Insect repellent

A few days ago Mrs. Goodneedle posted a lovely poem about gratitude and one of the verses was;

"When life gives me dark clouds and rain I appreciate the moisture that brings a soft curl to my hair."

Well, I've got the rain and the moisture and I guess I've got the soft curls too.

The rainy season is supposedly over. According to the Japanese weather bureau. Maybe someone should tell the weather. I missed most of the rainy season while I was in the States but this week we have had rain and thunder and HEAT and HUMIDITY. That's why the curls. But the heat and humidity also brings out the bugs which I find difficult to be grateful about but I do have some ways of battling the insects.

Traditionally Japanese ward off the ever present mosquitoes by burning incense coils. Since California never had mosquitoes I don't know how the rest of the world deals with mosquitoes but Japanese will often burn these coils in the garden or by the windows of their houses. Recently I've even seen farmers with incense burners hanging from their belts to protect them while they are in the fields. I have used incense coils especially for Choco out in the yard but occasionally will burn them at night in the house. One coil will burn for about 7 hours and make for a mosquito free evening. I'm not sure how great all that smoke is for the lungs but it does have a nostalgic aroma which is not unpleasant.

Another way that Japanese will protect themselves from mosquitoes is to hang nets from the ceiling and sleep under them at night. I think this method is going by the wayside though because the nets take up space and only seem to work with traditional type rooms. Tetsu remembers using mosquito nets when he was a boy.

A more modern way to keep the mosquitoes away is by this nifty little machine that plugs into the wall. The center heats up and a small mat about the size of an eraser is placed on the heating element. I think there must be pesticides or something that will dissipate into the air when the mat is heated and I often use my mosquito repellent gadget at night. No smoke or smell and I just replace the mat every night before going to bed.

And in the event that the mosquitoes get through all the smoke and pesticides, there is a wonderful product called Unako-wa which relieves itchiness. It must have menthol or something in it because one dab and the itchy area is cool and tingly and no longer itches. Tetsu goes through a bottle or two of this each mosquito season...

So, we are grateful to all the people who have invented ways to keep mosquitoes at bay.

Shopping (bleh)

Yesterday Tetsu and I went to a movie (Japanese) and then did a little shopping. I dislike shopping. I especially dislike shopping in Japan.

This is a little embarrassing to admit but in Japan I am made aware of my body and the "flaws" here and there. Maybe it is sort of an inferiority complex. Actually, the only time I ever really sweat is when I go into a Japanese dressing room. Sometimes I wonder whether the American department stores have rigged up trick mirrors so that women trying on clothes look slenderer. In Japan, all I see is flab and width. And wrinkles. It doesn't help that everything I try on has to be in extra large.

Japanese women (Asian women) are petit. Some lady can be carrying a two year old, pushing a stroller with a baby, with a grade school child trailing behind her and yet the mother looks like she just graduated from jr. high. No waist. No hips. No busom. Even my friends with grandchildren have zero flab.

Yesterday was a disaster of disasters because I was trying on "foundation garments". This is a great way to ruin my day. The sales lady "helping", kept up a running conversation with me through the curtains but I was muttering and laughing and sweating so much I finally just said, "You decide." It didn't help to have Tetsu wandering around the fringes of the lingerie section saying

"I am out of here! I can't stand around a ladies' section like this!"

Tetsu blushes even walking by the women's department.

Well, I bought what I needed but I'm not doing that again for a few months!

And as a bit of trivia. Did you know that you have to take off your shoes when using a fitting room in Japanese department stores? The clerk comes around and turns your shoes around for you so that they are easy to slip on when you finish trying things on. (Photo from the Internet)

Quilting friends

Yesterday I got together with my quilting friends and got caught up on all the news. Two ladies come from so far away (three hours away!) yet they faithfully make the trip. It was so dang hot and muggy though that we really didn't have energy to do anything but just chat. One poor lady was quilting the bazaar quilt but we are going to retire that for a month until it cools off again.

