Japanese Wrestling

 

When I was a child my father and grandfather watched wrestling on television every week.  My dad knew it was fake, but I really don’t think my grandpa did. I had forgotten about those wrestling matches on television in the 1960’s and 70’s until we happened to see this live tag team wrestling match at one of the summer festivals. It was funny but so unbelievable. At one point the wrestlers rolled out of the ring and into the crowd. Chairs were knocked over and a little boy's drink was spilled.  I wanted to get out of the area altogether, but Ted wanted to stay and watch. Isn’t it strange how something in Japan is just like something in the US forty years ago? My grandpa would have loved to be in this audience.

Minimum Wage and Bird Legs

The Japan Times online reports that the average minimum wage in Japan will increase 15 yen to 764 yen an hour in October. Each prefecture sets its own minimum wage.  Currently people on welfare earn more per month than those earning minimum wage in 11 prefectures including Hokkaido, Tokyo, and Osaka.  The increase will lift the wage above that of people on welfare in all prefectures except Hokkaido. According to http://stats-Japan.com Hokkaido’s current minimum wage is 719 yen per hour.

That bit of news started me thinking about what the minimum wage is in the US and other countries now. Washingtonpost.com reports that the federal minimum wage in the US is now $7.25, which is close to what 719 yen in Hokkaido is equal to.  The country with the highest minimum wage is Australia, which is $16.88 in USD. France is $12.09 and New Zealand $11.18 (in USD equivalents). On the lower end, Mexico is $.66 and India $.28. The article goes on to say that the US and Japan tie for having  the lowest minimum wage relative to the average worker’s salary, at 38%. The highest percentage goes to France at 60%, followed by New Zealand at 59%. (Australia isn’t on top because it has a higher average salary for workers, making its percentage lower). This article also notes that a large number of countries, including Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland, do not have minimum wages.  Most of those countries have widespread collective bargaining, which establish de facto minimums.

So anyway, I thought all of that was interesting.

Bird Legs
Our little stitch group was a little smaller this week because two members had things to do with their children, but the three of us who met worked on our projects. One person finished her beaded necklace.  Very pretty! 

The other two of us worked on our applique birds.

I gave my bird legs, using two strands of brown floss and the recently learned TAST stitch, the raised chain. I don't know if I'm done embellishing my little bird or not.

 

Furigana

"furigana" in furigana

 

I have written before about the Japanese writing systems – hiragana, katakana, and kanji. The Japanese Ministry of Education designated about 2000 characters as Jouyou Kanji, which are the most frequently used characters.

Furigana is the small superscript, usually in hiragana, above the kanji.  Often this is done for the benefit of children, who aren’t able to read kanji or aren’t able to read difficult kanji yet. Another reason for using furigana, is when the kanji is obscure or not easily understood, such as a different dialect. A third reason is to draw attention to a certain way the kanji is to be read.

In books and magazines published before 1945, furigana was used more often because there were many more kanji in use back then. Some of the more difficult kanji words used back then are now written in hiragana.

Karaoke is popular in Hokkaido and although I have not participated in this singing entertainment, I have read that furigana is written above the kanji song lyrics for pronunciation and emphasis reasons.

Anyway, I am always happy to see furigana because I am like the young school child – I can’t read kanji!
Here is an example - a sign near the stream behind the town library.

The only kanji I recognize on this sign is the three lines at the end - the symbol for gawa or river. The furigana tells me the sign says higashi to ne betsu gawa, in hiragana. I think higashi means east side and there is also a forest named to ne betsu near where we live.

Work in Progress Wednesday

I have been working on the knot garden and here’s what it looks like today. (Please excuse the wrinkles.)

 

Check out the progress of other stitchers at Pintangle.

Buttons

I made this necklace last year.  It was a class at the Embroiderer’s Guild Carolinas Region meeting one year. 

The Japanese language teachers all like it and would like to make one, but buttons are very expensive here. (If you know of an inexpensive source for flat two hole buttons in Japan, please let me know).

I have many buttons of all kinds, but not many that match each other. I dumped them out and sorted them according to color or shape or other categories that came to me as I was sorting. It was fun to look at them and put them in piles. Some of them I purchased, but I think most were just "acquired" from sources I no longer remember.

I like cats.

I probably wouldn't have purchased all these Christmas buttons if they hadn't been discounted.

 

I made this necklace out of some brown and yellow and green similar sized buttons and green beads.  It’s simple and turned out okay.

 

I made this one out of different black buttons and some beads. It doesn't show up so well in the photos.

This is the backside

I think it is kind of pretty. Now I don't know if I'll make something else or put all the buttons away.

Monday Morning Star Count - 108

Since starting this project, I’ve been noticing hexagons shapes all over. This one is an actual quilt and was made by my friend’s grandmother in 1991.  He and his wife have it hanging in their apartment here in Hokkaido.  Isn’t it a treasure?

On my own project, I have put together eight more flower clumps and completed eight additional flowers.  Total number of flowers now stands at 108.  I still haven’t figured out how many I need for the bed sized quilt, so I will continue cutting fabric squares and making hexagon flowers.  Until next Monday….

 

Mochi Festival

After leaving the Autumn Shrine Festival last Saturday, the four of us walked to the Mochi Festival.  (You can read about last year’s Mochi Festival here).  Mochi is made from pounding Japanese rice into a sticky, chewy mass.  It doesn’t sound so good, but it really is.

 

 

We had been walking a long way, so we sat down to watch some entertainment. While we were watching a woman singing, the performers for the next act recognized us from the Bon Odori a few weeks ago and were happy to see us.

 

After their dance act, three of them without their masks and scarves posed for a picture with us.

 

We met up with some more people we know, which is one of the great things about living here.

 

The rice is pounded on a huge platform at the intersection of two streets downtown.  Four ropes and about 200 people raise the pounder, then on signal everyone lets go and it smashes down on the rice.

 

It is a bit scary and we were told the ambulance has to take people away every year. After the rice is pounded enough, it is carried away to be prepared to give out to the festival goers.  Everyone there can get in line to get a bowl for free, but people who help with the pounding get a ticket to go to the head of the line. The mochi is served in a bowl with red beans on top.

 

We’ve been to many festivals in the time we’ve lived here, and hope we get to attend many more!