Spring cleaned entryway

On these nice sunny days, I am getting inspired to do some cleaning (though the government is now telling us not to take things to the dump.  I think the dump is getting overloaded by all the Stay Home spring cleaning that is getting done.)  I changed around quilts in the entryway this morning and got the bookshelves dusted off a yesterday.  So many papers that weren't really worth saving all these years!

This is the Boy's Day quilt that I made years ago.  Actually I think the first one I made with a little more care and Leiya took it back to the States with her one year, so I quickly made up this one.  I'm proud of the fact that I got it up on the wall BEFORE Boy's Day rather than after like I've done in previous years.

On the other side of the entryway is the Australian quilt that I made one year.  My friend from Australia had sent me the patterns and though there were more animals in the original set of patterns, I chose cute ones that made more sense to me (I didn't know what some of the other animals were!).  I also made up a few flower patterns of my own to fill out the quilt without it looking too Australian (where I've never yet visited).  I wanted this quilt up now so that we can get all the fun, cheeriness we can get.

I'm telling stories in my displays...  The rock has the Bible verse Ephesians 5:22, 25 in Japanese.  You know, the one about wife obey your husband, husband love your wife...  So I've got my boy and girl shell turtles that Marlene once brought back for us from Singapore heading toward the rock.  The Bible verse rock I picked up at our church bazaar and a friend had made lots of them with different verses....  I had minutes earlier complained to a friend about how unreasonable Tetsu was about some argument we were having and I happened to pick up this rock, study it a bit to read what it said, and then burst out laughing at the appropriateness of the verse. 

My friend piped up.  "I think that rock was made for you, Tanya." and we had another good laugh.

A cat lamp that I love and I put a felt mouse I'd once made next to it giving a peace offering...

And, just because, I've got the Japanese melon-pan (a Japanese snack) cat displayed because Julieta-san gave it to me and it makes me smile.  I don't know where the woven Teddy Bear came from, probably a kindergarten bazaar...  And the thread ball with sequins was made by Mrs. Furui.

So there is my cheery entryway!
 

Golden Week/Stay Home Week

Japan has begun Golden Week, which has now been named Stay Home Week.

(From the Internet)

Traditionally Golden Week consists of the Showa Emperor's birthday, Constitution Day, Green Day, Boy's Day and an extra day because one of the holidays often falls on a Sunday.  School would be let out for the week, businesses closed.  BUT of course this year everything is different as school has been out since Feb. 27...  And instead of everyone heading to amusement parks, beaches, vacation areas and hometowns, we are reminded hourly on the TV to STAY SAFE.  STAY HOME.  Golden Week has become Ganbaru Week ("Hang-in-there Week).

There are a few problems with enforcing the Stay Home "requests"...  Some pachinko parlors seemed to think they should stay open as usual so city officials were making visits asking them to comply with government requests.  When that didn't work the officials decided to publicly announce which pachinko parlors were so blatantly ignoring safety measures, hoping to shame them into closing.  That idea backfired when pacinko players from other parts of Japan flocked to the publicly denounced pachinko parlors to get their pachinko playing fix.  The government is still continuing that battle...

But here in the countryside of Japan, there is little to do and few places to go to and so Tetsu and I wander the fields and take pictures of scenery.

 The beautiful wildflowers near the fields.

 I love these Grape Hyacinths and wish they would grow thicker in my own yard.

Flowers on a hillside.

 A neighbor farmer mixing the soil in his field once last time before he starts planting.

And here comes a rice planting tractor all loaded with flats of rice sprigs.

Farmers wouldn't be doing anything except planting rice during Golden Week anyway, so they hardly notice the change to Stay Home Week. 

No social distancing!

I am going to have a rant today!  You can skip it if it becomes too rambling....

Yesterday I went to the next town over to renew my Residence Card at the immigration office.  I have to do this every 7 years now because I have permanent residence status which I suppose is like a Green Card in the States.  For people who are on working visas they have to renew every 6 months...  Students, every year...  Anyway....

I actually, stupidly, went to the Immigration office two weeks ago to do this same thing but though I had my letter telling me that my card was due to expire soon, the Immigration office didn't want me there until a certain time frame (which I'd not realized).  So I went back yesterday wanting to get the whole chore out of the way.  I don't really want to be downtown anyway what with this pandemic, and as I tend to lose things and forget things I could imagine myself not getting the job done and then losing my residence status or something.  I'm not a procrastinator...

