First aid knitting

Yesterday I got some first aid for Tetsu's vest. Mrs. Ide came over and helped me block it again and showed me how to make the most of the measurements. This is turning out smaller than I expected. Who knows it might become a new vest for me. (That happens a lot. Then I always wish I had been making a red vest for Tetsu instead of the inevitable grey or blue...) Will this get done before Christmas? Not with all I have to do today!

*****

2001 New Year's card and I don't know how we got Tetsu back to America in just two years. Maybe that was the year that my mother ended up in the hospital for quite a while and Tetsu convinced his office that he NEEDED to go because it might be the last time to see her. In Japan you need to have a reason to take time off from work. You can see that we weren't just standing by Mother's bedside though (she bounced back quickly). This has always been our least favorite picture... the teen years were wearing on me and Takumi refused to take off the dumb sunglasses if he had to pose at all. Even the animals didn't look happy about posing that year.

"Yeah, yeah. Let us get warm first."

They were all crowded around the heater that year. Shoko is decidedly trying to ignore the camera.

At least Leiya looked cheerful.

Christmas decorations

The other day I visited my favorite bread shop and found some workers making Christmas decorations. I frequent this shop a lot and they are used to me asking if I can take pictures of their bread but this was the first time I was so bold as to ask if I could step into their kitchen!

"Come on in!"

and a friend and I went into the warm, great smelling kitchen to take a couple of pictures. A few other ladies in the shop noticed our disappearance into the kitchen and trailed in after us. I don't know if the bakers wanted 5 coat clad ladies oohing and aahing over the baking process but we all took pictures!

One young man was making bread shoes (I think these are really salt flour but I'm not sure about that) and another girl was making wreaths.

The kindergarten was decorated for the Christmas program on Saturday and I was drawn to the beautiful Christmas tree on the wall. Have you ever made star pot-holders? I went through a phase early in my patchwork years when I made quite a few of these but never this many at one time!

Someone at the church had given the kindergarten principal a box of these "pot-holders" to sell at the church bazaar but the principal cleverly purchased all the stars herself and arranged them as a starry Christmas tree! Made me want to make a couple of these stars again... Not this year Tanya!

*****

Let's see... What year are we on here? 2000? This colorful picture was taken in my brother's California front yard on his kiddie play equipment. You can see that Tetsu got to America about once every 4 or 5 years. Take a good look at Takumi because this is the last you'll see him smiling for two years. Heading into the teenage years with him at age 14 and Leiya at 10. The animals were featured that year as a sticker again. Shoko on her favorite chair and Lemi, Zorro and Vel up on top.

Call me Mickey

I thought you might like a laugh today. Here I am coming back from cross walk duty. Remember when I was complaining that this dumb uniform was too big? Well, during this season I've got under that overcoat, a muffler, a uniform jacket, a uniform vest, uniform pants, a white shirt, a knitted vest, a tie, PAJAMAS, leg warmers, socks, boots and two pairs of gloves. (plus the cute hat.) I'm carrying a whistle, a badge, a cell phone and a crosswalk flag. With all these clothes I'm weighted down and ROLLING to the crosswalk! I guess I'm happy the uniform is still too big because it is REALLY cold and I need all the layers I can get. However, the huge gloves do remind me a bit of Mickey Mouse....

*****

1999 and our New Year's card featured two new members to our family. The black and white kitty was Zorro and he showed up in the empty lot next to us one night as a kitten that could hardly walk. I even tracked down the child who had picked him up at the school and left him near my house and I was so furious. I think the neighborhood kids think if there is a stray cat that they should take it to Tanya which is NOT in my plans. But giving the kitty back would just mean that it got thrown out somewhere else so we kept it.

Not more than a month later I spotted Velvet in the forest (along with an empty tuna fish can). Within a few hours Vel had sought warmth and shelter on our porch on top of garden slippers. I ran away from home and Tetsu had to meet me in the middle of the day to plan what to do.

"Okay. Stay away from the house all day and if the kitty is still there tonight then we'll take him in."

You know the rest of the story. Vel is still with us today!

So the Watanabe family each had an animal to love and carry around that year. Shoko looks very uncomfortable!

Some things work out, some things don't!

