Snow

We've had our first snow of the year.  Not much by Northern Japan standards but enough to put public transportation on hold and to have students call and say they were leary of driving on the icy roads.  Choco and I took the opportunity to check out the snowy fields.

Choco had a great time.

I thought we were in a fenced in area but Choco crawled under a fence and disappeared into the woods separating the fields from a deep river.

"Please don't fall in the river... Please don't fall in the river."

Choco finally came back of her own accord and had a bit of trouble crawling BACK under the fence.

Happy dog!
 

Random things

Ramblings today.

I'm at the binding stage of the Fiery Starr quilt...  So close to finishing...

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Y-kun came to English last week... with both arms in casts!  During the winter vacation he was playing with his dog and fell into a ditch in front of his house.  He is as cheerful and hyper as always though, casts don't seem to slow him down much.  He had bags of vegetables hanging off his arms and was running from his grandmother's car.  He didn't want me to photograph him though.  Embarrassed?  And he found it difficult to do hold a pencil so though the other boys cried "unfair" I let Y-kun dictate answers to me in his workbook.  Anyway, Y-kun seems fine despite his injuries but you might want to pray for his Grandmother... She really didn't need to have a temporarily disabled grandchild on her hands amongst other things.

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And with lack of any other handwork to do I decided to sew up a Pine Burr block from one of Yoko Saito's books.  No real purpose in mind for this...  I just wanted something to hand sew.  This is actually quite a dilly so I may stop here and just have an orphan block.  Or this may be my 'fall back' pattern and I'll work on another block or two whenever my hands are free.  Don't expect much more.

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Umm..  Another kimono picture?  Sunday afternoon another neighbor girl came over to show me her Coming of Age kimono.

Quite a difference from yesterday's young lady isn't she?  I've known S-chan since she was a baby and she has always been an independent type of girl.  You can see that not all Japanese young women are the quiet, innocent stereotype.  (S-chan was the neighbor that had considered adopting Mi.  She's a real animal lover.) S-chan isn't a blog visitor but I think I'll refrain from enlarging on my opinion of her make-up. Maybe she has a head start in the theater world?

Coming of Age Day

Today is "Coming of Age Day" in Japan.  For some reason it was celebrated yesterday in my area.

20 years of age is the official age for being considered an adult in Japan.  From age 20 one can legally vote and legally drink.  The cities hold ceremonies involving politicians and educators and speeches are given pertaining to the responsibilities of being an adult citizen in Japan.

All this is hear-say.  Neither of my kids attended their Coming of Age ceremony nor were even in Japan when they were 20.

However, for all the seriousness, the gaiety of the Coming of Age Day takes precedence in many peoples' minds.  Parents and daughters especially have been preparing for this day by making reservations for renting kimonos and getting the girls' hair done.  I have to admit, when I realized Leiya wasn't going to be around for the Coming of Age Day (four years ago for her), I was a bit disappointed that she would miss out on the chance to get all dressed up in kimono.  Of course the money we saved on that venture allows her a trip back to Japan!  A lot of money is moved for Coming of Age Day.

My neighbor asked me if I would be around in the morning after her daughter went to the beauty parlor and was dressed in kimono (and before the city ceremony), so around 8:00 Megumi-chan came by.  One GORGEOUS girl, one GORGEOUS kimono!

 

Megumi-chan explained that she decided on this kimono last February.  Everyone is renting the kimono on basically the same day so the earlier a person goes looking, the better chance she has of finding a kimono that suits her.

Megumi-chan chose a light pink kimono with cherry blossoms (sakura) all over it and a dark belt (obi) that also had a sakura motif.  

 

She said she chose the pink kimono over a more somber one because a woman can only wear these bright colors when she is very young.  There is a smattering of embroidery on some of those flowers.

There are so many ways that this obi can be tied, the fancier the better for the Coming of Age Day.  

The kimono you notice has these very long sleeves called furisode (swinging sleeves).  A married woman isn't supposed to wear a long sleeved kimono.

The kimono itself has decorative ties all over it partly for holding it in place, partly for decoration.  The way the cording is tied on the obi is very artistic.  And the small handkerchief like flower over the belt I've never seen before.

