-
Today is Hina Matsuri,
Today is Hina Matsuri, the Doll’s Festival. These beautiful dolls are the Imperial court of the Heian period (794-1192) and the day is celebrated to bless daughters. Displaying the dolls began in the Edo period (1603 – 1898) when courtly customs seeped out to the commoners. The elaborate displays I photographed were in a bank…
-
Welcome to my living
Welcome to my living room. I think this might be one of my favorite rooms, ever. The photo doesn’t do it justice because I lack a wide angle lens for my digital camera. The room has southern exposure and a wall of glass curtained with horizontally striped cotton sheers (just out of sight on the…
-
On the way back
On the way back from the house inspection (whch the realtor declared “good”), I stopped at the local plant shop on Hakusan Dori to buy some trees for the veranda. What a delightful experience. The Shimamuras have friends in Chicago so they visit the US from time to time and speak some English. Our conversation…
-
Links
Good reading and access to other places.
-
Whew. I found the
Whew. I found the garage key. The garage key was in a desk drawer. Without a car, we never needed the key and it was put away for safekeeping. Of course, it was also half forgotten. Vague memories of “drawer” dredged up the right location after a few tries. This morning, I return to the…
-
I love the sound
I love the sound of trains. The Marunouchi line, an electric subway, makes a brief above ground appearance near our new apartment. Every few minutes, I hear the muted roar of trains going by. I haven’t yet learned to distinguish their direction, but I will. And I suspect that I’ll be able to tell what…
-
Hikkoshimashita. We’ve moved. The
Hikkoshimashita. We’ve moved. The past few days, I’ve been running around wearing a kitchen timer around my neck. It helps me to stay focussed by allowing me to work in 15 minute chunks. It’s pretty astonishing what you can do in 15 minutes. This advice came from FlyLady, woman and a website that’s difficult to…
-
The final items to
The final items to dispose of before moving were some small tables and lamps. The stone-topped coffee tables we acquired when we first landed in Japan were a favorite of Tod’s. He really didn’t want to part with them, but the interior plan of the new apartment proved that there’s no room for them. I…
-
Today’s pre-moving activities did
Today’s pre-moving activities did not go as smoothly as planned. After delivering our freshly washed curtains to the new apartment and discovering that they weren’t actually very clean after all, we decided to hang them up anyway. The new windows are considerably shorter than the old ones. The curtains trail the ground like a bridal…
-
I shouldn’t read the
I shouldn’t read the articles about blogging in the popular press. They make me question whether my blog is worthwhile. Self doubt creeps in when I encounter things like this: “When people begin to think that they are nothing more than a cog in the wheel of society, they look for any way to differentiate…
Archives