Year Two of the temperature quilt
Week 30
November 18 - 24
57, 61, 55, 61, 57, 57, 52
Last week, Leonore commented on the "Mickey ear pillow". One of the stitchers brought it back from Disneyland filled with treats and it has become the holder for my weekly temperature blocks. As this is week 30, I really need to find some background fabric and start stitching these down!
Sarah at Sarah Did It! is continuing to host us on Wednesdays, so please check out the temperatures around the world. Feel free to join in!
I am reporting the high temperature each day. My Year Two temperature/color (Fahrenheit) scheme remains the same:
100 + Brown
90-99 Red
80-89 Orange
70-79 Yellow
60-69 Green
50-59 Blue
40-49 Purple
30-39 Pink
20-29 White
10-19 Black
This is a slow weekend - no plans, nothing I really have to do. Yesterday morning I went out to the grocery store, which is about a 20 minute walk from my apartment. When I got to the main road, people were lined up and the police were turning cars away. I thought maybe it was a parade, but I kept walking. When I heard clapping, I turned and saw it was a road race and the first runners were coming by. They were all wearing sashes, so I wondered if it was an Ekeden. I watched a few runners, then continued to the grocery.
In the vegetable department, an elderly Japanese woman cornered my cart so I couldn't move. She had a big smile and seemed happy to see me, but I didn't think I had ever met her before. She was very friendly and asked me some questions in Japanese slowly so I could understand - the usual: what country are you from, how long have you been here, how do you like Japan, what do you do here, etc. Then she looked in my cart and noticed I had chosen some discounted bananas and red peppers. She told me not to buy them, but I couldn't understand the reason. She was making some circular motions around her midsection and saying some onomotopoeia word that I'm not familiar with. I said I thought it was okay to eat. She continued on about vegetables being expensive, then suddenly moved on to the bread section, leaving me free to go to the dairy section buy milk and eggs. I love when people talk to me. Shopping baskets are small here. This was what I bought.
The autumn weather is quite nice this year. Hot summer, warm fall, not much snow on Mt. Fuji yet.
I spent the rest of the day in my apartment, with the back door open, stitching and doing a few household chores. This is the good life.
This is the month for showing new projects. I want to finish old projects, but the new ones are so fun.
Cathedral windows are my newest "new thing".
I worked on my fobs by adding beads.
I finished another butterfly bag.
I also finished a new hexagon pouch.
You can see my 6&6 in 2018 progress here and check out who is joining in this month on Meredith's blog here.
This month's ornament is a cathedral window made with Japanese fabric I bought at the flea market. Here it is - front, back, and side corner. I like how it turned out.
Japan loves its mascots. As I've written before, every area, town, city, and prefecture has a mascot. Each year there is a grand prix national contest to determine the most popular. This year, Kaparu (center in the photo), representing the city of Shiki in Saitama Prefecture won. The runner up was Jabo (right), from Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture. Third place went to Konyudon-kun from Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture. Don't ask me what this is all about!
The stitch group got together last Friday, which was a national holiday in Japan - Labor Day. We are continuing to work on our butterfly handkerchief bags. Everyone likes the tulips at the ends of the bag pulls,
so we had some practice by making some little fobs. After making the twisted cording from #8 perle, we turned pieces of four inch square fabric into little tulips.
While we enjoyed treats and tea, we chose a date for our next get together and discussed our next project. We also talked more about going to the Tokyo International Quilt Festival in January.
Don't you wish you could join our little group?
The other day I read an article on SoraNews24 about the Japanese macaques. I'm partly fascinated and partly creeped out by these wild monkeys. In the US, I can see monkeys in the zoo. In Japan, I have seen these creatures while hiking on Yakushima and in the onsen in Nagano Prefecture. Both times I was very excited to see them.
My Japanese friends and my students take monkeys for granted, after all, the wild monkeys are all over Japan. Almost! The SoraNews24 article said the wild monkeys can be found in 44 prefectures, but not in the other three. Can you guess which three? If you guessed Hokkaido and Okinawa for two of them, you are correct. Those two are at the far ends of Japan, so that seems logical. The third one with no monkeys is Ibaraki.
Ibarki is central and the prefectures surrounding Ibaraki have monkeys, but not Ibaraki. Why? Maybe there aren't enough trees, or maybe monkeys don't like natto (fermented soybeans), which Ibaraki is famous for. Maybe there are predators, like wild boars? What do you think? Another Japanese mystery...
Year Two of the temperature quilt
Week 29
November 11 - 17
66, 63, 57, 61, 61, 63, 66
Sarah at Sarah Did It! is continuing to host us on Wednesdays, so please check out the temperatures around the world. Feel free to join in!
I am reporting the high temperature each day. My Year Two temperature/color (Fahrenheit) scheme remains the same:
100 + Brown
90-99 Red
80-89 Orange
70-79 Yellow
60-69 Green
50-59 Blue
40-49 Purple
30-39 Pink
20-29 White
10-19 Black
I recently read an article about British consulting firm Henley and Partners' annual passport utility ranking, which found the Japanese passport to be the strongest in the world. The rankings are compiled by giving one point for each country a passport holder can enter without a visa or can obtain a visa upon arrival at their destination. Japanese passport holders have easy access to 190 countries. Singapore is in second place with 189 countries. Third, fourth, and fifth places have ties with several countries:
Third place (188 countries): Germany, France, Korea
Fourth place (187 countries): Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Finland
Fifth place (186 countries): USA, UK, Norway, Austria, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Portugal
On the other end of the ranking in 106th place are Afghanistan and Iran with access to only 30 countries each.
Being a United States of America passport holder means I can easily access 186 countries. How about you? Are you from a country with a strong passport?
My friends found this photo of me on the internet. (I think it is a real estate type website). It was taken in May 2017 outside of a pottery shop. How funny!
