Cushion(s)

I haven't been too faithful about visiting the sewing room, but last week I did put together another applique block this time using Sharon Schambler's method of applique (cut fabric to size but instead of fusing, use glue). It went way faster and easier but it doesn't give the hand made look of folded under edges. When it is quilted the difference isn't so obvious.

I chose a block from the Hop To It book again and am following the directions for making a cushion. Rats, my block choice seems to have gotten lost under the border (I'm also making another cushion with the first applique block I'd made so they have to have the same border...) These things happen...

I was planning to do meandering quilting around the applique but it was getting so complicated that I took that all out. Maybe I'll leave the center this way... And I'm trying sashiko quilting on the back of the cushion which seems like a waste but I wanted to try my hand again.

I sure would like to finish two cushions this weekend but I think I've got a busy schedule and won't be able to get back to this for awhile...

On duty

Yesterday I met police officers and city officials and bowed hundreds of times and said "Yoroshiku ongegai shimasu." "Please be so kind as to regard me favorably." (Take my word for it. That's what you say in any and all situations in Japan.) I am officially a crosswalk guard.

And this morning I finished my first hour of crosswalk duty. It takes me as long to get dressed as it does to do the duty (not true but it seems like it). I HOPE that this is the last picture of me dressed as a crosswalk guard for awhile on this blog. Tetsu seemed to think it necessary to record my leaving for the historic event.

The uniform is still too large and yes I called the city hall and asked if they could replace it with a smaller size but no, they can't. I've asked a seamstress friend to come and look at it today but she just laughed when she saw the pictures on my blog and told me to call the city hall. I may or may not be on the sewing machine this afternoon trying to take in a few seams...

And I've found another uniform glitch. You cat owners will probably sympathise with me when I say that I am somewhat limited when wearing clothes. (Now you know why I only wear jeans.) For one, I don't wear black. I would like to wear black because it is supposed to be slenderizing but I don't unless I want a cloud of cat hairs on my rear end. There are also some fabrics that catch the cat hair more than others so I go around in stores running my fingers over fabric trying to determine what is and is not cat proof.

My uniform is NOT cat proof. I have tried the uniform on twice. It has been hanging on a hanger in the corner of the room. Even so when I put it on this morning Tetsu had to go over me with the sticky roller. I doubt that he is going to do this for me every morning. And when I came back from duty I find cat hair "clouds" here and there UNDER the jacket. How did they get there? My crosswalk guard uniform ATTRACTS cat hair!

Still, all the children safely made it across the crosswalk this morning with me blowing my whistle and waving my flag. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Weekend tour

I did a little sightseeing this weekend. Nothing too exciting and actually we were looking for cherry blossoms to view but it is a little too early in my part of Japan.

I went to visit my good friend Kaoru-san, in her new condominium in the city and we decided to check out the city parks to see if the cherry blossoms had bloomed. This is just a pretty shrine right in the middle of the city with tall buildings and busy traffic just a path away. It is always interesting to me to see how Japan combines modern and historic within a short distance from each other.

And at the park we found a relief of a famous sumo wrestler who had once lived nearby. Supposedly this is a life size relief of him.

I thought this was interesting pedestrian sign that had obviously once been centered over the pedestrian walkway. A building was being built or taken down (I don't know which) and the sign had been moved aside in order to make room for the protecting fence. The sign was still doing its job in a lopsided sort of way...

The next day Tetsu and I were still looking for cherry blossoms and as usual got lost in the process (sigh...) We ended up at a parking lot and since parking attendants were directing people up the mountain, up the mountain we went. Another shrine.

In fact, shrines. I thought this was interesting because there was this little building with offering boxes in front of each prayer window and people were throwing coins into each box, saying their prayers, taking a step to the right and doing the same thing over and over. Supposedly if you prayed at each window it was equivalent of visiting each of the major shrines of Japan. A convenient way to do it if you don't have time to go cross country.

Tetsu and I "landed" in a historical town that is supposed to be very interesting to sightseers but since we had stumbled onto the town after getting lost for a couple of hours we never saw the sights, just walked up one side of the street and came down the other. I liked the broom and basket store.

Here is a shot of a bicycle shop we found. Isn't that colorful! But I would want the whole spectrum of colors in my garage to get the full effect, not just one pink bicycle...

That's my tour of the weekend.

