Visiting Mashiko

I have missed a few days blogging because we have been out and about.  It seems like we are running to visit people for only a few minutes at a time and then we are off again.

One day Leiya and I spent a few hours with my English students/friends and we went to the nearby pottery town of Mashiko to browse through the shops and then enjoy a special lunch.  The day was drizzly and cold but the shops were cozy and we ran out of time before even getting down the main street.

The problem with living near these very enticing pottery towns is that almost every time I visit, there are more beautiful dishes or cups that I want to buy, but pottery doesn't really stack well in the cupboards...

Leiya and I each ended up buying an aroma pot... 

And the aroma is green tea!  We walked into one of the pottery shops and were greeted by the most comforting aroma!  A down to earth, sort of a fireside aroma made from tea leaves being toasted over tea lights (what an appropriate name!)  And after the leaves have been toasted, they can be seeped allowing us to enjoy a completely different taste in tea.  We couldn't resist!

Near one of the kilns, called Nobori-gama (Climbing kiln) because the heat and smoke climb upwards from kiln to kiln, there was a flock of ducks talking a walk in the rain.

And after our too short browsing we went off to have lunch in a small cottage on the edge of a forest.  The chef was a retiring woman about my age whose hobby has always been cooking and her dishes were set off by the plates and platters that her potter husband and son have made.  So elegant!  A delicious salad...

And a sampling plate with home made bread.  Let's see... there is grilled chicken with balsamic sauce, a pumpkin puree with broccoli, a sauteed shellfish, and a piece of tofu with sesame sauce.  It was actually very filling and Leiya declared it the most delicious lunch she'd had in years.

These good friends find fascinating places to take me nearly once a year and this year we were all happy that Leiya could be included.
 

A trip up the mountain

Leiya was so excited about seeing mountains and autumn scenery the day before, Tetsu and I decided on our Sunday early morning walk to take her up the mountain to see the lake and visit the Italian Embassy Villa there at the lakeside which is open to the public these days.  We shook her awake and with convenience store rice balls for breakfast, went on up the mountain.

This is the mountain road called Irohazaka that is used to go DOWN the mountain.  Going up there is another route that is just as wind-y but this road originally was a two way road until the other route was built.  Even now those hairpin curves are a bit nerve wracking.

We also took a ropeway up to a lookout point and found an interesting sign posted in different languages...  Didn't see any infestation of bears though...

The Kegon waterfall and resort town of Nikko had lost its fall coloring already but even from this distance we could hear the waterfall's roar.

It was cold at the top of the mountain.  Don't I look like I just stepped out of Siberia or something?

At the Italian Embassy.

Tetsu enjoyed himself skimming rocks into the lake.  Just like a little boy!

Leiya wanted a picture of all the moss along the rock wall.

At the villa there was a display of historical photos...

...so I took one of my own in my camera's sepia mode.

Leiya's first day home

We are trying to make the most of our time together and Leiya and I are headed off again in a few minutes.  If I don't get some pictures posted now the blog posts are going to turn into albums.

Leiya's first day home we got over to Tetsu's mother bright and early and convinced her to come back to the house with us to see our renovations.  It always takes so much to get Obaachan to come out with us but with her granddaughter begging her she couldn't refuse (and once we got Obaachan out we sort of kidnapped her and wouldn't take her back home so we had her with us the whole day.)

Since we all love roasted sweet potatoes we made a stop at the vegetable shop and bought sweet potatoes and a supply of vegetables for Obaachan to give to her neighbors (everyone is pretty old in the apartment and no one gets out very much to go shopping.)

Leiya is most enthralled with the autumn colors and the rolling hillside scenery of Japan.  I guess Ohio already has snow and everywhere is pretty flat.

Back at our house.  Tetsu's favorite ladies.

And we forced Obaachan to come out to a Chinese restaurant with us which she balked at but once there said she hadn't eaten such delicious food in ages.

Off and running!

Leiya has arrived!

A quick post!
 
Tetsu and spent yesterday morning getting the house ready for a VERY IMPORTANT GUEST!  Leiya was arriving!  It's not like she hasn't seen this house a grand mess in her lifetime...  but it has been seven years since she's been back to Japan so we wanted our renovations to shine.

Exhausted from the cleaning we left home at 2:45 in the afternoon and drove FOUR hours to the Narita International airport.  It really doesn't take four hours but as usual our GPS led us on a goose chase and doing our best not to get irritated with each other hours before seeing our daughter, we arrived at the airport about 30 minutes early.

