Treasures in the fields

Daily I walk with Choco, sometimes for an hour, sometimes only 10 minutes or so.  It is amazing to me how the sights change even though we go past the same places over and over.

What is this?

I found it at the corner of a field... I think some farmer had cut down one of his trees and decided to sweep up after himself.  That's one way to use trimmed branches...

There was a freshly leveled field but not so fresh that the critters didn't take a stroll through it. These may be cat footprints or they may be badger prints.  I have seen both in the neighboring fields.  And I've heard that foxes come out occasionally though I've never seen one myself.  Weasels are night prowlers too but the prints look to large for weasels... 

 Now what on earth were these doing out by the side of a field? 

There were seven of these and I think there are supposed to be twelve (for the Chinese zodiac) but though I peered around I could only find these.  Maybe someone had had a set and then lost or broken a couple so they decided to use them as field ornaments? 

My last find was a fallen leaf. 

"Look Tetsu!  There's a heart in the center of the leaf!"

"It looks more like an alien mask."

My comment to that was that depending on where a person's heart was different interpretations might be applied... So much for a romantic husband.  Hmmmph.
 

Elementary School Sports Day 2014

On Saturday I was invited to attend the elementary school Sports Day.  Autumn is the season for sports in Japan and kindergartens, neighborhood associations, convalescent homes and schools will hold Sports Day events. 

A lot of practice and preparation goes into the days before the actual Sports Day and thankfully the weather was beautiful on Saturday.  Grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins all arrive with tents and cooler boxes and lawn chairs and obentos to enjoy watching and participating in all the events.  There are folk dances and relays and obstacle courses and even acrobatics!  When my children went to this school I remember being harried and hurried in preparing our lunches, doing PTA duties (setting up obstacle courses etc.) and sitting out in the sun (no tent for me in those days). 

On Saturday after my crosswalk duties, I just floated in, was given a prime seat under a large community tent, was served tea and crackers and even was given a lunch box!  Being the crosswalk guard and an invited guest, I was treated royally and enjoyed myself as I'd never enjoyed myself when my own children were participating.  Made me think I should be helping out and letting the mothers relax and enjoy their children more...

Today's photos are mostly blurred out as I didn't go around asking permission to put faces on my blog.  Maybe you can still get a feeling of the festivities of the day.

At 6:00 am two firework bangs could be heard echoing off the surrounding hills and that signal lets everyone know that Sports Day will be held as scheduled.  (No fireworks means that the events are temporarily on hold.)

The school was decorated (as are all Sports Day events) with flags of all the countries in the world.  This may have something to do with the origin of Sports Day...  probably a take off of the first international Olympic games held in Japan in October of 1964.  The wind wasn't blowing but that is the Japanese flag being raised there.

There were many speeches given before the events began and everyone militaristically stands at attention or "at ease" as in this photo.  Speeches were given by a student representative, by the principal, by a couple of community council members even!

And of course when each speech is finished the children (all of us) respectfully bow at the blow of a whistle.

 "Let the games begin!"  The first and second graders had a big ball relay...  White Team against Red Team.

 The sixth grade girls strolled demurely onto the grounds in their summer kimonos...

...and then whipped the kimonos off to take part in a rough and tumble tug-a-war using bamboo poles.  (The event was named after the Japanese Fairy Tale "The Bamboo Cutter's Daughter".)

There was the traditional bean bag throwing contest an event between the neighborhood communities (thus the adults participating.)

This was a fun race with groups of children running around objects and using their teamwork to keep the outer member from flying off the end of the pole (centrifugal force, you know).

The school principal made a quick change into Stitch (isn't that a Disney character?) and welcomed the upcoming first graders who were invited to join in a simple run.

I left with my lunch box around noontime so I didn't see the end of the day but around 2:00 more fireworks resounded over the community letting us know that the Sports Day had officially ended for the year.

September's fabric postcard

I realized sometime last week that there weren't many days left in September.  Which meant that I ought to have been thinking about a fabric postcard for my mother.  (I love making the postcards but the deadline comes around way too quickly!)

