Stamps

A couple of days ago I took in four packages to the post office to mail off to different parts of the world (old obis right?)

Ah, here comes Mrs. Watanabe with her irregularly wrapped packages and tape sticking out everywhere... (There was one time when one of the girls offered to re-wrap my package for me.)

I plunked my packages down on the counter, and filled out my forms while the girl weighed each package and applied the usual tape-ticket stamp thingy.

"Um... Excuse me... Could I have stamps on my packages instead of the tape-ticket thingy? Stamps are so much prettier and I think my friends in other countries would like to receive a package with Japanese stamps."

The post office girl apologized profusely, asking forgiveness for not giving more consideration to my packages. She carefully peeled the tape-ticket thingies off my packages and brought out pretty stamps for me to choose from.

"You could use a combination of these and for this package you will need twelve 80 yen stamps and four 50 yen stamps. Or you could use one 300 yen stamp and six 8o yen stamps plus two 50 yen stamps and a couple 20 yen stamps too..."

I was having a field day.

"Ooh! I like this one and this one and I want to include a couple of these and maybe this one too... And for this package that a child is going to get, I want the stamps with cartoon characters!"

I had stamps all over the counter and the girl was giving me free range to divide stamp packages and sheets the way I wanted. (I think they must be giving me special privileges. Normally I wouldn't think you'd hand a customer a box of stamps and let her pick and choose and paw through everything... I've been going to this post office for over 15 years.)

Each of my four packages had different amounts of stamps laid out on them and arranged as I liked. I'm sure the post office people were happy when I finally left.

Yesterday I was back at the post office. Different girl but she nodded knowingly about the four packages I'd sent the day before. I must be a post office gossip topic.

"You would like stamps right? Here are some different ones from yesterday." And she handed me more boxes of stamps.

I was tearing apart a sheet that I especially liked that had a scene of Japan with stamps on the bottom.

"Oh, this is so nice. It seems a shame to tear the stamps away from the pretty picture. Can I just put the whole sheet on my package? On the back of my package? (no room on the front.)

"Oh yes, you can do whatever you'd like just as long as the stamps are on there."

So I made up four more packages all with pretty stamps plastered everywhere some with stamps on the back.

I warned the post office girls that I'm coming back with more packages again today... They were very nice to smile at me and say that they looked forward to helping me again.

I really ought to make a batch of cookies for the nice post office girls.

Mirror, mirror

This morning Choco had a tummy ache and so at 4:00am I was taking her out for a potty run. After taking her out, bringing her back, taking her out again, I finally gave up and at 4:30 just took her for a walk.

So that was NOT good, (but Choco is fine now) but I did take my camera and when there was enough light at 5:00 I snapped pictures of the flooded rice fields.

Was this picture worth taking? Not enough light yet...

Not all of the fields are flooded but the farmers are filling them and driving their tractors through them and then the planting will start. There is only a week or so of flooded fields with no rice planted and this is when the landscape looks like someone has laid down mirrors all over the countryside.

If it is a windy day we won't see the mirror effect. If there is too much soil debris or the water is too low, we won't see the mirror effect. If the sky is too bright, we won't see the mirror effect. It is only when the fields are first flooded, the rice yet to be planted, the breeze is still, and the sky is overcast but softly bright, that this lovely scenery appears.

Thank you Choco for persuading me to go see God's beauty in the early hours...

Alphabet Soup Finished!

Wow, there are so many of you donating and requesting certain obis. Thank you so much. I am taking the ones chosen off of my sidebar and now my job will be to package them and send them off. I am so terrible at wrapping! My packages always look like something a kindergartner might make. Reflects on my sloppy personality.

Joan and Beatrice, I don't seem to have e-mail access for you both. Could you please send me your e-mail address? You are both on no-reply right now. You can find my e-mail address if you click the sidebar profile (About Me).

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I am happy to announce that I have finished my batik quilt. Alphabet Soup! There were a lot of challenges involved in this but I seem to have plowed through them and gone to completion.

Color choices were easy thanks to Jay who sent me a storehouse of batiks. These fabrics are mostly from him. The pattern was a simple one that seemed to show off fabrics well. The problems came with machine quilting!