"Leiya's plane has arrived!  She's going through customs now!"

And here she is!  That's one happy father!

 And a mother-daughter photo too.

The trip home (an hour shorter because we ignored the GPS and because it was midnight) went quickly with one stop at a shopping mall to buy Leiya a Japanese crepe that she has been craving for.

We got to the crepe shop two minutes before they closed.  Leiya had a chocolate banana cream crepe.

 My very beautiful daughter and her very proud father.

Yeah!

Let's see...  Though I wasn't going to say much about it, I got my blood test results back after my month of Whole30 and here is the promised... YEAH!  Even Tetsu was amazed at the drop in numbers!  So, I've found something that will keep me off medications a while longer...  A very strict diet.  Being vegetarian for one year didn't work, doubling my exercise efforts didn't work, but restricting sugars and carbohydrates (and dairy products and seed oils and legumes) did work.  Interesting.  I am slowly incorporating normal foods back into my diet and what do you know...  There IS a difference... itchy eyes for one, after some foods have been reintroduced...

I got side-tracked this week with my knitting and I put aside Tetsu's half finished vest to work on a sweater.  And I finished it in two days.  Are you amazed at how speedily my fingers work?  Don't be.  The sweater fits on a post card!

Knowing that with Leiya being around I'm not going to have much time to do handwork, I decided to get my mother's fabric postcard done early.  Let's see...  I've done applique... I've done machine quilting... I've done embroidery... I've tacked on crochet.  What's left?  Knitting! and as November has been my big knitting month, I went online and found a sweater ornament pattern.

It is a complete sweater (back and front) but again, it is just tacked to a fabric background.  This will have to go into an envelope as I doubt that the post office would like this coming through their mail slots.

But maybe my mother will!  Yeah!
 

Pre-school festival preparations

I was at the pre-school on Monday and they were preparing for the annual Bonten Festival that will be held on Saturday and Sunday (which I'm not going to get to because I will be headed for the airport to pick up Leiya, sorry).  The pre-school principal told me a bit about the preparations and so I thought you might be interested.

Bonten Matsuri is a relatively small festival held by the farming community where the pre-school is located.  The activities include groups of people carrying long bamboo stalks to the top of a mountain where there is a Shinto shrine, as an offering to the Shinto gods.  All of the community homeowners' groups participate as well as businesses... and the pre-school.

The pre-school janitor was putting the finishing touches on the bamboo stalk when I arrived at the pre-school for English.  See, they've just pulled up a bamboo stalk roots and all and then the roots are shaped into a ball.  The janitor was digging out the as much dirt as he could from the root ball.

And on the other end are...  wood shavings!  I recognized these right away because I have seen a lot of wood shavings around my house the past couple months.  I don't know how they are attached to the bamboo, but it makes it look sort of like a big mop.

The principal said that last week some of the fathers came to help dig up the bamboo and then they tied up the pole with rope making hand holds and pulls for easier carrying.  Altogether the bamboo stalk is about ten meters long (more than 30 feet).

I asked about the pre-school's budget allotted to the festival,

"How much does a bamboo pole cost?"

and was told that the shrine asks different organizations if they would be willing to participate in the festival and when the pre-school agreed, they were given about $300 "for preparations".  From that, about $50 goes to the farmer as a gratuity for allowing a bamboo tree to be pulled up.  The rest of the funds are spent making pounded rice cakes and vegetable and pork stew for all the children and parents who will attend the festival and for little sweets and snacks for each child.  About 80 pre-school students.

"And if the shrine is funding all these groups' bamboo preparations what is the benefit for the shrine itself?"

Well, thousands of people show up for the Bonten Festival each year and they all make the trek to the shrine to pay their respects and throw a few coins into the offering box.  And then there are food booths and souvenir booths and as with the pre-school, the different community organizations are making stews and curries and getting ready for a huge after festival drinking party.  A lot of money exchanges hands during a festival and it is a surge in economy for the community itself.  The drinking part of it doesn't even have to wait until after the festival... the one time our family went years ago, I remember standing on the street side as Japanese drums sounded and onlookers cheered the men pulling the long pole along the road and up towards the mountain.  The wave of alcohol that wafted by with the crowd was overwhelming and it was obvious that the bamboo pullers weren't waiting for the after party to do their celebrating!  That must be part of the fun of the festival, getting as drunk as you'd like on these two days of the year! 

And although this photo has nothing to do with the Bonten Festival, as I was leaving the pre-school my eyes were caught by the colorful rows of shoes lined at the entrance.  (Yes, Japanese take off shoes when going into pre-schools and kindergartens and schools as well as when going into a house.)  What a variety!

