Toi the troublemaker

I guess I haven't shown cats for awhile.

I spent this morning cleaning urp marks from the carpet. Chip has a definite problem that doesn't seem to interfere with her appetite but I sure need to do a lot of cleaning up after her. She must need some milder type of food but I'm already trying to keep two cats eating one type of food, the four others eating another type and all 6 cats eating in four different places (Toi races through his meals and eats everyone else's food.)

Toi and Chip had a confrontation and managed to smash my cookie jar to smithereens. I'm not happy about that.

And Toi went after Cleo and knocked things off the top of the closet too. What a crash!

So a few days ago I literally threw Toi out the back door and said,

"Go! You are a trouble maker. You are banned to the yard. Come back when you can be nice again. ...And be careful of cars while you are out there!"

I spent a lot of the next hour watching Toi from the windows as he ventured into the forest, went up a tree and sniffed the garden. My punishment backfired and he had a great time! After an hour he came back and meowed to be let in and I was so relieved that he survived that I gave him lots of cuddles. (I would have felt so guilty if he'd been lost forever.)

Toi makes me laugh but none of the other kitties appreciate him very much. Except maybe Patora. She seems to like him still...

Thank you for all your hard work

Tetsu was reading the newspaper and I thought this was an interesting advertisement. The picture just seems very Japanese to me. I'm sorry if my picture of a picture isn't very clear. I spread the newspaper on the floor but there was window glare.



Today is March 31 (in Japan). The Toshiba company formally announced this month that they would no longer be producing incandescent light bulbs anymore. 120 years ago (according to the ad) Toshiba introduced the light bulb industry to Japan and so they have a conviction that Toshiba should be forefront in the energy saving frontier. From April 1st Toshiba will exclusively be making only LED light bulbs in cooperation with Japan's policy on saving energy.

So the picture in the newspaper struck me because it seemed like a turning point in history. And if you look closely at the line of uniformed workers in front of the machine line, you will see that they are all bowing to the machines. This is not a picture that has been set up. This is really a group of workers expressing their thanks to the machines!

In Japan there is always a beginning and an end. For impatient me, this has always been hard for me to understand. The school years begin with ceremonies and pledges for hard work. It ends with formal thanks for all the connections and relationships made. Always a lot of speeches, a lot of bowing, a lot of somber looking people standing at attention.

Factories, classes, hospitals, any workplace begins with "Morning Greetings", announcements from the day before, pledges to do your best, everyone there and accounted for. In the factory on the other side of the forest from me I can hear the radio blaring out "Morning exercises" as part of the workers "Morning Greetings" assembly. They do simple calisthenics in the parking lot...

The end is just as important. A passing on of responsibilities to the next person in line, an honoring of the duties completed and an acknowledgement of the wear and tear that the person (or in the case of the Toshiba machinery) endured.

Tetsu even pointed out that Judo practices begin and end with formal bows at the doorway to the gymnasium.

"I will be connected to you for this time period." "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here."

As an American, or maybe just a casual Southern Californian, this has always seemed to me to be a lot of hullabaloo. Let's just start! Forget the speeches. Okay, we've finished! I don't need the flowers and the formal clipped bows.

In this picture of the machinery being laid to rest the workers bow as a way to say "Thank you for all your hard work. Otsukare sama deshita. Progress moves on but we won't forget."

Even though we are in spring vacation, all the children are going to school today. It is the official day to say goodbye to the teachers and faculty at the school. Some teachers are retiring, some are being transferred. The children are encouraged/required to gather at the appointed time to listen to speeches, bow formally and acknowledge the connections that have been made.

"Otsukare sama deshita." "Thank you for all your hard work."

Tomorrow is a new beginning.

Treasures

It snowed yesterday! Again... And even when it doesn't snow, it is cold around here!

I took my camera on a walk yesterday morning and the fields were dusted and the air was filled with snowflakes. I'm ready for spring!




House in 2007












House in 2010





Tetsu and I went past this old house and though I see it daily it did seem to me that it was falling more and more into disrepair. I checked back to blog posts three years ago and yes, here is this house in its better days, but not much better. Tetsu thinks the house will stand another year or so just because it is leaning on a bunch of trees... I think one good earthquake or typhoon and it is gone.

This is the house where the man fell into the well and managed to live a week one winter. I probably walked past him a few times and never noticed him down there... (The well has since been filled in.)

Tetsu and I wonder if the herons are late coming back this year or if they've decided to move someplace else. There are a few around but nothing compared to the air congestion that went on last year. But I found a heron egg along my walk route. Heron eggs are pale blue and about the size of a chicken egg. I don't know if they fall out of the nests or if the crows carry them off but occasionally there will be heron eggs along the road.

And I also found a bird's nest on the ground. (but definitely not a heron's nest. They are huge!) It must have gotten blown out of the tree in one of the storms. I don't know what bird made it, but God sure did give it the instinct to weave something perfect.