I don't feel very confident about my machine quilting but I must admit that I'm through the nervous stage and now into the enjoyment stage. But this quilt is a big quilt and I didn't think I could tackle such a size on my little domestic machine. I made up the top in four pieces and went ahead and basted them separately for quilting.

I knew I wanted to try feathers and I marked off a wavering line in chalk and then quilted in feathers freehand. Not bad. I did get lost a couple of times but don't look closely.

After advice from Lorraine I quilted a small border pattern freehand and went on to do flowers.

And THEN I put the four quarters together. The back is such a patchwork piece itself! There wasn't enough of the blue when I went to the store, so I added pink to my shopping cart and sewed the two together. But when making each backing, there wasn't enough fabric in places so I was cutting and adding until who knows why this backing turned out this way!

I sewed the front together. I trimmed the batting and roughly sewed it together. I turned the seam under on the backing and hem stitched it down. THREE TIMES! My friend Mrs. Okutomi says she'd rather quilt a big quilt than do the connecting work. She may be right!

Next I chose a quilting pattern from Feathered Fibers and tried my hand on the small border. Oh good! I can quilt even a large quilt if it is only the edge! And back pouring over the photos on Feathered Fibers and I blatantly copied one of her border patterns. (Feathered Fibers really does her quilting on a long arm but I managed to use some of her ideas.)

I am so happy with the way the borders turned out! I used a chalk pencil again to draw in wavy lines and then drew in some feathers too but more often than not I'd get lost so the feathers are also basically freehand.

Yeah!!! Finished!!! I have yet to make a label and I'd better not put it off too long because I tend to get quilts with no labels on them. You may see this quilt again because I'm going to ask Mrs. Ochiai to photograph it with her wonderful camera this week.

Obi and Kimono

Vel came back last night around 6:00. Even though I was trying to take the advice to let cats be cats, I kept looking out the window and hourly going out and calling him. By evening I was exhausted.

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Okay... I am finally thinking about what to do with all the obi that I brought home last week... I have an idea but actually this might be crazy.

I have checked shipping prices and find that it costs me about $10 a kimono or obi to send overseas by surface mail. Japan does not use a checking system so it would be difficult for me to receive money from people. I do not feel a need to make money off of my friend's mother-in-law's obis but I don't really need them myself. Enough people offered to buy some that I am thinking of asking people to donate $50 to Red Cross Relief for Japan. If anyone has an interest in an obi, then I would specify it for that person and after a donation was made I would assume shipping fees to that person. (Can I say, make a donation after you've read this post? I know people have already made donations but I don't think I can just send out kimonos to everybody.) I have about 20 of these things but this would be MY donation (in a way) to Red Cross and I know my friend's family would feel happy knowing the obis went to a cause for Japan.

What do you think? Does this sound feasible? $50 seems a lot for a couple of these things... the pure black ones or the brown men's one (it even has a couple moth holes in it...) so if anyone wants those I'd leave the donation amount open. As for the non-interesting pink roll of kimono fabric at the bottom, that is my least favorite but I'll have you know that there is still a price tag on it that says it is about $250! Wow! I'm afraid I wouldn't buy it for that!

Anyway, I have put these pictures on my sidebar and if anyone is interested, please let me know. First come, first serve. If I don't get takers then these will go to someone I know who uses Japanese fabrics for bags.

Obi










From here on, these are kimonos.

And this is a half kimono coat.


I sure didn't plan to get into the kimono trade business.

Escapee

Tetsu and Choco and I came back from our morning walk and two of the cats had escaped. Vel and Mi. Mi came running back past Choco, through the yard and jumped back in the window when I called her. Vel is still out in the wilds somewhere. Vel knows how to open sliding doors and windows. And because I know that Vel knows how to open windows, I always lock the windows. So why was the window unlocked and open? (And no, my first thought wasn't a break-in.)

When Lorraine and I came home after the big earthquake I found many of our sliding doors and windows full open. The cats were too spooked to try to escape (and Vel was locked up anyways) but I could imagine the doors sliding open as the house shook. But could an earthquake unlock the doors?

