Missing Dad / What Next? / April Spools Day

I've been back in #44 a little over 48 hours, and in that time, and in the preceding 12 hours, I've gone from hysterical to demented to detached and started writing about this gazillion times in my head, but have not come up with anything readable. So I'll work on it a little later. Suffice it to say, I have so much regrets and can only hope I get another shot at it.

As regards work, I finished and wrapped my water-motif scarf, but didn't take a picture; suffice it to say, I had great tension problems and though I came up with a ingenious way to combat it, there were two different cloth in one piece of scarf. Mom's project was finished the night before I left so I wet-finished it a few hours before I left. Again, no photos of it, sorry, but this one looked so spring/cherry/wind-inspired we both love it. This warp is long enough to weave two pieces, and she's going to weave another, possibly with a different weft.

I dressed a small 8-shaft loom with a 4-shaft sampler warp for Mom and her students and prepared tutorial sheets. The aim is for them to see (and keep) samples of different threading and lifting of simple twills. For Mom, this will be something of a toolkit or vocabulary for her first few 8-shaft-two-block twill projects; for her students I hope they will see they do not have to follow a formula/recipe, but that they can easily make up their own to suit their taste and the purpose of the pieces. And eventually move on to two blocks if they so desire.

Here are the drafts they have been given, (theirs in a lift plan since they will weave on table looms;) I asked them to weave twice the number of picks for each pattern and the threading is ever so slightly different from these sheets, designed to give Mom a chance to explain the anatomy of weaving drafts.

I asked them to pay attention to the fact the reverse of 1:3 twill is a 3:1 twill as I personally like two-faced twills. Mom is excited with the idea and wants to weave a two-faced check piece.

I also managed to plan and discuss with Mom a small tapestry she is going to weave for me. The shapes symbolize members of my family pre-Ben and though I explained to her the basic idea, there is plenty of room for her to experiment, innovate and express, so I don't know what the final work is going to look like. Bliss.

As regards work, my mind is blank at the moment. I'm thankful I didn't finish the purple piece before I left so I can go downstairs and weave right away. But I'm not sure what to do with the blue piece intended for Dad as he cannot wear anything as heavy as that. I also have a mini blanket to wash.

I know it's already March 30, but would you like to have another crack at April Spools Day? Let's! Here are the guidelines.

Day 47/51

Hey, it's worth complaining on the blog! On Wednesday after I posted, for the first time ever, Mom and I wove together, in the afternoon, in the same room but on different looms, on separate projects but both weaving 3/3/1/1 twills on network.

This is Mom taking a break and saying hi to y'all!

While Dad did what he does every day.

That evening we had to have a very humble almost-vegetarian supper because we overdid breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, which may have included... cake! I think we had tofu and possibly some fish besides the veggies, but just a wee bit.

Cherry blossoms all over this weekend, which is a tie for the earliest on record, apparently. This tree is just down the hill from the house, about 75% open. Tomorrow is supposed to be the best flower day this year, but we're expecting rain also. 

My water-based piece is finished and is drying upstairs. Nothing to write home about; most disappointed about the weird tension problem I can't excuse just because I used an unfamiliar "soft" loom. Boo hoo.

Mom got a tiny picture of a lovely diamond-shaped twill for which she would like me to figure out the draft! I don't think it's overly complicated, but the old mind is not working. Besides, the spring high school baseball tournament started yesterday and I am distracted from 8.30AM to around 6PM shouting, screaming and cheering. There are a few good exhibition happening in Tokyo, two of which I have wanted to catch before I leave, but still much to do around the house and with the baseball going on, I'm not sure if I'll make it.

Day 44/51: One does What One Can

This is an edited excerpt (is there such a thing?) from an email I sent Cally this morning:

"When we were younger, we, Dad included, thought “dying naturally”, “of old age” sounded so pleasant, easy and graceful. It turns out that's not always the case. Dad is not “ill” per se so the hospitals can’t keep him for “treatment”, nor do we want him stuck there for too long. I would have never used quotation marks around these words before my previous visit, but I now know these are social constructs! For whatever reasons, (much drinking/smoking, bad food choices, and most notably, his age of 85.5 years,) have worn his organs out and they are struggling to do what they were designed to;

"So, not sick, just organs exhausted, whether he feels it on the day/moment or not. This frustrates him and puzzles us. Among his complaints is that doctors concentrate only on medical issues but not on the person or quality of life, but in Japan there are no geriatrics as a discipline, so as a consumer of medical care, he and gazillion other oldies must rush from one specialist to another, often from institution to another, to have specific symptoms seen to. Unless/untill they are so disabled/feeble/far gone they must be institutionalized in "geriatric care" facilities;

"I keep trying to imagine what it’s like for Dad and rather disturbingly this is what I can related to: say I have a five-year-old laptop that works great for me; I’ve got everything I need loaded and nothing I don’t need; hard drive has been cleaned to the best of my ability though over a year ago; and a tiny part starts to fail and it is no longer manufactured. I learn to work around it but it annoys me, worries me on bad days, and ad-ends work from time to time. Gradually I learn to live with the diminished capacity, but still can't do without the laptop. Then goes another part. In Dad’s case, there are several glitches on the motherboard, a few parts that fell off, and corrupt segments on the hard drive, but on the whole, it works more than fails;

"I had to give up my five-year-old laptop a few years ago; the one I'm using now is faster with a much bigger hard drive, but for e.g. DVD viewing on the old one was much nicer."

