Japanesy

This is the kind of thing that makes you hit your forehead and say, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Of course you have to like the combination.

Don't look now, but...

February is all but over for 2010. Sometimes time really gets away from me.

So, the first week of March - here in Japan - Hina Matsuri is celebrated on the third. This is a holiday just for girls, it's Doll festival. Little girls display their collection of dolls representing the Emperor and Emperess and their court. Doting parents and grandparents buy dolls for the collection. These are not to be played with, but are just for "pretty" and are to be admired.

On the third I will be joining a group of women from OMF and other Missions for the JEMA Ladies Retreat in my favorite place to go in Japan - Karuizawa.

I need a Blue Dentist?

I was all set to show you a couple pictures I took the other day, of an ingenious Japanese condiment dispenser. I took the pictures with my cell phone. In the past I was able to transfer pictures easily to my leg top with Bluetooth. It seems that tonight the cell phone and computer aren't speaking to each other. I'm at a loss.

So, instead, here's a picture for my friend, Ed. In England they call them bollards. What do we call them in the U. S.?

Snow People

It snowed a little last night, as predicted. An inch or two of slushy stuff greeted me as I took the trash out before 8am. I needed to take a short term worker to the train and then to the express train to the airport and then was on my way back to the office. Walking by a newish house, lovely two story in yellow brick with a wall and lovely gate I saw through the gate that someone was building snow people in the yard. So I got my camera out and called in Japanese, "Excuse me, may I take a picture?" She laughed and said "Dozo."

After I took a picture she came to the gate and unlocked it and invited me in to take a closer shot, and while I was fussing with the camera she started asking me questions in Japanese and English, finding out where I was from, my name and where I worked, how long was I in Japan, etc. I answered in as much Japanese as possible, and then English.

Turns out she invited me for tea. I felt that it was a bit quick to accept right away, so I said, certainly, I would love to come sometime. This led to exchange of phone numbers and then to her telling me that she teaches a class in making sushi, and invited me to the next class two and a half weeks from now.

Always something new and exciting here in Japan, all from admiration of some snow people.

Re - make

One of my co-workers gave me a sweater a while ago that her daughter made as a first knitting project for her father. She didn't have the gauge concept mastered yet so the sleeves were rather long, and the sweater was very big for a Japanese person. My friend suggested that I either pick it apart for the yarn or wear it with elastic bands to hold the sleeves above my hands.

I was so impressed that this person started knitting with a sweater with cables that I felt impelled to make it work for me. I took the sleeves and neckband off and repaired one shoulder that was put together a bit crookedly, then using the yarn from one sleeve, I crocheted around the neck and around the armholes. It makes a great vest, I think, and my friend was quite pleased that I was able to wear the finished product.

There was this one thread that I forgot to secure, however...

You know when you've let your blog go too long...

when even your own sister stops checking to see if there's anything new!

Wum, Wom, Warm

Was just out in the brisk breeze to pay a couple of bills (Health Insurance and Water) at the Seven-Eleven. (When they say convenience store here, they mean it!) I was waiting at a crosswalk for the light to change, and a couple was standing slightly behind me. She said something to him I didn't catch and he answered, "wum." She said emphatically, "wom." They said the same words to each other, with the lady clearly enunciating each time, "wom" to which he answered, "wum." The light changed, as we started across, I turned to the lady and said clearly, "warm." We all laughed heartily.