Making another raw edge fusible card again seemed like cheating (those can get whipped up in an hour).

"I really need to put more effort into my projects!"

Not that I had much time to put in effort, but the desire was there.  And I recalled visiting Queeniepatch's blog and admiring the birthday card that she made for her aunt a few days before...  Hmmm. I have a lot of leftover embroidery thread...  and some leftover linen...

I'm afraid I didn't ask for advice from Queeniepatch.  I just started drawing haphazard lines on my linen and then stem stitching them in dark green thread.  Oops, those seemed a bit wide apart so I added some light green lines (not too straightly I see...)  And then I got out the leftover thread in a variety of colors and started a bunch of daisy chain flowers...  There was really no rhyme nor reason to the color placing...

My final step this morning was to add some batting and some beads and then sew the whole thing to an old post card.

Done and ready to be sent.  Maybe one of my better cards?  I lot more work was put in, that's for sure!

Thank you Queenie, for the inspiration!

Not unlike Tom Sawyer

Mr. U asked me if I wanted to try my hand at painting the trim at the bottom of the bedroom doorways.  They were pretty scuffed up and with the new floor next to them the scratches really showed up.  Sure!  I've been saying I wanted to get in on the renovating process but Mr. U wasn't going to hand me a hammer and nails and apprentice me as a floor installer.  Instead he gave me a small can of paint, some masking tape and a paintbrush.  I spent an hour or so painting the bottom doorway trim.

WOW!  What a difference!  In the evening Tetsu viewed my work was and said he wanted to try painting too so we immediately went out and bought a BIG can of paint and more masking tape and another paintbrush.  On Tuesday we painted the stairway trim boards and the hand railings with only one mishap.  Chip walked over the floor board that Tetsu was painting and tracked light blue paw prints all over the oak floor.  Cute but still...  Tetsu roared at the cat and then wiped the floor clean.  By the end of the day the stairway was looking bright and fresh!  Why hadn't we ever thought to do some painting before?  There are loads of places we can paint.

This weekend we moved furniture again and spent the morning taping over trimmings on floor boards and around doorways and windows.  After lunch we started in painting again and by evening everything had dried and the furniture could be moved back into place.

I can think of a few MORE places that need some paint and since we're so good at it now...

Scarecrows

In May, the 5th graders from the local elementary school had a rice planting class.  (Hmmm.  I can't find the link...  Maybe I couldn't go this year.  Here is a link to LAST year's rice planting class.)  The rice looks like it is about ready to be harvested and in the meantime, the elementary children have made scarecrows to watch over the field.

There are 6 good-sized scarecrows in the little rice field planted within view of the elementary school.  Maybe the different grades each made a scarecrow.  The kids have probably brought in left-over stuff from home to make these.  Trash bags, old clothing, cardboard boxes.  I think I remember Leiya rummaging around in my cupboard looking for black yarn for a scarecrow when she was going to this school. 

Look at this guy's pretty pink cheeks.  They look like they've been made from CDs!  Pretty creative!

The scarecrows are guarding the rice field in the foreground but there is a soybean field there in the background.  And this is what edamame (young soy bean pods) look like on the stalk and in the field.  That's a lot of edamame!  Yum!

This nice fellow is keeping watch over the fields and the children at school too!

Bounty

My friend and neighbor, Mrs. Y seems so happy to be a "retired" farmer's wife.  Her husband started farming after he retired and by renting some land behind their house he produces eggplant and broccoli, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, green onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes and daikon radish. 

Mrs. Y sometimes complains that she gets dragged into weighing and packaging for market selling but this week she pulled me over delightedly to show my her husband's newest crop.

Chrysanthemums!  In a variety of colors!  At the market, these go very quickly as Buddhist altar and graveside decorations.

"Looking at my flowers makes me so happy!"

Mrs. Y is pretty happy about her husband's pumpkins and she sent me home with one of those and some Chrysanthemums for Tetsu's mother too.
 

