Misc. thoughts

There is nothing going on around here that is exciting enough to blog about.  I go out with Choco and my camera and take lots of unrelated flower pictures but there are no stories behind those...

Choco and I were out at about 5:00 am this morning.  (Tetsu had to stay at the convalescent home last night).  The farmers must take such great joy at working in their fields during the rainy season.  The trees and flowers look "happy" with the droplets of soft rain washing away the dust from the day before.  Everything is just bursting with growth and if I stood there long enough I could watch sprouts pushing through the dark loamy soil!  I am not a gardener and even I appreciate it!

I'm still pondering cameras...  And getting my heart set on one.  One that is much too expensive to be dwelling upon.  What do I do with my photos?  Play around with them on the computer, blog them when any seems appropriate.  In a way it is an odd hobby.  The photos never get to print-out form, they disappear into the depths of my computer files...

On Friday I was at Mrs. Furui's watching over my friends machine quilting their Happy Village quilts.  Mrs. Furui is still grumbling over her village.  She did not like the collage process and now she is struggling with the free motion quilting.  I pointed out though that she is using a rather unwieldy sewing machine.  There is not MUCH that is required for machine quilting but one necessity is a needle that stops in the down position.  Mrs. Furui's machine doesn't and that makes for slipped stitches and rounded corners.  I think that's one reason she is not enjoying the sewing process.

"You really could use a new machine, Mrs. Furui.  I don't know anyone who uses a machine more than you do (except for maybe myself...  Mrs. Furui uses hers for making an unheard of amount of bags and covers for the hospital).  And that machine is one that someone was getting rid of and they left it with you.  It doesn't have retractable feed dogs, nor a thread cutter and the needle doesn't stop in a down position."

"I know... I know...  How I wish!"

I'd love to suggest that we think about it together and go off sewing machine shopping for both of us...  That would give Mrs. Furui the incentive.  But right now I guess I NEED and would rather think about a new camera.

Taking pictures

I discovered that my camera has a broken latch to it!  Gyaah!  I checked Olympus repairs on the Internet and I'll probably have to spend over $100 fixing the tiny latch (the one that closes the battery and SD card compartment).  I can't really leave the latch open...  Or maybe I can.  Well, if I chose to have the latch fixed then I'm going to need to buy a back-up camera as my Olympus Pen Lite is the only camera in the house.  I don't want to be without a camera for two weeks or so!

Tetsu suggests I go buy a new camera.  Hmmm.  Temptation!  I've been trying to get HIM to buy a camera, maybe a big black hulking one, but he is not taking the bite.  He finds picture taking burdensome... But he did say that he'd be happy to play with MY broken camera if I bought a new one for myself.  More temptation!

Although I've had this camera for a good five or six years I've never really learned HOW to take great pictures.  I've just stayed in the Auto mode most of the time and take my chances.  Does it make sense to upgrade to a bigger, better camera if I haven't figured out how to make the most of the one I have?

But I do like taking pictures...  But even with the Pen Lite, it is a job to lug the thing around all the time...

Any of you with big cameras out there.  How do you handle the weight of the thing?  What is the best tip you can give me for choosing a camera (if I go that way)?  Does anyone use an Olympus Omd?  I think I could still use the lenses that I have now if I went that route...

Field Trips

The weather has turned nice and my mornings at the crosswalk (with me slathered in sunscreen) are pleasant.  Last week for two days the 6th graders were away on a school trip and so the groups walking to school were smaller and led by the 5th graders.

School trips in Japan are pretty big deals.  Do you remember field trips in your school days?  I don't really...  There must have been at least one a year, right? but I only have a vague recollection of taking a bus once to a museum.  Besides that, nothing.

When my children were little, I was always surprised at the extent of the Japanese field trips.  When they were in kindergarten, two tourist buses were hired and a hundred children and their parents would be carted off to a park in a completely different part of the prefecture or taken to an apple orchard to pick apples or something.

When the kids entered elementary school the field trips included a bus trip to the zoo or to the national park or to the prefecture office.  And now that I am at the crosswalk I really notice how much the children are NOT in school.  It seems that EVERY week, one or another of the classes is going off on a field trip somewhere.  To the skate rink, to visit the post office, to see how soy sauce is made.

And I'm SURE this never happened when I was in school but when Japanese children hit 5th grade, they are taken on an OVERNIGHT field trip.  The whole class!  In our school's case, the overnight trip is to the ocean which is a couple of hours away from us and the children (my own, over 12 years ago, and the present grade school children) are given the experience of making salt from sea water.  I'm sure Takumi and Leiya have great memories of their field trips!

When Japanese children hit 6th grade (last week's 6 graders) they are taken on a TWO-night overnight study trip.  More buses hired and off they go before 6:00am. This year the 6th graders visited a famous temple not far from Tokyo, and saw the Diet building.  Thechildren stay in hotels that are set up just for the purpose of accommodating school after school of children often with three or four schools staying at the same time.  Think of the chaos!  Hundreds and hundreds of 6th graders!  The next day the 6th graders from our school were let loose in Disneyland which was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip.  Think of groups of unchaperoned 6th graders having a "field day" in Disneyland with the only instruction being...

