pinku

Curry anyone??!!

It's quiz time at pinku!

I'm heading to India this weekend for work, so needless to say I've been doing some study about the great land known as India (which is derived from Greek you know...) Anyway, I am of course going to visit the Taj Mahal and that got me thinking - what are the seven ancient wonders of the world?? Go on and try and think of all seven. Now don't cheat and google it. Rules stipulate that you can only use the information currently stored in your brain. Leave your answers in the comments and I'll put up the correct answers tomorrow. Go on - play along - you know you want to.

Please note that there is an official list of the seven ancient wonders of the world and it doesn't include the Taj Mahal, but I am going to be lenient. Including the official seven, there are another seven 'wonders' that are often included in this list (e.g. Taj Mahal) - you can include those in your answers!!

Also if anyone has recommendations about what to do in Delhi - let me know!!!

Hanami 2004

The weather couldn't be more perfect here in Tokyo. Spring has arrived and so have the cherry blossoms. Yesterday we joined the masses and had ourselves a little hanami party in Inokashira Park - this is one of Tokyo's prime cherry blossom viewing spots and it just happens to be our backyard. The party started at 9:30 am, well actually I was minding our party spot from this early hour and the revellers started arriving from about 11am. Darin and I were joined by Matt and Kim and a bunch of their buddies, a bunch of friends that I studied with, our local pals Tyler, Jamie, Bernie, Yoshi and Josh from Bondi Books and Martine popped in for a quick visit. It was a big day. Check out my Hanami 2004 photo gallery to see some of our pics!!!

See Kim's pics HERE!!

This

plus this

equals this

AVRIL - beautiful Japanese textiles

Oh I've made another great discovery - a shop called AVRIL - a very cool yarn store that dyes their very own yarns. You can even get bamboo yarn - now, how cool is that. Also, lucky for me it just happens to have a cute little branch in Kichijoji where I live. They have three other stores which are all located in the Kansai region - two stores in Kyoto and one store in Osaka. Their yarns are sold in the US at the famous Habu Textiles store in New York. They have knitting, felting and spinning classes BUT they're all on weekdays except for the felting class on Saturdays - don't they know that working girls (no, not those kind of working girls!!) like to knit too!!! Not fair!

Now look at the cute kits they offer - a silk beret is calling my name!!

Even China needs a little pink...

Received this beautiful pic from Nicole:

Was sorting thru some old pics of China when I discovered this pink-roofed house set among the water chestnuts, rice paddies & dwarfed by limestone karsts. It's just outside Yangshuo, Guilin (Southern China).

I've got an inkling that pink will eventually bring this world together......

Pink Wednesday

Here's a very hot pink submission from Andrea. Enjoy!

Pink Monday

Pinku has been very lucky to receive two pretty pink pictures from Alison - a fellow knitter in Taiwan. There's really no better time for a pink fix than first thing Monday morning - or anytime on Monday really. Does anyone ever really want to be at work on Monday??

Thanks for the photos, Alison.

Mother Earth yarn store in Tokyo

Mother Earth is a yarn dyeing studio out in the mountains in Yatsugatake. About a five minute taxi ride from Kobuchizawa station on the Chuo line. I wanna go - anyone wanna go with me? I can already smell the fresh air and think of all that yarn. Just looked up how far it is away by train - from Kichijoji you can get there in two and a half hours (not much longer if you leave from central Tokyo) if you take an express from Hachioji, and it costs 4810 yen (not cheap!). If you wanna go local all the way, it'll take you three hours and 40 minutes from Kichijoji and it'll cost 2520 yen (one-way that is). Mmmmm, kinda far away, but it sounds like it'd make a nice weekend getaway.

They have also opened up a cute little yarn store in Minami Azabu for those of us who don't have the time to get out to their mountain studio. They have a cafe with organic coffee and cake and will provide free knitting lessons for those who buy some Mother Earth yarn.

Their English information is here. Um, think I'll offer my translation services when I pay them a visit - Kitting classes??!!!

doesn't it look cute!

Ramie

Tee hee - I've been a bad girl. Just did a little internet shopping at Pierrot and bought some ramie yarn. Read about it below - they used to use it to make mummy cloths - how cool is that!! Wonder if it'll make me feel like a mummy (the egyptian kind that is) It was cheap at around 300 yen for a 40g skein - I bought 4 pink skeins and 4 brown skeins to make a pretty summer top.

Ramie is one of the oldest textile fibres.

It was used in mummy cloths in Egypt during the period 5000-3300 BC and has been grown in China for many centuries. Ramie is also similar to linen and is a bast of plant fiber. It is natural white in color, has a high luster and an unusual resistance to bacteria and molds. Used in fabrics, and often mistaken for linen, it is extremely absorbent and dries quickly. Ramie has excellent abrasion resistance and has been tested to be three to five times stronger than cotton and twice as strong as flax. It is an inexpensive fiber from an East Asian plant and can be spun or woven into a fabric.

Wanna know more - click here.

ps There will be one more beautiful shining star in the sky tonight - that'll be my grandad...

Friday Pink Fix

Gotta good one for you on this kinda fine, but cold again Friday here in Tokyo. This picture is really beautiful. Another great submission from Frangipani - check out this girl's site to see more of her beautiful photos. Enjoy!

I'm feeling good on this Friday morning despite the fact that I have a recurring earache, the weather is cold again, didn't get much sleep, there were some really loud teenage girls on the train this morning (they were disrupting my quiet reading time), and am poor til next payday. I feel great and I think it's coz it's Friday. Got no money, but I have a cupboard full of yarn just dying to be made into something weekend.......yay for yarn stashes!

Oh and I've added a family photo album to the site. I have password-protected it though - there are some weirdos out there and I didn't think you'd all be that interested in a lot of photos of me and my family. If you are though, email me and I'll give you the password!!!

HAVE A VERY PINK WEEKEND!

My lunch

Sometimes I really love the little things about living in Japan, like my little bento box I get for lunch. It costs 390 yen, which would be around (gosh better get the calculator out or Matt'll be after me!!) 3.55 USD or 4.75 AUD!!!! It's the perfect lunch really - two healthy rice balls, one filled with pieces of konbu (seaweed), a little dish of beef and gobo (burdock root), a small piece of Japanese-style egg omelette (so yummy), another little dish filled with pickled daikon, a little spring roll, a little cream/corn croquette, some shredded cabbage (which Darin tells me is filled with lots of nutritional good stuff - we had our doubts), and to top it off a little piece of kiwi fruit and some strawberries!!!!

Go Japanese food!