Panda Updates

Good news for giant pandas at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.  Xiang Xiang (Shan Shan), who was born in June 2017, was scheduled to go to China at age two.  That has been pushed back to May of next year. Her parents, Ri Ri and Shin Shin, will be allowed to stay in Japan another five years beyond next February. They came to Japan in February 2011. 

Likewise, good news for Washington DC's giant pandas.  The baby born August 21st this year was named Xiao Qi Ji (Shiau Chi Ji). and is now almost four months old. He is beginning to walk and is as cute as he can be! He and his parents, Mei Xiang (May Shong) and Tian Tian (Tee Yen Tee Yen) will be staying at the Smithsoniam's National Zoo through early December 2023 according to a new agreement with China. 

I haven't found any news about the new baby giant panda born in late November at Adventure World in Japan.

Work In Progress Wednesday

 I continued with some projects from last week.

Blackwork Bands  

Beaded Ornaments

I started a new project - it's going to be a pumpkin.

Kanji of the Year 2020 - 密

 

It was announced yesterday that Mitsu 密 was the kanji character chosen as the character that best represents the sentiment and events of 2020.  Mitsu means close or crowded and was chosen because of the three mitsu of closed and crowded settings that experts said should be avoided to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. 

This year everyone in Japan has learned you must avoid: 

1. Closed spaces, 

2. Crowded places, and 

3. Close contact settings. 

The Kanji of the Year character was written in calligraphy at Kiyomizu-dera, a famous Buddhist temple in Kyoto, by chief monk Seihan Mori. The calligraphy character will remain on display at the temple until December 23rd.

Last year, 2019,the kanji character 令 (rei), meaning beautiful was chosen.

In 2018,  災 (sai), meaning disaster or misfortune was chosen.

The Kanji for 2017 was 北, meaning north. 

The 2016 Kanji of the Year was 金, meaning gold. 

In 2015, the chosen Kanji was 安, meaning safety or peace.  

The Kanji for 2014 was 税, meaning tax. 

The 2013 Kanji of the Year was  輪, meaning ring or circle. 

Monday Morning Star Count - Week 32

Year four of the temperature quilt 

Week 32 

November 29 - December 5 

52, 57, 57, 48, 50, 55, 46

I am reporting the high temperature each day.  My Year Four 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  

You can see my finished Year One Quilt here. 

Sapporo Snow Festival 2021

The pandemic is causing Sapporo to reconsider holding this year's festival.  It is expected to be canceled for the first time in history due to the recent coronavirus spikes in Hokkaido's biggest city.  Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto told reporters on Thursday that "it may be difficult to set up the venue and hold it." (I have learned that Japanese people don't say "no", they say "it may be difficult".) 

This will be the first time for the festival to be canceled since the first one was held in 1950. The city had already decided to scale down the event, but has been experiencing rising numbers of infections in recent weeks.  

The mayor also said the city is exporing the possibility of holding an online event. I'm not sure how that would work. Maybe show snow sculptures from previous years? You can check out updates on the official Snow Festival website here. 

I attended the festival every year when I lived in Hokkaido.  Here are a few photos from back then.

 

Japan's Most Popular Baby Names - 2020

A survey conducted by the baby goods retail chain Akachan Honpo reported names chosen for 18,199 girls and 18,617 boys born between January 1st and October 20th of this year. I don't know why reading and Kanji have different charts. I think the numbers with the name are last year's rankings.

Respondents were asked what they considered when choosing names.  The most common answer was the sound of the name, second was the meaning and the image of the kanji, and third was the number of strokes used to write the name. Many parents count the number of strokes in both the given name and the family name to make sure it does not come out to be an unlucky number. (There are no middle names in Japanese). 

I like hiragana names such as Sakura and Akari above. Names seem to go in and out of popularity, maybe based on celebrities or famous people at the time. When I was young, there were many girls with my same first name, but the popularity of it faded out later.  I've always liked my name, but I've known of people who shortened theirs or went by a middle name because they weren't fond of the names they were given.

Is your given name popular, or was it when you were given it?  Were you named after someone in your family or a famous person? Do you like your name? I'm always curious about names.

Friday Finish - Crazy Quilt Ornament

 

Super Mario Theme Park to Open in February in Japan

 

I was surprised to find out that a new Super Mario theme park will be opening in Osaka on February 4th. The surprise was not about Super Mario, but that the theme park was opening during the pandemic.  Things might be better by February, but probably not. 

This theme park was originally scheduled to open in July 2020, just before the Tokyo Olympics, when there would be many visitors to Japan. Japan's borders have been closed to foreign tourists since the beginning of the pandemic and there has been no talk of when this will change. Can a new theme park survive without foreign tourists?  

