At One with Noisy Nature

The Institute for Nature Study is 20 mins walk from the flat so having spent 2 hours up to my elbows in rubber gloves (cleaning), and noticing that the day was a lovely one, I decided to make a break for it. I believe there is an actual establishment there, but basically it is a relatively big forest surrounded on all sounds by bits of highly developed city.

The woodland's history is on the website (and in english) but essentially it's very old and apart from footpaths and the odd bit of tending, it is largely left to get on with it. Bits of tree that fall off or die are left where they are to rot and feed the rest of the forest and plants grow as nature intends them to. It means it is all quite higgledypiggledy.

It also means there are a large number of trees which are too big to get into a single photo.

In my usual way I hopped and hummed my way around the whole place which took about 90 minutes. I wasn't rushing and frequently stopped to stroke the trees and listen to the birds. The trees were highly strokable.

The birds were not so much a delight upon the ear as a cacophany of unavoidable noise. The two birds I have seen most of since I arrived are the common crow, and the brown eared bulbul - and it was these which appear to dominate this location at this time of year. The latter's song is like the cry of a baby bird being slowly roasted to death over a fire (imagine me going "hweeeeeeee" at a really high pitch while simultaneously sounding like I smoke fifty a day, and repeat, and repeat, and you're near), while the caw of the crows is equally pervasive. Combine the two and it really did feel like I was in the jungle of a foreign land.

Which, me being in Japan and all, is kind of true. The noise of the crows was so incessant and they were so consistently present that I did start to wonder whether perhaps there were not that many of them and I was just being followed around. They are quite clever birds and I have, for instance, played a game of peekaboo with one who likes sitting on the house opposite our kitchen*. They seem to like to see what people are doing so was it truly that a stream of different crows were coming to perch on trees near me and have a look, or was it the same one following me? Does each visitor get assigned a crow by the chief crow, who would be like Baron Silas Greenback, the villain from Dangermouse, although admittedly on further study he is a toad and I had him confused with his henchman, Stiletto Mafiosa, who was indeed a crow. Or have I just been re-reading Thief of Time recently and got Quoth on the brain?

* What happened was I had put some toast crusts out on the balcony outside the kitchen for the birds and one of the crows had noticed. Crows are fairly hated in Tokyo as they make loads of mess trying to get into rubbish bags and bins so they are very wary of people. This one started off by checking out the situation by sitting on some of the power lines outside the kitchen, where I was washing up. It could see me, which it didn't like, so instead of hopping onto the balcony it flew onto the edge of a slightly higher flat roof that gave it a better view into the kitchen. I looked straight at it, and it backed up a little bit, which meant it vanished from my view because of it being on a higher flat roof. I backed up a step too so I could again make eye contact with it and it backed up a bit further. I backed up again and it ducked its head right down for about 30 seconds before lifting it up again to see if I'd gone. I hadn't so it ducked down again. At this point I thought I should just let the little bugger get the bread (I've nothing personally against crows and think they are rather impressive) so I closed the kitchen blinds and retired from the battle of wills.

I know we all have a tendency to endow animals with human characteristics, but they do always seem very clever to me.

Cat Interlude

My weekly visit to Calico Cat Cafe took place yesterday and I have to say it was all a bit odd. When I arrived the Cat Tower in the first room was unusually full.

When I headed downstairs the possible explanation of this became apparent. The place was full of men! There were about 10 of them sitting downstairs, unaccompanied by any women. I'm not saying only women go to Cat Cafes but this isn't something I'd seen before. The bemused but sleepy Retro was keeping out of it by going up high.

While my beloved Gomako, who I usually spend most of my time stroking, was steadfastly sleeping inside a cardboard tube. Very disappointing.

To get my fill of cat booty I bought a little tub of chicken, which is cheating but a girls-gotta-do, the opening of which causes the holder to become the temporary best friend of at least 6 cats. Yashiro is my second favourite after Gomako. Partly because of his face, which makes him look permanently annoyed that he's been bothered, but also because of his intelligence.

He has worked out that people order cat food (tiny tubs of real cooked chicken) from the staff so as soon as he sees you sit down and talk to a staff member he comes and sits near you, on the basis that the odds are good you've ordered food. He stays with you until all the food has gone, then turns his back on you to look out for the next person to talk to a staff member while seated. So self-serving and single-minded. Brilliant.

I spent a little while stroking the over flowing Taiga, who is a Maine Coon like Retro, before heading upstairs.

Still on the Cat Tower was Kinako, who is the same breed as Gomako and only 3 weeks older.

