Sunday Dinner Party

We were invited to Sunday Dinner at the home of one of Ted’s Aikido buddies and his wife. They are a retired couple who enjoy bicycling and mountain climbing.  The husband recently earned his second degree black belt in Aikido. They have a beautiful home at the edge of town with lots of beautiful windows looking out.

 

The other dinner guests were also Aikido people that Ted knows and I had met before.

 

The dinner lasted all day and we were treated to many delicious Japanese foods, and also some German foods.  The Aikido friend/host took a three week cycling trip across Germany this summer and acquired an appreciation for German food and wine.

 

We are very thankful to have been invited to such a nice party. We are so fortunate to have this opportunity to live in Hokkaido and experience so much os Japan with the people here.

Monday Morning Star Count - 155

I’ve been working on this project for several months and I’m still loving it. If you know me well, you know that I usually work on something awhile, then put it away and work on something else. This isn’t my only project in the works now, but I have been working on it consistently every week.

I’ve completed nine more flowers this week for a total of 155.

In order to continue making flowers I have to join flowers to free up more paper hexagons. When all six sides of a hexagon are attached to other hexagons, you can pop out the center. As you join more and more together, you can pop out all of the centers (keeping just the outermost in place) and reuse those paper templates.

I’m trying to be random in how I join the flowers, while at the same time not put two flowers with the same fabrics together. Time will tell how successful I am at being random and not putting the same fabric together. I highly recommend this paper piecing and Jessica’s Quilting on the Go book.

Gift Giving

Japanese and American cultures have different traditions on gift giving.  I’ve written before on giving omiyage when you return from a trip and how the new neighbors bring you a gift when they move in.  We found out another new one this week.  One of Ted’s Aikido friends and his wife had a baby six weeks ago. They brought the baby to show at the Aikido practice and gave each person a cute little chocolate brownie treat. (The squirrel on the package is the Hokkaido version of the squirrel with long hair on the ears).

Sushi Making

Awhile back we attended a sushi making party and have wanted to try making sushi at home ever since. We finally did last night. It was really quick and easy, although not as pretty as the sushi we made with the supervision of the sushi experts. The thing that took the most time was waiting for the rice to cook in the rice cooker. We mixed up the rice and the sushi powder and made little sushi balls.

 

We put a dot of wasabi on the rice, then the sashi.  I think the fish I bought was tuna, but I’m not sure.

 

We also made some with fake crab and some with canned anchovies. I made a few rice balls with the leftovers.

 

RocketNews24 recently reported that eating  a teaspoon of wasabi a day will make you live longer.  Maybe we tried to live too long because Ted ended up scraping off wasabi that was too strong for him.

 

We made more than we could eat last night, so I wrapped it up and put it in the refrigerator for lunch today.  It was much easier than I thought, so we’ll probably be making sushi again soon.

Bountiful Harvest Finish

My little fall project stitched up quickly.  I don’t remember when I bought this little prefinished hanging thing, so that means I’ve had it quite a long time.  The design is by Pam Kellogg and is a freebie on the Kreinik website, called Bountiful Harvest Bookmark. I used two strands of DMC floss in place of the called for threads on the pattern.  It is just the right size for a small Japanese apartment and a short Hokkaido autumn.

Flower Beaded Necklaces

About two weeks ago I noticed one of the Japanese language teachers wearing a simple beaded necklace. I asked her if she had made it herself and she said no.  I was thinking I could make something like it, so I did. First I made this one to give as a gift.

When Alicia came over to stitch I taught her how to do it and she made a necklace and matching earrings.

 

I made another necklace and a little fob.

 

It’s fun and not at all difficult.  I might make more.

Atlanta Twins, Soon to be 100 Days Old

The baby panda twins at the Atlanta Zoo will be 100 days old in about a week, I think.  There is a naming contest going on and the results will be announced on their 100 day birthday, as is the tradition in China.  You can watch the panda cam and read the blog about these cute babies here.

The panda cam at the National Zoo in Washington DC has been shut down the last few weeks, as it is not considered an essential government function. I think that baby panda is about two months old now.

If you want to see some cute baby pandas in China, check out this RocketNews24 article.

October Weather in Hokkaido

Typhoon Wipha is making its way north and everyone here is all excited.  Wipha 2013 was the equivalent of a category 3 hurricane and is weakening as it comes closer to Japan. (There was another storm named Wipha in 2007). It is supposed to hit or come very close to Tokyo later this morning, continuing north east. Wipha is the 12^th typhoon and the 26^th named storm in the Pacific this season.

Yesterday the outdoor life professors and students worked to get canoes and other equipment put away. I think it needed to be done before winter anyway, so the effort wasn’t wasted. The grocery store was busy yesterday afternoon, but I didn’t notice anyone stocking up on milk and bread, like they do in North Carolina before a storm.

It’s been rainy and getting much cooler lately. Several people have told me they’ve seen yukimushi, the little white bugs that come before the snow falls.  I haven’t seen them myself yet this year, so I’m going to continue thinking winter is still awhile away.

I’ve begun a small autumn stitching project and hope to finish it before fall is gone this year.

 

IIES Mushroom Party

Saturday the annual mushroom party was held at Tone Betsu Forest. Last year the weather was beautiful and it was held outdoors.  Saturday, the weather was rainy, so the party was held indoors at the visitors center.

 

The international exchange society’s president said a few words of welcome and one of the members acted as translator to tell us what he said in English.  The mushroom professor collected mushrooms from the forest and  IIES members prepared grilled meats and vegetables, mushroom miso soup, and tempura mushrooms.

 

 

 

Party guests brought potluck dishes to share and there was a lot of food!  We made a salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers from our garden.

 

It was great fun to visit with friends and meet new people.

 

I really enjoyed visiting with a woman I met who lives in Sapporo. We discovered Spanish was our lingua franca and spent quite a long time talking with each other.  She studies Spanish after spending a year in Spain. Although I have met a few foreigners who speak Spanish, she is the first Japanese person I’ve met who speaks Spanish. It was so nice to be able to talk with someone here!

 

Before the party ended, Ted took this group picture.  What a nice party!