Judy's cartoon!

Judy sent me the cutest cartoon THAT SHE DREW HERSELF!!! She said she drew it years ago but thought it was very appropriate when she saw Cleo in my quilt hoop on yesterday's post. What a great laugh I had. Judy, if you ever do any more cartooning about cats or quilts I sure would love to show them on my blog! What a great day brightener! I think you have a gift!

Miscellaneous animals

I guess this will be miscellaneous. I'm not getting much done, I'm not going anywhere to take pictures... A LITTLE sewing, a LITTLE swimming, a LITTLE shopping etc.

Cleo likes my quilting hoop. In fact, I think all the cats are drawn to the circle. They take turns occupying the hoop-loop.

Sadly a couple of nights ago I came home late and found my Japanese sweet shop friend's cat killed near the crosswalk. It is a busy road and they lost their other cat there a few months ago too. I hated to phone the wife and tell her but I would have wanted to know right away if it had been one of my animals so I called and let her know. I went back myself and the two of us sobbed in front of the sweet shop. I so hate having to face these situations and I've had to a couple of times... I know so many of the pets by name in this area and know where they belong so when I find one on the street I've been the person who has to give the sad news. Makes me want to close my curtains and never step out in the world again. My poor sweet shop friend. She's lost her husband and her cat in the span of two weeks...

Last night we had three more strong earthquakes. The news keeps letting us know that THE big one is in the near future but what is a person to do except fortify the furniture, keep extra water on hand, and not sit around wondering "when". The TV and cell phones have an emergency pre-earthquake warning system and suddenly before the shaking begins a beeping sound from the TV will give us a few seconds to turn off the kerosene heater or shut off the gas lines. The second the beeping sounds, Cleo, Mi, Chip and Velvet scramble under the sofas or chairs. They know that the shaking is coming next!!!

And here is a picture I took on a day that Choco was allowed in the house. She actually gets along quite well with the cats these days. Everybody basically ignores each other. But Chip always has a bad word for Choco.

"You DOG you! I do not like you in my house. Stay AWAY from me! Shoo!!!"

Choco wants to know what Chip is so huffy about.

Ronin

The reason for this post is that one of my students asked me what you would call a ronin in English and it occurred to me that the nuances and undertones that this one word would suggest to a Japanese would need a lot of explanation in English. So here is the explanation...

This week there have been graduation ceremonies as well as school entrance announcements. In the case of high school and college, the students have taken entrance exams and yesterday students were flocking to schools to see if their number had been posted for admission. Nowadays Internet is also being used to post admissions but many students prefer to make the trek to their school of choice and confirm with their own eyes that their number is up there.

But what happens if your number isn't up there?

Most students will have already taken entrance exams to less intensive high schools or colleges; private schools that cost a lot more, and will assure themselves an admission SOMEPLACE if they don't pass their school of choice's exam. These lesser schools are called "slide-stopper schools" meaning that the student won't slide off into nothing if they don't pass the other exam. This system is similar for high school as well as college entrance.

Occasionally though, especially for college bound students, they will have their heart set on a specific college or university or need to get into a specific school to pursue, for example, a medical course of study. If the student doesn't pass the entrance exam then he may decide to go ronin, which is the term for a masterless samurai.

Historically if a samurai was set apart from his lord and master or if the master had died then the samurai would be ronin, which literally means a drifting person. Nowadays it means that a would-be student has not yet been accepted into a school and he will spend the intervening time studying for the next year's entrance exams in hopes of gaining admission. It used to mean a lot of disciplined study time with only the student and his books... hoping he's studying the right stuff with no guidance from outside sources but nowadays there are preparatory schools for the sole purpose of preparing a student for next year's exams. Of course there is no guarantee that the student will pass the second time around and I have heard of students being ronin 2 or 3 times. (Someone REALLY wanted the student to become a doctor!) Imagine the cost of keeping a student in preparatory school for an extra couple of years and THEN going on to start a university education...

Of course, Takumi in his own way was ronin for a couple years himself... He did not even try to get into a Japanese college and chose to go to the States and spend two years studying English at community colleges before he applied to a state university. My Japanese friends can't comprehend not having to go through entrance exams to get into college and thus by-passing the possibility of failure, slide stopping and the ronin system.

Anyway, I'm hoping that the young graduating high school students that I know have all gotten into the college of their choice. No one really ever wants to be known as ronin.

(Picture from the Internet.)

