Boxing Day

Among my British friends opinions vary as to why it's called Boxing Day. Here in Japan in the Missionary community many times it is the first day in a long while where there are no deadlines or activities looming.  Church activities are over, family celebrations, if there's been time, are finished and in one last effort you reach out to others in your circle who are important to you. 

I've been invited over the years to share in leftovers of the Christmas meal at the homes of several friends.  This year Christmas fell on a Sunday, so that meant postponement of some activities until all the church events were wrapped up.

Monday, our Director and his Wife invited ten of us to their home for dinner together.  Two Americans, three Singaporeans, three Australians  a Canadian and an Englishman joined this German couple.

We enjoyed ham and chicken curry, rice and potatoes and lots of side dishes followed by pie and cookies.

Some time was taken to sing some songs together and share some encouragements we've received and pray together.

Outside our building our Japanese neighbors were busy taking down any Christmas decorations they may have put up and getting ready for their most important holiday - New Year's Day.

Weaving an Obi

Today Miss Sachiko and I had planned to go to a concert at the I-Link building, but when she arrived Sachiko said there was a Textile Exhibition at a little Gallery in Suwada and today was the last day.  Which did I want to go to.  She knew the answer - Textiles.

The exhibits were mainly obi and kimono or things made from obi or kimono. In the center of the room was a loom and it wasn't too long till a woman in kimono sat down to the loom and began weaving on an obi. She was clearly flattered at the attention of 5 or so people and happy for me to take pictures. Her work is incredible. For example the piece at the right.  It's something easily recognized in Japan - take no ko (maybe literally "little one of the bamboo") Americans probably won't recognize this as the source of their "bamboo shoots" but here it is sold in the spring - whole, looking something like this.

Here is the weaver at the loom happily chatting away while weaving.  Her base warp thread is white and her pattern was being worked in gold, bronze, green and yellow mainly. The loom itself was a thing of beauty. Her work was varied and really quite interesting.  I find that the photos I took show more dimension that I noticed when looking at them. I also found my own reflection in some of the framed pieces :-/




To see the whole set please go to the link here: https://picasaweb.google.com/107123733477272247567/AWalkAndAnExhibition#

A Year of Difficult Things

I'm sure I'm not alone in having difficulty remembering much of consequence that happened to me or that I did or saw this year prior to what everyone refers to as 3/11. The triple disasters in Japan have colored and changed much of what is said and done here even now, nearly 9 months later. Experiencing the earthquake in it's milder form here in Ichikawa was frightening, I was alone at the time. When the shaking stopped, no one quite seemed to know what to do next. It seems we've spent the days and months since making up our own script. It's been difficult, but taken as it was given, in increments, we were able to mostly figure it out.

The very day of the earthquake, my friends and coworkers, the Aylings learned of the return of a long dormant cancer that would change their plans, and mine too, in time. When it was determined that stronger action needed to be taken, they made preparations for returning to England for an early retirement. It seemed a natural decision to offer to step into the breach in running the Guest Home. I had, after all, done it before, albeit in a less busy era when I was ten years younger and, as I realize now, was much more actively supported by my co-workers.
 
It didn't seem, when I left the US almost exactly three years ago that I would ever be able to work here this long. My finances, while adequate throughout the time, are now on a different footing, and even though I am providing a service for the mission, and to quote our business manager, I'm "cheap as chips to keep on the field," I loathe the thought that I might not be holding up my end financially here. It's difficult.

As I said, I'm here three years - on a three year visa.  I had to make application for extension. The last time I did this was in 2002. I remember it as being a confusing process that involved lots of form filling and waiting with a large group of other aliens until one's number was called, then answering questions asked by officials in Japanese. Last time, a bilingual colleague went with me and fielded the Japanese. This time no one stepped in to that gap. Our Admin Assistant, however, was asked to prepare paperwork for me. I didn't like the idea of going on my own. I anticipated difficulty, and feeling stupid. Afterward, despite having to ask directions to the monorail several times and walking to the wrong building, it went exceptionally well. I especially appreciated all that our Japanese staff did on the paperwork/instruction side of things.

There were difficult separations this year as a cherished coworker got married  and moved to another part of Japan, a colleague and her family left for Home Assignment in Northern Ireland, and Our Dear Ruth went to be with Jesus.

So what's the moral to this story? I've got a little less than a month to decide.