"Be back at the bus on time."

Which brings me to an update on Yuma-kun.

Yuma-kun's 8th grade class also had a field trip last week.  By train.  All the 8th graders were taken to somewhere in Tokyo and GIVEN FREE REIGN!  (I cannot believe the courage of these school teachers!)  The students were in assigned groups and again were told to see what they were supposed to see and then meet back at the train station in the afternoon for the trip back to Nikko.

According to Yuma-kun, AND IT WAS NOT HIS FAULT, a couple of the boys in his group lost track of time and then Yuma-kun and others went looking for them and the whole group MISSED THE TRAIN!  They finally got to the train station after all their other classmates had departed but one of the three teachers did stay behind and made sure the boys all got back to Nikko safely.  Yuma-kun thought it a grand field trip and wasn't the least daunted by the upset teacher.

The three 6th graders who come for English brought me a box of cookies from their school trip.  And Yuma-kun brought me some sweet bean buns!  Not only to the kids have fun and learn a bit, but I get presents too.  I'm sure the teachers wish they could take a week's vacation after one of these field trips.

Nikko City's clean-up day

My cat problems are increasing tenfold.  Hmmm.  If I disappear from the blogging world for a few days you'll know that I'm grappling with how to keep my family, feline and otherwise, on an even keel. I had to take Chip to the vets last night.  If it's not one cat it is another!!!

Japan has entered the rainy season.  Which means rain and more rain.  It is amazing how the weather bureau can just say "The rainy season started this morning at 9:00."

BEFORE the rainy season began, on Sunday our city had a city wide cleanup morning.  We do this two or three times a year.  It is not mandatory but the city sets a date and it is up to the neighborhoods to decide the times and then an announcement goes around through the Homeowners' association that we are supposed to meet at a corner lot with gardening gloves and tools.  Tetsu does the honors in our family though I make an appearance and receive a garbage bag from our Block Head.  When I've picked up a bagful of garbage I figure I'm done though the menfolk are out with grass cutters and mowers for two hours.

Our Homeowners' association set the cleanup time for 7:00 to 9:00 am on Sunday morning.  Tetsu and I decided to go have breakfast out at an unheard of time and drove into town before 6:00.  There were people out already with the gardening tools and garbage bags so I guess some of the neighborhoods opted for an early start!

Back home by 7:00 I went around picking up garbage and taking photos of good neighbor teamwork.

All along the streets, people were cleaning gutters, picking up trash, cutting weeds and generally making our neighborhood lovely again.  Non-mandatory means that the people who didn't participate got gossiped about and are considered uncooperative...

I guess there's nothing we can do about keeping the weeds from growing back but I do wish people would learn not to throw garbage around!  Let's keep Nikko beautiful!



 

The cats are driving me crazy

What started out as funny has driven me half batty and a bit weepy on the side.  Cat problems.

Remember when Patora tried to escape from the cat house a few days ago?  Well, Tetsu thought he had solved that problem and Patora and Toi went back to living in their house peacefully...  For awhile.  Then a couple of nights ago after feeding all the menagerie I heard some meowing out in the forest.  Oh no!  Not another stray!  And I could hear Toi getting into the action too.

"Meow!  Meow!  MEEE--OW!!"

Big male cat noises (though all my cats are neutered and spayed) and I assumed a male cat was crossing our yard and Toi didn't like it.

The next morning when I went to feed Toi and Patora, no Patora.  She had escaped again. 

The good news was that when I opened the back door, Patora rushed into the house and made a bee-line for the cat house door.  It must have been Patora that was out in the yard the night before and Toi didn't think that was fair or something.  And I guess Patora didn't enjoy her nightly wanderings and wanted to be safely home.

BUT!!!  Toi was having nothing to do with this strange feline.

"I do not know who you are.  You are an intruder in my cat house.  Out with you!"

Tetsu and I thought it funny.  What a stupid cat that can't even recognize the only companion he's lived with for the past five years.  Though there was a lot of spitting and yowling we decided to let them work out their problems alone and I left both of them in the cat house.

Throughout the day I could hear confrontations going on and occasionally I'd go and separate them, one to a higher level, one to the relative safety of the Styrofoam box (which they usually sleep in together.)

By afternoon I was beginning to think that it wasn't a matter of recognizing, Toi had decided that he didn't want to make up and be friends.

"Get out of my cat house you woman of the night.  You went off playing with other rogues and I will never forgive you for that.  Get out of my sight!  I refuse to live with you ever again!"

"Meow!!  MEE-OW!!!  MEEEEE-OOOWWWW!!!!"

In the evening when I was standing in the cat house wondering if these two needed to separated for the night, my next-door-neighbor stalked up to the fence and asked what was happening on my side.

"They've been making all this noise from last night.  It sounds like a child is being beaten over here.  I hope you can do something."