Alone

A young woman from the Philippines called our church this week asking for help. The pastor responded and the church members jumped in to give aid. A young mother with a two month old baby, and a Japanese older husband who works long hours. Being left alone day after day with a crying baby. Not being able to sleep or eat. Not knowing if something was wrong with the child. Not being able to communicate in Japanese. Not having friends or family to depend upon. Postpartum blues is too mild a word. The young woman had had or was on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

The husband was called. He wouldn't be able to come until evening. The young mother and baby went home with one of the church members. Warm clothing was offered (whether she didn't have clothing or just was so stressed that she didn't realize it isn't summer, I don't know). Food and a bath were taken gratefully. City Hotline telephone numbers were jotted down. But the bottom line is that she has a husband and he must make the decision to get the woman help. In turn, we church members felt very helpless.

The general opinion is that the young mother is shut off from the rest of the world with a baby and that would drive anyone boggles. And there is a language barrier (she didn't speak English and only the basics of Japanese). But Tetsu and I see many parallels between the young foreign wives that come to Japan and myself. (A similar situation happened a few years ago involving an Iranian woman.) How was it that I made it through those baby years without going completely batty?

Tetsu too worked (works) long hours. By the time Takumi was born I'd lived in Japan five years and my Japanese was fair. We had lost our first child two years earlier though, and I was at the top of the neurotic new mother pyramid. A recent move to a new city meant that besides our church family, I had no friends or people to talk to. Takumi had mild eczema, he wouldn't nurse and Tetsu and I took turns walking a crying baby around a neighborhood park at night (hoping not to disturb our apartment neighbors). After a month I was at the end of my rope.

One day I took my crying baby to the park again and sat on a bench crying with him. Another young mother and baby came by and I apologized for all the noise telling her that my baby wouldn't nurse and I didn't know what to do. Right away the mother gave me the telephone of a place that would help new mothers breastfeed their babies and I had Tetsu call and take me there the next day.

I'm sure that that breastfeeding center saved my sanity.

Everyday I would go to the center for a breast massage and then sit around with the other mothers and breast feed our babies. After another massage I'd go back home and record the measurements of how much, how long, how many times, counting the hours until I could go back to the center. The midwife in charge saw how intent I was on following her every smidgen of advice and after a month or two she stopped charging me altogether. I followed her strict diet (losing about 20 pounds. It's amazing what one can do for their child but can't do for themselves!) in order to produce delicious breast milk and just listening to the other cheerful mothers, having an authority figure tell me what to do and seeing other babies who had terrible disfiguring eczema (many mothers were there to purify their breast milk in order to relieve their child of eczema) made me realize my blessings and get my mind off of my "problems".

I don't know how I or others can help the young woman that cried out to us on Sunday... She does need some professional help... But I'm prayerfully keeping her in my heart and I'll reach out to her if she calls again. She needs a friend.

Knitting done

I finished my knitting and need to get it in the post to Leiya before the school semester ends. The blocking really helps shape it but I'll have to remember to tell Leiya that a good steaming every now and then will keep it looking nice. I wonder if she even owns an iron...

I got to the the very last rim around the neck and down the front and ran out of yarn. Wouldn't you know... Isn't that called Murphy's law or something. So I called the yarn shop and asked them to order me one more skein of yarn in such and such a color and such and such a lot number. They didn't think they could do that but even when buying the yarn I'd noticed the difference in color shades in just the lots. Well they came through and found the right lot for me.

Such a tiny bit more needed and that left me with practically a whole skein of yarn. I checked around on the Ravelry website and found "necklaces" that could be crocheted and with a little improvisation I came up with the rose necklace. I think it can double as a corsage. Or maybe in a pinch a hair decoration (that may be stretching it a bit.) I liked the way the strands can be pulled to whatever length you want or just wrapped around etc. I found the necklace idea here.

Okay Leiya, this is the best I can do right now. Next time I hope I can make something for you with you sitting by my side.

Promised fashion show

Okay. Fashion show time. I am so embarrassed to show these pictures but I promised. Before we started, Tetsu said,

"What's to be embarrassed about? I'm sure you are going to look great."

Lovely husband. Then I put on my uniform and told him I was ready to have my picture taken.

"Wah-ha-ha!!! Look at you!! That is hilarious!"

Bad husband. You are not supposed to laugh at me....

Here I am as a regular crosswalk guard. (Until May 1st.) Long pants. Glory. Don't I look chubby. I blame most of that because Tetsu kept taking pictures of me from ground level. And while Tetsu and I gave measurements on the larger side, the traffic organization ordered on the larger side too so I'd say all around this uniform is too large.

Here is the rain wear. Rainy season starts sometime in May. The hood is supposed to be used to protect the hat from becoming floppy.

