May in the Watanabe house

So the month has gone by and though I think that there was nothing to report on, once I get started on a post I seem to find things that have passed through the quiet days.  Let's see how much "didn't" happen this month.

After Julieta-san and family's visit, things did fall into sort of a slump.  We had spent so many months planning and thinking about the visit and then the last week doing drastic housecleaning, that once the event was over, it was sort of a letdown.  Julieta and family left just before Golden Week in Japan and just because of the crowds of people out traveling during that week, Tetsu and I chose to stay close to home.

Actually this year there weren't that many carp flying on Boy's Day which was a bit disappointing.  The custom has faded away in cities as there really isn't space to fly the great streaming carp kites, but in the past, farmers proudly displayed the kites over their fields.  Not so much this year. 

With the start of Golden Week, the farmers start flooding their fields and then planting rice.  

I love to see the green countryside reflected in all the connecting flooded rice fields.  Soon, the rice plants will be so big that the rice stalks will take over... and then we'll start hearing frogs who live in the flooded fields.

One day during Golden Week, Tetsu and I visited a famous wisteria tree in our town and we enjoyed walking around the ancient tree and smelling the sweet aroma.

Hiya!

I got a burst of energy and decided that I had enough scraps of fabric to make a pretty background and then I pulled out some McKenna patterns from which I'd made a larger quilt years ago.  I had planned to stop with this small wallhanging but as I still had fabric scraps I made another.

Well, of course I can't stop there!

The last quilt got made.

And now all three are up in the entryway!

While I was doing that, M-san finished her quilt of applique squares.  It looks so different from the one I made last month!

While I was in the sewing room I tackled the large, OVERFLOWING basket of scraps that multiply and I spent three days just cutting the whole basket down to strips, (3 1/2 inches wide, 2 1/2 inches wide and 2 inches wide), strings, (anything less that 2 inches wide), 5 inch squares (for a someday Hunter's Star quilt) 3 1/2 inch squares (can anyone recommend a quilt using 3 1/2 inch squares?), 2 1/2 inch squares and 2 inch squares (M-san and I have plans for those).  I also just moved a lot of random batik scraps to another box.  My once overflowing basket of scraps is EMPTY!  It pained me to see how much I was still actually throwing away but I really needed to get some control back in the sewing room.  Of course I still have drawers and boxes of fabric, but ONE BASKET OF SCRAPS HAS BEEN CONQUERED!!!

And then I got inspired to use some of the half square triangles I'd kept and I made another baby quilt for no one in particular...  

For the past few years I have been on the crosswalk guard planning committee in Nikko, but I actually add very little to the meetings.  It is enough that I follow along on all the written material that I'm given (I feel happy when I find myself on the right page!) and I mostly agree with what other members are talking about.  Twice a year there is a general meeting with about 50 people and I've usually been given the simple job of walking to the podium, formally announcing the start of the meeting and at the end walking to the podium and formally announcing the end.  I can memorize that short exchange!  This year however, one of the other committee members couldn't attend the general meeting and so it was left to me to take up the slack and report last year's activities and this year's proposed activities!  I've been a crosswalk guard for a long time so most everyone realizes my limitations and are very forgiving!

The animals are all still pretty healthy.  At 21, Cleo still climbs up on people's laps for a cuddle.

Tetsu is enjoying his garden.

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Leiya writes to say that Luka graduated from pre-school but actually he has another year before kindergarten so he'll be starting at a new preschool from fall.  He looks so grown up...

...until you see him with Tony and he doesn't look so big anymore.

Yesterday Luka Facetimed us to say that he had a loose tooth and then an hour later he Facetimed again to say that the tooth had come out!  I think he had banged it on Taiga's head a couple of months ago and it started to wiggle then.

Leiya reports that Taiga is more active than Luka ever was and so she has her hands full!

And that's about all the news from this side of the world!

Visitors!

Okay!  Life for us in Japan is usually pretty tame but as we had visitors last weekend, the busyness ramped up a bit!  Ooh...  I wish you could have seen our house.  It looked so good!  Tetsu, as always, was gung-ho to clean up "a bit" and though we attacked the rooms bit by bit day after day, still the last two days were intensive!  The floors got washed (all of them!), the curtains got washed (all of them!), most of the windows got washed... blankets got taken to the laundromat, and Tetsu rearranged out normal storage area/cat room into a passable guest room!  The only room that wasn't really presentable was my sewing room because anything that had been taking up space in the other rooms got moved to my sewing room for the weekend.  John got taken to the vets for boarding and we were ready for guests!

The main purpose of Julieta and her brother and mother's travels was to visit Korea because her mother is a big K-pop fan and so the three of them spent a week in Korea.  I'm afraid I don't know much about K-pop nor Korea but they said they had a great time.

The three of them got to Tokyo early last week and next it was Julieta's time to check out anime and figurines etc.  (I'm not sure about that culture either).  But Julieta was most excited about a trip to a mini-pig cafe!  I think the pigs were the highlight of the trip for Julieta!