Because Vel does sometimes open the doors I ALWAYS keep them locked. I know I do! But yesterday afternoon we had another large tremor that had cell phone alarms going and books falling. I'm thinking that the shaking knocked the lock off AGAIN and this morning when Vel was let out of his room he tried a couple doors, found one unlocked and made his escape. (Taking Mi with him.) Another window was unlocked and open upstairs too.

Years ago Vel fell off the veranda and was lost in the woods for 5 days before he came back... I hope he has sense enough to come back earlier this time and that he'll be careful while he is out exploring. Of course he dislikes enough of our other cats (Toi and Patora in particular) that he may decide to move elsewhere. I hope not.

Watermark

Some friends came over for patchwork yesterday bringing bags of supplies and tools. Everything got put out on the table and sewing began. And the next we looked, Toi was trying out the different sized bags and boxes finding one that suited him.

"This one is a great size... and insulated. (It is actually a shopping bag for groceries.) What do you think? Does it go nicely with my coloring?"





"Now this is a little tight... but I do like the color and besides it is right in the midst of all the sewing so I choose THIS ONE!"

The box was a little mis-shapen when Toi finally got out of it.

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Yesterday afternoon Mrs. Ochiai called me.

"Tanya, I've been meaning to tell you but I keep forgetting. Do you know that your watermark on your pictures still says 2010? I really think you should change that. It is already April of 2011!"

Did I laugh at that! Nope. I hadn't noticed that I was four months behind. If Mrs. Ochiai hadn't mentioned I probably could have gone another year or two! How about anyone else? With all the pictures that I've posted, did anyone else notice that the watermark was off? Or maybe you are all just too polite.

Thank you Mrs. Ochiai! As of Toi's pictures I've change my watermark to 2011!

Patchwork Thursday after the earthquake

Yesterday was the first time our patchwork group got together since the earthquake last month. (We had met on the 10th, the day before the earthquake.) Everyone was worried about Lorraine and wondering how her feelings were towards Japan now and whether she would ever be back to visit.

Lots of tales of the past month. Mrs. Ochiai has decided it is safer to walk up 5 floors to her condominium rather than risk being caught in the elevator and so she has gotten a good workout this month. Mrs. Harada (who lives on the 14th floor, closer to Tokyo) doesn't have that option but actually there was very little damage to her home. Something about the newer buildings being built to sway softly with earthquakes. (I have heard this from other friends too who live in high rises. There was NOTHING in their houses broken whereas I was picking up things from my squat little house for days.)

But, as I mentioned yesterday, we all have reacted differently to the earthquake and the following changes in our lives. I spent the time sewing and got quite a lot accomplished, but a couple of my friends said that they found it hard to concentrate and couldn't put their hearts into any handwork. So only half of us who had homework this past month got it finished. The others begged off because they were too rattled to sit down and sew. Maybe more done this month (if the aftershocks would calm down.)

Mrs. Okutomi was one of the handwork people last month and she spent the time machine quilting two quilts for her home. At last month's meeting we were basting these for her and this month she is finished! Such pretty quilts and such lovely quilting. Can you tell that I am standing there trying to get pointers on how to machine quilt a large quilt? I was also trying to get advice about sewing machines because, gasp!, my sewing machine is struggling right now! It seems that in the fall from my sewing table my machine got jarred enough so that the straight stitching dial now points to zig-zag and when I want to do zig-zag (rarely) I have to put the dial at button hole. My poor machine! But at least it sews! Mrs. Okutomi uses a Bernina, top of the line, but I don't think I'll ever have a chance to play on one of those.

And we also worked on more applique leaves for the bazaar quilt... ironing them down in place before appliqueing. Yes, we are on the floor again. I think we should pitch in and buy Mrs. Furui a standing ironing board.

Fear? Pride?

Sorry. I missed yesterday. Wednesdays are my busiest days with me going in to the next town for kindergarten from 9:30 am. (Meaning I leave home around 8:45 so that I can confer with the teachers beforehand.) It has been a long vacation for me since I opted to skip March's kindergarten graduation soon after the earthquake (no gasoline). Some of the mothers told me yesterday that they'd thought I'd gone back to America. That took me by surprise and made me a bit disgruntled.