While chatting we keep our hands moving by doing some coloring with the Hugs and Kisses project that Lorraine sent us months ago. There are 13 blocks that need to be colored with color pencils and so we all mindlessly colored and talked and admired our work. Not really a sewing day but relaxing none the less.

And Mrs. Furui had pictures of the two quilts that she sent to A Thousand Colors for the Children of Abruzzo. I had asked her if she might want to make a quilt to send along with the two that I made a couple months ago and Mrs. Furui made two. But we discovered that it was much less expensive to send each quilt separately instead of all in one box. And then I left Japan in a hurry to be in the States so I never saw Mrs. Furui's quilts. Aren't they beauties!!!

Mrs. Furui's quilts are always so elegant and subdued. Every time I look at something she makes I wonder what quilting reveals of the creator's personality. This is especially true when Mrs. Furui and I make the SAME quilt. Gosh! Mine are always so hodge podge and crazy looking. Mrs. Furui's always look so refined.

Mrs. Furui has not tried out machine quilting and she specializes in extremely detailed hand quilting. (She is just finishing up a MASTERPIECE in hand quilting for her son. I hope to have pictures of that in the next month!) Even these charity quilts were hand quilted in love as fast as her slender fingers could sew!
















And here is the latest picture of our bazaar quilt with a few of the rows quilted. Looking good! Looking good!

Pierced ears

Yesterday a few friends and I got together and we were talking about pierced ears. Actually we were trying to convince one friend to get her ears pierced but she is afraid to do it.

I got my ears pierced when I went away to college. My mother wouldn't let me do it when I was in high school and so the first month I was away in a dormitory I went and got my ears pierced. I've been happy ever since and really the only jewelry that I like to change and shop for are earrings. It is interesting to me that what seems like fun earrings in the States I will wear in Japan and feel very out of place. Too big and heavy or showy or something. When I'm in Japan I tend to wear conservative posts or delicate drop earrings.

It is only in the past 10 years or so that pierced ears have become popular in Japan. For years it was almost impossible for me to buy pierced earrings and the only earrings available were clip ons. Tetsu has never liked pierced ears and he has said that if I hadn't had my ears pierced long before I met him he wouldn't have allowed it. (As if I am going to let him tell me what he ALLOWS or not!)

When Leiya got to be jr. high school age she started talking about getting her ears pierced. More and more girls were doing it but there was still a stigma associated with the fashion. Only "bad" girls got their ears pierced and a girl would be excluded from school activities if it was discovered she'd had them done. I had even heard of private high schools that wouldn't accept applications if they found out that the girl had pierced ears. Whether we agreed with school policies or not, it seemed foolish to limit the high school choices so until Leiya made the decision to go to an American high school, NO PIERCED EARS!

Even Tetsu agreed to let Leiya get her ears piered when she got to the States, but NOTHING ELSE! No multiple piercings. No tattoos! And I gave her a good lecture on "getting an inch and wanting a mile". The summer that I took Leiya to the States to start her American high school life, we stepped off the airplane, came back to my mother's house and weren't there more than an hour than we were off to the mall to get Leiya's ears pierced. I even taped it on video! Good. Now Leiya feels like an all-American high school student.

Back in Japan a month or so later, I get an e-mail from Leiya and she mentioned that she'd gotten her ears pierced again!!! What was my lecture about multiple piercings? You'd better believe that I sent an un-happy e-mail back to her but there wasn't much I could do about it since the deed was done and I was back in Japan. And I guess I had done the same sort of thing once I'd gotten out from under my mother's watchful eyes some 35 years earlier.

This summer Leiya and I had a good time together but we did have an argument when I discovered she'd pierced her ear AGAIN! So now she has 5 holes in her ears! I suppose there could be worse places she might want to pierce but still I'm not happy and I had to break the news to Tetsu with utmost care... Leiya may have sealed her fate with spending the rest of her life in the States because Tetsu doesn't think she will be seriously considered for any job in Japan if she adorns herself further.

Still, I did buy Leiya some earrings for her upcoming birthday. But I only bought two.