And the same rain wear but with the helmet. I have no idea when I'm supposed to wear the helmet. I should have held the crosswalk flag the other way. The characters are all backwards in this picture...

And this is the winter fashion. Heavy jacket and heavy white gloves. Maybe I'm supposed to wear the white rain boots too. I'm not sure about that.

Here I am in the uniform I'm supposed to wear from May 1st to May 31st. Me in a skirt. How many years has it been? Yes, I know I'll have to iron the skirt.

And this is the summer uniform. The shirt is blue and there is another shirt with long sleeves. I don't have to wear the neck tie during the summer.

I don't think I'll make fashion queen. There must be some way to wear all this in a more attractive way... Stand up straighter? Lose some weight?

Tetsu kept mumbling as we took pictures,

"This whole shebang is costing the city at least $5000."

His final comment (to the cats) was,

"Well, what do you think? I think the city is putting out far too much effort on fashion and not even hitting the mark very well."

Thank you, Tetsu.

Hey look! I could even moonlight as a tour guide!

Delivery

Yesterday my uniform came! Make that uniforms. I can't have a fashion show yet because I need Tetsu around to take pictures.

Around 2:30 someone from the city hall called me and asked if I could come today (Friday) to try on my uniform. Sorry, no. I have someplace to go on Friday. How about now? The lady from the city hall was willing (insisted) that she would be over right away with my uniform. Scurry around the house and clean up a bit.

About 30 minutes later here comes the lady from the city hall lugging TWO BIG BOXES into my entryway! Oh dear, she didn't say she was moving in.

This was a very nice lady, but VERY businesslike in a masculine sort of way.

"Oh my. You certainly have a lot of cats. I hate dogs."

She didn't mention whether she hated cats... sort of left that up in the air but she made numerous comments about their presence. Why is it when you don't want the cats to be friendly they are?! Climbing into her boxes, checking out the wrapping paper, jumping up on her papers.

"Very aggressive cats you have here."

(Throw a few cats into the next room hoping they will have forgotten how to open the door. They didn't. They DID use the opportunity to use the cat box though. Usually I can't tell when the cats use the cat box... This day WE could... sniff, sniff.)

"Okay. Let's do inventory. Here is the helmet."

(Helmet?! I'm going to wear a helmet?!)

"Here is the jacket and the official badge and the official pin. Here is the shoulder braid and the whistle and the armband. These need to be transferred to whichever uniform you are required to wear that day."

"Here is a pair of pants. Try them on now. You will have to hem them yourself. Now put on the shirt and the necktie. Over all that goes the vest. Looking good. Here is the cute little hat. Oh, that really turns you into an official crosswalk guard! Make sure the shoes fit. And round it all off with the white cotton gloves."

(White cotton gloves?!)

"Okay. Take that all off and now put this on. Here is the winter skirt."

(sigh... I'm really going to be wearing skirts...)

"Here is the summer one. Here are two short sleeved summer shirts and here are two long sleeved summer shirts. Use those at your discretion."

"Now for the extras. The helmet of course. The hat. Don't wear the hat in the rain. It has cardboard inside and will go flop. You don't want to be wearing a floppy hat. You might think about wearing your hair away from your ears. Hearing the traffic is as important as watching the traffic. Here are the rain wear and the rain boots. And here are the winter coat and winter gloves. And last but not least, here is the crosswalk flag. See, it has a whistle button."

TTTTWWWWEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!

(Thank you. That's one way to get rid of the cats....)

"You wear this uniform from May 1st to May 31st. You wear this one from June 1st to September 30th. And you wear this one again from October 1st to October 31. All the other days you wear this one."

(You have completely lost me....)

"And then read this booklet which is VERY IMPORTANT."

(I can't read Japanese.....)

"Remember. You are now an employee of Nikko City. Regard your position seriously and consider yourself a visible representative of the public. No chatting on duty, no using your cell phone and be very careful that your language is correct and polite. "

(You do remember that I don't speak Japanese so well....?)

"Report to the City Hall on Wednesday for the swearing in ceremony. We will then take you to the police station to meet the chief of police."

(Good glory, they are already putting me away.)

"Congratulations on your new job. We look forward to having you be a part of the Nikko City Traffic Safety Organization for many years to come. 10 years at least! That's how long it would take for the city to get its money's worth from the uniforms. Good-bye and good luck!"

I haven't even started working yet but I'm tired out already.

Not that I didn't expect all this... I really did. I'm going out to buy some rubber bands for my hair today...

Here I am with the former crosswalk guard... Think I can turn into him overnight?