pinku

Holidays rule!!

I haven't updated in a week or so because I've been on holidays (and my laptop broke - it wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that I stood on it, does it????). For the record, I lurvve holidays - even when there is a typhoon approaching. If you haven't heard yet typhoon number 16 (also called Typhoon Chaba on CNN - who is responsible for naming them I ask you???) is wreaking havoc in southern Japan, and blowing sand in my face in Shimoda.

We were supposed to get on a ferry to camp in the island paradise, Shikinejima, but the scary typhoon-savaged seas convinced us to stay on dry land. So Darin, myself, Martine, Claire and Jess head off to Shimoda - the favourite beach getaway for foreigners in Tokyo. It is about a 3 to 4 hours by train from Tokyo and it is located on the tip of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka.

Here is a picture of the group walking along Kisami Ohama beach - absolutely perfect....um except for the fact that we weren't allowed to swim due to strong currents and big waves. This was torture as the water temperature was perfect for swimming. Damn.

I wish I had more photos but for some reason our camera battery ran out after about 16 shots. Damn. Got in a little knitting, but the company was just too entertaining to bother with knitting, and the food too delicious. One of the things that I miss about home is a good breakfast with friends on the weekend. Luckily Kisami is filled with cafes that cater to foreigners like myself and for two mornings in a row we stuffed our faces with bacon, hot coffee, scrambled eggs and hot toast sitting outside on wooden decks. Heaven.

Weekend roundup

On Saturday I met up with Bronwyn, a fellow knitter from Canada visiting Japan for a couple of weeks. We had a great time checking out the yarn stores of Kichijoji and all of the other shops and then sharing a cold beer in the park. She was sweet enough to bring me some delicious handspun, hand-dyed wool from Victoria where she is from. Here is a photo of us in the park. Oh and there is one thing that we have in common apart from our love of knitting - you'll probably never guess, so I'll just tell you. Both of our fathers are Chinese. Amazing, huh!! I mean maybe I can see it in me, but Bronwyn has blond hair and blue eyes - genes are amazing things!!!

On Sunday, we went to Musashino Park for Darin's Skate BBQ - there was skating, lots of good food and company, and it was the first ever bbq for my friend Aya - she came dressed in a beautiful yukata and gave the bbq a little class!!! Here are some photos:

On the way home from the park we came across Mitaka's Awaodori Festival, and it was amazing. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. It is moments like these that I feel lucky to live in Japan. I never feel that way on the way to work in the morning on the train....

Amanda meets Carla

So as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I finished Carla only to discover that it was a little too tight across the shoulders for me. I did happen to find a great home for Carla. I finally got around to weaving in the last of the ends at my friend Amanda's place on Friday night. We then did a little photo shoot (results below). Amanda is leaving Japan after two years and Carla will be going back with her to Canberra to keep her warm and remind her of me!!! Carla is a really cute sweater and I think that I will be making another one out of Muench Bergamo (wool tape) as did Sharlyn. It'll be the perfect sweater for Autumn.

Had a great weekend that involved - meeting up with Bronwyn (a fellow knitting blogger from Canada), a skateboarding bbq and the Mitaka Awaodori Festival. Photos tomorrow.

Ramblings

I've decided to have no real theme to today's post....I'm gonna ramble and I talk about pads and tampons so be warned.

Last night I stayed up late watching the Olympics between episodes of The Sopranos (series one on DVD) - thanks Jen - and I am suffering today. It's my own fault, I know. I did get to see the Thorpedo win a bronze medal tho' (it's his first as he usually wins gold and silver). It is 36 degrees in Tokyo today, so I avoided going outside at lunch. Sometimes at my work we have big sales during lunchtime. Sometimes they sell clothes, shoes, candy, gift food, scarves and gloves, hats, but today was one of the most popular sales apart from the J Crew sale - they were selling sanitary napkins!! Oh I know that it is kinda taboo to mention menstruation, but damn this is an interesting phenomenon here in Japan. Many Japanese women don't like tampons - they are not popular and are not widely used, which kinda sucks for us foreign gals as it doesn't leave us with many local shopping options. Of course everytime I travel overseas I stock up, but recently I ran out (how did that happen!!). Anyway I would say hundreds of women in my company building line up to buy 6 months to a year's supply of sanitary napkins. The way they have it set up is hilarious. There is a really long table and a sample of each type of pad for sale is taped in a row along the table - it's kinda weird. Anyway I wish I'd taken a photo, but I was too busy shopping for....yeah you know what I bought. It was really cheap (I guess that's why it's so popular) - 60 for 420 yen. bargain. As I said though tampons are not popular and I did not see a single woman among hundreds pick up a box of tampons (they were kind of sitting off to the side of the pads looking very lonely and unloved!!!).

ANOTHER INTERESTING JAPAN FACT is that many Japanese companies (including mine) provide extra days off for female staff suffering badly from their period. Very ludicrous. You can take one day off a month and they are in addition to your paid leave - you just have to call in the morning and tell them the cramps are just too bad. I admit here that I have taken advantage of this cultural difference and I did abuse it a little considering it wasn't even that time of the month.