Patora and Toi

I came back last evening and was greeted by meowing cats and a barking dog.

"We want dinner!"

"Okay, okay.  Choco let's get you settled first.  And now for the cats.  Here is some food for you two, Mi and Chip.  And for you two, Cleo and Vel.  And out in the cat house...  Toi and Patora...  Patora?  Patora?!!!"

No Patora.  How can a cat disappear from a cat house?  Toi was still there.

I looked on the shelves (a whole two inches from my face).  I looked in the Styrofoam box (both cats cuddle inside).  I looked behind the litter box.  No Patora.  I went outside and thumped boards and pulled at screens.  No way for her to get out.  I stood in the yard calling.  I went back inside and checked under the upstairs beds...  Not that she could have gotten inside, but where else could she be.

I finally determined that she'd crawled through a very narrow gap between the cat house roof and our house wall.  Just a bit more than two inches wide...  Could a cat really get through there?  And that gap has been there since Tetsu built the cat house nearly 5 years ago.  Unless... is it possible last week's earthquake widened the gap a bit?

Of course I could be suspicious and think that maybe someone had come along and let Patora out.  The cat house door is not locked.  I could understand if my neighbors just got so fed up with her meowing that they took matters into their own hands.  Patora incessantly meows whenever she knows that humans are around.  It is never ending and enough to drive me crazy too.  But she pulls up carpeting (that's why we had to replace our floors) and eats books (yes, SHREDS them!) if she is locked in a bedroom.  And out and about the house she attacks the other cats.  Patora is one unhappy kitty and she doesn't much like me nor Tetsu either.

My vet had advised when I'd consulted him about Patora's living arrangements.

"It's not the perfect solution, but maybe it is a better than letting her roam out where the cars and other strays are.  She is getting fed and you give her a warm place to sleep."

That's the vet's opinion.  I was afraid that maybe Patora thought differently and at first chance she'd made her escape and didn't plan to ever return to the prison of a cat house.  I spent the next hour looking out the window into the dark garden hoping she'd come home.  I left the TV off so that I could hear her if she started meowing (considering that she spends most of her days meowing the silence was unnerving.)

And an hour later out of the corner of my eye I spotted a brown tail flash by the back door.  Patora!  I opened the door and she hopped inside scattering the four house cats to different hiding places around the house.  After giving her a good drink of milk and feeding her her dinner alone (she had a lot of stickers in her fur and was VERY hungry!) I put Patora inside the cage that she and Toi sleep in at night.  And I put Toi in there with her.

NO WAY!  Toi's reaction...

"Who is this strange cat I've never seen before?!  I challenge you to a duel!  Claws and fangs bared!  It is fight to the death!"

It was a very odd reaction from Toi who either didn't recognize that this was the roommate he's had for the last five years or was jealous of the fact that she'd tasted her freedom and he hadn't.  I dumped Toi back into the cat house and let Patora sleep in the cage in peace.

This morning after Tetsu had fixed the cat house roof gap, we put the two cats back together again.  And a few minutes later they were cuddled up in the Styrofoam box.  I guess in the light of day Toi has realized that this is his old friend.  Or else has forgiven Patora for her gallivanting around the forest and leaving him in the cat house. 

Patora is back to meowing again... wanting out.

It is hard to understand cats.

Early morning

I'm on the run for the next couple of days...  So many things to get done before....  LEIYA ARRIVES!  Leiya is coming in from Ohio this Saturday and things need to be cleaned classes need to be squeezed in now (I'm not teaching while she is here) and I'd like to put some finishing touches on this house... Like plant some winter flowers on our front porch?  Something needs to be there to add some color.

Leiya is coming in at a cold time, but I suppose it is cold where she is coming from too.  In the mornings the air is frosty and the forest misty.  I've slowly been layering my clothes for crosswalk duty.  7:30 to 8:00 out there by the school, all under the forest so no sunlight warms the crosswalk.  (But in the summer the sun rises enough to hit directly!  Sure wish it was the other way around!)  The scenery is very pretty though so we find blessings where we can.

I'm headed off to the preschool in a few minutes.  Bundled up!

Works in Progress in November

I got some sewing done while a door installer was here yesterday but the new quilt is so slap-dash I'm not even sure if I really like it.   I guess I'll wait until it has been basted to show...

And why I started another quilt when I have so many WIP I don't know know.  But I guess I'm not the only one.