Finally they arrived in Utsunomiya and Tetsu and I picked them up from the station and promptly took them to a non-revolving sushi restaurant.  These less expensive sushi restaurants used to be called revolving sushi because you could just pick up plates of sushi that revolved on a conveyer belt around the guest tables but during the pandemic, most of those types of restaurants turned into quick order (by tablet) and quick delivery (by little Shinkansen bullet trains that run on tracks right to your table.)  

We finally got back to Nikko where the cats claimed laps and everybody could relax until evening.  We took a walk around the rice fields and neighborhood and in the late afternoon we headed for a day onsen for an evening bath.  

For dinner we went out to a nice Chinese restaurant.  As usual, I'm not much of a cook...

The next morning we got ourselves ready for a day out and an overnight stay and then headed for the shrines and temples of Nikko.  It was SO crowded though that we chose not to stand in lines to see the main attractions of the shrine (the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkey carvings and the "sleeping cat" carving) and instead just wandered around the large spiritual area where Buddhism and Shintoism meet.

They were very happy to see the tail end of the cherry blossom season.

Julieta at the landmark Shinkyo bridge.

We stopped for some street snacks...  These are usually called taiyaki in Japan and are waffle like things shaped like fish with sweet bean paste or custard inside.  In Nikko they are called Soppo and instead of being shaped like fish, they are shaped like monkeys.  Tetsu had a bean paste one and the rest of us had custard filled ones.

Julieta was very happy to get her street snack!

Finally we arrived in the mountain town of Kawaji to stay overnight at a small onsen called Saka Hijiri.  It was so nice!  There seemed to be only about 15 rooms in the onsen, and the girl at the reception desk remembered Tetsu and me from when we visited to ask about staying despite the fact that Julieta's brother has tattoos.  The girl at the reception (I found out her name was An-san) suggested we stay on this night because most of the guests were foreign and foreigners don't have the aversion to tattoos that Japanese do.  Anyway, An-san was very glad to see us and did her best to make our stay special.  

I had a chance to talk with her and learned that she is from Viet Nam and has only been in Japan 7 months even though she spoke excellent Japanese and also English!  Though the hotel was old, the onsen was adequate, the rooms were spacious and the food was fantastic!

A very nice, traditional Japanese dinner.

The scenery from our rooms.

A lovely inner Japanese garden.  I don't know why the tree was in autumn mode but it was lovely.

Breakfast was delicious and I was impressed at how everyone in Julieta's family are willing to try anything and enjoy the experience of different tastes... even though some of the morsels might not be something she'd choose again, Julieta's mother proudly finished off everything in front of her!

We left the onsen on the early side to get back to Nikko within an hour where our three guests gathered up the remainder of their luggage and then we headed off to the station which was another 45 minutes away.  

It was a whirlwind 48 hours with Julieta and her brother and mother but we got to feeling that we'd all become closer.  Tetsu and I sure had a good time, and I think Julieta's family did too!

And that's how our weekend visit ended.  Julieta's mother said next time she wants to show Tetsu and me around Mexico so hopefully someday we'll get in another trip with Julieta and family!

Spring has sprung!

Yeah!  April is warming up!  We are so glad that we can start putting away fluffy pajamas, room heaters and knitted caps.  

Tetsu has changed the snow tires off our cars!  The daffodils are out!  

The forsythia are blooming!  I can hear nightingales in the mornings!  Pheasants are running across the lot behind us!  Yeah spring! 

 

I decided I needed to get a post written while I can because at the end of the week Julieta-san and her mother and brother are coming for a visit!  Tetsu is in full cleaning mode and he has a plan to wash one or two sets of curtains everyday until they arrive.  He is also out planting flowers near our front door to give the house a welcoming appeal.  We will have Julieta and family at our house for one day and then we are off to an onsen over night (they are only in Nikko for two days) but we've been excited and planning for their visit for months!  Hopefully I'll be able to write about their visit in the next post.

Actually, the cherry blossoms have already come and gone in our part of Japan, but as always the trees were beautiful though the blossoms fleeting.

My friends and I went out for a day of sketching and enjoyed riceballs and snacks while we played with watercolors and pens.

The elementary school had their entrance ceremony for the incoming 1st graders and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom that day.

This year there are only 10 first graders in the school.  Japan's population is shrinking!

Our daily morning walking at the cemetery where we were the only ones there to enjoy the bank of cherry trees.

And here you can see how the falling blossoms start looking like snow on the ground...  No, it really wasn't cold enough for me to need that down jacket, but it WAS 5:00 AM in the morning and I was too lazy to change out of my pajamas and I just wore the jacket over all...

After the cherry blossoms, the rape blossoms begin to take over the countryside.

On the quilting front, I finished the applique quilt I've been working on.  I'm not sure this was a success or not.  My purpose for making this quilt was to duplicate an old quilt I'd made 10 years ago with antique flour-sack fabrics (they were given to me nearly 40 years ago from an older woman who had had them passed on to her from her great aunt!).  Anyway I wanted to make a modern version from batiks and dyed fabrics that I have used and collected an abundance of scraps.  For that purpose this is really a nice showcase quilt, however instead of using the original pattern, I eyeballed the old quilt and just started in, realizing half way through that my squares were too small and my spacing too narrow.  This led to the overall quilt being smaller and though I had hoped to be able to display the two quilts side by side, they dont match up...  I had spent weeks making the tatting for the first quilt but with this one, I still had leftover tatting lace from Leiya's wedding veil from 5 years ago, so I put that to work for this quilt.  This is the modern batik version,

And this is the quilt from 10 years ago with antique fabrics.  M-san is also making a version of this quilt so stay tuned for her creation in the near future.