So my goal this morning was to find a way I could get my hands on some NON-APPLICATOR tampons here in Japan. They are NOT available in the shops. After some very lengthy research via google, I came across a e-conception - a website run by a Japanese lady living in Australia. She sells aromatherapy products and 100% pure organic GMO free cotton Natracare tampons. Score. If you spend over 3000 yen, then shipping is free. Score. A 20 pack costs 800 yen.

Another score at the lunch sales were some ziplock hello kitty lunch bags!! I think I am going to use them to store crafty stuff - I'm not even a big hello kitty fan, but they are cute!

I think that people visit my website for a number of reasons: the knitting/crafting thing is probably the biggest reason; and the next biggest reason would be the lure of mysterious Japan. I've never really categorized my blog and listed it as a knitting blog as I would feel to much pressure to produce FOs constantly, and the main reason I started pinku was because it is such a great way to record your experiences and memories when living overseas and an even better way to stay in touch with family and friends. The most unexpected benefit from having the site has been the amazing number of new friends that I have made (virtual and real) - I love it!

That's all for today! Rambling ends here.

p.s. Best web discovery today (there are always so many) is a cool site called Watashi to Tokyo about Tokyo in English by a Japanese girl. It's great - full of lots of content and links - check it out! Welcome to the blog world, Mari!!!!

Fred Flare rocks!

Thanks Keith!! You're a sweetie! Got mine too and I'm wearing them right now!!! Pink hearts (and Fred Flare) rule the world!!

Meet Pinkie Pie!

Yay - I received a package from my secret pal in San Diego. It was fantastic - mainly because of the Pinkie Pie keyring. I love My Little Pony and now I have my very own - thanks secret pal! I also was very lucky and received some great pink sock yarn (my feet are going to be so happy this winter) and some cute erasers. Check it all out in the photo below!

And as I promised I have reviewed a couple of Japanese magazines. There are two reviews so far, but I hope to at least review all of the magazines I own and the ones that will be coming out in the next couple of months. Let me know if you think this is a good idea. I can't promise how often I will be able to do this, but I'll try and do one a week (if possible). Check out the two latest reviews here.

BTW, great to hear that some girls have received their Fred Flare earrings. I can't wait to get mine. Thanks Keith!!!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.....

I swore to myself I wasn't going to perpetuate the slightly annoying chant that plagued the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but dammit I just can't help it. Currently I am reading the Bill Bryson book, Notes from a Big Country (a collection of columns he wrote for the Mail on Sunday's Night and Day magazine) and in it he says, In a funny way nothing makes you feel more like a native of your own country than to live where nearly everyone is not - how true!! I find myself cheering louder when watching rugby matches (umm, what am I doing watching rugby???) and constantly pointing out obscure Australian actors to poor Darin when we watch movies - See that guy there, he's Australian didja know that? Didja? Didja?......No, I didn't. Well he is, you know....

Anyway, are you psyched about the Olympics? I am. I went to watch the Judo during the Sydney Olympics and the vibe in that town and at the event was amazing. The only sad thing this time is that if you want to watch anything live here in Japan - you will have to stay up between the hours of 1am onwards.....hmmm. I just wanna see Thorpey (he's an awesome Aussie swimmwer with big feet if you didn't know) win some gold for the land of kangaroos and meat pies. Click here to read an article about 10 things to watch as the Games open.

On a crafty note, I have a package packed and ready to be shipped out to my secret pal - I am great at shopping, but not so good at sending packages out. I also have a package ready for my sweet, lifesaving friend, Swirl, and a Japanese knitting magazine ready to ship to Julie. Just mail it already.....ok.

Now I wasn't gonna put this photo of Carla up, coz it's pretty lame, but dammit I don't have any other photos to post today and it is the weekend coming up and all - y'all deserve a picture. Please take into consideration that this has not been blocked and there are many ends at the neck to be weaved in. I don't have it on because it's too small on the shoulders, and didn't look nearly as great as Clara's. It is going to be a present for my dear friend, Amanda who is leaving me here in cold (actually it is REALLY hot - it hasn't gone below 30 degrees for over 30 days - aghhh), lonely Japan. Don't go!!!!

TA DA!!

What a great weekend! On Saturday we bought a home theatre system, which means we now have surround sound, but why are all the scariest parts of the scariest movies the loudest!!! On Sunday we celebrated the 5th anniversary of the Tiny Cafe owned by our buddies, Oi and Hisari. They rented a house (Mori no Terasu) near the cafe for four hours - the house is surrounded by lots of trees and has been designed to provide lots of open air space with decks etc. I can't describe it very well, so take a look at the pictures. There was flamenco dancing, a clarinet recital, massages, sketching, lots of delicious Okinawan cooking and lots of good, live music.

Here's Darin relaxing on the deck - the afternoon sunshine was amazing.

And, because the sunshine was so beautiful I could not resist taking a photo of my finished sock. YAY - no holes! Doesn't my sock look happy relaxing in the afternoon sun.