Knock, knock

I try to be a good English teacher. I want to inspire the children I teach. I hope that they at least think of English as something fun and that maybe someday when they are in Jr. high or high school or college or who knows where, that they will think back and say,

"English isn't so hard. I remember having a lot of fun learning English when I was in kindergarten. Maybe I'll give it a try again."

We are winding up the school year this week. With all my kindergarten and pre-school English classes we've been practicing a little skit with the scenario being that the children are visiting me at my house. They come to my front door, they tell me who they are, they are invited in, and I serve them cookies.

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"My name is Atsushi."

"Oh, hi Atsushi! Nice to see you!"

"Nice to see you."

"Please come in! How are you Atsushi?"

"I'm good. (or fine, or great, or happy, or tired, or cold etc.)"

"Atsushi, do you want a cookie?"

"Yes, please."

"Please have a cookie."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Well, bye. Take care!"

"Good-bye. Take care."

Each and every child comes forward and goes through the skit (a few of them can even answer if I ask them how old they are...) And yesterday I brought REAL cookies! Oh did the eyes light up!

Yesterday I asked the teacher to take a few pictures of me and the children for my blog. Oh my gosh! Do I look like that?


What do you think? Am I inspiring this child or frightening him to death! Look at him grip the back of his chair!

Sigh...

One year ago

Yesterday was March 11, 2012. A year from last year's earthquake. All day long; to be honest, almost all weekend long; there were memorial services and programs on the TV.

Part of me thought that watching all that all over again would just be depressing and mentally disturbing. In truth, most of the programs began with the caution that some people would find some of the videos stressful and that parental discretion should be used if children were present. The TV showed shattering debris falling as buildings crumbled in the earthquake. The black ocean engulfed towns as the tsunami poured in. Flames blazed here and there in the inky night as people waited for rescue.

Another part of me felt that it is important to remember and know what all the people of Northern Japan went through; are going though; are facing... The few programs I watched in the evening (I did not stay glued in front of the TV all day) were focused on the strength of the survivors and the compassion of the people who brought aid.

A blog friend Sara, sent me an e-mail and a picture yesterday. Sara has been making a quilt that represents her feelings about the earthquake and resulting disasters in Japan.

I wanted to share a very odd, but meaningful quilt that I made while thinking of the horrible earthquake and tsunami. I have never made anything like this--and I am a beginner with quilting, but it somehow started with a broken heart in the middle and then grew. It's very representational and not at all pretty. But I think that is okay for this quilt. I quilted the grey area with a blue-green thread that represents fissures, but also water, and some green... because we do have to have some hope. I love Japan and it's my heart that felt broken as well. Anyway, I just thought I would share it with you.

Sara's quilt so well represents Japan's trials. The breaking apart, the darkness of the first few days, the sadness of knowing things will never be the same. But she remembered the hope too.

There are so many emotions surrounding last year's earthquake and the months that followed. I know people who have spent time doing volunteer work in the areas themselves. I know people who have organized fund raisers. I know people who, in their uncertainty have turned to God as their strength and hope, but I also know people who are angry at God if they even still believe in God. There are never any answers for the question "Why?" For me it is "Why not?" The world is large, history is vast, the future is being formed one way or another. But God has been good to me so far and He knows what He is doing.

I have set the Lord continually before me;
...I will not be shaken...
...Thou wilt make known to me the path of life..."
Psalm 16:8, 11

I'm looking forward to a lifetime of tomorrows!

...so I did

I closed the computer lid, headed over to the local pool, paid my lump sum (now I HAVE to go!) and jumped in the pool. Up until last July, Tetsu and I religiously went to this pool in the evenings, but Tetsu opted out at the end of the summer (end of the year membership). And if HE isn't going back then I didn't feel that I could either.

Tetsu likes coming home in the evening to a homemade dinner and a sleep on the sofa. Our previous evening membership made this difficult (home by 9:00 at night).

Oh, we've talked about going back... Should we? shouldn't we? Do we want to or not? The answer was, we should but we don't want to. Tetsu kept saying, "Maybe from NEXT month." but next month would come along and we wouldn't go.

My decision to go yesterday morning meant higher membership fees but I can go during the day and still have dinner made at night. I may not get there as often (work you know) but better than not going at all.

I was greeted by the lifeguards with smiles and questions.

"Where have you been? Did you go back to the States? Were you ill?"

