Binding the quilt

Thursday I made it to my patchwork group gathering (I'd forgotten two weeks ago) and together we put the finishing touches on the bazaar quilt. Mrs. Furui and I had sewn the binding to the quilt a la Sharon Schambler style (using glue!) and that meant that we all could sit around the quilt and hand sew the binding down. The job was finished in a snap.

I love the way we are all peering down at our work. Makes me feel like I really belong to a quilting bee!

And don't you like the way I am such a pro at peering over my glasses like the little ol' lady I am?

Bazaar quilt finished!

I would like to formally introduce the core of our quilt group.

Clockwise. Me on the far left. Mrs. Ochiai, she's the computer and electronics whiz (and is always willing to start a new project with me. It takes her a little time to finish some of them...) Sensitive and sweet Mrs. Harada, who used to be Mrs. Furui's neighbor but moved away and now drives 4 hours one way to join us monthly. Mrs. Furui, the brain behind all our creativity and the hostess by default since she has the largest, most central house. You know her by her intricate handwork. And Mrs. Yamaguchi, who grows younger each year. She started her patchwork career when she lived a few years in the States and willingly takes on extra patchwork homework.

We are already working on NEXT year's bazaar quilt! What an industrious bunch of quilters. (By the way, on our quilt label we call ourselves the Crazy Lady Quilters group.)

Y-kun again

Remember Y-kun? He is still coming to English. Still bringing me presents (two large green pumpkins yesterday!) Still causing great annoyance to the other boys in the class.

I almost never meet Y-kun's family. They drop him off and pick him up without ever getting out of the car. They send him with vegetables for me but unlike the other mothers and fathers, they don't wait in the driveway for him nor talk with the other parents. The one time I met his mother she seemed very frustrated by Y-kun and life in general. They must know when English starts and ends because they come to pick him up at the right time but often, like last night, Y-kun turns up at my front door more than an hour before class time. I sometimes wonder if he is such a handful that his family just wants him to be SOMEWHERE so that they can take a break from him.

I don't really mind. It is a little disturbing to think that he might get left on my doorstep when I'm not home but class starts at 6:15 so there's very little chance that I might still be out and about. And I don't want his family to think that I object to Y-kun in particular so when he comes in the door I figure out things for him to do before the other boys come. He actually wants me to play games with him but I don't feel that obligated so I usually say that I have to clean or cook and if he wants to help me by all means do so.

Y-kun is really a smart child and yesterday at the mention of cleaning, he raced to the laundry room to bring out the vacuum cleaner. I don't know why he knew where the vacuum cleaner was. I don't think I've ever shown him but he must have noticed it on his forages around the house (remember he gets into cupboards). So he happily vacuumed for me, scaring cats and knocking things off the tables in the process.

And then we started cooking...

Well, I directed, Y-kun cooked and I took pictures.

Last night's menu was Nira-tama. Nira are a type of green onion or chives and we live in the nira countryside.

First I cut up pork slices and cooked them in a little oil. Y-kun got out bowls and sieves (he knew exactly what to do himself) and washed beansprouts.









Next I cut up the nira into finger length widths but Y-kun felt I was too haphazard about the cutting and wanted to chop some up smaller. "Bang, bang, bang" with the knife. I was a bit alarmed and wondered if his family would sue me if he lost a finger while helping me cook. No injuries and he was very pleased with himself.

Y-kun added the beansprouts and nira to the pork and cooked them all down (with long chopsticks you notice!)






And then he broke three eggs into a bowl (no shells got in there either!) and whipped them up for me using chopsticks.







The eggs were added to the pork and vegetable mixture and left to set (and brown a bit) and then we added oyster sauce flavoring from a bottle (soy sauce works just as well).

And finally we transferred it all to a serving bowl and sampled our creation.

"GOOD!!" with two thumbs up from Y-kun.

I wish I could show you his expression but since I don't have his family's permission to post his picture I'm fuzzing this one out a bit. You get the idea though. He was one happy boy!

Y-kun does so much better on a one-on-one relationship. A few minutes later he was back to arguing and fighting with the other boys...

I can see a budding chef in these pictures, can't you?

Blog therapy?

Well, here's an open question to blog friends. What do you think about blogging?

Yesterday I was talking to some friends about blogging. A couple of the ladies enjoy reading blogs on a daily basis. Another lady keeps a blog of her own but doesn't give comment access. And you all know how I do it.

Actually we were talking about moods and the ups and downs of life and one friend mentioned feeling melancholy maybe because she is a "certain age". She asked for advice on how to pass through this stage. And another friend suggested blogging, saying the process of writing your thoughts down, putting them in order, going back and re-reading, all that gives insight and helps untangle a jumble of emotions.

