Dunce cap

Yesterday after crosswalk duty, my day crumbled into frustration.

Between January and March the Traffic Safety Division at the city hall goes around to the many elementary schools and gives an hour class on bicycle safety.  From April the present 6th graders will go to jr. high school and many (most) will ride bicycles.  A policeman and the Traffic Safety leader lead the classes and a few crosswalk guards are required to attend.  There are enough of us crosswalk guards that we only have to help at two bicycle classes and at the end the year I received a list of dates and schools and names. I found my name, and figured out the schools and clearly wrote the dates on my wall calendar and in my schedule book.

I am prone to mix-ups so I engaged Tetsu in my preparation and I told him the name of the school I didn't know, and together we looked up on the computer the route to the school.  I arranged my teaching schedule so that I could do my bicycle class duties and yesterday I left the house early and went to new-to-me school.

"Nice school.  Seems quiet."

No one was around, none of the other bicycle safety people seemed to be about either...  I knocked on the teacher room door and introduced myself saying I was there for the Bicycle Safety class.

"Bicycle Safety class?"  The secretary went away and came back looking apologetic.

"The Bicycle Safety class is scheduled for the 27th...  Maybe you've made a mistake?"  (As usual.)

I smiled sickly and got back in the car, saying a few choice words when I was sure that no one could hear but myself.

"I've done it again!!!!  Where did I mess up now?!!!  Have I got the dates wrong?  Am I supposed to be here on the 27th?  Did I get the schools mixed up?  Was I supposed to go to the other school (MY school) today?!!!"

I sped back to the school where I stand at the crosswalk and squealed into the parking lot.   Nobody there so this wasn't where I was supposed to be either.  I raced back home and searched my desk for the city hall notice.

"AArgh!!!!  I was supposed to be at WEST XXXX Elementary School, not just XXXX Elementary school.  I didn't even know there WAS a West XXXX Elementary School.

I called the city hall knowing full well that the Traffic Safety Division people weren't going to be there.  They were at the school where I WASN'T!!! Some unknown clerk answered.

"My name is Tanya Watanabe.  I am a crosswalk guard.  I'm supposed to be at West XXXX Elementary School but I went to the wrong school.  I don't even know WHERE the West XXXX Elementary School is!  I don't have GPS in my car.  What should I do?"

I wasn't given much advice but I got the impression that even though the class had started 20 minutes earlier I really needed to get to it...  So after fumbling about on the iPad (through my tears!)  I finally located a map to WEST XXXX Elementary School.  And took off.  And got there 10 minutes later...  And stumbled into the gymnasium where class (with bicycles and mini-traffic lights etc.) was in progress.  I bowed my apologies and was waved to a station to monitor...  And a few minutes later class ended.  I helped pack up the cars, apologized again, briefly made my excuses and bowed as deeply as I could (see previous post).

I offered to fulfill my Bicycle Safety class duties at some other school (on the 27th at XXXX Elementary School?  I knew where that was!) but was assured that I only needed to attend my OWN school's class later this month.

I won't get lost going there.

I'm sure the Traffic Safety people think I am a complete dunce.  I've done this four years and every year have had some mix-up.  Thinking positively, they may just think poor Tanya doesn't read enough Japanese to get anything right.  Actually I CAN read that level of Japanese without much problem...

The truth is that I am a complete dunce.

Bowing

Just rambling today.

Twice this week I observed a clerk from some shop come out and bow his customer out of the parking lot.  This is part of good Japanese etiquette.  In one case the customer was coming out of the car dealer's.  It is possible that he'd just bought a car.  Or was thinking about it and the salesperson (in this case a young man) was trying to make a good impression.  The salesman and the customer came out the dealership door.  The customer went to his car while the salesman stood in front of the dealership.  The customer finally got his seatbelt on, started the car and headed out of the parking lot and at that point the salesman bowed deeply staying bowed until the customer was completely down the street and out of sight.  After the customer had gone, the salesman purposefully re-entered his dealership building.

I've seen the same routine at hair salons, at clothing stores.  The customer has probably bought something or paid for some service and the transaction between customer and clerk continues until the customer is out of sight.  The bow is a sign of respect and the customer sure feels like royalty!  At onsen hotels, the hotel staff will come out to the parking lot in their kimonos and bow deeply until the busload of guests drive away.  Some hotels will have the staff wave politely until the bus has turned the corner but probably bowing is still the most respectful way of sending someone off.