I felt very welcomed back. A few laps across the pool, oh my, I can't do a quarter of what I used to be able to do!

Last night over dinner, Tetsu asked the usual question.

"What did you do today?"

"I signed up for the pool again."

"Uh-oh. Does that mean I have to go too?"

"No, it means that at least I can tell myself I'm TRYING to do something about my extra flab. You can worry about your own."

Remember, I don't LIKE doing exercise but I'm promising not to gripe at Tetsu about how ineffectual it is (that was a major boo-boo on my part before.) Who knows... Maybe he'll join me again.

The picture is of the indoor swimming pool (and a little playing pool outside). Can you see me swimming back and forth,
and back and forth,
and back and forth...

Doing

I'm not getting anything done this morning. Here I sit at my computer.

Yesterday my friend Mrs. T who is a ballerina, was saying that she really didn't like her computer because it meant all that much more time just SITTING. She wants to get up and move and dance and stretch and do exercise.

There is a basic difference between us right there. My body defaults into slow mode the second it gets a chance. It loves sitting all day long in a chair with no more than a bit of wrist action from my quilting hand. It enjoys being plopped in front of a desk, elbows resting on the table while only my fingers do the walking on the key board. (And they can go so many places!!!)

But I know that I'm not really doing my God given body any favors just resting it on my tush. In fact I've been reading a book about legendary marathon runners (I was thinking I'd become inspired. I hate running.) I've downloaded walking routines to boost metabolism. I even asked Mrs. T to buy me a balance cushion and write me out a workout (in the ruse of English homework) so that I could get in a little exercise at home.

The bottom line is that I am deceiving myself and doing a lot of SITTING and READING about exercise but not DOING anything.

My Bible memory verse for the week is:

"Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." James 1:22

I think God is talking to me about more than just reading the Bible...

SO... I am closing this computer right now and going over to the local pool to take out a year membership!!! I've hemmed and hawed enough. I'm DOING!!!!

Working Wednesday

It's Wednesday.

"Cleo, will you do the quilting while I'm at work today?"

Earrings

I don't think I ever showed you some beautiful earrings that Cheryl sent me! I had been helping Cheryl purchase some kimono and obi from the local recycle shops and she asked me what kind of jewelry I liked because she is a jewelry artist.

Well, I think I hit the jackpot on this exchange! Look at the beautiful earrings! Actually I don't much wear jewelry except for earrings which I love to wear... long dangly ones, small studs. I'm not a very sparkly person but my usual array of earrings are probably more prominent than most Japanese ladies my age would wear. And I love natural stones and shells.

Cheryl made me some absolutely beautiful pieces. I'm so glad Leiya isn't around to claim a couple. She would jump at the abalone shell ones. Sorry Leiya, these are MINE!!!

Although the kimono box hasn't arrived at Cheryl's place yet, I'm already wearing my earrings daily. Let's see... Today I'm wearing purple. The white ones would stand out nicely. But no, I feel in a whimsical mood this morning. I'm wearing the CATS!!!

Thank you Cheryl!

A funeral

This weekend I had to go to a funeral. The ojiisan (grandfather) at the Japanese sweet shop where I do crosswalk guard duty, passed away last week. Every morning he and I passed greetings to each other and I often chat with his wife. Usually for funerals, Tetsu will attend rather than me, but he doesn't know the family so I went this time.

Thankfully I don't have to go to many funerals (whereas Tetsu in convalescent work, does!). And the few I've been to have mostly been Christian funerals. The one on Friday was fully Buddhist and between the Buddhist customs and the Japanese customs I was at a loss. I really wondered what I was doing there... probably attracting attention with my faux pas... What IS this foreigner going to do next?

There are so many things that have to be done in just a certain way in Japan. Officially I learned of the ojiisan's passing when I went to the crosswalk and found the front of the shop decorated by a large plastic flower circle. In wealthy farm homes there may be many of these standing along the side of the road, and the funeral will be held in the home, but the sweet shop had only one flower circle at the entrance (others were displayed in front of the memorial hall where this funeral was held.)

I recall 30 years ago when I was a new missionary, a foreigner friend noticed a flower circle in front of a noodle shop and expressed congratulations for what he thought was the shop's opening. My friend was so mortified that he had mistaken a mourning flower circle with a celebratory flower circle...　The colors are different, as well as what is written on the placard (which my friend couldn't read, of course.) What must the poor noodle shop owner have thought! (Picture from the Internet.)

