Janie's Quote of the Day #4

"You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it."

--G. K. Chesterton

(Go read some Father Brown mysteries. They're great fun!)

I'm Baaaaaaack! -- Home Sweet Home

I'm home again at last. Those cats are so HEAVY! Next time, I'm going to make them carry ME home. It only took us about 5 and a half hours door to door, which isn't too bad.

Alas, our dear friends on the Japan baseball team weren't able to hold it together enough to make it to the finals. In fact, within moments after my last post Korea scored some points and made it obvious who was indeed going to advance to the finals. Since Korea went on to win the gold, one might say that there's no shame in losing to the number one team... But during the game against the U.S. to determine who got the bronze, Japan lost big time! And America got the pants whipped off of them by Cuba just the day before. (Japan lost to Cuba too, but not so badly.) America even lost to China, so everyone is disappointed that the national Japan team couldn't beat them to bring home a medal at what may well have been the final Olympic baseball event.

How did Tarzan react? "What? Really? Well, I guess my work here is done then." (He had been at the hotel making preparations for a victory press conference--just in case.) The next day (today) when he called, he was out shopping for souvenirs and doing a little sight seeing on his last day at the Olympics. He enjoyed himself so much he wants to make it a family tradition to see the games. Sounds good to me, but we better get the ball rolling if we really want to see the London games. You have to book reservations years in advance. Maybe the 2016 games--who knows? They may even be in Tokyo.

All in all, Tosh seems to be happy to come home. It'll be nice to see him again. He'll have to work late tomorrow night, though, running the press conference after he and the team come back.

I'm ready to hit the hay. It's late, and I worked hard! Plus, I shipped my suitcase to myself, and it'll arrive tomorrow morning, so I gotta catch some z's.

Pics are loaded to the computer and just wating to be uploaded for your viewing pleasure. (I hope that'll be sometime soon!)

Nighty night! Oyasumi nasaaaaaai!

2 weeks on the road...

Well, it's been just two weeks today since I packed up the cats and hit the road. I've been visiting T's family in Mie and Wakayama prefectures and now Kyoto. I also went to see my new niece as well, who is super cute. We're all watching the Olympic baseball games with enthusiasm. It looks like Japan may even have a chance against Korea, the #1 ranked team in the preliminary league. If they beat them, they have a shot at the gold! Wish 'em luck!

I'm finally going home tomorrow, and although it'll be kind of sad to end my vacation, it'll be nice to go back, I guess. Especially since the weather seems to be giving us a break here. The choking, mind-numbing heat of mid-summer has finally gone (knock on wood). In spite of that, I'll still have to send my suitcase back, as I have received so many gifts from people (it was my birthday last week) that it's gone from being half-full to barely-can-get-the-zipper-shut. That's what you get for having generous friends and family, I guess. (I have a hard life.)

Lots and lots of pictures and trip log to come!

My first ryokan!!!

Today (I'm actually writing this on Sept. 16th, but who cares?), Obaachan, Hisayo, Rie, Hirocchi, Shiho, and I all went to a ryokan in Wakayama. It's called QKamura (i think?) and it was about an hour by car from Udono. After arriving late in the afternoon, first we headed for the hot spring pools. I must admit, I was a bit nervous about getting naked in front of people I actually knew (I'd been in a hot spring once before but I went by myself, so the thought of embarrassment was abated), but it turned out to be pretty painless. The views from the baths were awesome! Right over the Pacific with flower-covered hillside leading down to the rocky water's edge. After relaxing for a bit, we changed into the hotel's yukata (you can see the Q's all over them) and went to the dining room for dinner.

Me and Obaachan, waiting to dig in.

Here's the delicious food after we ate. They all made fun of me. I was supposed to take a "before" shot, not an "after" one. I was hungry, ok?!

Our lovely room with 6 futons laid out for us. They put some cushy pads under the futon, so they were extra comfy.

