Himeji

(You might want a cup of tea for this one. There are A Lot Of Photos...)

While Mum and Dad were here we went to China and saw the terracotta warriors.

No, not really, otherwise the title of this post would have been 'China', right? Actually we went to Himeji, just over 3 hours drive from here, for a few days. The city is most famous for its castle (more on that later) but on the first day we went to Taiyo Park, on the outskirts of Himeji. The park has replicas of famous monuments from around the world, including the Arc de Triomphe, Tiananmen Square, the Pyramids, and of course the Chinese terracotta warriors. They've even built 2 km actual size of the Great Wall of China.

The South Pacific area has giant stone coins that K enjoyed checking out...


I think they went a little over the top with the Manneken Pis though...


We were saved a trip to Easter Island too...




And so, on to Himeji castle:

No, this is still Taiyo Park. This castle, an 80% scale replica of Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, was recently finished and now they are working on a complete European village at the base of the hill.

Obviously if you're coming to Japan on holiday then Taiyo Park wouldn't really be high on your list of destinations but if you live here and fancy a day out, it's a nice place to explore.

Anyway, the next day we really did make it to Himeji Castle, a World Heritage Site. It's Japan's largest 'real' castle, as opposed to ones that have been rebuilt in concrete since the war. Since it was never attacked or subject to fire (a big problem for Japan's historic wooden buildings), it has managed to survive almost 400 years without major rebuilding.

This is not the most common view of the castle but I like it because you can really see the complex roof shapes...

Around the edge of the complex is a huge wall topped with rooms and a corridor. Great fun for little boys to run around!

This may not be the best photo, but it gives you some idea of scale. As an added bonus, you can play 'Spot Diane and her Mum and Dad'!

From the top you get a great view over the city. The 'fish' shaped gargoyle-y thing (that's its technical name, you know) is supposed to protect the castle from fire...

I thought we were running a bit low on shots of K being cute...

After exploring the castle we went around the adjoining gardens, and then the little zoo...

On the third and final day, H said he wanted to take us to a nearby temple before heading home. I was expecting a single building still in the city, but it was actually a temple complex in the mountains, more a monastery than a simple temple. We rode a cable car up the mountain and then had a very scary ride along a winding mud road on a mini-bus to get to the temple.

It's Engyo-ji, on Mount Shosha, if you're interested...

I love the shape and pattern of the woodwork. Can you tell that I take a lot of photos of roofs?

Apparently The Last Samurai was filmed nearby. All we saw was this Buddhist priest taking photos for a tour group though :-)

Well done if you made it this far!

It was really nice to get away for a few days. We had great weather on the first two days and the light rain at Mount Shosha only added to the atmosphere. K slept well between Mummy and Daddy in the big bed, and a good time was had by all.

Featured!

Marie of Wind and Rain Handmades has very kindly featured my little Etsy shop on her blog!

For the past few weeks Marie has been choosing 5 Etsy shops with less than 30 sales, featuring them on her blog and then seeing if the sales improve. This week she chose me! I have actually had 3 sales just today (!) - I don't know if the purchasers came via Wind and Rain but I am very willing to give Marie credit for them!

In her own Etsy shop, Wind and Rain Handmades, Marie sells beautiful handmade chopsticks and jewellry. Check it out if you have the time - I'd love to be able to return her favour!

K's check-up

On Wednesday K had his 18 month check-up. He weighed in at 11.84 kg and measured 83.6 cm, putting him towards the top end of the '94% of children are in this range' part of the graph. His head measurement though (50.6 cm) was off the scale, putting him in the 'I've got a big head just like my dad' category! H claims that this means lots of brains, while I'm just pleased that K's head was more average sized when I gave birth to him....

We were able to give the 'correct' answers to most of the questions regarding K's daily routine and development, except for his speech. He doesn't yet produce any meaningful words but he understands a lot and I'm not concerned, especially as he is growing up in a bilingual environment. I suspect K's speech may develop in the same way as his walking - nothing for ages and then suddenly all systems go!