Awake, Kinako is pretty freaky looking because she has eyes which are almost rusty red rather than the usual blue or green. It makes her look rather zombie like. But you can't really be freaked out by anything that has such cute little feet.

Those pads on her paws are a brighter pink than the photo suggests. So adorable!

I've often read that you can judge the health of a cat from their fur - whether they are well groomed, evenly covered and also the softness. I've consistently been impressed with the condition of all the cats and also the love the staff show for them. I see London's first Cat Cafe is getting ready to open although there is no date yet. I'd be interested to hear what it's like if anyone is planning a visit.

Hops and Swaps

I have ended up with two partners for the EPP Swap. The second one is finished while the first is becoming a bit of a how-not-to-do-it lesson. Second first.

I am very happy with this with the possible exception of the seam bottom right. Inside I used a vintage seed packed print.

The EPP is all over the back and flap.

This kind of country chic colouring is not my usual palette so it was interesting to put these low volume fabric scraps together.

My first pouch was the one I blogged about before that went lumpy. It's now been unpicked and I've created a panel of hexagons to go with the triangles.

I really must stop starting things without a proper plan or at least a proper sketch with thought giving to fastenings. I now have one of those so am back on plan again.

Meanwhile the She Who Sews Hop, which I am part of next week, has started, alternating days with the Don't Let the Door Stop You Hop. There are some crazy, wonderful projects appearing each day. Go and check what is being made and find the schedule here. There is also still time to sign-up for the next BlogHop which is focussing on Ruffles.

Quiltapocalypse

I have just got back from the Tokyo Festival of Quilts which, needless to say, was EPIC!

It took up the whole of the Tokyo Dome, which in real life is a baseball stadium. I arrived just as it opened so as you can see in the picture above it was quite nice and empty. Ha! Little did I know.

Minute after minute, hour after hour, they streamed in. I told Noriko it was like a zombie apocalypse with a never ending stream of aesthetically hungry people arriving. I was starting to wonder whether, if enough japanese quilters converged on the same place at the same time, could it become too much for reality to handle and could we inadvertently deform space and time and create a black hole? Even if Stephen Hawking has decided they probably don't exist afterall? Could this be quiltapocalypse? But then that could have been the heat and dehydration talking.

If you look at all my photos from the event (in a set on Flickr here) in order you'll see them go from nicely framed pics of a whole quilt to parts of one framed by heads. I can't imagine what the afternoon would be like (we left at lunchtime) as people were already filling most of the seats to eat lunch while the exhibition spaces and stands were still packed with others. What would happen when they all finished chomping and got back to it?

Quantity-wise you could easily spend 6-8 hours looking at everything, but with the number of people I ducked out after 2.5. That doesn't mean I didn't fit a lot into that time though! I've put a few photos in this post but the rest are on Flickr. They get quite blurry after a while - it was all the jostling. That well-remarked japanese politeness goes out the window at these shindigs.

Detail:

There were also lots of stands to buy from.

And I did manage to bring a few things home with me. I was only looking for things I wouldn't find in the UK because the japanese colour palette is quite unique. I thought this stand's display summed it up quite well.

I tried to explain to Noriko that we just don't get fabrics in these colours in the UK but I don't think she believed me. I'm sure I'm right though - how many shades of muted brown and green does your local shop stock? In the end I ended up with 3 kits...

Fabrics...

And the frame and pattern for a little cottage sewing box.

You can see the finished thing with the 'roof' pinned up on one side in the picture below.

I think the lady liked me because I caught sight of it, gasped and excitedly whispered "Sugoi!", which means "wow!".

And Now For The News

Pooch and I both like to listen to news on the radio in the mornings. When we get up on weekdays it is "The World Tonight" on BBC R4 which is clearly an international program so quite diverse. However, if we listen in the evenings we'll get one of the regular UK news programs. What is very noticeable is how a theme gets a lot of coverage while other things that don't fit the theme get left out. Plus once the news machine gets a grip on a particular issue they then go on and on and on about it.

This isn't a new thing and it's also not something I've only become aware of since moving to Japan. But being out here and wanting a general overview means you have to really spend time digging around the lower levels of the bbc news site.

The topic of 'news from home' came up at the Stitch n Bitch group on Tuesday when I happened to be at a table with an australian, a new zealander, an american and a german. The american was talking about how there was a politician in her state misbehaving and how she just didn't want to know and couldn't see why so much airtime was given to it. We compared what the big themes were for our countries and my contribution was "Weather - there have been loads of floods, immigration...oh, and of course the pedophiles". Lengthy pause. "Pedophiles?" someone says. "Oh yeah I heard that the Pope had been dealing with the bad priests." "Oh no" I said, "I mean the famous ones."