I reworked the heel of the sock using the fabulous sock knitting directions from Knitter's Review. If you ever want to try knitting socks and haven't yet, I wholeheartedly recommend these directions. Although the sock has turned out probably not as simple as Debbie Bliss would have liked, I think the slip stitch heel will give it more strength since the Cashmerino yarn is so soft, and because these socks are meant to be house socks not worn with shoes. These socks are a present for my sister in Australia (damn I just missed winter there) - Neen, if you are reading this with your eyes open, you are in big trouble!!!

Here's a photo I took this morning with the sock on!! Just about to turn the heel on the next sock!

p.s. If you are still in any doubt about whether knitting is daggy (not cool, sexy or just plain hot) or not, check out Stephanie's latest creation at Glampyre Knits - beautiful photos and awesome knitting. So, who's gonna host the boob-holder knit-along - surely this design will have to have a knitalong!!

Do you feel a breeze?

Today started off very eventfully (is that a word??) with an earthquake at around 3:30am - I was oblivious, but Darin woke me up yelling 'Get up - it's an earthquake' - I was sleepy and once I realized nothing was falling down, I fell back to sleep.

After that, at around 8:30am the loud speakers across the road at the community center started blaring out that today was August 6, the anniversary of the dropping of the A bomb on Hiroshima and that we would recognize this with a minute of silence - even though they played music throughout the whole minute!! I was very quiet. Check out some related photos from the Sydney Morning Herald.

On the way to work I saw some the filming of a Japanese drama near my house. I saw a relatively famous Japanese TV actor, Masanobu Takashima - he kinda looked like a wax sculpture!!! To be honest I didn't remember his name, but I did remember that he was in some Japanese TV drama series about working on the bullet train - he was a driver!

Now here's some photos of my sock knitting progess, if you can call it that:

I believe that I forgot to wrap some stitches at some point and have ended up with a lacy heel. Don't worry I have already ripped it out and will be trying to do it better tonight. Debbie Bliss's instructions don't say to wrap - I guess that most people just know that......(crawls off into corner of the room)

a very close-up shot of the holes in the heel!!!!

and to divert your attention from the holes in the heel of my sock, here is a photo of a gorgeous ladybug that I saw in Yokosuka last Sunday!!

OH YEAH I forgot - hello to my Secret Pal (if she's reading this)!!!

Wow!!

** Thanks for all of the emails and offers to swap - I am constantly amazed by how nice complete strangers are to me - knitting bloggers and crafty girls in general RULE!! I would really like to do a bunch of small swaps so that we can 'share the love' so to speak - maybe say by limiting the amount to around $15. $10 would be cool too, but so many mags here cost around $10 new anyway and then once you add some candy - boom, you've spent $15. So after I take stock of things that I might need.....damn who am I kidding - they are all things I WANT not need, I will try to contact as many of you as possible over the next couple of months.

KNITTING NEWS

So what have I been knitting??!! Well, I have started on the Cabled Zipped Jacket (see pic below) from Debbie Bliss's Cotton Knits. It is for my nephew, Jack who actually turned five yesterday. Happy Birthday Jack!! Um, I know that you didn't get a present from me but I promise that it is coming. It takes a while for Aunty Kath to finish a project sometimes.

Last night I also started my first pair of socks in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino - that yarn is sooo soft!! I am nervous about turning the heel, but excited at the same time. I am using the cabled socks pattern (see pic below) from Debbie Bliss's Simple Living book.

AND, I couldn't resist a really short trip to my LYS (Yuzawaya) last night. I was on strict orders from myself NOT to buy anything. Those orders were nearly disobeyed - I got as far as standing in line for the register, but it was going to take too long - thank goodness. I put the book back and went directly home. It was hard. So you know how I was going on about new books coming out in September - well some are already out and I particularly liked this one:

That's not a very good image, but it was the only one I could find on the Internet. I WILL buy this one for sure and when I do I will post some images of the designs.

FINALLY, I want to share with you some Japanese crafty links that I have discovered lately (it's very quiet at work at the moment). Most of them are in Japanese, but don't despair you can still look at the pics. These links should be especially useful for crafters in Japan, but some ship overseas)

* Tsukuro.com - this is a website that sells beads, parts for earrings, cellphone straps, all sorts of cord, watchfaces if you feel like making a watch, nail art products etc. Good if you live in a rural part of Japan and don't have access to massive craft stores like my very own LYS - Yuzawaya. Will ship overseas.

* Bettsy's Outlet Yarn - family run online store that sells leftovers from garment manufacturers. There are some very cheap, interesting and high quality yarns. Yarn is sold in 100g skeins for prices between 300 to 600 yen - YASUI!! They will also send out free samples of their yarn, which I already have in my hot little hand.

* Amoo Japan! - collection of Japanese knitting links. Many of them are personal websites of people displaying and selling their knitting.

If you buy something from this website, the owner will send you some free acrylic washing sponges Check out the cute crocheted animals!!!

Man this site features crocheted hamburgers AND french fries, sandwiches and cakes! Holy smokes!

Check out the winners of this competition!! It was a mother and child competition where the child draws a picture and the mother creates a knitted garment based on the picture. Damn, those mothers ARE talented.

That's it for now!!!