Hachimantai

Hachimantai is a ski resort about an hour and forty minutes from Misawa. Chris and some buddies from work hit the slopes on Saturday, 1/7. I wisely (and warmly) stayed home.

The parking lot
Torii gate marking the location of the resort's shrine
Ben Lee at the top
Alvarez at the topTony Tamayo at the top
Chris at the topThe view from halfway up the mountainTypical resort runchi. Curry rice (and a beer)
Fall down, go POOF! The powder was knee-deep in places
James Crocker's lift ticket holder full of powder

Practice

...makes perfect. Here's an kimono featuring ちょ cho (butterfly). The obi features the kanji for butterfly (clever of me, neh?) worked in gold thread. I love to put red and purple together, although in this case, I can't take credit for thinking of the combination-if you look at the sleeves, you'll see they feature a red lining.

Blue-Green

...is the color of the Japanese pines in a wooded area near here. It's an indescribably beautiful colour. The dark pines covered with snow are a quintessential wintertime image. It was really lovely to see the woods in the twilight. I wish I had my digicam with me.

Close...

...but no cigar. We got A LOT of snow, but not enough for a work delay and it definitely was not a blizzard. It sure looks pretty though.

Bye!

Well, Sly is Stateside for the rest of the month; her truck is living at our house. Bye Sly!

There were beautiful pink and purple clouds in the sunrise this morning. I have never seen clouds like the ones here, just so amazing. I think I have mentioned the clouds about a zillion times to anyone to whom I've ever spoken. I think it's the proximity of the ocean that results in such lovely clouds, although sometimes I just like to think it is magic.

I keep hoping for a blizzard. Honestly. I've got soup and cocoa and stuff to bake bread, movies to watch and books to read. C'mon ! I'm ready!

Other than that, all's quiet on the Eastern Front.

WORK

Back to work, after four days off. It was pretty busy most of the day. I was proud of myself, I figured out something that had been broken for a couple of weeks! It also occurred to me that I had really missed seeing everyone in my office/branch. They're a great bunch of people.

I officially quit Kumon today by writing a note indicating I would no longer be attending. I feel better and worse, all at the same time. Kumon was just not for me; I was particularly put off by the noisy "classroom" and the multitasking teachers. I REALLY want a proper classroom and teacher. If I really want to, I can study off Chris' sheets. I think I may just do that, but I'm hoping to find a tutor.

Eiko-san returns to Misawa in 10 days. My lesson planner indicates I'll be learning こどもきもの(children's kimono), ふりそで (furisode-the long-sleeved kimono) and おびむすび (obi knots). I'm making an effort to practice kitsuke (or a component of it) daily. I have a little day planner and I write my notes in it. Yesterday, I worked on obis, but had a few glitches. I'll ask Eiko-san for a review.

Tonight I practiced the whole enchilda, er...kimono. It took about about 45 minutes, with stops to take pictures and some stops because I didn't lay out all my items. Eiko-san wants me to be able to do a kimono in 20 minutes (or less).

KIMONO PRACTICE FOR JANUARY 3

My selected practice set is in a winter theme. The kimono has brushstrokes that look like snow or sleet and a bare tree motif, very nice for winter. The obi features a hawk on pine branch, a very Japanese symbol for winter.Here is Karadako-san, my practice mannequin.
She's wearing a traditional chest wrap,
which is more comfortable than a bra! On goes a cotton slip
Then the nagajuban
Oops, here's a mistake.
Do over!The nagajuban has been done over.
Now the kimono goes on.
It would stay on better if
Karadako-san had arms!The clips help hold the collars
since there's no arms.The bottom looks ok.
Now to the top!
The "V" is too deep. Drat.
Much tidier!
The excess fabric is folded over
the cord that was tied around the hips.
The folded over part is called the おはしょり
(Ohashori)
Something I did right!
The top and bottom seams of
the back of the kimono should
line up neatly. Yay!
The neck looks ok.
Not great, just ok.
It should be slightly deeper and
rounder and the undercollar
should be a bit smoother.
Then you fold up the upper layer
of the part you folded down!
(I clipped it so I could take a picture)
Put on the obiita
The obiita helps the obi stay flat.Here's the obi after two wraps.
The pine embroidery is pretty.
Here's the back,
I have made the intial tie.I did the wrap well. Woo.
Here's the completed drum knot.
It's a little long, but I wanted
to show off the hawk.Now around to the front for
some clean-up.
We must be tidy.All done!
Take it all apart and do it again!

PIX

I had 173 Xmas photos, not including the ones previously posted. There's NO WAY I am going to put them all up here as Blogger only allows you to upload 5 pix at a time. So here's some select ones.

The funny Xmas story:
We're opening our gifts, in a gluttonous frenzy of mass mercantilism and consumer greed and over the rrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiip of tearing wrapping paper, and I hear this soft scrape, scrape noise.
Curious, I look out into the living room, and see Genji the cat with his front paws up on the end table where the Creche is. He's sort of snuffling around and I realize...
"Chris! Chris! Stop Christmas!"
Chris stops in mid-rip, wondering what he did wrong."Huh, what?"
"The Cat! The creche! Oh, dammit! The cat's stealing the Babby Jeebus out of the nativity!"
I stand up. Sure enough, The cat, who apparently wanted to get on the Fast Track to Hell, has the Babby Jeebus in his mouth and is trying to look like he doesn't.
I made a lunge towards our pet, yelling "STOP! BAD CAT! NOooOOOOoooO!"
Genji, realizing he was totally busted, spit out Our Savior, and took off.
The Babby Jeebus had some cat spit on his halo and a scratch on his cheek, but no real damage.
After laughing our asses off, we resumed with Christmas.

SELECTED PIX

Christmas 2005
The Tree in the TatamiThat's "GOGGLE" not "GOOGLE"
In an attempt to be funny, I wrapped Sly's gift in
the "HO" paper...but she wrapped mine in the "HO" paper, too!
So we both be HO's.
Sly got a sakura-pink cashmere sweater from us!
She's so cute!
I look better in the dark.
The Yo-Yo is handmade by Bud!
I got mad, because I can't do any yo-yo tricks.
Self-portrait. I look better in the dark.

ばか！ぼしじない！
Baka! Boshi jinai!
Idiot! That's not a hat!Awwww...MINEMINEMINEALLMINE!
NOTYOURSMINE!MINE!Chris' Pile

Chris got Radical Fish Clubs!Wheeeeeeeeeeee!
Jodi got artwork!We both got a lemon mousse pie
from Deb, our neighbour (yum)!

Here's our table, all set for
Christmas dinnerA close-up of a place setting.
The dishes where a gift from
my brother and his wifeI'm all Xmassed out.
My socks were hand-knit by
meine guten freunde, Susann

Genji is all Xmassed out, too.