"I'm not giving up on Japan!"

You would be surprised how touchy a subject this is right now. People who have left for other places think the people who are staying are foolish... and if truth be told some of those who have moved feel a little guilty it seems because at least people I know write long e-mails justifying their decision.

"You don't have to explain. We all have different opinions, different situations."

But it is true that there are also snide remarks about the people who have fled and their "neurosis". Maybe a little sour grape thinking?

"They don't have children who go to school like I do." or "They have always been spooked easily."

(I have a feeling I'm going to get blasted from some people who read the above. But that's the way I see things right now and that is the sort of conversations we are having.)

Radiation level categories were raised yesterday and the news is as usual, confusing.

"Yes, we are at level 7 for dangerous radiation levels. That is the same as the horrendous Chernobyl accident but no, Japan doesn't have the same radiation levels as then and the Japanese people are not in any danger."

Confusing...

But basically the people who are here aren't really changing their lifestyles. Still taking the dogs for a walk, still buying vegetables in the supermarket.

"For all I know I might be hit by a car tomorrow so why worry about radiation levels in 30 years."

This is another phrase I hear often.

There are numerous evacuation centers in our area for the people from up north. I don't know if the people have lost their homes from the earthquake and tsunami or if they have been evacuated from radiation zones. I do hear of some amazing people who are jumping right in to do what they can...

A Nikko Bangladesh hotel owner who has turned his hotel into a temporary home for evacuees... (Some Japanese hotel owners were at first afraid to do this because they worried about how future guests might feel coming to a hotel that had housed "toxic" evacuees. The Bangladesh man spurred other private hotels to do the same.)

Children in evacuation centers who have started their own handwritten newspaper (complete with editor, reporters and distribution leader) about center news... The colorful pages brighten people's lives.

The TV news stir up either fear or pride in our hearts.
(picture from the Internet)

Hiding place

Japan is still having earthquakes. My cell phone alarm goes off regularly, sometimes in time to move elsewhere, sometimes right in the midst of a shaker. "NOW you tell me!"

Yesterday started out bright and sunny but by late afternoon we were getting thunder and lightning. I brought Choco back in the house. A few minutes later the sky was dark and it was pouring down rain. Whew! Choco is happy to be out of that. English children began arriving for a 4:30 class and things went normally (with flashes and rumbles) until 5:15... when the house started shaking, things started falling and my cell phone alarm went off again.

"Okay guys, get away from the book shelf."

A couple of kids moved next to me.

"And get away from the game cupboard."

A few things crashing in the other room. I had my arms around 6 kids.

"Let's make a break and everybody go to the dining room (a whole 10 steps away) and get under the dining room table."

So 7 of us piled under the table, ousting Toi from where he had already taken shelter.

"The kitty went into the other room. Is he going to be okay?"

"The kitty can fit under the sofa if he wants to. He'll be fine."

I have a small dining room table... We all looked like ostriches with out heads in the sand and our backsides sticking out! The kids are getting so used to earthquakes that no one looks scared anymore. I reached over to the snack cupboard and pulled out a box of chocolate chip cookies.

"We might as well have a picnic while we're under here."

And we ate cookies as the house continued to shake off and on for the next 15 minutes. So much for English class.

What with thunder and lightning and rain and aftershocks, the next class decided they wouldn't come after all.

Since then the house is shaking regularly. The news says that after yesterday's first shake, there have been more than 50 aftershocks! It's getting to where I no longer think of the house as being stable... The house is shaking? Sure, isn't that what houses do in Japan?

Our aftershocks aren't huge but still it makes for light sleeping. We wake up tired in the mornings. Think what the people farther north who are getting stronger shocks are feeling. All this jumping at sounds and grabbing at furniture and looking around you for falling objects must be very hard on mental health...

On the news last night we were being warned that the possibility of a huge earthquake occurring directly under Tokyo in the next 30 years is at 87%. Goodness! Between the possibility of falling ill from radiation affects 30 years from now and another major earthquake within 30 years, long life doesn't look so appealing. Of course no one says the next earthquake will come AFTER 30 years... that's between NOW and 30 years. Sigh...