. The most typical of course, are the soft drink machines. Nowadays from the vending machine it will cost about $1.50 to buy plastic bottles of water, tea, cola, coffee etc. The machines will dispense either cold drinks or hot drinks so in winter one can warm up a bit on a long drive or walk, and in the summer a refreshing drink is at your fingertips.

The drink machines annoy me because people freely partake of their refreshment and then toss the cans and bottles into the forest. No manners or morals or whatever and each morning that Tetsu and I take Choco for a walk there is a can or two that wasn't there the day before. Tetsu and I weekly pick up cans from the forest on our routine walk and I will occasionally make a jaunt to the main road and pick up cans practically tearing my arms from my shoulders with the load I bring home after only a half hour of de-littering. GRRRR. Those stupid machines are at fault! (I know... it is really people.)

But you cannot believe what else is sold by vending machines! Liquor! Excuse me folks... aren't their laws about underage drinking etc? Yes, I suppose there are but still vending machines will sell beer and osake and those cans join the soft drink cans in the forest. And if a teenager wants to drink I suppose there is no stopping him from going to the neighborhood vending machine.

Another pet peeve of mine are the dumb vending machines that sell cigarettes... Located right in front of the schools!!! (This picture is of the one in front of the elementary school.) A few years ago I remember stopping at the stoplight in front of the jr. high school and watching a jr. high girl (in her gym wear) pull up to the vending machine on her school bicycle and buy a pack of cigarettes! In broad daylight! Within sight of the school! The laws have become a little stricter, and vending machines have become more technologically advanced and as of two years ago cigarette vending machines require you to insert a pre-registered card that certifies that the purchaser is of age. Other machines will have cameras and computers that can somehow detect if a person is underage (something about the facial structure).

And glory! There are vending machines that even sell pornography and not very well hidden at that!

There are some vending machines that sell weird products such curry noodles, soy sauce ramen, and simmered fish cakes and vegetables. From a can? No, thank you.

The chocolate Kit-Kats look very tempting though...

Applique cushions

Thank you for your advice on long arm quilting the Orange and Cherry Jubilee. I have been combing the Internet for places near my mother's home that might teach long arm classes or have long arm services. I think I will take the quilt with me this summer, check around in person, make the decision about how much I want to spend and do something about it this summer... and if I can't make the splurge or find the time I can always carry it back to Japan and think let it rest in the closet for another year. It's lived there for quite awhile anyway... Who knows. When and if I finish the Feathered Star I might WANT another quilt on my quilt hoop.











In the meantime I FINALLY finished both applique cushions from Mrs. Furui's book Hop To It. I think what I like best about the book is the colors that are used so I'm not buying the book. I'm sure Mrs. Furui will loan it to me again if I have an inkling towards applique in the future. I should be able to figure out colors myself.

These are machine appliqued (both using freezer paper but one with edges turned under) and when they are finished I can't really tell the difference. I guess I'll go with the non-edge turn process. That was easier.

Off for a busy day today.

Wildflowers

I received flowers!

From a little 5th grader boy. In fact he has given me wild flowers for three days in a row. And he chooses his flowers artistically. Tall light pink flowers and small purple flowers and cheery yellow flowers. He hands them to me shyly as he goes across the crosswalk and is so pleased when I put them in my breast pocket.

The rice fields and forest paths abound with flowers and but the little boy's flowers seem especially beautiful.

Mindless procrastination

I have been having a quilting block. Not a slump mind you, just "I don't know what I want to do" block. I've got the Feathered Star to work on. I've made a couple wall quilts and tapestries for friends lately. But I haven't been doing any sewing machine sewing on a large quilt recently.

For one thing, I have a very large Orange and Cherry Jubilee that has sat on the shelf for over a year. Remember that one? That was the one where I messed up on the block placement and I became disgusted with myself. And there is the problem of quilting such a large quilt. (I couldn't even lay it out flat to take a picture. The room is too small.) There are NO long arm quilters in Japan. This means I have to do it myself. Elaine has been machine quilting large quilts on her domestic machine but she says her machine has a 9 inch throat. I measured mine... Mine has a 7 inch throat. Even with little quilts I will almost always get a pucker in there and so I shudder to think what would happen with a large quilt. But with the Feather still on the quilting hoop, I'm not too anxious to hand quilt the Orange and Cherry Jubilee. (Another two years of quilting?)

So why would I want to start ANOTHER large quilt that wouldn't be able to get quilted? And even if I did start, what do I want to make?

On Saturday I went up to the sewing room for fabric therapy. What IS all this stuff coming out of the drawers and baskets? The crumb basket is overflowing and most of that stuff is unusable! But can I really just toss it? No. So I spent HOURS cutting the crumbs into 3 1/2 inch strips and squares, 2 1/2 inch strips and squares and 2 inch strips and squares. This is called mindless procrastination. I made a DENT.

Why do I keep cutting up strips and squares? I fell in love with Bonnie's Scrap User system but I seem to be SAVING, not USING! So yesterday I started chain stitching and making 16 patches. I think I've started a Patch and Pinwheel quilt and it will eventually have to take its place in the quilting line. Any quilting advice?

Kitchen cleaning

"Ho-Hum. Saturday morning. A lazy day. Tetsu, what are we going to do today?"

This was after a long walk, a leisurely breakfast and some blogging time.

"Tetsu. Tetsu? Oh my!"

And this is what greeted me as I wandered into the kitchen.

Tetsu was doing a major cleaning overall to my kitchen. He'd pulled out all the pots and pans and my faithful oven of 25 years that makes 9 cookies at a time (12 in a pinch). He was changing shelf paper, scrubbing the insides and outsides of everything and rearranging the layout.

I took my picture and disappeared. More power to him if he wants to spend his Saturday morning cleaning my kitchen.

And this is what the cupboard looked like after he was done. Do you think I'll be inspired to cook now?

Kitty quilt and cookies

Yesterday two of my friends came over to do some patchwork together. Mrs. Nakazawa has finished quilting her kitty quilt and we spent the day putting on the binding. Of course every time we laid the quilt down to admire or work on, cats would appear to claim it as their own. It's a good thing Mrs. Nakazawa likes cats (I guess so... she sewed enough cats into this quilt!)

For homework Mrs. Nakazawa will finish the binding and then do some embroidery on the cat faces. This is not completely complete yet but I still wanted to show it here and have you see Mrs. Nakazawa's happy face. She has her next and her next and her next quilt project lined up in her head.

And on a different note, one of my swimming friends gave me some cookies that she found at a neighborhood bakery. Aren't these the cutest things?!! Actually I have bought these before (for Mrs. Nakazawa!) but they are too cute to eat!