It’s Wed morning here and I leave next Wed afternoon. On the day I extended my stay, Mom wrote the number of days I had left with her. She also asked me how I make my ragù and to tutor her on moving from 4- to 8-shafts. I was thrilled with the prospect of Mom & Meg time! I wrote down the former (hard, eh; I don't think much when I cook,) and we got the ingredients, but she was going to give the lot to the home helper, so I cooked instead. As for the latter, I don't teach and I don't write things down so I had to do some prepping but we did a couple of shortish (to me) sessions. She would most definitely shout out I'm being paranoid, again, but I can't help receiving mixed messages because she keeps going out, shopping, English lessons, doctors' appointments. There is no doubt life is getting in the way; her life has been dedicated to keeping us alive and the household going for... nearly 65 years. But I can't help thinking there is an element of her thinking she should want to do things with me, but for whatever reasons, (she gets tired, I'm annoying, she needs physical exercises,) can't be bothered or these are not as important as other things.

Donno. It's futile trying to figure out what the oldies are thinking at this point; I'm better off concentrating on what I can do to stop their environment from further deterioration, if not exactly improve it.

I bought the magnolia tree just before I got married or left for New Zealand, along with violet and pansy babies. Mom remembers me lugging home "lumber" though I thought it was more like a broom stick. It's been pruned several times over the years, I'm told.

For five weeks since I've got home we watched the buds come out and then grow bigger, but because of the weather they all came to flower in the last three days and already this morning started to drop petals.

* * * * *

The weather here has been positively crazy. When I came there was the longer-than-usual winter with hail and late but heavy snow. Then came March when one day the expected high was 6C, the next 14C. Yesterday it was 19C first thing in the morning and 28C in the sun room a couple of hours later and 26C elsewhere in the house, which is May-early-July temperatures. I had the window open until 11.30 at night. We've had very strong winds, Chinese yellow sand and pollutants making their way here; the forecast "severe" hay fever season has been bad, but will not last long as half the pollen have been blown in the strong wind in two weeks. And the airports have had a variety of reasons to cancel flights.

I don't need floods or locusts, but have most definitely requested a thunder-and-lightening show.

* * * * *

On "my" loom; a scarf for a gardener who wears almost only blue: a water-inspired networked twill threading, variegated wool/mohair in the warp, knitting wool in the weft, 20EPI, 3/3/1/1 twill. 

Speaking of looms, Mom found what we think are heddles from pre-texolve Ashford table looms. There are roughly 21.5cm long, and at a glance there are more than 30. She would like to gift them to a weaver currently weaving on looms that take these heddles in the first instance, and if not, someone who restores looms and have one that will take these. Please email me for more details.

* * * * *

There have been so much noise in my head I had to do something to calm down and prepare to go home to lead my usual, easy life. I don't know why, but I bought several Salman Rushdie audio books yesterday and am enjoying his memoir. Any of you know much about his writing? 

Day 41/51

As you know, I was originally scheduled to go home on Friday but gave myself 12 extra days here; I now leave in 11 days. Which has come to mean I will probably have 11 days left with my Dad in his lifetime. And goodness me, I'd been objective/detached about death in general all my life, it has been thus in my family as long as I can remember, but I'm not ready for him to go. And yet I don't want this stage to last too long, as the quality of his life is, for me and Mom, unfathomably low. It doesn't mean I'm doing anything much differently; &deity knows I'm not talking to him about anything important/emotional. I keep focusing on things I can do around the house to relieve work in the short-to-mid term, because that's easier. He doesn't (always) help in being approachable, either.

It's been surprisingly turbulent.

That's Dad reading newspaper in the sun, his most enjoyable activity these days and among only a few he can do completely by himself. When he has his maroon cardy and straw hat on, he looks a smidgen like Vincent.

I have felt as though I've been shoving my version of kindness down Mom's throat, and we even started picking on each other, but here, too, I try to focus on the tasks at hand. In a couple of instances, she thought I was being a Royal Pain but in the end these were jobs that needed to be done for decades and I know Mom feels better for having them gotten out of the way without too much involvement. We need to stop taking snipes at each other.

* * * * *

Mom's red cushions have been completed and much admired.

Mom's next project is well under way; it's a cashmere and silk scarf, but we won't tell her she has two picks in one shed, will we?

Mine's been waiting to be threaded for ages but "life" has higher priority at the moment...

Mom's draft:

I did go to one exhibition with my sister; it was a the National Art Museum's craft annex and there were ceramics, textiles, wood, glass and metal work with floral motifs.

Sis had to rush home on account of her kids, but I went to a yarn shop Mom described as "uninspiring" a month ago. Uninspiring it may have been for her, but I came home with a small sample of 2/44 wool that feels as though it contains New Zealand or Australian merino, and fingers cross, hope to revisit before their 20% sale is over.

