Merry Christmas!

It's getting a bit late on Christmas Eve here, in a few more hours we will find out if Santa visits Japan.
Which has me wondering, since houses here have no chimneys, how does he manage to get in? Through the shoji doors?

What happened to the moisture?

I (re-)discovered the downside of cold weather this morning.
It required two tylenol and turning the humidifier on high for an hour to fix.

In Japan, very few houses have central heat. Instead, combination air conditioners/heaters are used. These are electric and work for one room. For other rooms, portable electric heaters may be used.
This didn't seem like such a big deal when we first moved in. I was a bit concerned about the cost, but when I discovered it costs less to heat the house than to cool it, I stopped worrying.
That was before the temperature dropped to just above freezing.
Now, it is very cold outside, and fairly warm inside...but dry. Very, very dry. So dry that when I took the laundry out of the washer and hung it up, the sweatshirts were dry in a couple hours. It is so dry you catch a static shock just by walking close to something metal.
It's so dry I woke up with a severe headache this morning.
So this afternoon, I will be venturing back to the Navy Exchange and picking up an additional humidifier for the bedroom.
Because I can't wake up every day feeling like my head is split in two.

A Very Productive Saturday

Wow! This is one of the first Saturdays I haven't been called in to work. I managed to get a lot done around the house, too!

For starters, I finally finished my "Delight" afghan. I found the pattern in a Leisure Arts booklet called "Beloved Afghans." You can find it on Amazon here; I bought my copy at a Michael's craft store in Texoma.
Anyway, here is what the final product looks like:

And this photo makes it look softer, I think:

I started this project back in October, pretty much the same day I received the yarn. The sample in the book used Lion Brand Homespun, which I have worked with before (remember my "I Am Loved" filet afghan?), but I'm not all that thrilled with the way Homespun ends tends to fray. With all this fringe, I wanted something different. So, I used Bernat Softee Chunky in Faded Denim and New Denim Heather.
The pattern goes pretty quick at first, and after a few repeats it would make a good scarf:

But then, I got to a point where Tim & I would be watching TV and I'd have this project in my lap, and I'd reach the end of a row and need to turn it...and the cats would choose that exact moment to jump into my lap. It's been getting pretty cold here, so 3 out of 4 times this happened, I'd just leave it. Hence it took almost two full months to finish.
Of course, finishing the rows are one thing. Then, there's the fringe. If I'd simply finished off the final row and let it be, it would have looked a bit scraggly:

 So I had to add a bit of extra fringe. Here's what it looked like after I added the dark blue:

And finally, when the light blue was complete:

Looks much nicer, I think.



Once I finished the afghan, I decided it was finally time to start decorating for Christmas. As in, more than a wreath on the front door. As in, put the tree up!
We have an artificial tree. Our decision to get an artificial tree was largely influenced by availability; Japan doesn't have Christmas Tree lots like you see stateside. The Navy Exchange sells live trees during Thanksgiving weekend, but to get a decent tree instead of a "Charlie Brown", we would have needed to be at the store first thing on Black Friday...and then we would need to figure out exactly how to get it home in our little Cube car.
There are some things to like about artificial trees: they don't pose as great a fire hazard, they stay green forever, and you don't have to buy a new one each year (and later dispose of it).
That being said, there are some downsides:
1. You have to store the darn things. We actually bought our tree two weeks ago, and the box was standing in our living/dining room until today. In January, when it comes down, Tim gets to wrestle the whole thing down to the storage shed.
2. You have to assemble them. Granted, this is much easier nowadays, with the trees being three pieces plus the stand. I remember my parents' first artificial tree had separate branches that needed to be attached individually to the trunk. After Dad put the three-part trunk together, we had to sort the branches by length and attach each one.
3. They don't look so pretty right out of the box:

See what I mean? All those branches had to be straightened & then spread. It took me a while.

It's up, though, and it has lights, and 17 ornaments. Yep. Just 17. We have 8 red balls, 8 gold balls, and one silver bell. There are also a dozen candy canes, but those will disappear over the next month.
Actually, I'm surprised I haven't tried to crochet any ornaments yet. Maybe I should get on that?

December has arrived.

Late last night, the wind began assaulting Sasebo. I thought it sounded spooky last night. This morning, it was so bad I was nervous to drive to work. (I didn't even leave the house until full daylight - driving was scary enough without the added factor of not being able to see the road clearly.)
It stayed windy all day. And all afternoon. And all evening. And I was working late again...hour-past-sunset late. The temperature dropped again, too. I have no cold-weather gear for work.
However, I did come home to a delicious dinner, and I put up a Christmas wreath on the front door. It's very simple - no lights, no holly, just a green wreath and a red bow. Ok, the wreath hanger does have jingle bells on it, but it's still very simple.
--as I write this, I wonder if maybe putting a wreath on the door in high winds is smart...but I just checked. It's fine.

