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un umbrellas are lined with reflective material and a couple of weeks ago it was election season so for a few weeks there were campaign things going on like political candidates driving around in vans spouting their messages through a loudspeaker we easily saw 5 10 loud vans per day and heard even more in the distance this guy parked his van to speak from a platform for a while also election related these giant billboards sporting glamour shots of all of the candidates the kids additions to the list lots of people speaking japanese my observation lots of other languages too we live in a very international area kids walking around playing at the park by themselves without grownups all in all it s pretty different living here sakura april 8 2015 beth leave a comment today it snowed it s april 8th and it actually snowed luckily most of the cherry blossoms had finished their run so the rain and cold and yes even snow didn t have too much to do with their demise but still as i m looking out my window today i can hardly believe i took these pictures just last week i must say i am ready for spring to begin in earnest the blossoms are really amazing i knew the sakura cherry blossoms were a really big deal here and i knew they were pretty but i was kind of thinking well i ve seen cherry blossoms before and i love walking down at portland s waterfront while they are blooming so it will be nice to see in japan too but nothing i hadn t seen before um i was wrong these trees are huge and old and everywhere and the whole city is celebrating people wait for the blooming to be announced so that they can start celebrating hanami flower viewing on picnic blankets in the parks around tokyo our family visited a popular hanami spot on the meguro gawa river when the flowers were blooming but not quite defined as full bloom the weather was great the crowds were friendly there were food and drink stalls all along the river it was so nice the next day we also walked around near tokyo tower and the nearby zojoji shrine the weather wasn t as cooperative that day but at least the rain held off and a few days later once the blooms were completely open and pink tinged i walked around the imperial palace by myself one day while the kids were at school and colby was at work the pictures at the top of the post are from that day as are the photos from here on out this was the line that i stood in to take a photo of one of tokyo s most recognizable landmarks tokyo tower surrounded by cherry blossoms everyone was very amiable and patient and polite snapping their photo then getting out of the way nobody was in a hurry so there wasn t that sense of claustrophobia that sometimes exists when a lot of people want to do the same thing the money shot i felt like i just wanted to take it all in since who knows if i ll ever have the chance to participate in hanami in tokyo again we found out a few weeks ago that we will be finishing up here in tokyo this summer and returning to portland in august rather than next may so we won t be living here for hanami next year but i tell you what we will definitely be taking cherry blossom walks out on the waterfront in portland next spring and remembering how different our life was in 2014 trust exercises february 4 2015 beth leave a comment the other day a neighbor girl dropped by to play with our kids she is the same age as the boy actually a little younger as she won t turn 7 for another few months and she is also an expat having lived most of her life in iceland and the last couple of years here in tokyo we met her a few months back in the park by our house she often plays there by herself after school and sometimes especially when it s cold out she ll come to our door to play instead at first it seemed so crazy to me that this girl was constantly playing without supervision and that she comes to our house to play without me ever having met her parents although i do see them walking her to school occasionally she does have a cell phone that only calls her parents but otherwise she is taking care of herself most afternoons and doing it quite well as far as i can tell so as i was saying she came by the other day just as we had been planning to head out to a different park further away from both of our houses we abandoned our plans and the kids played well inside for the next hour or so but then we decided to run around at the little park down the street for a bit the boy and our neighbor girl were ready to go almost immediately but little sister needed to use the bathroom and get bundled up and i knew it would take us a few minutes the boy asked me if he and his friend could go on ahead to the park which meant going outside walking past two apartment buildings and entering the park without a grown up and i gave him the go ahead meaning i wouldn t be supervising this short walk along the edge of the road and that little sister and i would catch up with him in 5 minutes or so such a small thing you guys but it felt like a really big deal to me and everything was totally fine and so far he hasn t asked me to go anywhere by himself again phew in other news colby and i took the kids to an outdoor antique fair flea market last weekend colby and i got to go to one a few weeks ago when he had the day off of work for a japanese holiday but the kids had school and we had a great time and found some major scores several scrolls including a calligraphy one done by the former governor of tokyo and a couple of landscapes for 300 yen that s like 2 50 some vintage kimonos at 3 1000yen an antique japanese sewing box that works perfectly for my jewelry and a functioning antique wall clock we wanted to check out another one but this time it was on the weekend we debated getting a babysitter so we could peruse the market in peace but decided to try letting the kids do some shopping too we gave them each 1000 yen a little less than 10 currently and much cheaper than a babysitter and split up at the market colby took the boy and i went with little sister and we had so much fun the kids were so careful with their shopping and carried their own money and handled the transactions when they were ready to make a purchase most of the sellers were enamored of little sister and gave her a gift when she bought something she ended up making out like a bandit next time we go i will let her hold my money too maybe i ll get a better deal on some antique furniture if she tells the person she likes that table but she only has 50 the kids treasures for the record the boy purchased a large antique ceramic maneki nekko lucky cat bank he was a very deliberate shopper and wanted to find an item that would remind him of japan he even resisted the large han solo action figure that he found little sister wanted something pretty something to play with or something to wear and she ended up with all three she found a decorative japanese doll with a ceramic face and a red and gold kimono for 500 yen and was given two mini dolls made from kimono silk and bamboo as a gift we bargained an 800 yen plastic native american doll down to 500 yen since that s all she had left and then the shop owner gave her a 50 yen coin back as a gift and then she found a sparkly necklace that she got for 120 yen instead of 300 since she had put a few extra coins from her piggy bank in her purse oh and a tiny ceramic puppy as a gift with the necklace i tell you bring a 4 year old with you the next time you go antiquing she s irresistable