You Must Be Very Strong!

This was the comment of a Japanese friend when she saw me in a short sleeved shirt on a mid-October morning several years ago. The first of October is the day everyone thinks about switching to long sleeves here in Tokyo. The school kids wearing uniforms change over on this day. I had an American friend who worked a while for IBM in Tokyo who was adamant that long sleeves were required as of October first when working there.

Of course, I didn't grow up in Japan, but in America, where everyone is supposed to read the weather forcast or stick their head outside before dressing for the day. Establishing a day to change over goes against the grain of our independent spirit.

My friend's comment really stopped me for a minute, trying to equate strength and short sleeves. I guess it still does.

Quick Change

On Tuesday this week I suffered, along with all the other folks in this part of Japan, through the lingering summer heat and humidity. I think I heard the temperature was 33 degrees Celsius. In any case, too hot for the second half of September. Yesterday, compliments of a passing typhoon, the temperature dropped under ominous skies to a low last night of 13! I almost had to get another blanket out. It rained again, cats and dogs, as I taught my quilt classmates. This afternoon the sun broke through and my guess is that if I went up on the roof of the building or down to the levee by the river, I'd be able to see Mt. Fuji, like last year when I took the picture I use as my Facebook profile. I expect that the weather will get warm again before we have real autumn, but it is nice now for a day or two after the scorchers earlier in the week.

2010 Summer Holiday

No, it's not Christmas in August, or an early Labor Day. The British Language influence on my daily life continues unabated!

Today, I leave for my summer vacation. As I did last year, I am headed for the cool mountains West of Tokyo to stay in the town of Karuizawa.

Life slows down here a wee bit in August. In Ichikawa it's been almost too hot to move in any case. No, it's not hotter than Florida, but instead of getting in my car just outside my house and driving in air conditioned comfort to the air conditioned mall, I get on the very warm seat of my bicycle and propel myself up the street to the small shops, many of which are open to the outside air. Or to church which in our case is air conditioned, but when you've cycled there you sweat a while even in the A/C.

In a couple of hours I'm due to board the Shinkansen at Tokyo station and travel about an hour and 15 minutes to beautiful Karuizawa.

I hope to have some times of total seclusion to refresh my mind, body and spirit. However, when you are a Christian in a non-Christian country (world?) you can't take a break from the duties of being salt and light.

Quilt Exhibit

The day has finally come! We have arranged and hung our work, waiting for tomorrow's opening of our quilt exhibit. An editor from Quilt Tsushin Magazine is supposed to come. I have to give a talk on Sunday afternoon. I'm so tired from all the activity of the past few weeks. It's been fun but I'll be happy when the merry-go-round grinds to a halt

The Annual IVIS Bus Tour

Ichikawa Volunteer Interpreters' Society sponsors a bus tour every year and as one of the itinerant foreigners in their circle (I'm not a member, because I am not fluent in two languages) I was invited again this year. The trip was to two attractions in Chiba Prefecture. First, the Kikkoman Soy Sauce factory and second to Mt Nyotai. As you can see from the picture, they gave us samples at Kikkoman. It was really quite interesting to observe the process for making this staple seasoning.

I was also interested to meet a family who are from the Philippines working with Navigators here in the Tokyo area. It's indeed a small world.

It was a good tour. While sitting in the restaurant at lunchtime on the side of the mountain we experienced a small earthquake. I thought it a particularly apt place to be. One could just picture the whole building just sliding down the mountainside into those lovely rice fields below.

Learning to Quilt

In American English we speak of making quilts. The Japanese talk about patchwork. It's really both - you piece the patches together for the top, add batting and backing, then you quilt. Quilting is the stitching you do to connect the layers.

Stitching, of course, in the quilts of long ago was done by hand. Many modern day quilts are stitched by machine. Since my patches were hand stitched my teacher said that machine quilting would not be appropriate. So, I've spent a lot of time in the last two weeks hand quilting my Japanese Memory Quilt. My finger tips are tender in spite of using a thimble and a special finger cap. Some days I have to give it a rest.

It needs to be finished by about June 20th, my teacher has scheduled an exhibition for her students' work. Yikes!

There are some "in process" pictures on Picasa. Click on a picture on the right. I'll post new ones when I finish.

Another Busy Season

Does your life continue to get busier? Mine has been pretty busy lately with getting ready for summer teams in Serve Japan, regular duties at the Guest Home and visitors. The weather has had some wet and cool spells, but the last two weeks were filled with sightseeing and visiting with an old friend, and today another couple is in Ichikawa and we may be able to get some time to chat before they head back north tomorrow evening.

The picture is of a door at Meji Shrine featuring a carving of the kamon of the Kiri or Paulowina flower.

If you haven't seen enough cherry blossom pictures, here's one from Hakone in the mountains with the bright clear sky behind it. Japan is certainly a beautiful place to be in the spring.