So the good thing about this conversation is that it reveals that the UK is not yet famous for having lots of pedophiles. Yay!

The revelations about the mass abuse carried out by an admittedly limited number of celebrities from the seventies and eighties is something I find particularly disturbing since it is the celebrities of my own youth who are involved. Jimmy Saville was always a real oddball and I never felt comfortable with the juxtpositions of his lifestyle. Not that I ever suspected he had abused hundreds if not thousands of children - but that didn't stop me wanting to be on Jim-ll-fix-it. And as for Rolf Harris...a big part of me is still thinking that it can't be true. But then that suggests the multiple women accusing him must all be either fantasists or psychotically mercantile.

But I loved Rolf Harris as a child and I loved him as an adult. When the accusations came out I wanted to hug him and tell him I still believed in him and Pooch and I had several heated conversations about whether it could be true. However, I am a strong believer in the justice of the UK legal system so the case will wind its way towards a conclusion and in the meantime I will maintain a strong hope that he is innocent.

Sewing Fail, Sewing Fun

Fail first. I spent fricking ages putting this zip in.

I mean...I basted! I haven't basted since the after school sewing teacher made me do it before using the machine. How does it look?

LUMPY! It looks really lumpy like a pre-schooler did her first zip. Going to have to unpick and rethink. So annoying.

Sewing fun - my first ever spool block.

I am not usually a fussy sewer so a 5" block that uses 11 different pieces was not something I exactly jumped into. But I think it has worked out rather nicely! It is for the She Who Sews Hop which starts next week.

I finally got some inspiration this morning.

I will probably still play with the layout but I am pleased enough with it to make 8 more spools. I'm using this tutorial which stays away from triangles so it's a Modern Spool rather than a usual one. I've been going mental on the triangles recently.

This is becoming a bag for the Sewing Room Swap. I was thinking about how much effort I go to to make these things for swaps and thinking about the effort I put into things for myself. I think sometimes I forget that I am much more valuable to myself than other people - think of putting the oxygen mask on yourself first on an airplane before you help others. I should take this much trouble with things for myself too.

Crafty Finishes

Pooch's birthday jumper is done.

He's gone all shy in his 37th year but still has the bum of a 35 year old, n'est pas? He's very happy with it. I used the free chart from here (Rav link). I also finally sewed the buttons I made onto Jasmine's dress.

When I make another one (I just need to be sure this one fits) I won't use such bulky buttons as having them on both sides means the dress will stand away from her little collar bones. I think next time a couple of those iron on patches will serve to disguise where I've sewn on the poppers instead. But apart from that I am very happy with this. My sister is very lovely and an excellent mother but useless at measuring her child so I just did it based on the average for her age, hence my concern about the fit!

I now need a new knitting project, which I think will be a jumper for my ickle brother (who is bigger than Pooch), while I have no need to think hard about my next sewing efforts.

The english paper pieced pouch swap has started and having never done triangles before I thought I'd give them a go. I do love a nice tessellation.

Scoring at the Salvation Army Bazaar

I believe I have previously mentioned the lack of charity shops in Tokyo. This post is about the one I've found. It's only open on Saturdays so this last weekend I pootled over there, taking care to leave Pooch at home. This kind of place is his idea of hell. It was the best part of an hour each way - was it worth it? Oh yeah.

This is not your average UK style charity shop - but much more like the american thrift stores. It was huge. Epic. Vast. There were leaflets in english at the door telling you how it all works but essentially about 10% of the stuff was priced, the rest was a guess. And then whatever it said on the label, they'd knock up to half off when you came to pay. You see the bottom right photo in the medley? That was the haberdashery and vintage kimono section. Mmmm.

850g of the green yarn for 500Yen (about £3.50), oodles upon oodles of buttons, drawers of fabric remnants (left) and handkerchiefs or wrapping cloths (right) - these are just what I brought home which barely dented the surface of what was there. There were much larger lengths of fabric too.

Unused vintage placemats with this lovely maple leaf design, random hair clips, 'thank you' cat and a juice flask and glasses still in their original box. My favourite item though is this lovely vintage kimono jacket.

This is a present for Mater. I think the body is silk and looks quite old while the sleeves have been carefully added later and are in a temari ball print. That was just under £10. Amazing. And as ever in Tokyo, the volunteers staffing the place were endlessly polite and kept thanking people for buying things. If I had known about this place when I was shopping for our house I would have bought all of our kitchen things, pots, crockery, glasses, from here and furniture too. Lovely solid wood 5' tall chests of drawers for £30? I would happily have had all the furniture I saw in my home.