Still figuring out what motif to use on my sister's blanket. Still just as clueless.
--ok, I haven't even made another test motif since the last few I posted. But I have an excuse. The rotary cutting set I ordered arrived yesterday, and I had to practice on some scrap fabric to get the hang of using it.

That's about it tonight. Tomorrow is Friday, though, and I have a weekend full of crafting planned! I'm even going to get the Christmas tree set up!

"Money talks, mine says Good-Bye"

The title of this blog post came from one of those novelty checkbooks. (Remember writing checks to pay for things? I do!)
Today, I spent more in 2 hours than I have ever spent in a month...$11,700.
No, really. I did.
The thing about renting a house in Japan, is there are all sorts of fees for all sorts of things...you know how in the States, you can expect to pay first month's rent, perhaps last month's, and a security deposit? Well, those all exist here, too. In addition to first month's rent and an exorbitant security deposit (the equivalent of 2 month's rent), there is a restoration fee-to replace the tatami mats, shoji doors & fusuma doors when you move out. And also, the realtor's fee, which is 10% of a year's rent. It adds up; 120,000 yen/month for rent (about $1600 with the current exchange rate), plus all the other stuff...it cost us $8,500.00 just to move in.
Of course, we also needed to buy a car. We are now the proud owners of a 1998 Nissan Cube. It cost us $2,800. Then there is insurance...luckily this is pretty cheap in Japan, so our one-year policy only cost $400.
Still, having just spent a LOT to secure a house & transportation, it kinda hurts. When I looked at my bank balance this afternoon, it was hard not to whimper a bit.
Move-in tomorrow; unfortunately the internet service will not be installed until November (the company is running new fiber lines to the Cho). So my posts, however infrequent, will become more so.

Forgive the delay in posting...

9/4/2011
We've been in Japan for 5 days now.
A lot of folks back home keep asking questions along the lines of "How do you like living in Japan?" and "Don't you love it?"
So I'm taking some time to answer these questions with my typical (albeit silent) response:
We are not "living" here. Not really. We are staying in a Navy Lodge hotel room. Imagine an efficiency apartment. Got that in your mind? Ok, good. Our room is smaller than that.
No, I don't love it. See the preceding paragraph.
We've been here 5 days. We don't even have driver's licenses yet, so don't expect to see a whole lot of new pictures, and we certainly won't have many stories for a while. We're not on vacation, people. We're still "arriving".

Ok, now that's out of my system.
There are a few things that have happened worth noting...for instance, taking my advancement exam approximately 24 hours after we landed.
And there's always the challenge of figuring out exactly what those kanji, hiragana & katakana symbols are trying to tell me.
Pictures help, of course. Still, some things are unexpected...like when you choose what appears to be grape pop from the vending machine. And it turns out to be some kind of carbonated grape jelly in a pop can.
No, really:

You can see the jelly-ness of it, creeping slowly out of the can. Kinda weird. And even creepier, when you don't expect it to have the consistency of jello.
 

Did I mention the spiders? They are huge (although I have been assured there are no poisonous species living on Kyushu.)

That thing? Is as big as my hand.

I might feel a little more chipper about this place in a month or so.

Arrived

We made it.
Finally.

11 hours on the first plane, made it through customs & immigration no problem. The cats were approved for immediate release (no quarantine necessary!). Got on the second plane. Two hours later, we landed, and then a few hours after that we made it to Sasebo.
Now I need a nap, then check on the kitties at the kennel (pets aren't allowed at the Navy Lodge), then sleep some more before the exam tomorrow morning.
Yay.

The Joy of Moving

Since Thursday night, I have been packing.
Packing clothes into suitcases, packing dishes into boxes, packing my little fantasy figurines into Styrofoam...wrapping crystal goblets and wine glasses in t-shirts and putting them neatly in stemware cases.
The moving company came and packed everything else up into neat bundles, put everything in more boxes, and finally put all the smaller boxes into a giant wooden box, which is now on its way to Japan.
I'm still left with clothes that need to go into suitcases, and a pair of high-strung cats that need to go in a crate to the veterinarian's office tomorrow to get their health certificates.

All told, I am very glad we had professional movers to perform most of the work. I may, in the future, shell out for professionals again--the amount of stress saved seems to be well worth the money spent.
It's the final countdown this week, we are days away from traversing the Pacific and setting up home in a completely foreign country.
It will be an adventure, that's for sure.