That's an interesting idea. It's true that I have thought of journaling in that way and I suppose blogging is similar but I'm not sure I blog because I want to know myself any better...

I was a little annoyed a few days ago when watching an interview with a well-known Hollywood actress and she was asked if she kept a blog.

"No. I don't have those kinds of problems. Why would I want to make my private life public and get therapy from a bunch of strangers? I prefer to pay for professional therapy."

It made me feel like she thought bloggers were people with a bundle of psychological problems who were too cheap to get help elsewhere! Well! I may be cheap but I didn't realize I was doing public therapy!

Do you prefer keeping a blog or blog reading? Is the comment aspect important? Without blogging would we be any less "put together?"

I guess for me blogging is a way of exchanging information and ideas. It is a way to make friendships but to be honest, I really like to see WHO is commenting (you know that little profile picture) because my brain connects better with who I have heard from before and with their blog etc. I know there are many of you who don't post pictures of yourself but I sometimes get confused. I like writing my blog the most (that seems so self centered) and I enjoy reading blogs too but get weighed down with commenting sometimes. On the other hand, I like receiving comments because it feels a little like walking down to the mailbox and finding a letter inside (and THAT rarely happens anymore!!!) so I do put in effort to comment and answer comments. I often relate blog stories and blog comments to Tetsu and we talk about differences in thinking, culture, and experience. Blogging feels like an open window and I look forward to finding jewels of wisdom and creativity through other bloggers and blog readers.

And how about you?

Mrs. Furui's baby quilt

Yesterday I spent some time at Mrs. Furui's house and together we put the binding on the bazaar quilt. Mrs. Furui's sewing machine is broken and I wanted to leave the quilt at her house anyway so that the other ladies can sew down the binding on Thursday (I will be late), so I took my sewing machine and walking foot with me.

With nothing new to show of the bazaar quilt, here is another beautiful quilt that Mrs. Furui has been making, this time for her sister who wanted to make this for someone else but ran into some health issues so Mrs. Furui has made the whole thing. Isn't this a gorgeous baby quilt? And again, doesn't Mrs. Furui do fantastic hand quilting? This is still in the making and a lovely quilted pattern will be added to the border this week.

This fabric is from Hobbyra Hobbyre which I think is a Japanese brand. They seem to specialize in pink florals and the fabric is lovely but very expensive. Mrs. Furui and I were looking over one of their catalogs and she noticed that for a baby quilt kit, the material costs were about $150. And if you wanted to order a finished quilt from them they were asking $1300! For a baby quilt! That seems like a lot but if it is all hand done and you figure in all the time I guess that's what it comes to. I can't think of anyone who would spend that amount of money... For an antique quilt... maybe. But for a baby gift? Hmmm.

Well, I hope Mrs. Furui's sister will take her out to lunch in exchange for making this beautiful heirloom!

Comic books

I really can't give an unbiased opinion but today I'm going to tell you about what is taking up a lot of storage space in my closets.

What do you think about comic books?

Japan has a "manga" (comic books) and "anime" (animation and cartoons) culture that I'm afraid I don't understand at all but it seems to be different from the Western counterparts.

When I was in college there were a few Japanese foreign students who received care packages from home regularly. The boys especially looked forward to these packages because their mothers would send them comic books. COMIC BOOKS?! How juvenile! I couldn't believe that these 20 year old, young men and women who would be shaping the future of Japan were pouring over comic books completely forgetting that they were mature adults. Talk about looking down on people. My nose was as long as an elephant's.

And then I came to Japan and spent a few months in Tokyo and other large cities where I had to make use of the public transportation system. Wherever I went businessmen would be hanging onto subways straps and scrunched into train car corners and would be absorbed in their comic books. And heaven forbid, when I took a glance at their reading material, some of the subject matter could make my face burn. My image of comic books grew even less favorable.

Comic books are not the flimsy things Superman and Batman graced in America. They are BOOKS. Or in some cases there are numerous comic series in a very large heavy book that seems to come out weekly (I think). There are love story comic books, adventure comic books, science fiction comic books, mystery comic books. There are comic books about history, about sports, about cooking, about teachers. I have lady friends who look forward to monthly comic books and follow a series.

Tetsu was never much into comic books (thank goodness!) but Takumi and Leiya turned on to them fairly early in their elementary school days. I remember a first grade teacher encouraged comic books as a viable source of reading practice though I was trying to steer my kids towards library books. I did break down and buy a set of Bible comic books in hopes of inspiring a little more interest in Sunday school though.

When Leiya hit jr. high I can remember her being very uninterested in Japanese Social Studies and my friends suggested I get her started on history comic books. They swore that their kids learned a lot more history through the comic books than they did through the dull, very confusing text books. I can't remember if that strategy worked to raise Leiya's grades in Social Studies.