 

Autumn fields

The mornings are brisk and I've even pulled out a fleece sweatshirt for dog walking.  The amaryllis are popping up around the fields and make the countryside cheery and colorful.

I've heard that amaryllis bulbs (otherwise known as Spider Lilys) are poisonous and that is the reason the farmers originally planted bulbs at intervals around their fields hoping to keep the mice away.  Right on the dot every year the bursts of red flare up at the autumn Equinox.

There is Choco looking very much like her Pointer ancestors perusing the fields for grouse and pheasants.  Tetsu  was tucked down just below the bank holding on to her leash.  He didn't want to be photographed.

A road heading to a farmhouse.  There are all these little man-made channels that direct water to the different fields.

And here is a freshly harvested rice field.  I love the patterns that result from the emptied fields.

A field of another type.  A buckwheat field.  Japanese love buckwheat noodles (soba) and after the flowers fade the seed pods will grow plump and harden.

 I don't see any seeds in there yet.

A Japanese proverb

About half of the rice fields around us have already been harvested, the other half have stalks hanging heavy with kernels waiting for the small combines to come through.

As we walked Choco by one ready-to-harvest rice field Tetsu recited this "proverb" to me.

実るほど頭を垂れる稲穂かな

Minoru hodo koube wo tareru inaho kana

... which means

"The boughs that bear most hang lowest."

or another translation

"The more noble, the more humble."

My husband has deep thoughts when Choco isn't yanking her leash.

Clutch bags

The other day my English/patchwork friend showed us how to make mini clutch purses.  I think she said she went to a sewing class at one of the local  fabric stores and learned now to make one and then she bought a few of the metal fasteners so that she could teach us.  It was actually quite simple and within a couple of hours, three of us had made a small clutch purse each.

My friend's pin cushion and supplies. I just arrived empty handed and used her fabric and sewing notions.

Actually each of us made different shaped purses.  Mine was made by sewing four sides together (and four linings), one was made from three pieces, the third was made from two pieces.  They all come out looking about the same though.  If there was a way to get a hold of the metal fasteners cheaply, these would make good bazaar items.  Can you guess which one I made?

 This one.  Now what am I going to put in it?

Unscheduled repairs

I got permission to write this post.  Right now I could probably get permission to do anything I like!

Yesterday morning in order to get ready for Mr. U's carpentry work, Tetsu decided to move furniture.  Tetsu feels that because Mr. U is of small stature that he can't move furniture as well as maybe Tetsu can.  Tetsu is larger than many Japanese, he did a lot of judo and he prides himself on brawn if not... well anyway...

Mr. U has told Tetsu to leave the furniture as is because there are tools and contraptions that make moving things a lot easier.  And I've SEEN how Mr. U will move big heavy things within a few minutes even after Tetsu has given up claiming the whatever piece is IMPOSSIBLE to move.

There was one such piece in the kitchen yesterday that Tetsu decided to move.

"Leave it!  Mr. U says he can move it himself."

"It's way too heavy for Mr. U.  I'll get it out of the house for him."

"Tetsu, leave it!  I've seen him do it!  If you must do it, wait until I get back from crosswalk duty and we can carry it out together!  I have to go right now!"

Would my husband wait?  No, he would not.  When I drove in the driveway he apologetically pulled me in the house.

"I sort of scratched up the new floor..."

I about swooned...  I mean I really lost it!  Gashes in the new floor!  After all Mr. U's hard work of matching corners and fitting different room pieces exactly, his work was already damaged (and he's not even done!)  I wasn't so upset at the gashes (though believe me I was upset) but that Tetsu was edging his way to his car and saying he was sorry and somehow to explain the damage to Mr. U.  He was leaving me to apologize!

When Mr. U arrived a few minutes later I did apologize...  With tears in my eyes and a lot of sniffling.  Mr. U didn't seem too upset.  He said that he knew that Tetsu was just trying to be helpful and it wasn't worth having a husband and wife argument about.  Tetsu called home a hour later asking how Mr. U took the news and saying that maybe he'd be able to hide the damage with some crayons or something.

"Just leave the floor alone."