For anyone who happens to be in the vicinity these are the directions. If you get lost and resort to google maps I suggest searching for "Salvation Army Suginami" which is the Corps building just next door. From there follow the people marching steadfastly towards it. It is only open 9-1 on Saturday mornings and, as with most of Tokyo, is cash only. I am definitely going to be going back!

Neighbourhood Patrol

I had a good march around the neighbourhood this week. It is all becoming quite normal to me but so many things are completely different to the way London's residential areas are I thought you might be interested. Let's start with our flat which is within this building, forming the back half of the second floor.

Unlike London, as soon as you move off the main thoroughfare, you are on single lane streets.

Pavements exist occasionally, but usually you just walk along the side of the street. Bicycles are very common but they tend to ride on the pavements or sides of streets like this rather than among the cars. It's a little olde worlde in that people don't bother with bicycle locks - you see them outside lots of houses just on their stands.

Often they'll be alongside pot plants which decorate a large number of doorsteps. With land at such a premium people tend not to have gardens, so decorated doorsteps is very common. For anyone who has lived in London this seems really odd. I was astonished - no one steals the plants, or the bikes. No one even knocks them over. No one sprays graffiti on them. It's really quite weird for someone so used to London ways. As well as plants you get knicknacks. Pottery frogs for example.

These are often themed - either seasonal or all disney, for example. Recently these have been new year themed.

And sometimes you want to decorate the doorstep because of what is just next door. The one above had one of the ubiquitous vending machines next to it.

These are endemic. You get them absolutely everywhere including inside temples, on underground platforms and at the entrances to the poshest shopping centres. They give out the usual bottled soft drinks for about 75p a time but also hot drinks such as tea and coffee. Some have beer or whiskey in them. You also get others for cigarettes and sometimes for ice creams and snacks. Veering off the tour for a moment I was surprised to find a 2.7 litre plastic bottle of whiskey in a supermarket the other day.

About £11. Bargain. Anyway, back to the tour. Because space is scarce, any empty lots become these mini carparks.

Some may only have two spaces in them and they are all automated, which is odd considering how overstaffed other activities are. For instance, any construction work is accompanied by a man making sure no one is struck down by vehicles connected to the works which might come racing up at 10 mph every 3 hours or so.

I always say thank you to these men even when the road is empty, as it usually is. I feel so sorry for them. Must be almost as boring as this police duty.

Whenever there is an embassy nearby, and there are several near here (Argentinian and Swiss - nothing threatening), you get a policeman ready to block the roads with his expandable blockade in the event of a crisis. He has an orange baton too. Poor things. They just stand there, hour after hour, scowling at the traffic, in case someone starts storming the Swiss Embassy by car from 300 yards away. As soon as you get away from doorsteps and security risks you can tell when you are getting to the main shopping streets as they are decorated. These are our local ones.

Azabu-juban, which is a richer area and more touristy than ours, has slightly snazzier ones with flags as well.

As well as shops and doorsteps, we also have a large number of temples and shrines near us. You can tell the two apart because a shrine will always have a gate like this at the entrance.

There are at least four within 10 minutes walk of here. This is one of the temples.

This houses a lot of grave monuments.

They also often have their own gardens of various sizes. Aren't the branches of this tree amazing?

This one is alongside our main thoroughfare - which was bustling at midday on a weekday.

You might remember me mentioning a pet hate about waiting endlessly for the green man to appear on empty roads. You can see that happening here. Alongside it runs the odd looking Furukawa River.

Until I looked it up I assumed it was more of a spillway than an actual river but - London residents may again not believe this - there are no shopping trolleys in it. Or bikes. Or pushchairs. Or anything much except rocks, water and perhaps even a fish. As a final stop on this tour, and just down the road from here, is a Nursery. When passing I was delighted to finally see an example of what I had heard stories about - children in carts.

Older children are taken out for walks to local playgrounds (there are two little ones nearby) but the younger ones get put in carts and wheeled round to them. So cute! The youngest get put into 4-baby carts with seats (there's one in the background here) while the others stand in this type of one. Almost next door is a dog grooming parlour. These are much more common than nurseries since the birthrate is quite amazingly low in Tokyo especially, where dog ownership seems much more popular. You see the poor things dressed up in jackets and trousers, trotting along the pavements with their hair permed or whatever it is they do in dog parlours.

So there we are. That is my local neighbourhood, and off I go now into it to do the daily food shopping!