Elementary school

This month I got very little done due to spending a lot of time in bed.  I now have a new doctor whom I'll be going to and hopefully things will be looking up.  Honestly, I am rather ashamed of how low and weepy I can get when things are uncertain or downright bad, and though I cling to trying to stay grateful for the positive, I am not doing a good job at expressing my faith with an upbeat attitude.  Oh so quickly do I doubt! 

A couple of days ago I was asked by the elementary school principal if he could interview me for the school's little newspaper and so I stopped in at his office after my crosswalk duty.  (Yeah, I managed to do all five days of crosswalk duty!  It was touch and go for awhile there...)  I took advantage of my visit to snap a couple of pictures of the front entrance to the school.

This is the ikebana flower arrangement this week at the entrance.  One of my neighbors, who is an ikebana teacher, takes it upon herself to donate her time and flowers to decorate the small table near the front door each and every week.  She has done this for years and early every Monday morning she brings a bundle of flowers and spends a few minutes arranging them for the children, teachers, and any visitors to the school to enjoy.  

I'm actually not sure what thses are supposed to be...  cellophane ribbons on coat hangers?  Hmmm.  Probably an art project having to do with Tanabata which is a star festival the happens during the summer...  The ribbon streamers are the same though usually they'd be hung on bamboo fronds...  So maybe I'm wrong.  It makes a nice dash of color though.  The little boy in front of the classroom is a first grader.  I can tell because his regulation backpack has the flourescent yellow cover to make him more visible to traffic.  He is also wearing the regulation yellow hat for the same reason.  And his slip on shoes are called indoor shoes to wear inside the building...  The children leave their regular sneakers and shoes in a cubby at the school entrance.

And this is the school entrance where the children leave their outdoor shoes and change into the indoor slip-ons.  Everyone seems to have been trained to keep things neat!

Above the cubby is this beautiful origami poster that I would think the teachers or maybe school volunteers has made.  It looks too complex for children to make but maybe not...  Isn't it a lovely burst of color?!  And it says "We are happy when we greet each other with a smile."  

This has been an ongoing project of the teachers to get the children to say hello to people or "good morning", to smile and look a person in the eye when talking.  For some reason, children (and adults!) rarely just smile and talk with strangers or even acknowlege someone they don't know...  I even get ignored by some of them when I greet them in the mornings and they KNOW me!  I don't think Japanese children aren't specifically taught social skills at home and unlike many American children who jump into a conversation or are curious about someone new, there are not many boisterous, talkative students EXCEPT WHEN THE CHILDREN ARE TOGETHER and playing with each other.  They are as boisterous and loud and as happy as any other children then... but not very good at MAKING friends or even seeming friendly...   Thus the emphasis recently to get the children to return a greeting to someone or, gosh, make the first move and greet the other person first!

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Luka update!

Leiya found a nice nature park to take Luka for some outdoor playtime.

Doesn't that look like a fun place to explore?

I'D love to play with all the wood and be in the forest like that too!

Luka doesn't look like a baby anymore!  We're glad we got to see his baby stage when we were in the States just 5 months ago.  These kids grow up so quickly!!!

 

Songbirds GARDENS!

Nothing good to report on my hip and knees so we'll avoid that topic.

I did have a couple of good days and I managed to get the binding on my latest quilt and then spent the next day or so hand sewing it down.  I've got it on my wall to take photos but it and the previous quilt will be coming down and packed to send to Leiya.  She has a friend who is coming to Japan and if the package isn't TOO big, the friend will be able to take it back with her to the States.  

This is the small version of the Songbirds Garden quilt.  

And this is the large version.  It has three extra borders, two of them wide, around the last applique border.  Can you spot the fabric differences?

I had to buy new blue fabric for the large center triangles and I also bought white fabric for the applique.  I scrounged around in the original fabric and used left-overs in different places for the rest of the quilt.  My friend Mrs. N is also making this smaller version and we were able to use some of the left over faric for her quilt too... 

