A quiet week

May is winding up and I don't know what to write about as usually I end my month with Luka updates and this month has mostly been about Luka anyway...  So let's see...

The same day that Luka and Leiya left to meet-up with Tony, I went and picked up John at the vets.  He has been boarding for a month and though he isn't particularly happy nor unhappy to be home, we have given him free range of the house, retiring the circle that he usually was confined to when we ate or at night.  So far no problems!  Unknowingly to John, he goes back to the vets for another 6 days on Thursday while Leiya and family are visiting again. (first time for Tony).

The month with Luka was great fun but must have been wearing on me because the next day I crashed and slept the whole day long...   I no longer know if my lack of energy is due to rheumatism, medications or just plain age!  It is rather frustrating (for Tetsu too because he never knows if I'm going to be up for anything in a given day.)

I had a  General Traffic Safety meeting with all the crosswalk guards in Nikko and I stumbled through the lines that I had been given to say at the beginning and the end of the meeting.  I have no idea how formal meetings are held in the States but in Japan they always begin by the spokesperson introducing the person who is formally going to open the meeting, in this case, me, and then the meeting begins with each board member reading off the agenda and numbers provided in the documents that everyone has been given.  At the end of the meeting some person (me again) formally ends the meeting and the spokeperson thanks everyone and we can all go home.  This year's general meeting only lasted an hour as no one had any comments or questions and the documents were read through quickly.  Rather boring.

Tetsu did take me out to a small, private quilt exhibition of a teacher and her students.  I think the teacher's name was Etsuko Yano.

Some beautiful quilts and it made me feel as if I really should be doing more sewing with all the fabric I have and also the time these days.

The exhibition was in a building that was part of an old farmhouse and so after we admired the quilts we admired the building and tools etc. on display.

A mortar and pestle for pounding rice.

A display of woven zori.

Pictures from Leiya have included their fancy dinner out in Kyoto thanks to Takumi who sent them a gift card they could use during their travels.  (He sent Tetsu and me one too but we are going to wait until I'm more mobile before we use it.)

From what I could see from their updates, it looks like there are a lot of tourists in Kyoto right now.

I have no idea where they were in Kyoto but it is giving Tony a good first taste of Japan.

This is the way the Smith family is traveling.  It's a good thing Tony has a strong back!

And that's pretty much how this past week went.  I've been doing some quilting and even have a baby quilt almost finished (I'm putting on the binding today).  

Relaxing...

"Bouken da! It's an adventure!"

Tetsu and I are in a short period of lull because Leiya and Luka left for Tokyo yesterday to meet up with Tony at the airport.  The three of them will travel in Japan for 10 days and then Leiya will bring Tony back to Nikko for his first visit to her childhood home.

So what did we do this past week or so...

Played in the yard...

Went to a petting zoo and met a goat...

...and his friends...

Rode a pony...

Took a bunny for a walk.

Leiya and Luka accompanied me to the crosswalk a few times and one time we asked if they could take a walk inside the school so that Leiya could walk down memory lane.  This is in the entryway to the school.  There is a beautiful ceramic mural there above the shoe cubbies and unicycle parking station.

The very large gymnasium for this school which is actually pretty small (150 students?)

Leiya got to meet up with 4 of her elementary school and middle school friends and all their children so there was a whirlwind of activity when all the kids took over our downstairs!  We also visited Leiya's old kindergarten, (where I also taught English for 20 years) and she met up with three of her old teachers!  Luka had a wonderful couple of hours there and it was hard to pull him away from all the toys and equipment indoors and out.

On rainy days especially, Luka loved playing with the train set one of my friends has loaned me while Luka is here.  One room of our very small house is now an obstacle course of tracks and bridges and trains...

Wouldn't you know it, yesterday morning before they were leaving, Luka ran his hand over a small cactus plant that Tetsu had set OUTSIDE the window.  (Luka opened the window and reached out.)  Leiya spent a long time pulling out stickers and we even covered a couple fingers in Elmer's glue, let it dry (took 45 minutes!) and then pulled off the glue and stickers together.  Disaster averted!

We are so going to miss having Luka's voice waking us every morning, hugs and kisses throughout the day, and holding hands as we go to new adventures.  One phrase we taught Luka was "Bouken da!"  "It's an adventure!"  meaning, "we are off to something new now" (pulling him away from whatever he really wants to do) "what exciting adventure is ahead?"  Luka heads off chanting, "Bouken da!  Bouken da!"

And the adventure yesterday was taking the trains from Nikko through Tokyo and meeting up with Daddy at the airport.

Tony has missed his family and he is excited to explore Japan for two weeks with them.  "Bouken da!"

Days of middle May

The days are getting away from us but we are having fun.

