A friend and I went to the Hard Off. You may remember me talking about it here. Anyway, I bought some Japanese dishes that I thought were gorgeous. What do you think?
The platters:
Here are the normal bowls:
And smaller bowl with a lip:
I wanted to leave Japan with some unique Japanese furniture and last Thursday the opportunity presented itself at a Bazaar. We bought a jewelry box, a tonsu and a bar. The woman selling the furniture told us that the brass on the bar is over 100 years old, a lotus and promotes peace and harmony. I figured that was the only way to get happy drunks in the house.
I ended up pushing the bookcase over and putting the cat tree in front of the window. The next place we rent won’t be nearly as small (I’m crossing my fingers).
I put the Tonsu in the office. Another guest bed will eventually go there, but until then, the boys have a new toy.
We got a new channel the other day on JCom. They did away with the Reality TV (we never watched it since they usually only played episodes of Cheaters and court room dramas..yikes). So we got the SciFi channel, which would thrill my dad and my father in law if they were here. And since it’s a brand new channel, they’re playing all pilots. I’ve seen the pilot of both the X-Files and Quantum Leap. I loved both shows as a kid, but my first love was Quantum Leap. It’s highly embarrassing now, but as a 10 year old I loved Scott Bakula. I thought he was dreamy. OMG.
And now? What a weird 10 year old I was! Whose 10 year has a crush on this guy? D.J. is laughing and pointing at me, saying, “I know! This one, right here!” Must have been the streak of gray through the hair that dazzled me so.
Friday night I got a call from D.J. They were in port, but weren’t allowed to leave the ship because they were finishing up the exercise. Shara got home that day as well and came to meet Michelle and I for dinner at the Daiei. She stayed at our house that night and I had to be back near the base at 8am Saturday morning. I have a lesson very early. After the lesson I began heading back home and D.J. called to tell me that he was done and I could pick him up. So, after I quick U-turn, I was back on base and waiting at the dock. The weather was really nice so when we got home, I made a stir-fry for lunch and we ate out on the patio. We broke out the hookah and tried apple and then grape tobacco.
I think Shara enjoyed the tobacco.
Zorro was jealous. We took him out later on the leash.
Doesn’t D.J. look so cute? He had been awake all night.
Then D.J. and I went to Kamakura on Sunday to view the cherry blossoms. They’re a little past their peak, but still beautiful.
And I can’t go anywhere without seeing him.
Ahhhhh….spring. The weather was nice (it’s cloudy and sprinkling now) and warm with a slightly cool breeze that got cooler as the day went on. I did enjoy it!
I don’t have any classes at school this week, so I’ve had a bit of extra free time. In that time I decided to do a bit of cooking. I’ve made a couple of recipes from Renee Loux’s book and they have been yummy. But, I also decided to make a big salad to last me a couple of days. And in this salad I decided to use my Japanese mandoline to cut the cucumber. Why has no one ever heard of this device? People keep thinking that I mauled my thumb with the musical instrument. Alas, no…I’m not quite that unlucky. It was this:
I took the picture from the Williams Sonoma website and mine doesn’t have any of the fancy safety features. Hence why my thumb hurts now. I cut quite a good chunk from the top and it bled profusely for a good two hours. I haven’t changed the bandage today, mostly because I’m afraid to, but it’ll get done eventually. I also got a tetanus shot at the doc’s yesterday. So now my left arm and my right thumb hurts. I guess this is what I get for having too much free time. Ouch!
The temperature has been hanging out in the upper 60′s and low 70′s. Although at the moment it’s chilly and clouds are moving out after the night rain, I have a feeling it’ll be another beautiful day. And I took some photos as I walked to the train station the other day, so I feel I must share.
I love the orange trees growing right next to the stained glass window.
But, my first sight of that day was the daisy. Perky and bright.
These little red flowers were sitting next to the path that leads down into the woods. The one that gets me to the train station.
These trees are new to me. I’ve never seen anything like them.
I liked this picture of the fence that I follow down the mountain.
And lastly, these trees are gorgeous and smell amazing. I felt like I was back in Hawaii for a moment as I walked past. <sigh>
I saw this article on the BBC news and just had to post it. As if coming across a bear in a darkened alley wasn’t frightening enough…now we’ve got one with a rap sheet.
I’m very excited because I finally got my camera! I ordered it around Christmas, but it first had to go to my father-in-law due to shipping restrictions and then he sent it to us. And it took the slow boat over so it took awhile. But it’s here! Yea! I got a Nikon D40x and it’s super fun. The camera is awesome, although the photographer leaves a little to be desired.
I went to a lunch at Kayo’s house for girls day on Saturday. Her daughter is one of my seven year old students and we had a very nice time. Although, they did get me pretty drunk. We started with beer at noon and I probably had six beers. That along with the two bottles of white wine and I was feeling pretty good. I left around six in the evening and walked back uphill to my house. Apparently I called Shara and we talked for a little while. I told her that I needed her vacuum back (I borrow it often because mine sucks and she has a Dyson and she’s gone for months on end). So I guess I made the case that my rugs were very dirty and she needed to bring over the vacuum. She called Sunday evening wondering just how badly I needed the vacuum and I had NO IDEA what was talking about. I was all, “why do you ask?” And she then explained about our conversation and said that I was laughing pretty much the whole twenty minutes we talked. I crashed around 8:30pm that night and awoke at 11:30pm feeling very sick. But once I threw up, I felt much better and other than getting sick, I was completely fine after that.
I didn’t sleep very well (I usually don’t after a lot of drinking) and I got up at 5:00am, but I still went to Kamakura with Michelle and her boys. She’s the wife of the guy the DJ is sponsoring. We were lucky and got to see three different tradition Japanese wedding parties and even got a picture with one couple. The ume and cherry blossoms are out and gorgeous. Enjoy!
And she was wandering around the shrine and just looked so adorable. I had to get a shot of her.
I just love presents. I had a student today who told me last week that she was going to bring a purse for me to send to my mother as a get well gift. At the time I was hoping that the purse wasn’t too nice because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to part with it. No fear though, she brought one for me too. Yea!! And she brought other presents too! She brought little juggly things and a beautiful traditional Japanese bowl. I had told her that I wanted traditional Japanese goods to take home with me. Fun!
My purse:
And Mom’s:
Mom’s small bag front:
and back:
Little juggly things:
And the gorgeous bowl:
Japanese children start kindergarten at age 3 and end at age 5 or 6. But, their school buses totally rock. I wish I had gotten to ride to school in one of these as a kid. How fun would that be?!
