Another trip to Mashiko

I'm sleepy. I stayed up until 2:30 am chatting with my friend Chiyo-san. I normally go to bed at 9:00 so I am sorely lacking of sleep this morning. Wonder what time I'll crash tonight...

Chiyo-san and I have been friends for nearly 25 years. We were both newlyweds when we first met and because she'd spent a couple of years studying in California, her English was and is very good. As the years wore on our families grew but when Leiya and Chiyo-san's son were still babies her family was transferred to California and we only saw each other once a year in the summer.

It has always been interesting to get together and compare stories because I am the American living in Japan and she was the Japanese living in America and we have always had an empathy between us about reactions to cultural differences and misunderstood situations. This empathy is still going on and that is one reason we stayed up so late last night!

I picked Chiyo-san up at the station in the morning and we decided that instead of going straight home that we'd go to the neighboring pottery town of Mashiko. I wrote about visiting there last year when Leiya visited so you can look up the link if you're interested. On the way Chiyo-san and I chatted so much that I made a few wrong turns but it is a famous town and we eventually found our way. Mashiko is the perfect place for chattering ladies like us to visit. The little town has been beautified and has a very peaceful Japanese feel about it. The streets are lined with hand made mud kilns, and little shops some with pottery galleries, most with artistically arranged show windows. Tourists meander along the street and peruse the shop tables fingering and contemplating the rustic pottery. We didn't buy very much but we enjoyed the window shopping.

Besides the pottery shops there was also an indigo dying workshop and we both found that very interesting. A very old thatched roof building, dark with few windows and beneath the floor the indigo vats were hidden with just their openings showing. There must be a heating process involved in the dying because from around the room, steam wafted through the cracks in the floor. Skeins of thread were hung around, and out in the yard bolts of dyed fabric were stretched and hung on bamboo. Everything was too expensive but the fabric was oh-so-tempting!

I found all sorts of interesting textures and patterns during our stroll around Mashiko town.



Wood stacked along the street for burning in the kilns.

Old roof tiles laid upright along a path to make a non-slippery walkway.

Bundles of raw cotton waiting to be spun into thread and then indigo dyed.



Heavy paper cutouts used for the silk-screening process in dying.



Tea cups displayed in a shop.

You really should visit Mashiko if you ever come to Japan.

4" block

I finally did some hand piecing yesterday. How long has it been? This is my 4" block for my Round Robin project with friends. I needed to have it done by next Wednesday and I have a full schedule next week so if it was going to be done at all, yesterday was the day!

Today I have a friend coming for a couple of days whom I haven't seen in years so we are going out playing.

Have a good weekend!

Leiya's art

I'm going to do a little bragging today.

Leiya has been in college for almost three months. English classes, art history classes, education classes are much harder than she expected them to be, dormitory life is a lot noisier and wilder than she likes. And the papers, the essays, the reports! She's still drowning! I've been trying to encourage her and at the same time not pressure her but sometimes she despairs of ever being able to get through four years of this. As one of my friends pointed out, "Well, if college life were too easy there would hardly be any benefit from going..."

But the other day while "chatting" with Leiya, she sent me a photo of her latest pen sketch saying that she wasn't satisfied with it at all. Not what she thinks art should be. She was disappointed that the teacher stressed technique rather than style and she felt her artwork could have been better if she had been given more freedom.

"Oh Leiya. If you can do things like this and still think you can do better then you've got a lot of talent inside you still waiting to burst forth! You've only been an art major for three months. Of course you have to study the elementary stuff and the techniques. Don't give up! It would be such a waste if you didn't spend your time developing your artistic talent!"

Well, that day's conversation ended on a happy note and she was tickled that I praised her so much. I know absolutely nothing about art but this pen drawing looks exactly like her so I'd give it an A if she were in my class!

Laundry

What am I doing today...? Not very much... I've got a lot to do but am not too motivated. Clean the house... Okay, go air out the futon. That sounds like it would be a good job. I'm having a guest this weekend so it would be nice if the futon were aired out. Be right back...

Okay. I hung out the laundry while I was upstairs too. And hanging it out reminded me of my first few months of being a bride.