I apologized and made my decision that Toi and Patora wouldn't be spending the night in the cat house.  But they couldn't be put in a cage together either...  This was when I started to lose it.

I left both Toi and Patora TOGETHER in the Japanese room (windows closed) and they yowled at each other from different spots in the room, occasionally rushing at each other so that books and papers and pencil stands were knocked to the floor.  What a mess!  In more ways than one.  On the other side of the door two of the other four felines (Cleo and Chip) were frantic at the noise too and hiding out under the chairs and sofa.  The delicate balance of my cat family had been thrown into confusion in less than a day!

When Tetsu got home he just tossed Mi into the cat room with the arguing cats and hoped that she could act as mediator.  Mi seemed happy to take either side in the confrontation and went from the top of the bookshelf with Patora to under the table with Toi very happily.

Yesterday was more of the same but with Tetsu home most of the day he made the decisions about when to intervene.  We talked about making a new cat house farther away from our neighbor but that doesn't solve the problem of meowing and fighting.  I really don't have another spare room to separate Toi and Patora though one idea is to turn our bathroom over to one of them...  Or I could just open the cat house door and let them go out and figure out life on their own...

This is crazy!  Why does my life have to get so upset by these dumb cats?!  And with all I do for them!!!  You would think they would at least TRY and make my life easier!!! 

Unfortunately the photo above is NOT Patora an Toi.  The two love birds here are Cleo and Mi.  At least those two were happy to be with each other yesterday.

Today Toi and Patora have called a truce and are pointedly ignoring each other from different levels in the cat house.  

Early summer

Let's see.  What's going on around here?

Yesterday, today in California, was Takumi's birthday.  I have a 30 year old son!  Happy Birthday Takumi!  We are hoping to do something special for birthday people this summer (in another month I'll be celebrating my 60th... my niece her 20th and Marcy, my sister-in-law, her 50th) as we MAY (Leiya and Tetsu included) all get to California in July.

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I have the day off today but no great plans.  Someone asked me how many WIP I have going and I realized that on the quilting front I have the applique squares wall hanging and that's all.  Nothing big on the sewing machine, no piecing or machine quilting except for some teaching pieces that only get worked on in spurts.

I guess I ought to start a quilt again for the Ronald McDonald House and I'll probably make something using all my Leaders/Enders.  I did just order a DVD quilt pattern but although the order seems to have gone through Pay Pal no one has let me know at the website that they know they're supposed to send me something.  This is why I really don't like online shopping.  I never know if I'm going to get what I've ordered and then wonder if the few dollars spent are enough to get upset about if the order doesn't come.  (And one time it didn't.  I had to send angry e-mails just on principle.  It was exhausting but I finally did get the order.)

So maybe today will be an errand day.  Or I could go cut more 2 inch squares for a leader/ender quilt.  Decisions, decisions.

The photos above have nothing to do with this post (obviously) but the blueberries are getting ready to change colors, the wild iris dot the forest with color and the dandelions are getting ready to blow away.
 

A ramshackle cat house

Quite a few years ago Tetsu built our cats a cat house.  This was out of necessity.  In the past we'd lost two cats to the outdoors and we didn't want to let any others run free.  Not to mention that my next door neighbor isn't happy when one of my escaped cats goes and pees in his yard.  Nope...  As a good neighbor and as protection, all 6 cats have always been house cats.

(As I wrote the above I realized I'd let Vel out this morning when I was waving goodbye to Tetsu.  Vel is old enough and wise enough that he doesn't try to cross the street or climb over fences...  I have now let him back into the house.)

The necessity part is that only four cats get along with each other (grudgingly).  The two others refuse to be friends so they have to be separated.  In the winter Toi and Patora live in the spare bedroom upstairs, door locked (they know how open the door).  But when the weather warms up Toi and Patora go out and live in the cat house.

Saturday morning Tetsu and I were eating a leisurely breakfast outside on the patio when we hear this scrabbling and... what do you know?  Patora is escaping from the cat house!  She climbed up an inside wall and pushed herself between a gap in the wall and cat house roof.  I wonder why she chose the few minutes when Tetsu and I were right there...  She could have tried at some other time and either escaped into the woods or been stuck for hours on TOP of the cat house.  (That seems more likely as she wasn't able to get down herself.)

 "Okay... Now that I'm out, what do I do?"

"Whoops!  This roof is slippery.  Help!"

 "Mom?  Mom!  Someone come and save me!"

Hmm.  Tetsu's cat house (built in stages obviously) looks a little ramshackled.  I guess so if Patora can escape from it!!  He later closed the roof gap so maybe it is secure again.  The cat house has 6 sleeping levels (including one level for a litter box) with a high walkway going to the levels.  We keep a Styrofoam box inside for insulation on hot or cold days.  The inside glass door opens onto the Japanese room (now my computer and English teaching room).  A bamboo screen gives a bit more shade in the summer.  A sliding outside door for easier cleaning.  Tetsu's grand cat mansion!

I hope the cats appreciate it!