Anniversary Celebration Trip to Otaru

Our one year wedding anniversary day was in September, when Ted was in the US.  We waited to celebrate until yesterday, when we took a day trip to Otaru. 

Driving anywhere in Hokkaido is a challenge. After driving on the right side of the road in the US for several weeks, Ted had to remember to drive on the left here.  Knowing how to get somewhere is difficult when everything is in Japanese.

The GPS

 

The paper map

The road signs

Otaru isn’t that far away, but the fastest speed limit on the roads there is 50 kilometers per hour, plus there are a lot of traffic signals.  Some signals say stop and go at the same time!

We like aquariums and frequently visited the ones along the North Carolina and South Carolina coasts. The Otaru aquarium was our main destination yesterday. The main building is high on a hill, with the show areas outside, down near the water.

 

Flash photos were prohibited, so some of my pictures aren't as clear as they would be otherwise. Near the entrance was this little display that I think is some kind of shrine.

We saw lots of interesting fish and other creatures, some we were familiar with and others native to Asia.

The otters had two areas connected by a water tunnel under the floor and an overhear tunnel in the ceiling.

Outside and down a very long steep hill, we saw shows with the penguins and sealions.

We really enjoyed the aquarium and stayed well past our usual lunch time.  We stopped at this Japanese seafood restaurant and had grilled scallops and mussels in a miso broth. 

Otaru grew prosperous with the herring fishing in the early 1900’s and the historical places tell this story. After our lunch and a walk along the shore, we visited Nishin Goten (Herring Mansion), which is high on a hill overlooking the Japan Sea. It was originally build by Fukumatsu Tanaka, one of the wealthy fishermen’s bosses.  Construction of the building took seven years, with its completion in 1897. During the busy fishing season as many as 120 fishermen lived in the house. The Mansion is currently owned by the Otaru City Tourism Section and is operated as a museum.

 

We had a wonderful day at the coast.

 

Beaded Flower Trellis Ornament

This beaded ornament was a guild project when I first joined the Raleigh guild.  I think Mary from http://acoloradostitcher.blogspot.com/ taught the project.  She can tell me if I’m wrong about that. The name on the front of the directions is Mary Jo Wolf of Cedar Rapids, IA.  After making the one ornament at the meeting, I had the idea of making more as gifts, but didn’t get around to doing it.  Now is the time.  Here is the first one I made yesterday. 

 

What happened? It looks like someone trying to fit in a shirt that is two sizes too small.   I reread the directions, which were for a 2 ¼ inch diameter ball.  My ball is 67 mm.  With help from Google, I figured out that is about 2.6 inches.  I made some adjustments on the number of beads and this is the second one. Much better.

 

I have a lot of bugle and seed beads and want to make more and give them as gifts this year. Each one only takes a couple of hours.

First Day of School

Today is my first day of school for this semester.  I’ve enjoyed the time off and stitching all day every day, but I am ready to get back into a regular routine again.  Yesterday I finished preparations for today's class and went to the university to make some copies. We’re going to spend this first class reviewing some things from last semester that were missed on the final exam and making plans for this semester.

Back door to the University building

Japanese copy machine

Energy conservation effort – every other light bulb in the hallway removed

 I have the same group of second year students that I had last semester and I am excited to be working with them again.

Bee Bellpull Finish

Summer is Over

Ted has returned from his trip and the fall semester at the University started this week.  The temperatures are cooler and there are more rainy and windy days. The leaves are blowing around, collecting at the edges of the sidewalks. The high school students are wearing the winter version of their school uniform. The city workers are trimming the tree branches around the electric lines.  Today, I saw a big line of the snow removal trucks near city hall.  Summer is over.

I’ve been working on the bee bell pull and have finished the top three bees. This is the first hardanger project I’ve done on congress cloth. I don’t think it looks crisp enough. I do like the color changes of the watercolors thread.

Do Not Buy Unidentifiable Meat

I know I am not to buy meat that I can’t identify for Ted to eat.  In the first place, I don’t eat meat other than fish.  In the second, I don’t read Japanese.  The murky area comes where I think it is something I can identify and it isn’t what I thought it to be.  I bought this at Haruki for Ted.

It says “Sausage”.  In English.  I thought it was some kind of meat to be eaten at breakfast.  When Ted opened it up, it smelled like fish, but still looked like pork. It looked like a miniature hot dog.  He cooked it with eggs for breakfast and it tasted like fish, not pork sausage. Ted likes real fish, but not fish flavored sausage.

Do not buy unidentifiable meat. I repeat, do not buy unidentifiable meat.

Rainy Sunday and My Next Stitching Project

It was a rainy dark day yesterday.  When the raindrops let up a bit, we walked to a nearby park and enjoyed a walk around the lake.

 

There was one other person at the park, an elderly man who asked if he could take our picture with our camera.  We were happy he asked.

We eat miso soup often in the winter, but hadn’t had any since the snow melted.  It was the perfect dinner last night.

 

What am I stitching now?

My Mary and Bess kits arrived, but I’m not feeling much like stitching on them or Elizabeth right now.  I’m pretty sure I won’t be buying anything else from Gay Ann Rogers.  After she accepted my money for the kits, I emailed her in response to an email she sent me.  Her rude response was that she didn’t have time to bother with me, to figure it out myself.  I was shocked.  I don’t expect to receive this from anyone but especially not from someone I had just spent a large amount of money with.  If she was busy that day, there was a more appropriate way to say that she was busy, or she could have just not responded at all.  I will get back to these projects, but right now they are leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

I pulled out this Bee Bellpull project.  It was a class I took with the Laurel EGA chapter in Henderson NC.  The teacher and designer is Marion Scoular.  I have taken several classes with her and she is always very entertaining. The project is hardanger on congress cloth, worked in hand. I've done a little in each bee, but haven't finished any of them yet. Marion’s piece had the queen bee the same color as the four regular bees below, but I decided to make my queen bee more colorful.