In Japan people don't use dryers very often. It isn't that there aren't dryers. Japan is so technically advanced that there are such things as washers that will even continue after the spin cycle and go into dryer mode. A couple of my friends have these futuristic machines, but they don't use the dryer mode very often they say. In my case, I've had a dryer for nearly 16 years but I use it once or twice a year and for the past four years it has been my storage area for cat food (my cats can open any and all drawers and cupboards). Housewives in Japan hang out their clothes. The fresh air smell is important and just the idea of using electricity to dry clothes when the sun and breeze is out there is unthinkable to them. Japanese friends often are amazed when I tell them that maybe except for farm wives who hang clothes on a line, most American women will use their dryer.

For the first 13 years of marriage we didn't have a dryer at all. When I first got married I had to pull the sopping laundry from the washing part of the machine into the spin part of the machine, then back to the wash part for rinsing, then back to the spin part! Yes, and how old am I? Not THAT old but thirty years ago that was the technology. Japan has come a long way. Now washing machines practically talk to us! All laundry was and is hung out on the small balcony of the apartment. The shirts and sheets and underwear vie for hanging space with the futon and pillows that are airing out there too.

I went at my new housewifely role with gusto. Toodl-ie-do, drag the wet laundry out to the balcony, take a bunch of plastic hangers and clothespins and drape things over the laundry pole (we don't use a line or rope either. It is always a sturdy pole. Actually this is a very good invention. Weight doesn't pull anything to the ground.) But wait! My mother-in-law caught me hanging out laundry and declared that I was doing it the WRONG way. One was supposed to spank the laundry first.

Now I had had no training in house care whatsoever and I had NEVER seen my own mother hang laundry ANYWHERE so mother-in-law must be right. She showed me how to take wet laundry out of the basket, fold it lightly in my hand or my lap (sitting on our knees here) and then SPANK it. Spanking wet laundry drives the wrinkles out of it... Ah.. I think that was what I was trying to do when I SHOOK out the laundry but mother-in-law's laundry did look better than mine. I was also instructed that laundry should always be turned inside out (so the sun doesn't bleach it) and hung upside down (so that the clothespins don't leave marks on the shoulders).

While we lived with my mother-in-law I did it her way. Or else just left it for her to do (bad daughter-in-law!) After 28 years of marriage I am back to lightly shaking and hanging it any ol' way, but on the occasions Tetsu hangs out the laundry for me he does it his mother's way. And it looks much less wrinkled in the end.

The sun is shining. The birds are singing. It's a beautiful day. The futon are airing and the laundry is out. Tetsu is going to look at this post today and think.

"Why on earth is she showing our wet laundry!?"

Hmm. I little wrinkly there I see. I should have spanked it first...

Printer/Scanner

Yesterday my friend Mrs. Ochiai came out to Nikko to help me install a new printer/scanner. Actually she did a lot more than that! Last week on Thursday I saw Mrs. Ochiai at patchwork and I had brought along my laptop hoping to consult with her about the purchase of a printer/scanner. My idea was that I could catch her for 30 minutes after patchwork, we could go to the electronics shop together, she could point to a machine she thought was good, I'd buy it and ask the electronic shop people to install it for me and Voila! we could go our separate ways and I'd be all set.

Mrs. Ochiai looked at me like I was crazy.

"You can't just buy something like that without researching it Tanya! Let me think about it a few days and check the Internet and I'll get back to you about what is the best bargain and what is suitable for your needs."

Mrs. Ochiai is our resident electronics buff. She researches everything and knows computers and cameras and cell phones etc. inside and out. If any of my friends or I want to buy something new we consult first with Mrs. Ochiai.

Saturday Mrs. Ochiai called me and she'd GONE to the electronics shop, quizzed the clerk, checked out the Internet, called two other electronics shops and quizzed them too and she had a result from her private printer/scanner survey.

"You should buy "-------". It costs "-----" at such and such a shop. Let's go there together Monday after your English class and buy it together and then I'll come back to your house and install it for you."

Fantastic!

Monday morning she called me again.

"Tanya, instead of you coming all the way out here, I'll just buy the printer/scanner and bring it directly to your house. I'll be there around noon. I'll pick up lunch on the way."

You can see how much I trust Mrs. Ochiai's judgement.

Yesterday around noon Mrs. Ochiai and the printer/scanner arrived and she seemed to be floating in seventh heaven. She claims she has FUN at the electronics shop and that she LOVES talking electronics talk with the clerks. Neither of these activities holds the least amount of appeal to me.

Mrs. Ochiai laid out the printer/scanner box innards like she was preparing to perform surgery.