The machine quilting was done exactly the same in both quilts and they make a nice pair.  Originally, Leiya had said that she wasn't sure where she was going to find a place to hang the larger version and that was why I made the smaller version but she likes them so much together she's hoping her friend can bring both of them back to her.  

Whew!  I'm glad that big project can be marked FINISHED!

A Blah week

I'm having a frustrating month...  I had so counted on September being better than August when the heat and my sore hip did me in!!!  Alas, things have not looked up for quite awhile...

So today I'm sitting in the living room with my computer on my lap and I've got plasters on my knees and a pile of pills next to my chair.  Yes!  KNEES!!!!!  And I thought I was bad with hip pain!!!

My tale of woe went like this.  Last weekend I was sick in bed with a stomachache and canker sores and a low fever.  I'd worried about Covid but it probably wasn't that.  When better I went to my orthopedist to get advice on my hip again and I brought home three weeks of more painkillers.  But I also stopped at my regular doctor (we do that in Japan... Just drop in) and poured out my heart and my frustrations to him and of course told him about my stomach problems over the weekend.  He thinks the painkillers are messing with my stomach and he gave me something more for my stomach...  I really feel I can talk to him but my orthopedist who isn't chatty has the ability to take x-rays and MRI.

I did some machine quilting in the middle of the week and had hoped to be finishing that up today but for some reason my knees have started swelling and I can't walk!  That's even with the painkillers (which are also supposed to relieve inflamation.)  And I really haven't been moving much at all!  I promise!  In fact Tetsu has been doing most everything in the house these past couple of weeks while I just watch from my chair or the bed.  I feel pretty worthless right now.

I got binding made for my latest quilt and it would have been a good sitting-down project but I didn't get as far as sewing the binding down so that's not ready for me.  I don't have any hand projects!!!  I can't believe I'm so unprepared!!!  I'll have to go back to tatting crosses which I can do without any preparation...

In the meantime more random pieces of doodling.

Sick in bed.

And the real thing.

Machine quilting.

An art lesson with Shari Blaukopf.

And another.

A sketch of Leiya and Luka.  Well you can tell it is a woman and child but Tetsu didn't recognize Leiya...

And between bouts of aches and pains Tetsu took me to a cafe overlooking the countryside so you can see that not everything has been negative!

I'll try to be more cheerful in the next post...

  

Tsukimi (Moon viewing)

This past week some Japanese families celebrated Tsukimi which translates as "moon viewing".  It is no more than spending a few minutes or hours enjoying the light and the orb of the autumn full moon.  Some familes will purchase or make rice cake dango which are white balls of omochi, pounded rice cakes and they might display fronds of pampass grass.  Hot green tea is drunk and people will sit by the window in the late evening and savor the beauty of the moon.

I'm afraid I didn't do any of that and it went by us without me noticing.  BUT I read that in October there is still the chance celebrate the full moon in autumn style so I might put that on my calendar...

I did want to share some photos of the moon that I saw on Mrs. Furui's son's Instagram account and that I got permission to share.  K-san is Mrs. Furui's second son and he and Takumi went to kindergarten together and were great friends.  He is now a doctor in a faraway city but his hobby is taking spectacular photographs!  This is Himeji Castle which is located in the southern part of Japan (though not the southernmost...  I've never been there.)

Appropo of Tsukimi, but not of K-san's photography, last night Tetsu and I needed to buy something at the local department store and we decided to have dinner at McDonald's.  After our order was delivered to our table, I noticed the paper placemat that McDonald's uses in this Tsukimi season.  A Japanese lord enjoying some McFries while looking at a golden chicken nugget in the sky!  The byline says "In the autum night, nug-GET!"

Also to celebrate the season, McDonald's offers a Tsukimi Burger which is just a hamburger with all the dressings and a fried egg, much like Egg McMuffins.  The round, yellow part of the egg is supposed to be the moon!

We ordered too much to eat and so when we were leaving and balancing our left-over nuggets and french fries, the girl at the counter offered to bag our left-overs for us.  McDonald's even has beautiful Tsukimi bags!

