One of the large paintings on the ceiling of Sensouji Temple.
One of the two main gates for Kabukicho.
My tiny padded flat for the night, complete with computer.
Feeling refreshed after a soak in the Hottarakashi Onsen in Yamanashi City. The onsen has one of the three best night views in all of Japan. I would have taken a photo inside, but I couldn't quite work up the courage to bring a camera into the onsen itself.
The main road that runs by my apartment building.
The front of my apartment building. The second floor is a cram school, and on the first floor there is a houtou restaurant, a clothing store, and an izakaya.
The view from my front door on the 6th floor.
This is a little cellphone photo from the balcony of my apartment overlooking the station building. I've been in Yamanashi-shi about 3 weeks now, and am finally getting settled into my new apartment and into being back in Japan. I still don't have the internet, but hopefuly it will get installed sometime this week or next week at the latest.
Yamanashi-shi is in the Kofu basin area, surrounded almost 360 degrees by mountains. It is a bit strange, but it's a bit unnerving to me to be living in essentially a large mountain spiked bowl . It's the first time I've lived somewhere not bordered at least on one side by a beach of some sort.
More pictures to come soon, once internet permits :)
This is the state of my room. Note the knitting on top of my carry on luggage.
Oh dear.
While I was studying at Waseda University, I wrote a paper and did a presentation on Asian Blepharoplasty, or the surgery used to create a double eyelid, and the social commentary surrounding body image. I created the above image thanks to the help of my classmates in a language class I was taking to illustrate the diversity of eye shapes and eye color and how the double eyelid, or lack there of, was perceived in an Asian society.
When I presented this image to my mostly Japanese classmates, I also asked for descriptive words that they could associate with the images of eyes. The most common descriptor for the eyes possessing a double eyelid was "awake", which is also one of the top reasons patients who elect for the double eyelid surgery give for wanting the procedure. For more information about plastic surgery in Asia, take a look at this article in Time Magazine, Changing Faces.
Social commentary aside, I found this image while organizing my files, thought it was interesting, and wanted to share.
Knitting is postponed until I finish packing up for my move back home tomorrow.
So I've been keeping a bit of a secret from you all (well, most of you already know ) but I was accepted into the JET Programme in April, and I'll be living and teaching in Yamanashi prefecture come the beginning of August.
I am very excited and not at all done packing yet! It's been a hectic past couple weeks, and I can only expect things to get a little crazier as my departure date gets closer. I've been working almost full time at a summer conference job at my university, and while things have been fun, it hasn't left me with a lot of time for packing and preparing to move to Japan.
On the knitting front, I've been working on my Earth Squared Blanket
I finished my first brown square, and started right into the next white (beige? tan? toasted pine nut?) square. I had to order more yarn for this blanket, because I mistakenly thought 6 balls of Patons Classic Merino would be enough. Only after I finished one square and realized I had used almost half of one ball, did I finally come out of my delusional state.
I think I would have progressed much faster on the blanket if I had not received an invite to Ravelry a couple days ago and spent the better part of my online time looking at other people's projects. Feel free to add me as a friend. (just search for my blog)
With this :
Hopefully arriving in my mail box tomorrow, I don't see my knitting getting any faster, since I haven't quite figured out how to knit and read at the same time. Though I might try and learn :)
When I was working in Cornwall, I was introduced to Jaffa Cakes by a British coworker who swore they were the best thing the English had ever invented. Jaffa Cakes are a small cookie shaped snack, which is a 2 inch or so disk of sponge cake covered with a tangy sweet orange jam, and then covered in dark chocolate. Addictive to say the least, and it's been almost 3 years since my last Jaffa Cake.
Unfortunately I've never seen anything like them here in the states, or in Japan. So I was surprised to see Jaffa Cake look-a-likes at the market today.
They are LU Pim's (which are described as soft biscuits rather than cakes.) They are very very good! The molded chocolate with the Pim's logo on it kinda takes away from the Jaffa Cake experience, but it's still a good match. Talk about fulfilling food cravings! All I need is to do now is find me a place that sells lamb and mint pasties and I'll be happy ^_^
Forgive me, I've been reading and writing about nothing but syphilis and prostitutes in early modern Japan for the last 2 weeks. So I have this 20 page essay in this Medical and Social History of Japan class this term. It's worth 40% of my grade for the term...and it is killing me to write it. Did I mention it's due in on Monday?
So instead of writing, I keep taking one hour 20-30 minutes breaks to knit the Earth^2 blanket. There is so much blanket love right now.Instead of keeping with the straight stockinette I had planned (it was boring me to tears) I snitched the waffle stitch from cosmic pluto's amazing Thermal sweater, and added some big waffley stripes!
I found this button here.
Against all odds, the long suffering toe up socks are done!
I was about to rip them out when two knitting friends talked me out of it. Not only that, but the decrease portion of the heel which were giving me the most problems, was generously knit by a friend. (Em, you are awesome!)
A sneak peak at the little Casey's Coat from SNBN. One sleeve down, one to go!
Toe-up socks of doom, your time has come to an end. I started you last May (that's 2006 people!) and you have sat gathering dust on my desk, taunting me with your unfinish-able state since September, the last time I deigned to knit you. Your second heel is the bane of my existence. I tried, really tried to finish the heel. I've spared the close-up pictures of the loose, holey excuse of a heel. The short row decreases are done, but I can not remember if I have switched to increases or not, and your tiny, tiny stitches tell me nothing. Which is sad because your yarn is absolutely gorgeous.
The part that annoys me the most? Count the number of Clover size 2 double pointed needles in the picture.
I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve,