And the flowers in Megumi-chan's hair were real preserved flowers rather than silk ones that are usually used.

Even Megumi-chan's sandals (zori) had a sakura motif.

As Tetsu points out, Megumi-chan's mother looks more like an older sister.  Mother, people, mother!  But what a proud mother.  Don't the two of them look happy?  Ah~~ makes me a little envious. 

Megu-chan.  You are absolutely beautiful.  Thank you for including me in your special day.

Trip to Tokyo

Yesterday Tetsu surprised me with another day trip.  He's been talking about going to Tokyo to climb a mountain.

"Do you want to go by train or by bus or by car?"

I've complained about our car trips because we tend to just follow the GPS and take the long way around and spend a lot of time looking for parking.  And we also make lots of stops and load up on crackers and chocolate and don't move muscle and only eat the whole trip long.

"Let's do a train trip!"

My image of a train trip is a leisurely journey through the countryside, sitting on seats that face each other with a pot of tea between the passengers.  Maybe we could enjoy a beautiful station lunch box while I photograph the passing scenery.

Anyway, we'd talked about going to Tokyo but Tetsu informed me that he had to work yesterday.  HOWEVER, true to form, as we were walking Choco at 7:00 am, Tetsu suddenly decides that he WON'T go to work and we WILL go to Tokyo today!

Hurry home and check the Internet for train schedules.  Pull out an old backpack,  Plug in the camera battery and cell phone battery for a whole 15 minutes before we raced off to the station without breakfast!

This is our little country station.

The two car train that runs between Nikko and the larger town of Utsunomiya was mostly filled with students hooked to their Ipods and studying various textbooks.  On a Saturday!  The train trip takes about 30 minutes and then Tetsu and I RAN to the train leaving for Tokyo.  No time for breakfast here either!  Quick, grab a seat!  This train turned out to be a local train (Tetsu doesn't believe in riding the Bullet Train I guess) and the benches sat facing the center so I never did see what was going past the window.  The most I saw was some businessmens' briefcaes and a lot of coats.

Two hours later we arrived in Tokyo.

"Run!  We've got to FIND the next train line."

The Shinjuku station is like a maze with lines of people going in all directions at once.  It took a lot of energy to just not lose sight of Tetsu as he wove in and out of crowds and went up and down stairs.  With 10 minutes to spare we bought a convenience store tuna sandwich and hot tea for our late breakfast.

"We'll eat something when we get to the mountain."

On the next train the people gradually thinned out as we got closer to our destination.  I found time to look around a bit and noticed this sign.  It seems that this train line has had the most incidents involving molesters so the line keeps one train car for women only...  And since then other train lines have had to follow suit.  Not enough people on this Saturday morning to worry about molesters (as if I would have to...)

And finally to the mountain.

"RUN!  The cable car is leaving the station!"

Another jog and up the mountain we went.  We were visiting Mt. Takao which is one of the most popular mountains in Tokyo.  Popular is right!  More and more crowds heading up the mountain!

And at the top a shrine that was a bazaar of good luck trinkets.  How many ways can I spend my money here?  COUNTLESS WAYS!

How about twirling a "Confession" stone for a quick way to say prayers?

Or maybe tie on 5 yen pieces in a prayer for fortunate meetings.

We stopped for dumplings.  Yum!

And at the top of Mt. Takao.... Hey!!  We can see Mt. Fuji!  Well, this was worth coming to!  The amateur photographers abounded.

 My attempt to photograph Mt. Fuji.

At one of the little shops at the top of the mountain we enjoyed a bowel of buckwheat noodles.  Finally, breakfast!  (Or lunch).

After a bit of walking along the trails we headed back to Tokyo and back to the main Shinjuku station.  Tetsu's next sudden change of plans...

"Let's visit the Tokyo Capital Building."

The Tokyo Capital building has two observation decks on the 45 floors so of course we had to check them out.

A few views of Tokyo from above.  What a metropolis!

Hmm.  I guess I can't imagine living in Tokyo.  Not my cup of tea.

And finally...

A last view of Mt. Fuji at sunset.

The sun is going... going...

Gone.