Luka got a drastic haircut!

Taiga is enjoying being barefoot!

And that's about it for the month...  Lots of end of the year meetings.  Lots of new school year meetings.  

Happy Easter!

Goings on in March

Let's see...  What has been happening in the last month?

Today is a warm day and the sun is out making it extremely pleasant.  But March is famous for its tempermental weather and we have had storms and snow and a lot of cold days.

We had two snow days when I had to report to the crosswalk for morning duty and Tetsu, ever afraid I won't be able to drive the snowy icy streets, drove me to the crosswalk and then stayed the hour to shovel and sweep the snow from the sidewalks.  It is sort of a futile past time because on snow days most of the children end up coming to school by car, but there were still a few who braved the slush and snow so it wasn't all in vain.  By afternoon most of the snow had melted.

After my last scrappy quilt, I got to work on a lovely art quilt from Marie Noah, called Misty Gorge.  Marlene's son, who had been living in Alaska, brought the kit for me and it turned out beautifully!   

It looks like this LONG quilt is a part of a series of different scenes from Alaska, some scenes with fish and deer etc.  

M-san and I enjoyed putting the parts together which were nicely laser cut and then I machine quilted it all.  I had such a time doing the machine quilting however and at one time concluded that my sewing machine was on the fritz!  The thread kept breaking, I'd adjust the tension (bobbin tension too!) and then the thread would get caught in the gears.  It's true that I often have issues using monofiliment thread, but that is the only way to do all the detailed quilting in art quilts, so I perservered.  I finished the quilting as well as I could and before taking the machine to the repair shop, I switched back to cotton thread and a different needle and low and behold, the machine is sewing normally again.  We'll see how long it works without an overhall.  Eventually I think I'll give this quilt to Marlene and maybe she'll want to pass it back to her son and his wife as they have good memories of their time in Alaska.

In Japan, the week of the spring equinox is a time to visit graves, clean them up a bit and leave flowers and drinks and snacks.  Tetsu and John and I still go walking in the cemetery every morning and as the sun is up early, it isn't as eerie as it has been in dead winter.  The cemetery near us has large family graves as is the tradition, but more and more people are worried about not having family to pass the grave to nor any family nearby who will visit reguarly and offer prayers.  In the cemetery near us there are medium sized graves that maybe only hold four or five urns at a time and they are lined up (on the left of this photo) like little "apartments".  And now, these communal graves are becoming very popular because they are just small square holes which will hold two or three urns and then are covered in lawn.  No gravestone nor any individual place to offer incense or flowers but there is a grid there on the left with each grave marked out with at least names.  It is sort of interesting how even cemetaries are changing in Japan.

Can you guess what this is?  No it's not a candle!  As we were walking around the cemetary, we noticed at the "apartment" graves, many of the little altars had these "candles" which were leaning this way and that.  We surmised that this is a bit of ice!  Probably what happened was that the snow from the day before had piled up on this altar and that little center area stayed frozen while the rest of the snow slowly melted leaving all these cores of ice!  

We had graduation ceremonies last week at the elementary school.  Japanese ceremonies are so ceremonial!  So much deep bowing, so much shouting out and marching to receive diplomas.  The principal even wore tails!  For all the formality, the 6th graders, the parents, the teachers and even the very formal principal all had their handkerchiefs out!

My friends and I did some sashiko from kits I bought.  None of the three of us had ever done sashiko before but it was fairly easy and as the stitch guide was marked, it didn't take much thinking about stitch length etc.

Another project that I've been doing is applique.  I actually started M-san on her own project with some antique fabric squares I had and then I decided to make a similar quilt using batik and dyed fabrics instead.  Many years ago I made this quilt pattern using the same antique fabrics that I've given M-san and I thought if I make the quilt again the batiks would be a nice companion quilt.

And look at the beautiful fabric selection that Leiya purchased yesterday!  She asked Tony to babysit while she went off for a couple of hours to JoAnn's before the store closes up.  Once at the store (and thoroughly enjoying her free day!) she facetimed me and I "walked around" the store with her while she chose fabric and asked my advice.  We have a plan for me to make Taiga a colorful robot quilt (pattern by Elizabeth Hartman) and Leiya just had a better fabric store from which to chose fabrics, let alone the fact that the prices are about half of what I pay in Japan.  Now the problem is how to get these fabrics to me!  Paying for shipping sort of negates the fantastic sales prices.  It may be a while before I start Taiga's quilt.

And here are the boys!  They seem to have a good time playing together!

All in all, Tetsu and I live quietly.  We get annoyed at our computers because we can't do something or even more frustrating, when we can't remember how to do something we used to be able to do!  We feel like such dinosaurs these days!

Back to my applique!