There were also a lot of questions about K's favourite activities, although unfortunately not 'Does he enjoy sliding round in a box pulled by his grandmother?' or 'Does he like looking at photos taken on a digital camera?'. There were 2 questions that surprised me, as it had never occured to me to offer them yet: 'Does he climb on a climbing frame?' and 'Does he use scissors?'. Would you expect an 18 month old to be doing those things? H reckons they were trick questions and if we had answered 'yes' we would have been scolded as reckless parents.... But I suppose, with careful supervision and suitable tools, a child can use scissors from quite a young age.

What do you think?

Here three weeks ago, gone on Wednesday

Mum and Dad are safely back in the UK now, after almost three weeks here with us. The time of course flew by, but we did manage to do quite a few things together: a long weekend in Himeji, day trips to the bird park and flower park, a barbecue here with friends and a few meals out with friends too.

We also went to the beach several times and Dad got to swim in the sea, despite the shock of the locals ('but it's autumn!'). Mum and Dad also got their DIY hats on and stained the woodwork on the outside of the house as well as working in the garden. And of course time was spent reading, relaxing, browsing the shops and, most importantly, playing with K.

H and I managed to sort out most of our Christmas presents for people in the UK so that Mum and Dad could kindly transport them back for us. I also got the chance to slip out by myself and have a haircut and do some shopping, as well as a couple of grandparent-sponsored lie-ins. H and I got to spend some toddler-free time together too (a real rareity) with lunch and a film one day and an evening out another.

But now it's back to the usual routine..... University classes started again a couple of weeks ago and I'm going to be starting a new class at a local community centre soon. The main thing I have to do is catch up with this blog, and update my shop! I've got lots of lovely fabrics upstairs waiting to be photographed and listed in the shop. My stock of sock monkeys has suddenly gone from 3 custom orders and 2 in general stock to zero in stock and 2 requests so I'd better get on with some of them too! Not to mention going through all the photos we've taken recently...

Anyway, it's nice to be back! No pictures in today's post I'm afraid but stay tuned...

Giveaway in the shop!

I'm planning a little free-gift-with-purchase special offer in my Etsy shop and thought I'd offer it to all my lovely blog readers first. I'll be opening it up to the general public in time for the weekend, but for you it's available now!

I've got some cute letter sets and some rather nice Hello Kitty stickers whose listings will expire in a week or two and that I don't really want to relist. So if you spend 20 dollars or more (not including shipping) in the shop, you can have one for free! Just write in the 'Message to seller' section what you would like (choose from the letter sets and stickers listed in the shop). Offer is valid until the listings expire or while stocks last.

And I've just listed some new fabric too.....

More treasure!

This time for K...

Mum and Dad brought lots of goodies for K, including some very cute T-shirts and some great charity shop finds, especially books. This is the pile after K had already laid claim to several that took his fancy:


Most of them are a bit 'big' for him yet, but I'm looking forward to bringing them out little by little as they become more age-appropriate.

Mum also brought 4 jigsaws for when K is bigger, including two that were hers when she was a little girl. I remember playing with them at my grandmother's house when I was little and I'm thrilled that Gran has passed them on to K.




They both have a really cute vintage feel, don't you think? And it's lovely to have these family things....

As well as all these goodies, Mum and Dad also brought Christmas presents from family in the UK, which we will of course put aside until then. Of course we will.

Treasure haul

When Mum and Dad arrived last week, they did so with a Very Large Suitcase, as well as a normal suitcase and a couple of carry-on bags. Their own personal luggage was minimal; it was mainly presents! Over a period of several days Mum has been bringing out all manner of goodies for us all. For me personally there was a book on sock creatures and some very cute socks to make them with, odds and ends I wanted from the UK (OXO cubes, deodorant, teabags...) and, most excitingly of all, this:

What an amazing charity shop/thrift store find! It's a stationery case and it just about fit into (and completely filled) one carry-on bag. Mum knows that I love all those chests with tiny drawers that you get, apocathary chests and so on, and suspected that I might like this. And she was very right! Here's what you see when you open the doors:

And then the top part hinges up and there's a little drawer at the bottom, plus a secret compartment down the back of the whole case. Except now I've told you all so I suppose it's not really a secret anymore...