Hot

My teaching days have begun again though I will have a light schedule this summer since summer vacation is starting from Saturday. I think some of the neighborhood kids will be coming throughout August just because I missed most of the month of June being in the States. Kindergarten will be off as will a couple other out of the way classes. Now if the heat doesn't get me maybe I can use the time to sew...

And can you believe it, I actually ordered a pattern online Monday. Since I spent all that time in the States and had access to fabric and books and patterns why would I do such a thing? Well, I've looked longingly at a pattern for nearly a year and I didn't find it in Jo-Anns or a couple of the quilt stores that I visited and I don't want to think about it another year and hunt for it on the next trip to the States... so I ordered. Not that I NEED another project.

The day is starting to heat up and the cats don't even respond anymore when called. I went searching for them and though I know where to find Vel, the others were mostly hidden away.

Patora in a cat chewed box that I was planning to throw away but she claims that it is comfortable and she doesn't mind how it looks.

Cleo and Toi were trying to stay cool under the dining room table.

And Chip, who lives up to her name and is chipper, spends her time looking out the window longingly.

Choco is hidden away in her doghouse waiting for a cooler evening walk...

Nobody looks that thrilled that I'm back but maybe they are all just hot.

Mottainai

I'm still running behind schedule about a lot of things and don't have too much that is exciting to write about. Japan is HOT and MUGGY and what I'd like to do is sit in an airconditioned room and sew but I guess I won't be able to do that for a few more days...

I've been washing floors and windows just to get some freshness back in the house. And doing a little rearranging and tossing. I think seeing all that can be acquired in a few years piled in my mother's home has influenced me and I find myself tossing things right and left. It is a dilemma. There is no sense being wasteful if things are not broken or worn out but just keeping things takes up space so I tend to opt for the toss solution.



Have you ever heard of the phrase "Mottainai"? In Japanese it means "a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized." (quoted from a Japanese/English dictionary) The phrase became internationally known when Wangari Maathai, an environmentalist from Kenya who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, used the Japanese phrase. Although Japan is a very materialistic country, I think the sense of consumerism is lower than in America and people take their responsibilities to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE very seriously. And I probably take this to extremes and try to minimalize my lifestyle. I tend to be on the stingy side.

So throwing away pains me but after wading through my mom's stuff, I'm emphasizing the REDUCE now that I am back home. I hope I can set a few more things free while I'm in the mood and maybe value the stuff I have left...

And for all of us quilters who delight in making scrap quilts, we are right in line with the Mottainai spirit of REUSE and RECYCLE!!!

29 years ago

Today is July 13th and Tetsu and I are celebrating our 29th anniversary.

Tetsu and I decided to become engaged sometime in February, 29 years ago, and we simply announced our intent to marry to friends and family. We'd dated about two years and my Japanese had improved (but not enough in most people's opinions!) We were without money or possessions which didn't deter us a bit but we had to schedule our wedding day for AFTER Tetsu's summer bonus.

Tetsu and I weren't able to buy an engagement ring but we visited a small jewelry shop and bought a simple gold and glass cross pendant with a tiny almost invisible chip of a diamond in it. My engagement necklace, and Tetsu presented it to me at a formal engagement ceremony at our church a few months before our wedding day.

Some people didn't think this was really a proper engagement gift. One set of older friends wanted us to have a traditional betrothal ceremony complete with gifts of dried cuttlefish, and seaweed and fans and kimono material. The Japanese names depict fortune, long life and many children etc. and usually money will be included with the gifts in a commitment ceremony between the two families. Obviously no one in my American family would know what to do with cuttlefish and seaweed so we zilched the traditional ceremony idea fairly easily.

When my mother came to our wedding in July, she presented Tetsu with a ring to give me that was her mother's engagement ring. My grandmother wore it rarely if ever (many Japanese women only wear their rings when they are going to a special event) and it had languished in a box for over 60 years. I've worn my grandmother's ring faithfully for 29 years and jewelers have told me that though it isn't very valuable it is an interesting simple cut of diamond that isn't done these days.

Well, all things considered (language differences, culture differences, background differences) Tetsu and I have done pretty well the past 29 years. Congratulations to us!