And while I'm on the subject of McDonald's I'll reminise about when I first came to Japan as a missiony associate to teach English.  I was living in far away Morioka and this was before the bullet train, and every six months I had to travel 5 or 6 hours to the major city of Sendai where there was a Japanese immigration office to get a visa renewel.  It was a major journey but I always rewarded myself with a Big Mac and fries and a coke after I left the immigration office and before I traveled back home.  There were only a few McDonald's in Japan at the time and though I wasn't a huge fan of the hamburger while I lived in California, coming to the back side of Japan, it was my only brush with American culture every 6 months.  Such a treat!!!  

Here is K-san's most recent moon viewing photo.  You can seem more of his amazing night time photography on Instagram at:  woodstock2795

Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/woodstock2795

  

Random again

Gadzooks!  It's been a week and I can't think of much that's interesting to write about.  Is this because of my mostly retired state, or because of the pandemic changes, or because my interests have changed?  

I spent one morning getting some applique ready for Mrs. N.  She wants to make the center medallion of the Songbird's Garden quilt... which I am also doing again, and so I offered to set up the applique borders for her... AS LONG AS SHE PREPPED HER OWN APPLIQUE LEAVES!!!  I had just finished cutting out, ironing and starching to the template, my own 80 leaves and I really didn't want to do it again...  

"If you'll make the leaves, I'll do the eight flowers for you..."  

She had popped in long enough for me to teach her the technique for prepping the leaves, and I did the flowers and stems and got them placed on the borders for her.  I'm finishing up my own applique borders this week. 

Another day Leiya Facetimed us to show us Luka's reaction to opening a package of used picture books that we'd sent him.  It was so fun to see how excited he was!  And so of course, Grandma and Grandpa have to spring into action again and go out and find him more used picture books!  

Swimming when I can.  My hip pain doesn't interfere with swimming.  

You do realize that all these doodles of me in my bullet journal make me look much more slender than I really am.  Wishful thinking!!!  I'm actually rather dumpy these days.

Yesterday we went to the movies for the first time in three years, and we saw Bullet Train with Brad Pitt.  Tetsu loved it, but it was a bit too gory and bloody for me.  I had just "read" the English translation of the book in my Audiobook app and it was interesting to see how the book changed into the movie.  Oh, I've missed movie theater popcorn!  Delicious!

Somewhat worrisome was an Instagram post from Julieta saying that their house isn't far from the California Fairview Fire.  I've talked with both Julieta and Takumi and they say that they aren't in danger.   

Not newsworthy, but I thought I'd show you how we've been getting our rice this past year.  We purchased a 15 pound bag of rice from Tetsu's friend who is a rice farmer and to start eating it Tetsu needed to take the bag over to a rice polishing booth and have the rice turned from brown (with the hulls) to white.  The polishing is all done automatically, much like stepping into a photo booth.  Pour in your rice, set the level of polishing you want done, drop in coins and the polished rice will begin pouring into another bag.  In our part of the countryside, polishing booths are set up in the parking lots of almost all supermarkets and hardware stores.   

Okay, that was a pretty random post!

 

August end

Finally at the end of August!  (Or for me, the beginning of September...  Today is September 1st where I live.)  August was a long and hard month and I'm hoping for better days in September!  

My hip problems have not been resolved but I've now talked with my son-in-law who has me in mind and I can consult him if need be.  But I am back at the crosswalk (but can't walk there myself) so I'm not completely immobile.  I'm also back at the pool water walking, and all in all, I'm not particularly worried, just frustrated.

The summer was so dang hot and humid!!!  I really do not handle Japanese summers well, but in a few months you'll hear me saying how I don't handle Japanese winters well either so I must not adjust to different temperatures very well...

Corona hit Japan hard during the summer and my two English classes have been postponed again for the month of September.  Everyone still wears masks outside of their homes here in Japan and we have been vaccinated four times.  Still, the cases are rising and I have a few friends who have had mild cases.  Tetsu and I are hoping we can hold out.

Artwork gets done on a fairly regular basis though I slacked off a bit this week...  

I tried crayon drawing following a Youtube Shibasaki Grandpa tutorial.

A Sandy Allnock watercolor pens lesson which inspired me to grab my own photo of a lighthouse we saw in Michigan a few years ago.