For Friday's funeral I dressed from head to toe in black... a formal outfit that Tetsu's sister gave me 30 years ago in order to be a proper Japanese wife fitting into society. The only accessories allowed are a short single strand of white pearls and single pearl earrings. (I don't have a strand of pearls but do have a single pearl on a chain.... Good enough. Better than making the mistake of wearing a double strand of pearls which would wish a double dose of unhappiness on the family!)

I had asked Tetsu to write up a mourning envelope for me that morning but he forgot and I had to do it myself. Yuck. What childish handwriting! That is my name on the front of the envelope. Inside, depending on the relationship to the family, a gift of money is offered. I had already consulted Tetsu on what was the proper amount...

At the cigarette smokey memorial hall I presented my envelope (it was supposed to be wrapped in a special purple fabric but I just pulled it out of my mourning clutch purse).

"Are you a relative?" asked the man at the reception desk. (The sweet shop owners' last name is also Watanabe.)

"No. I'm a neighbor." (in a way...)

"Do you live in the same district?"

"Yes... I'm a neighbor... in a way."

The reception desk man gave me a small package and directed me to the funeral room.

The flowers on the altar were just gorgeous but I didn't feel it was appropriate to haul out my camera. This is similar image from the Internet... The flowers swept around a picture of the ojiisan in the most artistic way. It made me think of oceans and waves and flowing water.

When the ceremony started, Buddhist priests in heavy gold brocade robes filed in and while one priest thumped his drums and gongs, the other priest chanted and hummed. A cacophony of noises all through the chanting. Wooden drumbeats, reverberating gongs, ringing bells, tinkling chimes, clashing cymbals, banging lids, swishing rods... The room became smokier with burning incense... canceling out the cigarette smoke.

Around the room were baskets of flowers some real, some artificial, and all overflowing with food products. I was interested to see jars of instant coffee, cans of tuna fish and peaches, boxes of pancake mix, bottles of salad oil. Hmmm. Interesting decorations. Tetsu explained later (as far as he knows which isn't really very much) that the food products will be divied between relatives and people who helped at the funeral.

At some point all of us were invited to come forward and offer incense which I did... There was a proper ceremony of bowing and dipping and bowing and dipping again and I did the best I could monkeying the people ahead of me in the line.

The nicest part of the funeral was when slides were shown of the ojiisan in his younger days and then we were invited to come forward again and place flowers in the coffin. I declined that invitation. And then everyone softly pounded the closed coffin with a rock before it was hammered closed. Whew.

We all filed out after the family members who held a picture of the ojiisan; his Buddhist name carved on a block; the cremation urn; and flowers. The family and relatives all boarded a bus that was bound for the crematory but neighbors and friends aren't included in that ceremony.

This morning at the crosswalk, the sweet shop wife came running out (in the rain) to thank me for coming to the funeral and she handed me another package from the memorial hall... Somehow I ended up with the wrong small package... At the reception desk I should have specified that I was the crosswalk guard, not a mere neighbor (in a way). The sweet shop wife was very upset that I had been given the wrong package. The first package was a handkerchief. The one I was given this morning had seaweed and osake in it.

I will miss seeing the ojiisan washing the windows of his sweet shop every morning. He always had a smile and a greeting for the children walking by his shop.

By the way, the movie Departures about Japanese funeral customs is EXCELLENT!

Joyful dog, curled up cats

Even when it snows in our area, it doesn't stick for very long. Today there are patches on the ground but things are going back to brown. This morning the air was foggy and mystical.


After last week's snowfall I went out with Choco for a walk. Hmmm. She is a white (and black) dog but because she spends most of her time in our yard she also tends to go brown very quickly. And against the white snow she had a very dingy tint!

We walked past farms and manure piles.

"NO! Don't do that!!!"

Before I could stop her, Choco was rolling in a manure pile.

"Okay Dog! That just killed your chances for spending a warm day in the house! Back outside you go!"

I didn't have time to give her a bath. (And I KNOW she doesn't want an icy spray with the hose.)

Oh the way home, there was a field of snow laying out in front of us.

"Oh, go and have a run and see if you can wash off some of the gunk while you're at it."

Off Choco went for a spin around the field. One happy dog!

♪♪♪♪♪♪～♪♪♪～　♪♪♪～♪♪♪♪～

The snow is falling. The hail is falling.
They steadily fall and are piling up,
The dog is so joyful running around the yard,
The cat is curled up by the fire place.