Another transaction I saw this week between a clerk and her customer was when a customer pulled up in front of an esthetic salon (coming for a facial?).  I'm assuming the customer had an appointment because as soon as the car pulled into the parking space the salon girl came out to stand in front of the shop and welcome the customer.  The sales girl was wearing a t-shirt uniform and the day was freezing, yet she stood there smiling sweetly, eager to greet her customer, as the patron gathered things from her car and finally approached the shop.  Of course the customer was greeted with a low bow.

I suppose formally greeting and sending off customers is a very nice tradition but I feel for the salespersons who will stand outside in rain or snow or in the case of this week, freezing weather.  No flapping of arms or blowing on the hands...  Just a polite smile and a very low bow.

I tend to wave goodbye to my students when they leave...  I guess the only bowing I do is when I part from the school principal every morning after crosswalk duty.  We have finished our morning job together, I wait at the street until he closes the school gate, and we bow deeply to each other and turn to start our respective day...

A versatile scarf

Two weeks into the new year and I finally have a finish.

The Snowflake Scarf has been blocked and is ready to send out to Leiya.  I've decided that she probably needs a thick, warm scarf more than I do.  The colors sure are pretty!  Teal to lavender with bits of gold strands.  Looks good?  Good because this actually has a major mistake in it!

The pattern was this pretty dark block with white snowflakes.  I love it!  I wanted to place the dark blocks at the ends of the scarf (I had more white yarn than colored)  When I got to the other end of the scarf I happily knitted away making more two more layers of snowflakes before I noticed....

BLUE SNOWFLAKES!!!

Arrgh!!  I'd knitted in the pattern backwards!  Sometimes I amaze myself with my denseness.

I really didn't want to take two blocks out (why didn't I notice in the first block?!) and I decided that I could call this a "versatile" scarf.  It can be worn with the white snowflakes prominent or the blue snowflakes prominent.  What a great solution!

Thank you June!  Your yarn was a joy to knit with!  I'm sure Leiya will love it!


 

Staying warm

It was minus 7 degrees Celsius (19 degrees Fahrenheit) this morning at the crosswalk.  I know because the principal told me when he came out to the crosswalk flapping his arms after he had checked the school thermometer.  My fingers and face felt frozen.  And we still haven't hit the coldest season of the year!  February will probably be colder...  And no snow yet either.

When Choco and Tetsu and I go for a walk early in the morning there are pretty little ice pillars around the rice fields that crunch when walked upon and disappear as the day warms up.

The brush is frosted in powdered ice.

Back home from our walk, Choco has to work at getting a drink of water.  Her water bucket is frozen!  If she licks it enough she can break through the thin crust of ice to the water underneath...  Of course over a few days it will completely freeze (like this morning) and we'll dump it out and get her a fresh bucket.  When I dumped the ice this morning it had frozen two inches deep!  I feel sorry for Choco outside in this cold but she really doesn't do well indoors unless left in her small crate.  And wouldn't you rather be outside barking at birds and passersby in the cold than cooped up in a crate in a warm house?  Hmmm.  I'm not sure about dog psychology...

After a couple of hours Choco's backyard gets a bit of sun and Choco searches it out.

Catching the sun!

Dontosai Festival

I was in the next city over yesterday doing errands.  Our little town is separated from the larger city by a range of mountains.  Going through the tunnel opens up a world of rice fields fields and far off mountains.

Yesterday was Dontosai in our area.   Earlier in the day the neighborhood children had come around ringing doorbells asking if we had any New Year decorations to burn.  As I understand it, the decorations from the past year and the New Year decorations that had sacred meaning, can't just be tossed into the garbage pail when they've completed their purpose.  Many people will take them back to the shines where there are also Dontosai Festivals being held, but in our farming area, an evening is set aside for making bonfires and praying for good health etc.

As I drove through the tunnel yesterday, I could see spirals of blue smoke rising from different fields across the plain and exploring a bit I sought out a couple Dontosai bonfires with children running around eagerly and old wizened men squatting near the fires drinking heated osake.

There is some tradition of toasting colorful rice balls on branches and I see one man was ready to toast weenies too!