"Here are the cords, these are the instructions. Here is the ink and the CD-rom. This is the warranty and here is the receipt. It's all here. Let's get to work."

Of course work meant that I just hovered over her while she connected and installed and hummed and sucked air in between her teeth.

"Hmmm. The words are in code. That means that the computer (American) and the printer/scanner (Japanese) are not set for compatibility."

Oh my gosh! That sounds terrible!

"No problem. We just adjust the settings. Let's see. Try this. No. Try this. No. Hmmm. Okay, let's call the service center and get some help."

I'm chewing my fingernails.

Mrs. Ochiai stayed on the phone with the service people for about half an hour and clicked and opened windows and did all the other things that computer people seem to know how to do. I served coffee and occasionally confirmed that the window she'd opened was the right one (we're working on an English computer here right?)

Ta-da! A perfect set-up! Whew! Next, lessons for me on how to work the thing. I scanned. Yeah! I printed. Fantastic! I even copied. Wow! This thing is amazing!

Considering that if Mrs. Ochiai hadn't helped me I would have wasted days and weeks thinking about the purchase, I would have gotten Tetsu involved and he'd end up in a bad mood for a whole day and who knows the lasting effects an argument between us might have resulted in.

Yes, and I did reimburse Mrs. Ochiai and even paid for the lunch she brought (a whole $8.) I think I got my money's worth!

Neighborhood meetings

I thought I'd write a little about my neighborhood though that means I'll be without pictures today.

One of the hardest things for me is to be part of a group and join in the group thinking and this is essential in Japanese culture. For one thing, I can never completely fit in. I am American, I always will be. I look American (well, I don't look pure Japanese) and think American and it doesn't matter how long I've lived here (31 years) or how good my Japanese is (fairly good), I will never be accepted as a Japanese. That is fine with me. I don't think of it as discrimination, just that I am the resident foreigner in the neighborhood. Another reason I don't like being part of a group is that I'm sort of a rebel anyway and don't like being told what I can and cannot do.

Our family moved to our neighborhood some 16 years ago. We had lived here and there in Japan and had finally been able to afford a house out in the country (land prices drop the farther one lives out). The area is basically farming and the families have been here for generations but there are a couple communities where people like us have moved into the area although they have no ties from generation to generation.

It seems simple enough. Move into a house that you like, greet your next door neighbors, start life. As family situations change, find a larger or smaller home that meets your needs and move away. Not so in Japan. True, for people who live in apartments or "mansions" as townhouses are called here, places of residence may change, but when a family buys a house or inherits a house from their parents, basically they are there to stay. The eldest son and his family will move into the parent's home. The house itself may be torn down and rebuilt to accommodate the larger family but the family rarely moves away. I'm not saying that people never move, but they certainly don't change homes with much frequency.

So, when Tetsu and I bought our house in our neighborhood, we were putting down roots and it was a life decision. I doubt very much that Takumi will ever come back (with or without his family) to live with us and one day we will probably sell our minuscule plot of land for a piddling and move into a convalescent home or something. Anyway, we are here to stay.

Joining a neighborhood first meant that we join the homeowners association and that was the first link to our new community. Each neighborhood (and farming community etc.) is guided by a homeowners association and our neighborhood is divided into 12 groups according to block. Each year we take turns being chairman of our block and in our case the turn comes around about ever 10 years. The year that I was chairman it was my job to go to each house on the block and collect homeowner fees (about $50 every three months) and pass out notices, newsletters, and general printed matter generated from the city hall. On occasion I was required to call each home and let people know of emergency matters such as deaths in the neighborhood, or a fire etc. Once every two months the 12 chair people and other neighborhood officials meet for a general meeting. And twice a year there is a general meeting to review the budget and plan or revise for the new year. There are also meetings before sports day, before summer festival, before New Year's celebrations.

I dislike any and all meetings but Tetsu doesn't have the time and he gets more annoyed than I do so it has always been my job to attend. I dislike all the newsletters and papers that have to passed out that it seems like no one reads anyway and in this busy age it seems to me that there must be an easier way to collect homeowners' dues rather than to spend at least a week going from house to house trying to catch people at home, collecting their dues, taking it to the treasurer getting a receipt that is turned in somewhere else etc. I'm not a big fan of the homeowners association but since we live here... we do what we have to do.

