Baby Gifts finished!

Please notice that I said baby gift, meaning that this is not for my
baby, because I do not have a baby nor am I expecting to have one any
time soon. Ok, glad we cleared that up!

I knit this combo for the wife of Don's coworker who just gave birth to a boy last week. The new parents were the ones that picked us up from the airport when we first arrived, so I really wanted to make something for the baby.

Lost in Translation

Ok, so basically the entire back of this eraser package was pretty funny. The pic is a little blurry so here are some funny quotes:

"Please roll it lightly on the object willing to be erased."

"Object may not be erased under the following condition: the tool written force was over strong . . . it has passed a while like one whole day since it is written . . . lead that is made in foreign countries."

Lost In Translation

Ok, so I'm starting a new category of posts. Hilarious English found on t-shirts, office supplies, cleaning products, etc.

"BONE COURAGE" - spotted by Don on a t-shirt

An Excellent Excuse to Buy More Knitting Supplies

My stash of knitting needles and other various equipment was getting a little hard to manage in a former cosmetics pouch, so I opted to upgrade. Due to the wide variety of adorable fabrics available here, I decided to make my own. I loosely followed this pattern and ended up with this:

untie and unroll it, and TA-DA!

More Pre-Winter Adventures

So, the following 3 slideshows are from Halloween, a few drives we took when there was nice weather, and our most recent trip to Lake Shikotsu.

Halloween was really fun because we hosted a party at our house. Everyone that came dressed up and we were pretty impressed with the costumes. Don and I were Mickey and Minnie Mouse, with the genders switched (to make it interesting), and I made the costumes. We also went a little nuts decorating the house to give our Japanese friends an authentic Halloween experience. To end the party with a bang, we got our first snow of the season.

Fall Driving was a product of our antsy-ness and was made plausible by our little Honda's excellent gas mileage. Pictures are from a viewpoint in Obira, a road through Mashike, and a strange park/rest-stop near Takikawa. By the time we got the rest stop it was getting dark but we absolutely had to investigate the sprawling playground that would never exist in the lawsuit-happy U.S. of A. It was a little creepy, but really fun, until Don discovered that he could go down the giant hill-slide really fast if he crouched on his feet. Don did go really really fast until he reached the bottom where a not-slippery patch of ground sent him flying face-first onto the concrete. Luckily he put his arm out in front of his face, but this move ended up warranting a shoulder x-ray in the Rumoi ER a few hours later.

Lake Shikotsu is a caldera, a giant hole left after a huge volcanic eruption. The lake is 360 meters deep, crystal clear, and surrounded by mountains and 2 active volcanoes. The volcanic activity also allows for some amazing hot springs and bath houses (onsen). We visited one that had rotemburo or outside baths and it was pretty awesome. You really haven't lived until you try this. We hiked to waterfall in the area, experienced a few amazing rainbows, and climbed one of the volcanoes. Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful, even though it rained most of the time. We ended this last-ditch effort for pre-snow adventure by exploring another wonderful place called Costco. You may have heard of it?

Whaling

So I tried to bring up this very controversial topic with one of my Japanese friends. There is a new documentary out, called The Cove, about dolphin hunters in Japan that is stirring up a lot of controversy here for those who actually know about it. Anyways here was our conversation:

me: "So I wonder if the dolphin hunting is actually bringing their population numbers down. I feel like whales are different because there are so few of them, but I'm not sure about dolphins."

friend: "Yes, whales are . . . eh . . . (looks in dictionary, I'm thinking, for a word like 'endangered' or something along those lines) . . . Whales are a delicious dish."

me: "I see. But isn't whaling illegal because they are so few of them?"

friend: "Yes, Japanese hunt whales for research and when research is finished meat goes to supermarket. In December, near New Year's, you can find whale in our supermarket."

me: "Wow. Many people in America and other countries think that it is very bad that Japanese hunt whales, even for research because they are endangered (I look up the translation for 'endangered' ). They even have a show where animal rights activists go on a boat and attack the Japanese whaling boats."

friend: "Yes I know. But whale meat is very tasty."

me: "Ok, so let's talk about something else!"

Jehovah's Witnesses? Really?

Yes, there are Jehovah's witnesses here in Rumoi. I was suspicious when I heard the doorbell ring this morning, but decided that even though I still had a towel on my wet hair, I should answer the door. It might be a package from the states! Unfortunately I made just enough noise getting to the door for the two ladies outside, who definitely did NOT have a delivery for me, to know that I was home and had to answer it. When I saw the little booklet in their hands, I knew. I invited them into the genkan anyway and told them I didn't speak Japanese. They opened up the little booklet and showed me a page with dozens of languages listed and I pointed to English. I started feeling really bad because these ladies seemed so nice and I didn't know how to very very politely tell them "thanks, but no thanks." They opened up to a page in English that had a very friendly greeting and my eyes flicked down the page until they landed on a few key words like God and Jesus. Suspicions confirmed. As kindly as I could, said "iie, arigatou," literally, "no thanks." Ok, no use lying, I also crossed my arms in an "X" position which is the gesture here for "no way," more out of habit than anything else. The ladies laughed at this and I laughed too. They bowed and nodded in acknowledgment, and also pointed to the towel on my head and laughed. I guess they thought it was fair game now. They smiled and said "Daijobu," which translates to something like "that's ok," and left, still bowing, smiling, and giggling.

I don't mean to offend anyone with strong religious beliefs, or any Jehovah's witnesses reading this. Most of our friends and family probably realize by now that Don and I don't subscribe to any organized religion. What I love about religion in Japan though, is that there is absolutely no intolerance of any kind. Many families comfortably practice both Buddhism and Shinto in their homes. Even the Christians here seem happy to do their thing and if you want to join them, great! If not, that's ok too! No one condemns anyone else to burning in hell and no one's religion is better than anyone else's. It basically comes down to just respecting everyone else and what they want to believe in. Whatever your religion, it should make you feel good and do good things. This seems like a much healthier take on religion than what I have experienced before. But again, it is hard to draw direct comparisons between a country as culturally homogenous as Japan and the US. Seriously though, the Watchtower might want to fly over some sweet elderly Japanese ladies to the US to help them out. It is really hard to tell them no!