The volunteer fire corps was out in full regalia making sure the bonfires didn't get out of hand on the dry, overgrown fields.

Nikko is getting colder and colder, and as the night encroached everyone drew nearer the fire and ate and drank and watched the sun go down.   I wonder if anyone remembered to pray for good health...

Liberty fabric

Before I left our patchwork gathering on Friday we put away our bazaar work and gave some thought to the quilt for the hospital.

Mrs. Furui's hospital volunteer group was given some Liberty fabrics.  That is not Liberty fabrics, that is LIBERTY FABRICS!!!  Boxes of cuts of LIBERTY FABRICS!!!  A Liberty fabric collector from somewhere in Japan had decided she'd never get around to using her fabrics so she packed them all up into cardboard boxes and shipped them to the hospital volunteer group.  When Mrs. Furui brought home samples of the fabric (a box full) our mouths dropped open and some of us nearly drooled!

"Oh my!  What a collection!  The volunteer group will just cut them up to make pot-holders or something.  We have to save them and make something beautiful!"

So Mrs. Furui had been put in charge of finding ways to use the Liberty fabric.   Some lovely fabric necklaces were made for the hospital bazaar a couple of months ago.  Those sold like hotcakes.

With such a collection we really wanted to show off as many fabrics together as possible and Mrs. Furui has been making simplified instructions for her volunteer group (many non-patchwork people) to follow.  Over the last couple months our group has been marking and cutting fabric for some future intensive hand-piecing.  We chose 100 fabrics and cut one or two strips from each (still leaving a lot of fabric for future use!)  From each strip we were able to mark 6 bricks.

This is what we laid out on Friday evening.  Some bricks in blue tones...

Some pinks and yellow tones too.

We each chose 12 Liberty bricks and 12 white bricks and took them home to make strips as homework.

And this my strip.

Once all the strips are sewn, our group will be given the job of sewing the zig-zag seams together...

Hopefully someday this year the hospital will have a beautiful quilt adorning their waiting room...  It is a joy to run my fingers over these beautiful fabrics as I sew.  I'm eager to get another row's worth from Mrs. Furui!
 

My friends' hands

Yesterday we had a great, l~o~n~g~ day at Mrs. Furui.  I usually go home at around 3:00 but I stayed til nearly 6:00 last night.  I wonder what Mrs. Furui did for her husband's dinner last night (I served left-overs to Tetsu.)
  
Mrs. Furui and I had decided that we would confine our handwork to two projects yesterday.  Everyone has other projects that they need help on but we sent out the message... 

"Patchwork on the 10th is only for working on the bazaar quilt and the hospital quilt.  We need to make some progress!"

Well!  That was clear enough.  But nearly everyone showed up jokingly saying that they understood that they weren't welcome unless they were willing to do some collaboration work.  Good thing our friends don't take offense easily...

Even our LCM  (least confident member) who doesn't really come to sew showed up saying to give her a job to do.  She didn't want to be left out.

And work we did!

 Some people did their embroidery on the bazaar quilt blocks. 

Everyone has young looking hands but we all wear "sewing glasses".

 Our LCM diligently drew lines on squares for the next step in our bazaar quilt.

And I made hearts with freezer paper and starch!  16 hearts to hand out to people to applique!  Whew!  I'm glad that job is done!  But everyone was grateful for all the pre-applique work I'd done on their pieces.

"It's so much easier to applique."

Here is one of the finished blocks.  The quilt kit is called Kitty Tales by Lynette Anderson.  I can't wait to see all the blocks together!

So that's the progress on the bazaar quilt.  I guess I'll show progress on the hospital quilt in another post.

Our very small group of quilters has gotten together for 20 years.  The members have changed at times but Mrs. Furui and I are constant... a couple others who are newer... they've only been coming for 15 years or so.  We sew and chat.  Don't all quilters?  We share our secrets, our joys, our concerns, our pride.  The once-a-month day is important to each of us.  Mrs. H drives three hours to attend yet she says leaving her home when it is still dark and knowing the camaraderie that awaits her makes the drive go by quickly.  I think all our families are amazed at how each of us so look forward to the day set aside to just enjoy these special patchwork friends.  Dinners are forgotten, housework left for the morrow.  We aren't just doing patchwork!  We are bonding!

"An angel is not only a set of wings,

but also a set of hands to guide you through life."