It doesn't sound so bad written down like that, but once we moved into the neighborhood we also had to be responsible homeowners and take an official position in the neighborhood politics. I've been the traffic and safety official for the past 4 years and so I have to attend all those meetings plus go to the homeowners meeting. There are at least 20 other positions that must be filled by homeowners and NO ONE wants to do any of them but they all must be filled so at the end of the year we all spend HOURS and HOURS trying to "trap" new people to take our positions.

Another group we had to join was of course PTA just because our kids went to the local schools and there were more groups and more positions that had to be filled. Okay. Fine. I did that off and on while the kids were in school and I'm sorry, I thought most of it was a waste of time. Besides that the neighborhood has a "Child raising association" which was different from PTA but we were required to join that group too as a member of the neighborhood. More meetings.

Let's see. Because we belong to the neighborhood we take our turn at garbage station cleaning and monitoring. We join in the community neighborhood cleanup days held three times a year (yesterday... Tetsu went out and cut grass and picked up trash for two hours) and we also have a small group that we belong to where people on our street take turns cleaning the gutters once a month that get filled with leaves and sludge. At least that doesn't have a meeting. We just get out there and sling mud.

A few more groups that we bow out from are the Women's Volleyball team, the Men's baseball team, the Older Women's association (they are trying to get me to join that group) and the Elder people's association.

I'm sorry, but it is enough to make me want to move out of the neighborhood and back into an apartment building. But where would my cats and dog go?

Fukuroda Waterfall

Yesterday Tetsu and I took off on another jaunt to the next prefecture. Tetsu's way of planning a trip is to get in the car and go in the general direction towards someplace he's heard of and then hope to find signs along the way. He doesn't bother to check route numbers or even nearby cities. This results in a lot of back tracking, a lot of going around in circles (we came back to a starting point twice yesterday) and a few stops to ask people if we are on the right track.

BUT, after a long drive we did make it to our destination! Fukuroda Falls, a somewhat famous waterfall in Japan. It was a very interesting trip and the waterfall and surrounding autumn leaves were very beautiful!

As with most places in Japan, there were people. And people and people! When you go to Disneyland you expect to be thrown into crowds of people and have to line up for quite a while for the rides. In Japan one lines up for the parking lot, for the scenic view, good glory even for the bathroom!

"Ooh look Tetsu, we'd better hurry and get in line if we want to see the waterfall."

"That's the line to the bathroom, the one to the waterfall is longer."

He was right. First we paid for tickets to go see the waterfall. Then we entered a long tunnel that seemed longer because it had no end and besides we were standing in a line for about thirty minutes while we were there. It was interesting because they'd decorated the tunnel in places but all in all it was just a dark tunnel.

And when I say there was no end, there wasn't. The tunnel made a left turn into a better lit tunnel and what were we greeted with? A couple of elevators. What does this picture make you think of? Tetsu leaned over and whispered in my ear that the metal doors looked much like the furnace entrances in crematoriums. Grim... You'd think they could have make the place a little more cheery.


But the sight we were greeted with at the top of the elevator was worth waiting in line for! A gorgeous waterfall though not of the high falling off a cliff variety. Sort of a gentle stair stepping down four stories of rock. Set in the red and yellow and orange leaves it was just beautiful!


We had to wait in line again to be able to take pictures and then we took the elevator back down to the tunnel where it let out on an overhang right up next to the bottom of the waterfall. See all those little people there on the left? That was an amazing view also!


We could have turned around and gone back through the tunnel but I wanted to do a little "hiking" which turned out to be our downfall. The hiking path was a metal stairway clear up the side of the mountain (how do the workers even get up there?) and it seemed to go on forever! Tetsu and I were huffing and puffing and asking everyone coming down how many more steps there were. We took time out to take pictures of the community in the valley (we were trying to keep our pounding hearts in our chests!) and kindly allow people coming down to pass us.

"Oh please go ahead. We don't mind at ALL waiting for your group to go past."

Tetsu kept suggesting that we turn back and I'd make the observation that there were a lot of people OLDER than we were that we practically bounding up the mountain.

"Tetsu we walk everyday! We are supposed to be in shape!"

But we weren't. When we heard that it was another 20 minute stairway climb up the mountain (someone cheerfully told us "the roughest part is still ahead of you") we turned around and came down the mountain.


Back in the valley we collapsed in front of some shop where I took pictures of the fish being grilled in the windows. More long lines for this delicacy so we passed those by (Tetsu was a bit disappointed, I was happy to do without.)