Monday Morning Star Count - A New Project and Week 24

Here is the start of my new project ---

Year Two of the temperature quilt  

Week 24 

October 7 - 13 

88, 72, 75, 79, 70, 70, 63

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  

Princess Ayako to Marry, Empress Turns 84

Princess Ayako, 28, the third daughter of the late Prince Takamado (cousin of the the Emperor) and Princess Hisako, will marry commoner Kei Moriya October 29th.  He is a 32 year old employee at the shipping firm Nippon Yusen K.K. Female members of the Imperial family lose their royal status after marriage. She will receive 106,750,000 yen from the state after she marries in order to maintain her dignity after losing royal status. 

The amount is set depending on the status of the imperial family member and the money is exempted from income tax. Princess Ayako's older sister, Noriko Senge, received the same amount when she married Kunimaro Senge, a senior priest of a Shinto shrine in 2014.  

Sayako Kuroda, the daughter of the Emperor and Empress, received 150 million yen when she married Tokyo metropolitan government employee Yoshiki Kuroda in 2005.

In other Imperial Family news, the Empress celebrated her 84th birthday yesterday. You can read her interview on the Imperial Family of Japan blog. This is her last birthday as Empress, her husband will abdicate on April 30, 2019.  I thought it was interesting that one of the things she wants to do after retirement is read several P. G. Wodehouse "Jeeves" books.  I love the Jeeves books. Empress Michiko and I could be friends.

Saturday Lunch and Shopping

Last Saturday I met three friends for lunch at a restaurant near my new apartment. We all had butternut squash soup.  One person had the hamburg plate,  one had the spare ribs plate, and two of us had seafood plates. 

It was good to catch up with each other and the food was very delicious. After lunch they helped me with some shopping for my apartment.  I am so thankful for my friends here!

The Neighborhood Shrine

While walking around I happened upon this little shrine.  I wonder what they are celebrating.

The Autumn Festival at Work

Every October the place where I work holds an Autumn Festival for the employees. You can see the last time I attended here. The festival is held in the gymnasium with lots of tables.  

There were three entertainment groups, then the prize drawings at the end. The first one was the traditional Japanese drums, which was my favorite. 

Next, was belly dancing. 

After that was Brazilian dancing.  The costumes were pretty skimpy - high heels and feathers. 

Finally the prize drawings.  When we entered we received a two part numbered ticket, one part went in the box and the other to hold on to. There were a lot of nice (expensive) prizes.  My friend was a winner! 

It was a great social event. I saw many of my students and I had a really good time.

The Stitch Group's New Project

I've been having such a good time with my kimono butterfly handkerchief bags that I thought the stitch group would enjoy them also. 

While we stitched we discussed out next get-together, an outing to the flea market. The L-R thing is difficult for Japanese speakers, so they were surprised to find out we were going to the Flea Market, not the Free Market. We also talked about the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2019 in January. I hope we are all able to attend together!

Meoto Iwa

Meoto Iwa means the "Wedded Rocks", the two rocks that are connected firmly by a thick straw rope called shimenawa. I arrived early in the morning and the scene was breathtaking.

There were several shrines along the coast.  I don't know if they were connected.  The first one, closest to the Meoto Iwa rocks had a lot of frogs.

I walked along and the sun came up higher. There were only a few other people around and the views were stunning.