Tetsu and I rode the trains back to Nikko.  Do you know the tales of being hand packed into train cars by station attendants?  You'd better believe it!  Ours was NOT a relaxing trip back to Nikko.  More like sardines.  I was pressed up against Tetsu so close... I was reminded of why the trains need women only cars.

Well... we did get a lot of exercise and didn't have time to eat very much...  Even so, I think we've decided to do our traveling by car next time.
 

***** of life

This is not something I like to admit... and maybe it is not a polite topic of conversation.... and maybe I'm having second thoughts since there are male blog readers... BUT ANYWAY.... I consulted a doctor yesterday about menopause symptoms.

Let's see...  This year I will be 58.  I have never had American friends or family members discuss the change of life but it is a fairly common topic between my Japanese friends.  Some people complain about physical changes, some people complain about irritability or slight depression.  I've always prided myself on my health and ability to buckle up and work through things but honestly!

At least 4 years ago (I remember... I was in the States that summer) I would wake up in the middle of the night overheated!  My oh my!  These California summer nights are something!  But nobody else seemed to notice and I remained overheated when I came back to Japan... and on into the fall... and on into the winter.

Rats.  I know what is coming.

And that's the way it has been for the past four years.  An occasional private heat wave during the day, oven baking episodes every single night.  It got so that I'd wake up in the morning naked!  Sometime during the night I'd have discarded my pajamas and be lying on the futon exposed to the world!

This actually could be a dangerous situation.  Right now our bedroom temperature drops below zero at night.  The windows freeze shut, the curtains freeze to the window sill.  And there I am in all my glory!  In the mornings Tetsu will look over at me and say in a concerned voice,

"Are you alright?  It is freezing in here and you have nothing on."

I one time consulted a gyn but he felt hormone therapy was worse than the symptoms themselves.  Bear with it Ma'am.

This week I've been seeing a doctor about my mysterious achy neck... and while I was there I approached him about menopause symptoms.  Oh yes!  He definitely recommended Chinese herbal medicine, a mild, traditional way of treatment.  Okay... 

I know that Chinese herbal medicine is actually very popular in Japan but I didn't know that a regular doctor (considered Western medicine) would prescribe Chinese herbs.  They are not really herbs anyway, the medicine is powdered herb extract so my vision of mysterious jars of leaves and nuts was dispelled when I was handed little aluminum packets of powers.  (Picture from the Internet.)

"Dissolve one packet twice a day in hot water.  There are many different combinations of herbs so it may take a while to find one that works best for you but this combination is good for cold sensitivity, menopause symptoms, stiff shoulders, back ache and irritable bowel symptoms."

That should cover it. Hopefully I will soon be enjoying a good night's sleep. And maybe I'll be able to go back to quilting without a neck ache."

Random scenery

Even though my camera isn't a big heavy thing, the two extra lenses that I have add weight to the camera/handbag.  The weight doesn't seem to deter me from  carrying my camera with me at all times and I'm getting pretty handy at pulling over while driving and snapping a picture out the driver's window.

 

The sunset pictures were taken yesterday afternoon around 4:30. Driving home from the supermarket I turned into a farmer's driveway and took this picture.

 

The sun was so large and orange in the sky!

 And a few days ago the clouds were shining in the sky so I tried photographing them too.

This is the scenery from just behind my house on the road between the rice fields.  I love the way the mist rises from the fields after a rainy day.

 

On another rainy day I admired a high tension tower at the entrance to a mountain tunnel.  I'm not a fan of these high tension wires that crisscross the landscape but this one looked like a lone sentinel standing guard over the forest and valley.  Sort of lovely in a man made way.

Quilting more feathers

The new school year has started.  And it's Wednesday...  So off I go to the kindergarten.  Back to Wordless (or at least "less words") Wednesdays.

I sewed another edge of feathers on the Fiery Starr quilt...  I think I've determined that with this size quilt, on my domestic machine, with a lot of quilt wrestling; that the result is stiff shoulders and a neck ache.  Although I didn't spend a huge hunk of time quilting this a couple of days ago, I've been achy ever since... Just like at the end of December when I put in a marathon quilting day.  Maybe I should give up my dream of being a machine quilter?

Have to run!!  The kindergarten kids are waiting!