♪♪♪♪♪～　　♪♪♪♪～　　♪♪♪～　　♪♪♪♪♪♪～　
Japanese children's song

Girl's Day

Today is March 3rd. Girls' Day in Japan.

I thought I'd show my mini-quilt again today (I'm putting it away at the end of the day) and the one that the pre-school principal made too.

The pre-school principal just sent me a picture from her cell phone telling me that she finished in time for today's holiday! Well done! She had thought when she started that she was making it for NEXT year's Girls' Day. She surprised herself!






And this lovely display is Mrs. Furui's Girls' Day dolls. She has three sons so this is in JUST for her!

The Girls' Day dolls picture today and yesterday's close-up of Mrs. Kaneko's quilt were taken on Mrs. Ochiai's wonderful camera.

Mrs. Kaneko's quilt is FINISHED!

Thanks to the snow I managed to finish Mrs. Kaneko's Bible quilt. I brought it home last Christmas and have been thinking about it and working on it ever since... Well, not diligently but here and then between other projects.

This is the original quilt. The sashing was a stained, warped, wrinkled beige. There was no quilting in any of the blocks.

At the beginning of January I cut the quilt apart and gave 4 of the blocks to Mrs. Furui to quilt for me while I quilted the other 5. As a lap quilting project this went very quickly!

The question was, how to put the 20 year old quilt back together without ruining the soft, fading colors. Of course I checked fabric stores but everything was too bold or too blah. BUT... a look in Mrs. Furui's stash and I found the PERFECT sashing for the new quilt! Same colors! Small design! The only problem was that there was only a small amount but Mrs. Furui and I both agreed that THIS was the fabric!

With a lot of measuring I managed to put all the blocks together with the new sashing and then fill the sashing strips with batting on the back and then fuse the batting in place. Last week, a few of us gathered for patchwork agreed that trying to introduce any more colors or patterns would kill the quilt so I made a thin white flange to go around the outside border. Hmm. You can't even see it in this picture... but it is there!

A whole piece new backing was added to the back and the blocks were requilted into place. The binding was rescued binding from the old quilt. I had carefully removed it (discovering that we had only been using single binding back then) and recycled it.

From the top left:

• Star of Bethlehem-Matthew 2:1-10
• The Dove (Holy Spirit)-Luke 3:16
• Star and Cross (Purpose of His coming)-John 3:16
• Hosanna-Matthew 21:1-11
• Crown of Thorns-Mark 15:9-20
• Cross and Crown-Mark 15:21-39
• Butterfly (Resurrection)-Mark 16:1-11
• Worlds Without End-Revelation 21:1-7

I think Mrs. Kaneko's new quilt has been brightened considerably with the new sashing but hasn't lost its original charm. And it finally hangs flat, with only a few wrinkles (a couple of the blocks are still too large but I couldn't fix that.)

I hope Mrs. Kaneko will enjoy her Bible quilt with a bit of new life breathed into it.

Snowbound

I made it to the next town over and back yesterday morning but it was slow going! I wondered if I was going to have to find a place to stay the night! I am NOT a snow and ice driver!

I took the main road into town thinking myself smart for avoiding a tunnel at the top of a pass. But the main road had cars slipping and stalled here and there with a line of cars going for miles and miles.

"Hmm. I may GET into town but I wonder if I'm going to be able to get BACK."

I was 40 minutes late arriving at the kindergarten. (I was actually expecting someone to call me and say that kindergarten was closed for the day... but no one did.) And then kindergarten had a special program going on so they only had time for 40 minutes of English... And then my next class of ladies in the town was cancelled so I slowly drove back home...

The cars were going at such a snail's pace that I easily could snap a picture or two, but was afraid to stop completely thinking that I wouldn't have traction to start up again. This is a picture of a roadside cemetery.

Old tiled roofed Japanese houses look so beautiful in the snow.

Once home I settled in for a quiet day (no walk for Choco. I also can hardly keep my balance in the snow) and spent the day quilting. Another phone call from an afternoon class excusing me from making the trip to their place (THANK YOU!) and all the animals and I stayed snug and warm for the rest of the day.

Today everything is frozen so Tetsu offered to drive me to the elementary school this morning and I walked back after crosswalk duty. I hope it thaws out today or we aren't going to have any dinner tonight! I need to go grocery shopping!