Before bedtime, they had a small surprise for me. What can it be?

My very own yukata, picked out by Hisayo-obachan and Obaachan!! It was so pretty! They even gave me matching shoes to go with it. They are so sweet. I feel a little bit like a leech, especially since it's Hirocchi and Obaachan's birthday tomorrow, but I still have a few days to go! But more than anything, I'm grateful. THANK YOU!

Nighty night! Let's see what tomorrow brings.

(postdated 9/16/2008)

Ah, summer～!

Let's face it. I have no interest in cooking for myself in this weather. I love that most Japanese people agree and made it practically a tradition to eat cold udon, soba, and somen during hot weather. Here is my simple repast, complete with homemade fish broth dipping sauce with shako furikake thrown in.

mmmm boy! delicious!

(postdated 9/16/2008)

All-Japan Olympic Baseball Camp

Today, Rie, her friend Hana-chan, and I all went out to YomiuriLand's baseball park, "Giants' Kyujo", to watch the Japan National team practice before the Olympics. It was sooo HOT, I couldn't believe it. I was going to bring a hat and maybe even a parasol, but I forgot my hat and chickened out about the parasol. Boy, did I pay for it! Anyway, on to the field!

Here is the view from our seats just first-base side of homeplate. It really was a beautiful day, lots of trees that you could hear blowing in the (hot) wind, and a really gorgeous castle-like roller coaster in the background there.

Here's Tosh! In the first-base side dugout. He's the one on the right in profile.

Here's a picture full of many of Japan's hot-shots. Number 77 is Coach Hoshino, 52 is shortstop Kawasaki "Munerin" Munehiro, 88 is batting coach Tabuchi (he was a real character), the navy blue shirt is #7 Nishioka--the second-base player heartthrob from Lotte Marines, and #6 is team captain Miyamoto.

Here's one of my favorite players, Inaba, right-fielder from the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.

And Munerin doing some batting practice. He always reminds me of Mamiya-san from kendo!

One last shot of batting practice.

Boy, did I regret not bringing the hat or parasol. On top of it being volcano hot, sitting there in the sun, I wore a loose-fitting, square-neck and -back shirt that made a nice square-shaped sunburn from my shoulder blades to the nape of my neck! The sad thing is, there's a smear of less cherry red where I did manage to put on some sunscreen. Man, that's going to leave an ugly tan line!

(postdated 9/16/2008)

Glorious Notions

There are many great knitting and crochet notions out there, invented by some very creative people. They saw a lack and they filled it with a gadget specifically to aid the creators in need. While I respect and admire these people, I must confess that even more than finding a great amimono* notion, I love to find things that weren’t made for amimono but fit the bill nicely just the same. Or even to see a great notion and then see a similar tool out there that does the same job. My heartfelt thanks to all the tools (and their makers) out there that give me inspiration to find or make things that I would otherwise have to buy.

One such example is a set of knitting clips that you can buy and use in place of pins or basting your work together before seaming. Pins are almost more trouble than they’re worth (so I’ve heard, at least) and basting—well, heck, you might as well just go ahead and sew the darn thing from the get-go. So—voila!—knit clips were born to hold your edges together, making it easy to make that seam seamless. The moment I saw those, I went out and got some binder clips (the big kind that you use to keep a whole stack of papers together) at the 100-yen store. I can buy eight or ten clips for 100 yen versus much more money and inconvenience for the ones specifically for seaming. Plus, I can use them to keep my papers together too.

I know this is short, but I’ll continue to post more amimono gadgets and ideas in later entries.

*One thing I love about Japanese knitting/crochet is the fact that they have one word to describe all yarn/thread pursuits with either hook or needle: amimono. From now on, I’d like to use this word in place of knitting or crochet when I really mean both. Ami (as in amigurumi) means knit/crochet, pulling one loop of something through another, and mono means thing. Easy peasy. Amimono. Now try saying that 10 times fast!