Isn't it great? Thank you so much Mum and Dad, and thank you for carrying it half way around the world to me!

Now, you don't think they would forget their one and only grandchild in all this lovely loot-sharing do you? Stay tuned for some more great finds!

Vogel Park

So, what would you expect to see at Vogel Park? Go to the top of the class if, unlike me, you remember any German that you've ever learnt and know that Vogel means 'bird'. Today we all went off to Vogel Park for the day and did indeed see many birds...

The park, just over an hour's drive away, has a large waterbird house, another house for tropical birds, a lake with ducks, swans and pelicans and various smaller enclosures with emus, rheas and similar birds. There're also 2 lots of penguins and a large collection of owls, plus a huge greenhouse with begonias, geraniums, fuschias and lots of other plants that I can't name.

And now for some birds that I can't name either, including one with a hairstyle rather like K's...

This one I do know - a Barn Owl, or Masked Owl in Japanese, taking part in the Owl Show:

K enjoyed watching the owls, and joining in with the applause. He pointed out various birds throughout the day with the little 'Oooh!' sound which means 'Look! A cat/dog/living creature of some form!'. It can also mean 'Look! A plane/truck/noisy machine of some form!' though...

K also enjoyed playing with the little lion glove puppet that his Gran had wisely thought to bring along to entertain him with...

They're here!

Mum and Dad are here! They arrived safely yesterday, though not on the bus I was expecting them on, which had me going for a while... At the moment they, and K, are all still sleeping peacefully.

I'm not sure if Mum and Dad being here will mean more time to blog and work on my shop because they'll be able to help with K, or less time because I'll be spending it with them. I suppose we'll all see over the next few weeks...

We don't really have many things planned yet for their stay, apart from a few days in Himeji next weekend. I'm also hoping to have a few day-trips to places nearby, have a barbecue at home with some friends, take Dad to the beach to have a swim and sneak out without K to have a haircut! The main activity though will of course be playing with K :-)

Just for fun I thought I'd better add a photo. Here's K doing a bit of shopping:

Rice harvest

At the weekend Mr and Mrs A harvested most of the rice growing behind our house. You can see here that the grains had ripened and changed colour and that the stalks were bowed with their weight. And in the background you can see our house :-)


All the water from the rice fields has gone now but the ground is still very soft. The rice was harvested using a little combine on caterpillar tracks. It cuts the rice stalks and separates the grain from the straw.

And here it is in action! The rice grains go straight into sacks to be taken away and dried in some kind of drying machine. After that they are polished completely to produce white rice, or partially for brown rice.

Meanwhile Mrs A was cutting the corners of the next field by hand, so that the combine could turn.

Here are her nice little bundles of rice.

Traditionally the rice is cut by hand and then hung from wooden frames to dry. There are still quite a few of those drying frames about so if I see some I'll take some pictures for you...

Still here!

Yet another week has gone by between blog posts! And I don't really have time to write much now either, but I just wanted to pop in and say Hello, I'm still here!

Random things I've been doing lately: gearing up for the arrival of my parents on Thursday, monkey-making, joining the 5 year memorial service (and all-day party...) for H's great-uncle, helping at a friend's cooking class and then celebrating her birthday, teaching, dancing, buying cool fabric, yoga, hanging out with K...

Things I need to be getting on with: monkey-making, house-cleaning, rice-photographing, shop-updating, photo-organising...

And more pressingly, seeing to a noisy little boy who has finished his breakfast! Bye!

K is 18 months old!

He likes...

... cats and dogs

... trucks and airplanes

... playing with balls and balloons

(is it very bad that this reminds me of a dung beetle?)

... reading books

... going out

... dancing

... playing with my magnets and noticeboard

He doesn't like...