This morning Mr. U arrived with some polyurethane substance and was trying to at least repair the damage so that moisture doesn't get under the floor's finish at the scratched areas.

My Japanese friends will appreciate this photo.  Here is Mr. U down at scratch level trying to cover up the damage (it will always be visible though), and there is Tetsu down on his hands and knees watching the process.  To Japanese eyes it looks like Tetsu is paying the humblest form of apologizing by bowing so low on the floor. 

As well he should be!
 

Yuma-kun's sewing

Yuma-kun came over last night and we sewed rather than studied.  For one, there was no room in the house that was conducive to studying, for another, Yuma-kun has been asking and asking to sew rather than study, for ANOTHER the studying that we did do the last two weeks resulted in a lot of frustration for both of us, and finally, I had a headache last night so rather than struggle with him I gave in to the idea of sewing.  He was overjoyed when I announced my decision.

While I was in the States, Mary from California contacted me and offered to send YUMA-KUN some fun fabric... so that he can start a stash of his own!  How neat is that!!!  She knew from reading one of my posts that Yuma-kun likes fish fabric so a few days later she sent a huge envelope of colorful fish fabrics and insect fabrics and cheerful beach prints.  I brought it home and when I finally saw Yuma-kun at the beginning of September, handed him the bulging envelope and the card from Mary.  He was in awe that someone he didn't know would think of him and send him things.  Right away he wanted to sew something to send to Mary.

Well, he IS supposed to be coming to my house for English, not sewing, but I suggested he write Mary a thank you letter (in Japanese) and that the next week I would translate it for him and he could copy the letter in his own handwriting.  Great idea and he was excited to go out and buy Mary a special thank you card too.  (In fact he was harping at his grandmother when she came to pick him up saying that they had to go to the store right THEN, at 8:30 at night, to buy a card.)

The next week Yuma-kun came with his card, but no thank you letter.

"Where's your letter?"

"It's all in my head.  I know what I want to say."

Sigh.

"No, I want you to write it out first and then I will translate it and while I'm translating I want you to write your Japanese letter out nicely again.  Mary will be interested in seeing your Japanese handwriting too."

Well, Yuma-kun can't concentrate worth beans and as long as I and any of the cats were in the room, he was chattering away, so I left him to write his letter and went to the kitchen to cook dinner.  Oh and he had another great idea that he wanted to send Mary some of his family's home grown rice and vegetables too.

"No.  I don't think the international laws allow produce to be sent to foreign countries.  Your letter alone will make Mary happy."

Yuma-kun's grandmother also asked me after class if they could send some rice as a thank you gift but I dissuaded her too.

By the third English session, the letter was written, it had been copied over in Yuma-kun's best handwriting in Japanese and the last step was to copy the English translation.  THAT took a bit of work too because of Yuma-kun's lack of concentration...  He was all over the page with different combinations of words and sentences.  This was not an English class, it was a letter by letter surveillance session...  The thank you letter finally got written, though not very beautifully.  I wasn't going to make him do it all again though...  Mary will have to understand.

In the meantime Yuma-kun had made an origami crane to include in his card and finally the whole thing was ready for mailing.  It took three weeks!  Sorry for the delay Mary!

So last night the two of us spent the English hour up in my sewing room making a drawstring bag from one of the pretty fish fabrics.  Again and again I am impressed at how quickly Yuma-kun catches on to things and realizes ahead of time what the pitfalls might be.  English will probably never be his forte and he gets down about how little he can do or understand (his reading and writing is appalling...  and what do the schools test?  Reading and writing) but he has so many other great skills and interests.  It is so easy to praise him when we are NOT doing English.  I wonder about how much longer he will be coming to me...

Yuma-kun is 13 now.  He no longer smiles for the camera anymore. 

"Smile!  Show me you're happy!"

And he gives me a twitch of his lips.  He IS extremely happy about his fish fabric and stash though.  Thank you Mary!

(And NO, please don't anyone else think to send Yuma-kun fabric!  I don't think I could stand going through the thank you letter process again!  Not to mention thinking up new projects for him!)