the other bonus is that now we have taught the kids that it is fun to go to an antique market and it is worth it to be patient while mom and dad look at things we ll see how it goes next time but for now the kids are looking forward to another chance to go antique shopping tokyo international great quilt festival january 26 2015 january 26 2015 beth 6 comments i read online that this week was the tokyo international great quilt festival and i thought it might be interesting to check out and oh my gosh were my expectations exceeded i walked around gaping at all the amazing handwork this was better than many museums that i ve been to the show runs through this wednesday so tokyo people you still have a chance to check it out if you re interested what s pictured below is seriously only a fraction of what is on display this post will mostly be pictures because that s what s most impressive i didn t know much about what was going on the signage was in japanese and although most quilts had titles in english as well as japanese all the other information was not in english first of all you should know that this is the biggest quilt festival in the world if i had realized that i probably would have planned for more time there but i went for an hour and a half and i did see everything i think i got my first glimpse of what this festival was like when i entered tokyo dome looking for the quilt exhibit entrance that s a lot of quilt enthusiasts luckily most of them were tiny japanese ladies so i could see right over their heads i loved watching these groups of women examining the quilts taking a close look at the quilting there were several sections of displays the traditional quilts the free design quilts something called wa quilts which colby said means harmony and which makes sense many of them were tonal designs a junior quilting display and this year s theme area which was little house on the prairie the tv show not the books i started with the free design quilts everything i saw was such a work of art but i just love the creativity of the free design pieces here are a few examples look at the details in the quilting this one blew me away i love the textures in this one i don t know what s going on here but it s cool so pretty i just had to show the detail on that one look at that cutwork i love the colors in this one this one is gourds i mean come on now with the detail every cornice of every building intricately embroidered and quilted this one was very popular for up close viewing so i couldn t get a photo without spectators in it i can see why it s so unusual ha can i pause for a moment to note how amazing it was that i managed to get so many pictures of just quilts in that crowd people were so polite stepping back if they saw that you were trying to take a photo the traditional quilts were just as amazing and what qualified as traditional seemed to have a lot of wiggle room which was cool there were some very modern takes on traditional designs the wa section had some really interesting quilts too many were a completely different style than i was used to no it s not underexposed this was a very dark and subtle quilt and here are several more that i honestly can t remember which category they fit into there were several quilts displayed around the edges that were maybe featured or some other unknown category or i just wasn t paying attention but still worth a look this one features a traditional japanese style of embroidery this one had screen printed photos quilted into it which were then embellished with embroidery i d believe you if you told me i was looking at a tile mosaic oh there was a whole section of these little framed quilts as well but i didn t spend much time in there and a massive display for the japanese winners first prize this is where it came in handy to be tall i couldn t get in any closer the 2nd place quilt oh and here s a look at the little house on the prairie display this part of the arena was crazy crowded with lines to get up close so you ll have to trust me that there was a covered wagon and a log cabin as well as a general store you can kind of see them in the lower right corner of the photo at the top of this post and don t forget the tv screen playing old episodes dubbed into japanese here s the best pic i got of the log cabin there were quilts all over the inside and draped on the fence and walls all around the outside as well i think i read somewhere that there were a dozen quilts inspired by episodes of the show i didn t count but that sounds about right here were a few i could get photos of i walked through as many of the vendor areas as i could before i had to leave but didn t buy anything i was too overwhelmed plus nobody was selling anything that was actually quilted it was all quilting supplies so i d see a beautiful handbag but it would turn out to be a sample for a quilting kit i m getting ready to attempt my first quilt and i thought this visit might be inspirational but really i d prefer to just stick with appreciation at this point if i try to be inspired by anything i saw here today i might just give up before i even begin but i think i will have fun trying my hand at a very very simplified version of the amazing artwork i saw today have you seen totoro december 14 2014 beth 2 comments the boy has been learning about creating his own blog at school so when he found out that we have a family blog about our tokyo experience he wanted to contribute so here is the boy with a topic that has interested him since moving here have you seen totoro he might look like a big bunny to you but not to me totoro is a movie from japan it s ok if you haven t seen it ok now it s beth again the boy would love to hear from you in the comments about totoro or anything else he looks forward to writing more posts and will probably keep me motivated to write more myself as well my first movie theater in tokyo december 13 2014 beth leave a comment last night i went to the movies for the first time in over 6 months i love going to the movies even though i rarely go even in the states so i was really excited to see how the movie theater experience compared here in tokyo i went with some girlfriends to see gone girl the first english language movie that has made it here since i arrived that i was actually interested in seeing i will preface this by saying that i haven t really visited big city fancy theaters so some of this may just be par for the course even in the us if i was going to the movies in new york or san francisco or even the downtown theaters in portland for the most part but here are the things that stood out 1 the ticket price was slightly higher 1800 yen which in my mind is about 18 but in reality is less right now since the dollar is strong compared to the yen but the concessions were much more reasonable than i m used to i paid 600 yen for a small popcorn and soda combo which was plenty or i could have sized up to medium for only 670 yen 2 we got to reserve our seats this was probably my favorite part this meant that even though it was opening night we didn t need to rush to the theater early to try and snag good seats 3 the theater was really nice with steep graded seats so there was no worry about a tall head in front of you blocking your view it was also immaculate both before and after the movie everyone brought their garbage out with them and right outside the door there were three movie theater staff taking our trays...
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