My normal "style" is more of a colored doodle than anything else...

Another doodle page in my bullet journal.

This was another lesson with Sandy Allnock and though the watercolor did its own thing and I had no control, I sort of like how this turned out...  The lesson was on reflections.

... so I doodled from a photo of a Nikko lake.

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As for family updates...  

Takumi and his dog baby, Pollo.

Leiya and Luka actually went off to Texas for two weeks and so I didn't get many photos from her this month.

Luka was taking swimming lessons before they went to Texas so that has been a big step and he seems to love the water.  I wonder when Luka will ever get to Japan to go swimming with Grandpa Tetsu and me in our local pool...

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Something equally good and frustrating is that Tetsu and I bought new iPhones with larger capacity and that solves some of the problems we'd been having with our phones...  That's great!  But these poor, old brains do not comprehend technology and backing up, setting up, renewing passwords, logging in etc. and all of these steps are barely within our abilities.  We feel so old and baffled and the three days of headaches to get our phones and everything we've used them for working again has exhausted us.  

"Dinner?  I don't have the energy to cook.  Let's go out."  

"I've got to get away from all these devices!!!"

So that was the month of August...

 

Summer is over, a pretty quilt and sad news

Let's see...  There is less than a week left of August and summer vacation is over.  Of course for Tetsu and me there is not much daily difference between summer vacation and everyday life, but at least it looks like the heat will not be as debilitating as it has been these past couple months...

So school began yesterday and I went back to work as a crosswalk guard.  I was a bit concerned about how I was going to manage that with my bum hip but Tetsu offered yesterday to accompany me and he even stuck around to collect trash along the streets where the children walk so he was "keeping an eye on me" to make sure I didn't fall over or anything.  I find if I limit myself to just standing at the crosswalk and making the few steps into the intersection with my flag, that I'm not putting too much stress on my leg.  Today Tetsu dropped me off at the crosswalk and then came back an hour later to pick me up.  It looks like I'm going to be able to continue my job without taking sickness leave!  Yeah!  

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Mrs N. contacted me yesterday so ask if she could bring her latest projects over for some advice as she is getting cabin sickness just being at home for months and months.  She finished her grandson's quilt and is already started on the applique project I gave her.  She also wants to make NUMEROUS Happy Village quilts for her friends so she kept pulling her fabric and her half-done projects out of her bag to show me and make plans for the next steps.  I can hardly keep up with her!  

And here is Mrs. N's quilt made for her grandson!  He has just graduated from high school and so she didn't want anything flowery or too bright.  She has done this ALL BY HAND!!!  During Corona she and her husband were living in another prefecture and she didn't have access to her sewing machine.  As she wasn't seeing people or going out, she hand pieced all the stars and once back in our prefecture she did stitch-in-the-ditch quilting and some curved stitching on all the solid blocks.  It took her two and a half years but it is now done!  Congratulations Mrs. N!  Her grandson's birthday is next month and she will give it to him then.

The full quilt with no overhang.  Designed by us!

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Some sad news this week from my friend's daughter-in-law, letting me know that Lorraine had passed away.  Lorraine was my Comrade in the Quarry friend who was with me when Japan had the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011.  We had been visiting a rock quarry underground when the earthquake struck and we spent the next aftershock filled days together until she could finally return to her son's family who lived in another prefecture and whom she'd been visiting from Australia.  

In recent years Lorraine has been cared for in an assisted living home and she no longer wrote to me herself,  but her daughter-in-law sometimes emailed me pictures and told me how Lorraine was, and I think she also read my blog posts to her sporadically.  Lorraine became a wonderful friend to me all these years and she was an avid quilter and so able to adapt to anything...  even an earthquake disaster with me!  This was the blog post I wrote of that day so many years ago...  Earthquake experience!    And this was another one showing what our house was like that day...  Earthquake damage...

Lorraine visited Japan a couple times after the year of the earthquake and she always made the trip to Nikko to spend time with me.  Her face flashes into my mind whenever we even experience a gentle earth tremor and it probably always will.