I know nothing about Nintendo or Super Mario, but I read the park will feature a real-life Bowser's castle and an interactive Mario Kart ride. It's being called an immersive land featuring Nintendo's legendary worlds, characters, and adventures where guests will be able to play inside their favorite Nintendo games. Some rides feature reality headsets and there is also a ride based on the cute green dinosaur Yoshi. 

I don't think I would visit even if there wasn't a pandemic. What about you?

Work In Progress Wednesday

The blackwork bands are coming along.  I enjoy this project.

This now needs to be finish finished into an ornament.

I came across the glass balls and decided to make some beaded ornaments.

Check back next Wednesday to see if I continue working on these projects or move on to something else.

Fried Chicken Wing Flavor Pringles

Only in Japan.  Actually, only in the Tokai region of Japan, which is made of of Shizuoka (where I live), Aichi, Gifu, and Mie prefectures. This area is known for good food (as are all regions of Japan), especially the fried chicken wings from Aichi.  The famous Aichi wings are deep fried with tebasaki sauce.

These limited edition Pringles are available in packs of three for 600 yen, only in stores in the Tokai region.  I haven't noticed them in the stores yet, and won't be buying them anyway. What do you think?  If they were sold where you live, would you try them?

Monday Morning Star Count - Week 31

Year Four of the temperature quilt  

Week 31 

November 22 - 28 

66, 66, 57, 54, 64, 54, 61

I am reporting the high temperature each day.  My Year Four 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  

You can see my finished Year One Quilt here. 

Carrot Bread

 Late yesterday afternoon I received an email from a friend who lives nearby.  I haven't seen her in awhile because of the coronavirus.  She asked if she could bring me something.   Shortly after she brought me this:

Oh my gosh! Do I have good friends or what? I was surprised and soooo happy.  Thank you, Suwa!  You really made my day!

Carrot Cake is Not in Japan

 

Photo from the internet

Do you have a favorite cake?  There are several kinds of cakes that I like, but my absolute favorite is carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Carrot cake is a dense cake with carrots, raisins, nuts, pineapple, plus all the regular cake stuff, like sugar, flour, eggs. Growing up, my mom made it for my birthday every year and my first year in college my parents had a carrot cake delivered to me in my dorm from a local bakery.

I've  never seen carrot cake sold in Japan. No, I can't make one myself.  I have no oven.  When I travel outside Japan, I always look for it, and have eaten it in Spain, Italy, the UK, and Australia. Ted made one in the crock pot for me one year in Hokkaido. I think Japanese people prefer light fluffy cakes and carrot cake is heavy. 

So, tell me, do you like carrot cake?  What is your favorite cake?

Friday Finish - Snowflake Ornament

 

The Stitch Group Tea Ceremony

The stitch group members have many interests besides stitching.  Three of them study/participate (I don't know the correct word) the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Lately, I am learning a lot about tea, it seems. The home where we met has a gorgeous Japanese room. This is where the tea ceremony was held.

This Japanese sweet was almost too beautiful to eat, but eat it I did.

Two of our members prepared and served the tea. There is a great deal of ritual involved.

This water heating pot is special with pine on the front and the little bumps are from hail.  I don't know if it is actual hail or representing hail. The little handles sticking out are demon ears.

After the tea ceremony, we had a little time for stitching.  Our project was little felt pins or ornaments.

One stitcher worked on finishing this stitching from the last get together onto the top of a business card case.  This was her first time making twisted cording. Didn't the finished box turn out nice?

Here are the other works in progress.

And finally, here is a photo of the bag one of the stitchers made for her nurse friend with the fashionable ladies fabric.  Great gift!

We're not able to meet as often as we used to because of the pandemic, but we will be back again before too long. I'm very thankful for these friends!

Work In Progress Wednesday

 I put a few more lengths of thread into this blackwork band sampler.

I put in some white cross stitches and green outlining, but stitching white on white is a little difficult. After one afternoon of stitching, I put it away again.

I started a little crazy quilt project.

I decided to finish the little redwork piece from the stitch group project.

I'm happy to have so many things to choose from.

Driverless Bus in Ibaraki

I read an interesting story on the Yomiuri Shimbun website about a free, self-driving bus which began running in Sakai, Ibaraki Prefecture last Thursday. According to the town, this is the first regular operation of a self-driving bus in Japan.  The bus is French-made and can hold 11 people.  It is programmed to run at a speed of 18 kilometers per hour on a 5 kilometer round trip through the center of town.  It detects and avoids obstacles with sensors.  The bus has a driver on board to check the surroundings before departing from bus stops or when moving through traffic jams. For now the bus is making four round trips a day. I wonder if it will catch on and be available in other Japanese towns.