I parked in a coin parking lot (no parking provided) and made my way to the Immigration office which is a drab, uninteresting, hardly noticeable building.  Really, the place has one small black and white sign on it, all in Japanese characters and I'd already complained to Tetsu two weeks ago that the immigration office at least could put their sign in larger, Roman lettering so that the foreigners in the prefecture could find it!  Ah...  But THIS time, there were people spilling out onto the sidewalk and sitting on the street curbs and leaning against the building wall...  All foreigners. (Japanese would NEVER sit down in the middle of a dirty sidewalk by the way).  I went inside the largish room which was packed with people.  I took a number from the machine and did a double-take.  Number 115.  The screen said that the immigration officers were working with number 62.  WHAT!!!???

Did I just want to give up?  Yes, I did.  But that would mean I'd have to come another day...  when the Corona virus was even more prevalent?  I'd already parked my car.  This job had to get done.  I stood around awhile (no place to sit) when Marlene texted me to see what I was up to.

"I'm trying to renew my Residence card but it is going to take hours!"

Marlene sent me a social distancing text sticker and suggested I go out for a walk... which I did.  The department store was closed as were most of the stores in the promenade area.  After about 30 minutes I went back to the immigration office.  Oh no.  They'd processed only 4 more people...  I went out again.

I hadn't had lunch but I wasn't going to go into a restaurant.  There were a few convenience stores open but I wasn't going to stand in the street eating a rice ball. 

I walked around another half hour but finally ended up back at the immigration office where I stood in the back of the room for the next hour and a half looking at the peeling wallpaper and cracked linoleum.

It took over 3 hours to get the job done!!!  The transaction itself took maybe 5 minutes...

The non-system had absolutely no social-distancing measures in place.  People crowded in one room with only the front door open.  No windows.  Though even 50 people ahead of me to be helped sounds bad, there were at least 100, maybe 200 people milling around because for every person needing help, I was the only one who had come alone!  Everyone else came with families or groups of workers...  One Japanese lady had three Vietnamese young men with her... they must have been workers and she their liason at the factory...  And there were husbands who spoke some Japanese filing documents for their wives who didn't...  Children racing around between benches, some wearing masks, some not.  So many combinations of so many people!!!

And the clerks, four at the counter, were just harried.  This sea of people to serve with no measures to protect themselves let alone anyone else.  And people were angry and irritated...  One man waited for his turn for nearly three hours and then was turned away because he didn't have the correct documents.  He was furious and stood his ground but the clerk could just say that by law they couldn't change their policy and the man was just taking up precious time arguing the fact (he was).  I was praying that my visit wouldn't be in vain with someone passing me back my papers and saying they weren't enough...  I would have cried!

Obviously Tochigi Prefecture is lax on its social distancing measures.  Japan still is!  Japan is just now getting around to debating about the wisdom of the "chop" culture which entails all officials, businessmen, teachers etc, to add their red "chop" to a document making something legal.  Japan hasn't been able to shut down the work force during this pandemic because all businesses need people on the office premises putting their "chops" on documents.  It is so archaic!!!

If I can apply for an American passport online and have it sent to me in the mail, why can't I get a renewal on my Japanese Residence card the same way?  Why do I have to risk my life in this pandemic standing with who knows who for three hours?  It just riles me!  If I am sick two weeks from now, we'll all know who to blame.  At least the immigration office has my name and address and can contact me if a pandemic cluster begins in the Tochigi Immigration Office!

I don't even know who to send complaints to.

A Stay-as-Home Friday

All the days seem to blend into each other and since there is nothing on the calendar I hardly know when the weekend has arrived.  I'm not sure that I really feel that there is more time, but we come to the end of a day and I don't seem that I've gotten that much done...

So...  This is how a day goes for me.

Wake up around 6:00 or 6:30 (no more crosswalk duty which would get me out of the house by 7:00) and take John for a walk.

Home for breakfast and coffee.  We have the same breakfast everyday of chopped apples, sliced bananas, crushed almonds, walnuts, raisins, cranberries, sesame seeds, coconut and occasionally granola (Tetsu's been buying it lately and it adds a nice crunch).  I top it with home made soy yogurt and for myself a dash of tumeric (which Tetsu doesn't like.)  This has been our set weekday breakfast that never changes for the past 10 years.