Tetsu was no help at all in encouraging other reading material because as the kids grew older he'd bring them presents of comic books in a series that he knew they liked. SLAM DUNK was a favorite one about basketball. YAWARA was about a girl judo champion. He occasionally brought home the whole comic set meaning that he'd lug home 30 books at a time reassuring me that these would be classics someday. The kids were ecstatic.

When Takumi graduated from high school and left for the States he told me I could throw out anything and everything in his room EXCEPT for the comic books.

"I don't know why. I just don't want to lose those."

and so they have languished in his closet for these 6 years. Each of these special plastic boxes holds 30 comic books and Leiya has another whole closet full that she didn't want thrown out either. And just to defend my kids, Marlene, my American friend with two college age kids in the States, said that her children gave her the same message.

"DON'T THROW OUT THE COMIC BOOKS!"

So this is why I don't have any more storage space than I do. Comic books abound!

Cold weather and an introduction

The weather is beautiful today but it is cold.

Yesterday I spent ALL DAY cleaning the upstairs even getting to closets and drawers. It is so easy to let a normally unused room turn into a storage area so I dumped lots of stuff. Old textbooks. Bags of stuff and fluff that I was thinking I'd make into another cat cushion. I won't. The fluff and stuff just gravitates to one side or another in the cushion and is impossible to wash. Sorry. My good intentions of saving crumbs and thread ends and batting scraps has ended. I save too much other stuff and the closets are overflowing. It feels good to have rooms looking nice. I wish I'd learn and keep it that way.

I even brought down the small kerosene heater so you know we are really getting into cold weather. And I bought some long underwear (we call them "baba shirts", "granny shirts") because I am still a Southern California girl and do not like cold weather.

Tetsu has named the kitty. It has become "Mi" which is a pretty normal name for a cat in Japan.

Tetsu thinks our other cats' names are too fancy. Cleo, Patora, Velvet, Chip, Toi. Well, Toi is Japanese of sorts but Tetsu thinks of this kitty as pure Japanese so it is Mi (pronounced me).


"Nice to meet you."

My dumb cat

I have a cat lover friend whom I've know for years. I met her through Tetsu's work and we found we both had a love for cats. Like our family, her kitty Mick, always is featured on her New Year's cards and though we don't see each other often our first question is always about the health of our cats.

After Tetsu and I picked up our new kitty, I was talking to my vet about how to care for all the strays that end up in my yard and my feelings of coping with an ever growing population of cats.

"You should talk with Mrs. Nakazawa. Here, let me call her for you now." and he did.

Since then Mrs. Nakazawa has been involved with my cat situation and a couple of days ago I went over to visit with her and she gave me a present.

(a ceramic tile built into Mrs. Nakazawa's table →)


Mrs. Nakazawa has only one cat, Mick, who is 18 years old! But 6 or 7 years ago she decided that she will be the neighborhood cat lady and cheerfully goes about catching cats and kittens, having them neutered and releasing them into her yard. (She has a big yard!) From there she feeds them and makes sure they get flea medicine and she brushes each one in turn. Sometimes she finds homes for the kittens, sometimes they find their own homes and since they are clean, have learned to trust humans and are relaxed, they turn into wonderful pets. In her yard, Mrs. Nakazawa has a feeding station and also "cat houses" that she has designed to keep feline visitors warm and dry. At the moment there are only 4 visitors in her yard but she said a few years ago there were there were nearly 20 feline friends!

So, Mrs. Nakazawa's present to me (actually to the new kitty) is a cat house! She makes them from Styrofoam boxes that she gets from the local co-op. The lid is taped closed, a door is cut into the side, a pet sheet is placed inside (to absorb moisture) and then a warm piece of fleece is added. The whole box is wrapped in plastic (to keep the kitty from using it as a scratching post) and then a vinyl curtain is put over the door to keep cat body warmth in. Mrs. Nakazawa has made many a cat happy with her cat houses.

BUT........!!!

Our new kitty does not appreciate the thought and effort that went into its new house. I excitedly showed the kitty the box and left thinking that at least one of my concerns had been solved. 15 minutes later I came back and this PIRANHA was attacking the house and leaving bits and pieces all over the floor! DUMB CAT!!!

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!! THAT IS HOW YOU ARE GOING TO STAY WARM THIS WINTER!"

Well, the kitty doesn't completely hate its house, I think it just felt it needed a personal touch; a bit of decoration that declared it was her own. She is still decorating (and making the house a bit drafty) but she does go inside and make use of it.

I'm a little embarrassed to post these pictures and let Mrs. Nakazawa see what all her efforts have come to.

And this kitty still doesn't have a name. "Piranha" doesn't seem to fit this sweet face.