One of my patchwork friends is hand quilting a bed cover for her daughter.  This was part of our game quilt where we all made blocks for each other.  She still has quite a ways to go and only seems inclined to pick up the quilting hoop when we gather for monthly sewing times so I won't be showing the finished quilt for awhile.

Mrs. N is working on a prayer quilt...  Sorry about this odd photo angle.  I think all of the fabric is from my stash.  I wanted to teach Mrs. N how to put together a quilt quickly and this technique (sew strips into a tube) is always interesting.  Next session we will be putting in prayer ties rather than quilting the prayer quilt.

Up on my design wall is the Fruitti Tutti quilt!  Thanks to Nadine, I decided that that would be its name.  The blocks need to be sewn together and then a four-patch border is supposed to be added. 

And here I am early this morning still knitting.  It is rather hard to do with three helpers.  The fourth indoor kitty was luxuriating by the heater.  These three think humans are a warmer source of heat.  This is Tetsu's Christmas vest that I am working on.  The back is done and I'm working on the front side!  I guess I'm not worried about meeting this deadline!
 

Renovated kitchen

The final touches have been added to my kitchen and basically I think that everything that is supposed to be in there is back.  I have cooked three or four times, I have used the new dishwasher about that many times too.  I hope you don't take this as a bragging post, but I am going to show you some of the details of the kitchen as it does seem to me that there are innovations that I have never seen in the States (though that may only be because none of the kitchens I've been in recently in the States have been brand new.)

The kitchen now has a full counter so that there is some workspace between the sink and the stove.  Yeah!  I was excited to find two electric outlets right there under the counter so that mixers and blenders and things can be used without running an extension cord along the floor as I used to do.

The counter is man-made marble whereas it used to be stainless steel.  Actually I didn't know what was coming into my kitchen as we'd just given Mr. U a budget to work with and he ordered the kitchen.  What surprised me was when the kitchen was delivered Mr. U was surprised to be working with the man-made stuff.

"Hmm.  I thought it was going to be stainless steel again."

"Mr. U, if YOU don't know what is coming into my kitchen then who does?"

I'm pleasantly surprised by the white sterility though I have heard that one has to be careful of putting hot pans directly on the surface as it will discolor.

This is the first time in my adult life that I've had a dishwasher.  Isn't this cute?  Nothing like the size you see in the States and I have only ever worked with a dishwasher in my brother's home that was a pull out rack type.  This one is like a drawer and made especially with small Japanese plates and chopsticks in mind.

Under the counters are all drawer storage instead of cupboard space.  It seems to make it much easier to get things in and out and see things at a glance.  All these nifty little boxes too for holding oil pots and ladles and even dishwasher detergent.

And look!  There's a hidden drawer in there for holding thin items and until I can figure out a better system, it is holding my dish towels for now.

There is no such thing as a garbage disposal in Japan.  Everyone is very careful about disposing cans in one place, burnables in another place and biodegradable (kitchen garbage) in another place.  Many people have their own composting bins and very little waste gets into the sewer system.

Besides the top two drawer levels, there is also a row of drawers underneath for holding less used items and pot lids etc.

The top cupboards are nothing special... none of the fancy hydraulic shelves that are very popular in Japan these days...  BUT!  This morning I went to get something out of one of them and I find all of them LOCKED!!! 

"We're going to have to call Mr. U to come and unstick our cupboard doors...  I can't get them open!"

It turns out that they are earthquake proof and last Wednesday when our area of Japan had a rather strong earthquake (an old hard disk from an defunct computer was up on a bookshelf and fell off) the cupboard doors all performed beautifully and locked themselves so that items wouldn't fall out.  Tetsu figured out how to unlock the doors without calling Mr. U for help.

Not really part of the kitchen, but Mr. U solved a problem that I was having with the cats getting into the kitchen and playing in the garbage etc.  I had a wooden screen that served no purpose because the cats easily just pawed it to one side.  Mr. U attached one side to the wall and put casters on it so that it can roll and fold back.  Ha-ha!  The cats are foiled!

No they aren't. 

I found Chip in the kitchen a couple hours after this was installed.  Being smaller and craftier than the other cats, she easily found a way to slip under the crack between the screen and the floor.  I have now solved that problem by tacking on some plastic place mats to the bottom edge... just enough so that there is no space for Chip to crawl through.

So that's my new kitchen.  It seems to me that there are things I haven't seen in American kitchens but I haven't worked in an American kitchen for so long I really don't know anymore.  Anything different or is it all about the same?