Yesterday was a big day at the kindergarten because they had their Christmas program. Such a mad house behind the stage but as usual everything went off well. People were relieved to see me there just because one year I came down with the flu and had to cancel out. I will never live that down.

The older class in the kindergarten puts on a "musical" pageant and all the costumes are so cute and the few solo singing parts are just adorable. The cow this year was played by a chubby little boy who is so shy but he really sang his part like a pro! I could envision him someday being an opera singer! (that's pushing it a bit but it brought tears to my eyes since I know he is hesitant even to speak up in class.)

So, one thing successfully completed in the Christmas countdown. A billion more things to go!

Tetsu's vest is not much further along than it was a week ago. maybe less! I made the back. I made the front. WHY doesn't the front fit the back?! I have no idea. I counted correctly, I decreased correctly. I think it must have something to do with more cables on the front than on the back. Tanya, you should stick to a book and not try to design your own pattern. Too late for that now. So I dettink (that's knitted backwards) quite a ways back and am trying to reknit the V-neck. Do you think this will get done before Christmas? Not if I run into more problems.

*****

1998 New Year's card. Takumi was 12 and Leiya 8. Yes, Lemi is sitting on Shoko. I told you they were very good friends!

I don't know if I ever mentioned that Tetsu used to teach judo. Well, he used to be pretty good in judo himself (before I came along) and his dream was to have his kids do judo too. Takumi started judo when he was about three and Leiya looked forward to joining when she entered 1st grade. (Sorry. I am a non-judo person.) Every week I would take my kids to the city gym and meet up with Tetsu and the three of them would do judo with other children and teachers. I usually sat in the bleachers and did hand piecing. Tetsu had big plans for our kids in judo!

BUT parents dreams are often different from their children's. Takumi decided in jr. high that judo was not for him and a year or so later Leiya dropped out too. Poor Tetsu! Nowadays we are all pretty far from the judo scene but this picture was taken at the gym when our family was keen!

Sewing lesson

Yesterday my friends Rumi-san and Mrs. Nakazawa came for their monthly patchwork lesson. They have done hand piecing (at their request) and made a couple of small quilts. They finished their Happy Village quilts and proudly brought those to show me and let me take pictures. Yeah! I love these village quilts. They turn out so nicely! And then.... I MADE them sit down at a sewing machine.

"You can do all the hand piecing you like. It is always nice to have a project by your chair. BUT, you have to TRY machine piecing just so you can decide if it is something you might be able to do. If I'm going to teach you, you HAVE to learn machine piecing."

Gulp. Neither of them really wanted to try it. Roller cutters look scary and difficult to maneuver. Neither of them have touched a sewing machine in 10's of years. But I am a strict teacher and together we bought fabric and prepared it for the cutting table. Beautiful fabric isn't it?!

"Okay, take a deep breath. Hang on to the wide ruler and CUT. Excuse me! Too many "oopses" going on here. You are wasting fabric! Be careful!"

I think after cutting 30 some strips they were getting the hang of it.

I brought down my sewing machine and an old one that I keep for emergencies (neither friend owns a sewing machine right now!) and pretty soon they were zipping away! Yeah! We managed to sew strips together but haven't cut those up yet to sew into blocks. Rumi-san and Mrs. Nakazawa still feel like they are wandering through a mystery land.

"What are we doing with all these strips? How is this going to turn into a quilt block?"

I remember the magic feel of a block suddenly coming together without me really understanding why. I hope my friends will feel the same sense of satisfaction!

Next step.... Next month.

******

1997 and we took our family to a nearby park with water wheels in it. I'm surprised we risked taking Lemi with us! I shudder to think she might have jumped out of my lap and disappeared into some unknown place! But all was well. For awhile I was trying to sew fleece shirts and this was one of my attempts at a mother daughter look. Shoko is still being held down for the picture isn't she?

Apple bunnies

When I first came to Japan I lived in apple country and I was amazed at how easily everyone could peel an apple. I had never been handy in the kitchen but my experience til then with peeling apples had been to slash away at a whole apple with a potato peeler. I hated peeling apples! But I found that Japanese women could cut an apple into 1/4ths and daintily peel each quarter without ever touching the meat of the apple. It seemed that all households had a bowl of apples on the table and a small kitchen knife complete with a cover, ready to peel apples for family and guests. I remember being so proud when I learned how to peel an apple without the end result looking like it had already been gnawed over.