Two Turkey Dinners and a Lot of Thanks

Since I arrived in Tokyo in 2008 I have spent Thanksgiving Days doing what ever the normal work schedule called for. There just weren't any Americans among my colleagues on the Ichikawa side of the city to celebrate with. This year, however, we have a Serve Japan Worker here at JHQ from the US.

We decided a few weeks ago to do a Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday and invited our coworkers in the office. The ones who were in that day were mostly Japanese which always makes for lively conversation about American traditions, recipes, and finding the proper ingredients in Japan. We had fun and we were thankful together. I found when it was all finished and cleaned up that I am out of shape for cooking for a group!

Shortly after we had made the decision to do an Ichikawa Thanksgiving, we were invited to a dinner to be made in the main by American friends on the other side of Tokyo on Friday.  The choice of day was due to the children's school schedule.

The Thompsons, The Driscolls,
Christine and me

So we made what we pledged to contribute to dinner, and in the early afternoon started the hour and 10 minute trek by way of three different trains to our destination. We were 11 in number, and 5 of those were young men in the upper grades of secondary school. Two turkeys were prepared with all of the attendant side dishes and desserts in an effort to satisfy every one's appetite.  I think we might have come close. No question the adults had enough or a bit more than enough, but with boys that age any meal is at best a stop-gap measure.

I'm thankful for friends who think of you on special days like this, for lovely food prepared by loving people, for hospitality, for trains that run regularly and on time to the places you want to go, for relatively safe environments in the places I walk at most any time of day or night, good weather, fun conversations, and most of all for a Loving Heavenly Father who cares for us and about us.

Yokohama Quilt Week 2011

"Festival!"

I was able to visit this annual show sponsored by Patchwork Tsushin Magazine with my quilting Sensei again this year. I took photos of many of the pieces where photography was permitted.  You can view them in my Picasa Photo Gallery. The quickest way to get there from here is to click on one of the slide shows running to the right.

As always, from the first time I saw a quilt made by a Japanese artisan sometime in the 1990's, I was totally impressed by the tremendous amount of work that went into the individual works. Also the great artistic sense, the freedom to experiment, and tendency to intense detail. Take a look, and see if you don't agree.

Feeling Old?



Hanako

This is for several of my good friends had birthdays recently.  You know who you are. 

On my recent visit to the Kichijoji area I took a walk one day through Inokashira Park.  There is a zoo inside the park that I had heard about, and since I had never been to a zoo in Japan, I thought I'd take a look. This zoo is small and rather old fashioned. The star of the zoo is the lady pictured above, Hanako the Elephant.  I read some of the literature about the zoo and found that she was born in Thailand and came to the Ueno Zoo when she was two years old, in 1949. Well, guess what, she's the same age as I am! Looking at her I had very mixed feelings. 

You can see more pictures from Kitchijoji and Inokashira in the slide show running to the right. If you click on the slide it will take you to the album where you can see the pictures and captions individually.

I got a little surprise when I came upon the fellow in the picture here.  The sign said he and his mate were from America and that they are Capybara.  For some unknown reason I had a mental image of a capybara being about the size of a cat. Well I was wrong.  These guys were as big as hogs. Not really exuding much charm either.

Shopping in Kitchijoji

The window of a shop on a side street in Kitchijoji shows clothing from America and proudly states that they are made by foreigners. I was in this part of Tokyo recently and was really excited to see so many different shops that were new to me. It's a really popular place these days with young people, and it swirls with activity.

There were lots of import shops. I could find many things from boxes of Jello to my favorite Digestive Biscuits in one shop with mostly food and household items. At the quilt shop there were fabrics from the US and the UK as well as great stuff from Japan. Other shops had things from India, Nepal, Pakistan.

This shop was in the station and sold fabrics from France. The cute girl on the right was one of the staff and went out of her way to speak and try to understand me as I asked questions in Japanese when I could and English when my vocabulary failed me.  They had a basket of remnants and I came home with a piece of canvas weight fabric in narrow bright stripes.  It'll be a great summer bag.

This shop was pure Japanese, selling pickled daikon and other pickled vegetables.

I actually spent almost two days altogether looking around this town and walking between the shopping area and where I was staying in the next town, Mitaka.

It was different enough that I felt like I was really far from work and the day to day stresses and strains.  I came back to Ichikawa really refreshed.