I recently put in an hour of housework before I start anything else which sounds strange because I am a housewife, but Tetsu does most of the cleaning and he is a stickler about it redoing things that I've already done.  This used to rankle me (it still does occasionally) but I've decided to do my own cleaning schedule (based on Fly Lady) and I tend toward seasonal chores...  Yesterday I was washing the screens in our bedroom (having already washed bedroom windows the day before and waxed the bedroom floor the day before that...)  I'm done with the bedroom for this month!

I settle down for some Bible time and then put in 30 minutes of Duolingo studying Spanish.

Finally!  Up to the sewing room!  Yes, I've pulled out another project, this one a McKenna Block of the Month kit that a blog friend had sent me years ago.  All these things that I've wanted to someday do but didn't want to start because I didn't have time.  Well, if I'm not motivated to do them now then I never will be, and the things I pass over I might as well toss.  This major project is a now or never one and so I've started it now!  It is farm theme and so I have been making sheep and barns and geese and pumpkins...

Let's see...  Lunch was frozen fried rice yesterday.  Not very nutritious but my brain can't figure out three meals a day (even two considering I don't have to think about breakfast!)

I took John out again for a 40 minute walk.  My goal is 10000 steps a day and I need at least three walks to get there.  When I had crosswalk duty which entailed a 15 minute walk to the school and back, it made it so much easier to reach my goal!  Oops.  John closed his eyes again!

At some point I settled into the downstairs armchair and worked on my I Choose Joy block.  I keep adding new leaf shapes but I finally graduated to some color.  I'll need to put in flower centers today.

Dinner was purely Japanese last night...  Rice, miso soup, grilled fish, stir fry pork and broccoli, chinese chicken salad.  Tetsu washes up the dishes.

And finally we ended the evening with ice cream sundaes...  It was a treat but since I'd done some shopping that day I'd bought Lady Bordon's ice cream.  This won't be a regular custom as we sure don't need the extra calories!

Scenery from my window

Hmmm.  I seem to have lost my blog signature today...  I have no idea why.  After all these years, Blogger continues to confound me!  (Update:  My signature came back I guess...)

The days are beginning to warm up though I am still wearing my down jacket on our morning walks. The farmers have begun flooding their rice fields and we are entering my favorite season!  The few days when the rice fields get flooded but the rice isn't planted yet!  On calm days when there is no breeze or wind, the flooded fields look like mirrors! 

This is the view from my bedroom window!  Isn't that a glorious sight! 

The same view (on a different day) taken with my iPhone.  I look at that view and just feel like I've got to take a picture!

I'd walked right up to the rice field to take this shot.  The hot house in this picture is our farmer friend, Mr. Yano's.  He is growing greens in there and outside he has begun planting green onions.

 Ah.  Here comes Mr. Yano from his field.

Yep.  He's got a bunch of his greens with him.  He and his wife will bundle the greens and put price stickers on them and then Mr. Yano will take them to the neighborhood vegetable stand.

The rape blossoms are just past their peak...  But they still look pretty reflected in the water.

And while writing this blog post, I noticed the beautiful light of the evening and went out to see what the fields looked like.  Here is the late afternoon sun shining through another farmer's hot houses.  This farmer raises rindo, Japanese Gentian (the Internet tells me). 

And ten minutes later I can step outside to this! 

I don't have to go far to find beauty!

Small changes

Corona continues to seep into our lives and change the ways we do things and think. 

Yesterday I went to the preschool to teach English although the principal had contacted me giving me the chance to option out...  I went anyway but once there we decided that English classes will be on hold throughout the month of May (or longer).  That's fine.  Tetsu wasn't too thrilled about me going anyway but I was there and I started to remove my mask before going in to the first class.

"Please leave your mask on while you teach.  All the teachers have been instructed to do so."

It felt very weird to be teaching a class of 3 year olds wearing a face mask!  How are they going to understand pronunciation with my mouth (and expressions) covered up?

"One, two, three...  stick out your tongue a bit... like this (and I pull down my face mask), four...  you have to bite your lower lip gently (and I pull down my face mask again), five, the same as four, six, seven...  like this...  (another jerk down of the face mask) eight, nine, ten."

It was tiring and I'm just as glad that there won't be any English classes at the preschool for awhile.

And then I got home just in time to receive a call from the vice principal at the elementary school letting me know that school has been postponed again until May 11.