Raw apple pieces decorate cakes and children's platters and lunches. In Japan, mothers do NOT put a whole, unpeeled apple in their children's lunchbox. Instead apples are cut into interesting shapes and are dipped in salt water (which was often a surprise to my tongue) to prevent discoloring when eaten later. The most common cut apple shape is the bunny. It takes a little imagination but this is what this is supposed to be.

Cut an apple into 1/8ths. Remove the core part and seeds. Deeply score the peel from the bottom to the center to make a long V cut. Remove the peeling (in one sweep) up to the tip of the V. Soaking the piece in slightly salted water will make the ears of the bunny "stand up" (some). Voila! Apple bunnies.

The other day Tetsu and I went down the street (I still live in apple country, just in another part of Japan) and bought a few bags of apples. Today I'm making apple sauce. No problem now that apple peeling is a breeze!

*****

1996 and yes, that is us as a Japanese family! In Japan we celebrate 7-5-3 day during November and little girls will get dressed up in kimono when they become 3 or 7. Little boys dress up when they are 5. Traditionally when children often did not live til their adult years, when each milestone was met there was a big celebration and the family visited the shrine to give thanks for the child. Nowadays most families will celebrate by taking pictures, going out to a fancy dinner with family and of course visiting the shrine.

In our case Leiya was 6 (but in Japan it is considered 7. One year in the womb.) and I wanted to dress her up in kimono just so that I could take pictures and show family and friends in America. Let me tell you, this one day was COSTLY! Renting the kimono. Having Leiya's hair and make-up fixed. Taking studio pictures. We visited church rather than the shrine.

Tetsu couldn't understand why I wanted to wear a kimono myself on this day. "You're a foreigner. Why wear a kimono?" But a friend offered to loan me her kimono and even dress me in it and when would I ever have another chance? I'm glad I did because that was the last time I ever wore a kimono...

You can see more about that day here.

And can you see the little sticker at the bottom? That is Lemi the kitty and she was a new addition to our family. She LOVED Shoko the dog and would often nurse! Shoko seemed happy enough being a pacifier and the two were good friends for all the years we had them.

A "simple" lunch

Earlier this week one of my former students called and asked if I could stop by for a few minutes. I suggested that since I had an hour for lunch on Wednesdays that I pick her up and we go to Starbucks for a quick sandwich. Yesterday when I got to her house I found that her mother had made lunch for the three of us.

Look at this lunch!!! True, Mrs. Inoue was once a nutritionist and has experience in planning and making meals. But lunch was amazing! A far cry from Starbucks sandwiches!

"Oh, this is nothing... Most of this stuff is made before hand anyway. It's not difficult to make."

That obviously depends on the person. My poor husband doesn't get a dinner like this from me EVER.

Starting at the front, going around clockwise. Broth soup with tofu and greens. Rice with healthy millet grains. Simmer dried tofu and stuffed deep fried tofu pouches (stuffed with vegetables and ground chicken). Simmered icicle radish with miso-meat sauce. Simmered mushrooms (three or four kinds). Pickled radishes (she had radishes drying in her yard to later be made into pickles). Pickled cauliflower. Sweet and sour green onions. How's that for a "simple" meal?!

Mrs. Inoue has always enjoyed collecting little pieces of special pottery and she shows them all off in her beautiful meals. Lunch was a delight!

*****

We must have taken the 1995 New Year's picture right before the deadline to make cards. The house was filled with Christmas things. I don't see Lammy in the picture so she may have already disappeared into the forest. She wasn't with us for more than a year or so. Shoko the dog had begun to have camera phobia and we were always wrestling with her to stay still for a picture. She HID whenever she saw a camera!

That tiny Christmas tree is all my kids have ever had. My mother had sent it to me when Tetsu and I were first married and it was just the right size for a small apartment. Nowadays we can buy larger artificial Christmas trees but I no longer put up a tree at all anymore. SHOCK! I learned the hard way a couple of years ago that the cats enjoyed knocking the ornaments off of the tree and using anything red, white or green as cat toys. A lot of smashed ornaments! Though Christmas (material Christmas) has been adopted in Japan I've never seen a cut Christmas tree... if Japanese families put up a tree at all (and most don't) they are artificial trees sometimes with the tinsel and plastic balls already attached!