Saw a beautiful iridescent pheasant too but he ran off before I could take a picture.

I feel like I'm on a treasure hunt every time I go for a walk.

Therapy Fish

The swimming pool that I go to most evenings also has a hot spa on the other side of the building. And along the walls are posters of various events that are going on during the month. There has been an interesting poster that Tetsu and I couldn't figure out.

"Therapy Fish".

So I asked. "What is a Therapy Fish?"

And the lady at the counter invited me into the spa area to see for myself. "WHAT?"

Yes, that is my foot. And if you look closely you will see the "Therapy Fish". And what do Therapy Fish do? They are supposed to be very good at "eating" the dead skin from your feet. I definitely am glad I am not a therapy fish.

The spa provides benches surrounding a fish tank and people dabble their feet in the water. The fish swim furiously to the toes and heels and slurp up a meal.

When I stuck my foot in the water all the little fishies seemed very "hungry" and latched onto me immediately. Look at that one little guy being pulled out of the water! He was not about to let go! I wondered if therapy fish all have dreams of growing up to be piranhas?

I couldn't get my foot in any farther than this because therapy fish tickle! I let them slurp at my heel for a second so that I could take my picture but that was as much as I could handle. There was also a handmade sign nearby that said "Don't step on the fish" so I was afraid to put my foot down.

I don't think this is going to be a booming business. The little guys are cute and I guess they don't need to be fed (other than your foot) but this is a tactile treat I don't need again.

And I didn't even like pedicures.

Binding

We are on our last step of the Mini Round Robin!

Instruction number 11 (I think) -- Put on binding.

A quilt came to me. My job is to put on binding... Hmmm. Lots of nice circles in this quilt. How about trying something new?

Don't you love how I experiment with other people's quilts? I had some great striped fabric in the right color and right away figured it would make nice bias binding resulting in diagonal lines. Well, if I'm going to make bias binding anyway why not try some curves to tie in with all the circles?

Maybe I should have been gentler with my curves. On the other hand, if nothing else this quilt is interesting. This is so far away from whatever the original person had in mind that at this point whatever is done can't go wrong, or can't go right, depending on how you look at it.

I'm pretty sure the owner of this quilt doesn't visit my blog (there are only two people in the group that do) so I'm showing this here...

Hopefully next month will be the unveiling for all eight Mini Round Robins!

Envelope label

I had a bit of a challenge trying to put a label on the Boxy Stars prayer quilt that we made for our high school friend last week. The Sunday School kids made the label without any guidance from me and it turned out a lot larger than I expected. The Sunday School teacher provided felt pens and fabric but when it was handed to me to sew on I realized that it wouldn't fit on the back without overlapping the Footprints panel that I'd centered...

I didn't want to ask them to do it again but it did seem to be out of place... What to do?

I remembered seeing somewhere about an envelope label that could be sewn onto the back and could hold pertinent information and scraps of fabric for repair work or something. Sort of out of my head I made the label into a square with interfacing and backing and then added Velcro and a button so that it would "fold up". Kind of cute. A young girl can hide something in there I suppose (if she doesn't forget to take it out before she washes the quilt) though I don't know what other purpose an envelope on the back of a quilt might have.

Solved my problem... The label fits now!

Classes

Yesterday I ended up going to Kentucky Fried Chicken for a Japanese style fillet chicken burger (same as normal but with teriyaki sauce), spreading books and papers and notebooks everywhere and trying to get organized for teaching next year. (The school year starts in April.) That turned out to be harder to do than I expected because I forgot my reading glasses.

I teach so many different levels of classes, adults, grade school kids and kindergarten and pre school classes, and use so many different books and websites, and print out so many different levels of English materials, that I get confused about which class is doing what. I've been teaching for years so this is not a new development but maybe my brain is having trouble remembering because I often look at the kids in my classes and think,

"Now what were we doing last week?"

Yesterday I started writing out yearly lesson plans, organizing books, and making a resolution to keep on top of records and plans. A little late but better than never...

And yesterday three more of my students "graduated" which makes me sad and happy at the same time. They were the kids from the class that I disbanded two years ago, three of them came back and we've carried on the same way ever since...

It has always been like pulling teeth to get these two girls and a boy to say anything or do anything. Shy or just little initiative. To the very end just whispers and unsure smiles. Even when playing CLUE last night I thought

"Just move the piece! Why does it take inner consultation with your psyche to decide whether to move towards the Ballroom or towards the Conservatory?"

Sort of like playing a slow game of professional chess... I sound like a grump, don't I.

But these kids have been coming to me for 6 years and I suppose they understand more than they let on. They just don't say anything (in Japanese either.) So I was relieved when we said goodbye because there will be no more teeth pulling. But I was sad because they have been sweet kids and have been on my mind for 6 whole years...

And whether those 6 years made any difference in their lives.... I don't have a clue.