Before I went to the preschool I texted Mrs. Waki telling her that I had a quilt I wanted to deliver to her...  but maybe she didn't want presents coming into her house during this shelter-down period...  Is it more of a worry to bring presents to someone now and should I just wait until better days?

Mrs. Waki was thrilled to know I was bringing her a quilt and she welcomed me though I spent only a few seconds on her doorstep.

"It's been washed...  It's in a plastic bag.  You could wash it again before you spread it out.  Or maybe you want to leave it in your car a few days before you bring it into your house."

She emailed me later to show that she had spread it out in her upstairs room for now before deciding whether she'll use it in her living room or on her bed...

Ooh...  I didn't know that Mrs. Waki has an empty room upstairs with floor-space!  I so need that area to spread out my next quilt for basting!  Alas, with social distancing I guess I'm not going to be able to use Mrs. Waki's room...

I dropped off some Japanese sweets to Marlene (who lives across the street from Mrs. Waki) but again, it was only a 5 second connection at her front door too.  Too bad!

My "Joy" block/panel has a few more leaves on it... 

And cat fur...

Count it all joy!

I had a computer/internet/blog glitch this morning.  I don't even know what the cause was!  I opened up my blog and discovered that the pictures from my post about my two most recent quilts had disappeared!

My first reaction is to panic and then to try and figure out if other posts were affected (I don't know) and then to make things right again by dabbling in the world of Internet, and FINALLY to make an SOS call to my computer whiz son.  He came through quickly and was able to get into my computer and check things out.  He thought that most likely Blogger was having a problem and we edited the blog post and uploaded pictures to it again.  Hopefully that will be the last of my blog problems.  I hate it when things don't go the way I want them to!

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I spent some time cleaning up my sewing room yesterday but unfortunately it looks just as messy again today.  I made up another 7 or 8 masks, even trying out a new fitted style... but maybe I like the pleated style better?  I'll have to see if I can make the pattern a better fit than it is now for me...

I have also started on an applique project just because I NEED to have some handwork downstairs during the evenings.  This is the progress over the past few days.

1st day.  Hmmm.  Maybe I should have gone for more contrast in color...  I wanted a cheerful yellow background.

2nd day.  My "handwriting" was a little wonky but cheery is the theme.

3rd day.  Hmmm.  Yes, I really do need to take lessons in color contrast.

4th day.  I perked up the JOY with some french knots...  And now hopefully I will get a garden growing.

Sometimes I don't feel particularly joyful.  All of Japan is now being asked to comply with Stay-Home orders because medical problems and economic problems are increasing.   But I'm TRYING to stay joyful, find things to be joyful about, be focused on joy in general.

Like today!  I was in a tiz about my blog but ended up chatting and working jointly with Takumi for nearly an hour.   That was my jolt of joyful today! 
 

Chinese Redbud and Forsythia

Tetsu definitely has more cabin fever than I do and he is always looking for an excuse to get out of the house.  Yesterday he found an article in the local newspaper about a private park in the mountains about an hour from us and we decided to take a drive out to see what there was.  I don't mind staying at home but getting to see the beautiful flowers made me glad that we'd gotten out for a few hours.

I guess we can say we practiced social distancing because there were very few people around.

It was a lovely little place situated between hills just getting their green leaves and with mountain cherry blossom trees still abloom.

 The pink bushes are Chinese Redbud trees and the yellow are Forsythia.

 The Chinese Redbud was so vibrant!
There were "pathways" marked off by wood chips that meandered through the trees and bushes and quite a few tables and chairs for people to relax at.

At the top of the hill was this small lookout platform.

 Both to the right and to the left, the mountainside was covered in these beautiful colors!

I did talk a bit with an older man who was lugging around two cameras with numerous lenses and a tripod.  He was mostly interested in photographing the new green leaves on the opposite mountain.

He told me I needed to buy a wide-lens to get the full effect of beautiful scenery but I guess I'll make do with what I have.

He also recommended staying around and hoping that the clouds would move on and let more of the blue sky into the pictures but as rain was forecast for the late afternoon it seemed a fruitless wait and I was happy with the photos we took anyway.

As we were leaving we passed a man who thanked us for coming and found out that he was the person who has done all the planting and caring for the hillside.  He said he started 6 years ago with just planting his own field a little lower down the mountain and then he asked to rent this mountainside and make this private park.  He said that since last year the town/village is funding him a bit and everyone was pleased that visitors were coming to see the spring blossoms. 

 It is amazing what one person can do little by little!