... crashing waves

... hand dryers

... mushrooms and leafy greens

... salad (except for tomatoes)

... having to go back into the house after playing outside

... being carried up and down stairs

He can...

... climb over the sofa, onto the kitchen table, onto the computer desk

(yes, that is the lap-top he's sitting on)

... go up and down stairs by himself

... walk confidently and almost run

... point to his own head, tummy and feet on request

... do simple jigsaw puzzles

The grand total!

Thank you to everyone who entered my little giveaway. The total number of mini-tomatoes we picked by the end of August was ......(drum-roll please)....... 1,381!

That means the winner of the giveaway is Aik, who guessed 1,000 tomatoes. She has chosen this letter-set and these stickers from the shop:


Congratulations Aik! I will send you an e-mail soon but if you read this first, please send me an e-mail with your address.

Thanks again to everyone who entered, it was fun to get lots of comments!

Let sleeping babies lie

Ah, K is asleep! He normally has a nice long nap every day after lunch but he hasn't slept in the daytime at all for the last three days... I was beginning to panic that he would never nap again, but today he fell asleep instantly. It must have all caught up with him at last! Now maybe I can get on with a few things that I can't do when he is around: anything on the computer, paperwork, sewing, or maybe just having a cup of tea and a few minutes peace and quiet...

And no, that photo was not taken today. You don't really think I would be so foolish as to risk disturbing him now do you?

(Tomorrow I'll announce the grand total from the tomato harvest and the winner of the giveaway. There's still time to enter!)

Rice update

The rice is coming on nicely now, although the field nearest the house is a bit behind the rest. You can see a clear difference between that plot, still bright green and upright, and the next one where the rice is starting to ripen and bow over.

This photo was taken on a rather overcast day, but it gives a nice overview of it all.



As well as the nets, there's now a scarecrow to keep the birds away too.

On the subject of harvests, there's still time to enter my little giveaway!

Join us...

...on a little walk to our nearest supermarket, only about 5 minutes away. Here's the road outside our place, complete with large shadow cast by our house. You can see that it's a reasonably quiet, reasonably old neighbourhood, with lots of ugly electric lines...


The house across the street from ours is quite typical of those all around us (although the built-in garage is rather unusual). Many of the houses around here were built about 25 to 30 years ago, making them quite old by Japanese standards. Lots of houses here have these orangey-brown roof tiles and complex roof shapes. The brightly-reflecting thing on the lower roof is a basic solar water heater.



A bit further down the road and we find the entrance to the shrine, marked by this stone lantern (shame about the TV antenna):

And then the shrine itself, where H's uncle is the priest:

I love the roof shapes of shrines in Japan.

Finally, some pine trees. H's dad tells me that 30 years ago this whole area was covered in pine trees. Now it's mainly residential and there are just a few trees dotted around the place...

New month, new government

As you may know, we had a general election here in Japan on Sunday. The left-of-centre party previously in opposition won, ousting the right-of-centre party which had pretty much been in charge ever since the end of the Second World War!

The previous government had earned a reputation among many as arrogant, complacent and full of jobs-for-the-boys. Many people came to think that it was time for a change and I think that many of the votes on Sunday were 'not for X' rather than specifially 'for Y'.

I agree with many of the policies of the new government, but they do seem to have a lot of contradictions too. They are going to increase child allowances, but scrap tax deductions for dependents. They have pledged to further cut CO2 emissions, but also to get rid of tolls on highways and reduce tax on petrol. Some of their plans seem more right than left-wing, and their plans to reduce various taxes leave people wondering how they are going to pay for all their pledges, particularly as Japan as a country is quite heavily in debt...

Overall I can't help thinking that this party was so determined to win that they promised everything to everyone and that the population was so eager for a change that they voted for the opposition without paying too much attention to their manifesto. Still, it's quite exciting and it'll be interesting to see what happens next. And it makes a change from blog posts about sock monkeys, tomatoes and cute little boys, right?