Leiya got a lot of sewing in and she finished up the baby quilt that she's been making!  

She and I picked out a pattern and she bought fabrics before she even left the States.  I think this pattern is called Hidden Shoofly, and I had the Tri-rec tools already so once she got here we started cutting up her fabrics and sewing.

By the way, a blog reader asked me how I like my Juki sewing machine and I must say that I have been loving it!!  It is a Juki SPUR 30 SP and though it only does the basic straight stitch and doesn't have any of the fancy decorative stitches, it sews with no problem and even handles pretty detailed free-motion quilting.  The only extra I wish I'd thought to have included is a needle threader as my eyes don't find that needle hole so easily (see that separate red needle threader on the table there?  That gets a lot of use!) but besides that, I love the thread-cutter on the foot pedal function and the possiblity of holding two spools of thread at one time (sometimes I use a different bobbin thread and it is just nice to have both spools ready to use.)  The purpose of buying this machine to begin with was so that I could do some heavy-duty machine quilting and I haven't run into any snags yet!

Back to Leiya.  Let's say that she and I have very different approaches to making quilts.  I am more of a "let's try and see" type of person whereas Leiya wants to UNDERSTAND before she begins.  If I waited to understand all the instructions before beginning, I'd never get started!  (Which she does admit happens to her a lot.)  Leiya also wants all the colors placed just so, or the seams exact and I have more of a "it's good enough, no one will notice" philosophy.  She could play around with block placement for days (she did) until she was satisfied...  She also spent a lot of time making a beautiful label whereas I would have just penned in the information, but she is very pleased with all her efforts.  Maybe this is the start of a quilting hobby!

Until Leiya and Luka return to the States, I get to have the quilt up on my entryway wall.

As for what we've been doing with Luka...

We went to the onsen and Luka had a very good time.

We visited my friend, Hiroko-san and Luka got to see samurai armor displayed for Boy's Day.

Hiroko-san also showed Luka a fuuki leaf from her garden (the dish on the right there are fuuki stalks simmered in soysauce) and Luke pretended he was with Totoro...  the children's animation character that uses a fuuki leaf as an umbrella.

Luka and Totoro.

On sunny days Luka and Leiya sometimes come to the school with me and they play in the playground while I work at the crosswalk.

For Mother's Day Leiya cooked dinner.  Like me, Leiya says that although she cooks dinner everyday at home, now that she's in Japan, she can't remember how to cook things nor use the ingredients she finds in the Japanese supermarket.  I used to say the same thing every summer when I went back to the States and didn't cook for the whole month. 

Helping Jiji in his garden.

Watering is great fun.

Leiya and Luka visited one of Leiya's old middle school friends and they had a great time between the rice fields with bubbles and kites.

Bubbles...

...and a kite.

The days are over so quickly...

Golden Week

Another week has gone by.  I guess I can say I'm glad I'm a grandparent and not a parent of a toddler!  The decisions that have to be made and all the things that have to be considered between naptimes and moods!  The complete devotion and release of any personal time!  I must have been able to do it at one point but I can't read the signs anymore nor figure out spontaneity!

We also had a day of possible earaches (we were uncertain whether Luka with all his smiles really meant he had an earache when he pointed at his ear and said "hurts") and rashes (definitely visible but not seeming to bother Luka) and a cough, (maybe only before sleeping?) and finally Leiya and I took Luka to my doctor just because we were heading into Golden Week when everything except emergency rooms would be closed.  Leiya wasn't too impressed by the doctor's manner but she got some cough medicine and was assured that it didn't look like symptoms would take a turn for the worse.  They didn't. 

Between naptimes we find the best way to keep us all involved together is to head to some park and Tetsu and I have discovered quite a few that were unknown to us previously.  

Of course I just park on a bench or in this case on the grass, and play around with my pens and paints.

Done!

There was a huge scary slide at this park that Luka just loved.

Another time we met up with the Yamadas at a park near them and Marlene packed us a lunch.

There was a college group that was practicing huge flag waving and dancing that Luka found interesting.

And a lttle stream where Luka could shed his clothes and wade around.  (He quickly found it too cold though.)

Tetsu's garden has been nearly as entertaining as any park for Luka and he and Leiya dig in the dirt and play with his trucks.  That's my Koi Nobori that I made (the scrap one) hanging in the garden.  The cut down tree trunks from the past forest make a good sitting place for me.

Playing in the dirt.

From another angle.

Dirt anyone?

In honor of Boy's Day which was May 5th, I have an old Koi Nobori quilt up on the wall.

And these funny Koi Nobori made out of silk worm cocoons that I once found.

And yesterday I painted some of the Koi Nobori flying over a farmhouse.

During Golden Week, the rice fields are being flooded for planting and the reflections are just beautiful!

Another week gone by!