Day 32/51: Living with Oldies

I extended my stay a bit, so now I'm going home just before Easter. I'm starting to get the hang of living in this busy part of the planet with two grumpy/hilarious oldies, but life is most definitely choppy and I also developed a serious hankering for quiet, solo, making time. I suspect my parents would like their quite life back too, but for them the convenience and the entertainment won out, and for me, being able to research care facilities with my sister was the deal breaker; she thinks we can visit half a dozen before I leave, which would be helpful when I go home and one or another has to leave home, I know what folks would be talking about.

It also gives me a few more afternoons of sitting in the sun and sharing the same space with Dad. For the last several years, when I came home or when the parents visited me, I always had this foreboding that it would be the last time I'll ever see Dad; unless I return here rather soon, chances are this time this will be true. I need to stop rushing around the house trying to make things right and just sit with him more.  

My parents are funny. Speaking on cross purposes is the norm. It's not always because of their hearing; Dad doesn't care and Mom thinks she knows what we want to say. Sometimes I can't help playing cute tricks to confuse them ever so slightly.

Dad is a news freak, and here it appears possible to watch news programs on one channel or another from, oh, five in the morning to at least midnight, in addition to the bulletins. So he does, almost his every waking hour. And then shouts at the main 7PM that they have no new information. Likewise Mom watches the weather forecast diligently and complains when what they say this hour is different from the last!

It's been wonderfully warm and spring like this week, which I had hoped would make her happier, but not exactly; it's too bright, too hot already, and understandably, too much pollen.

Life hasn't been easy nor hopeful for the oldies. In addition to their individual ailments, inflation this side of the quake has been silly-stupid-high, laws concerning pension is looking to change soon; sales tax went up and will again; and all this on top of the the recession since around 1990/2.  There seems to be no solution to the Fukushima nuclear disaster; a day or so after I arrived the Chinese Navy (??) did something or rather to challenge the Jaqpanese territorial waters; they say they didn't, our government say it was a blatant challenge; North Korea is playing with nuclear weapons. The house seems to be newly under the American military flight path, and some days fighter plans roar and howl above us. (I'm so glad both are sufficiently deaf they don't hear the planes all the time.) We continue to have territorial disputes with China and South Korea and relations with them have deteriorated noticable, not to mention the dispute with Russia way up north since the end of WWII. It's the hay fever season, which also means yellow sand come flying from China, this year with the additional gift of PM2.5, the cancerous pollutant you may have seen footage of from China.

And the grandkids are growing up and they are so busy! So it wasn't hard for me to decide to entertain them for a couple of weeks longer. And time with both are precious. Even though I'm not finding Japan a particularly attractive place to live at the moment. I shall appreciate my easy, fun life with Ben all the more when I get home. 

On Mom front, I failed to inspire her very much with the buntings in the way I thought she ought to be inspired. While cleaning the room I'm staying, I found two empty picture frames and made collages of some of her past works, which finally seemed to have done the trick.

I assembled photos I took in 2010, 2011 and this trip; there are heaps more she wove, but many have been gifted, many have been used and discarded, and some weren't as photogenic as others. And I didn't even think of her "current scarves" in her closet room, but even from a limited pool, Mom got her mojo back realizing she has woven not only many pieces but of many varieties and techniques. A couple of days ago she even cleaned/reorged her samples chest of drawers, (the big one in the back of the room in the second last pic here,) and selected projects and techniques she'd like to revisit. Weaving-wise, that's one big item off my To Do list for the trip.

We walked around the house looking for the best positions for the two frames - the larger one would have been nice in the work room, but that room is so crowded and in older homes like ours we can't put nails into the wall, so this one lives in the room  where I'm staying, but where Mom uses when she needs a large space or better light.

The small one, we put a nail in the side of a bookcase in the work room.

One of the techniques Mom wants to try again is tapestry, so I requested a piece. I shall design something based on an abstraction of something I will draw, no bigger than a sheet of A4/Letter paper, but more likely smaller. Here are the colors I can work with:

In addition, Mom is going to weave a networked twill on the wider 8-shaft, I on the narrower; Mom is going to make a networked twill winter scarves for Mom's home helper who comes three mornings a week using pale blues and greens and some pink, and I her gardener, (sounds luxurious, doesn't it? He's meant to cut dangerous branches and tidy the exterior of the house, but it turns out he's very knowledgeable in veggie gardening!) After some observation, Mom and I noticed he only ever wears blues, so here are my options:

Last week I suggested my sister and brother consider visiting the oldies, without their families perhaps, just to sit in the same room as Mom and Dad and and enjoy each others' company. It seems I need to take heed that advice, too. Precious times.

Another Mini Exhibition

The Weavers are back again. Today, even Mom. She has 10cm to go on her leftover red cushion covers.   

A gentle, narrow wool scarf by Mrs Y.

Knotted wall-hanging by Mrs T.

Plain Weave wooly scarf of many colors by Mrs T.

Crispe cotton piece by Mrs. T; it was very nicely woven with just one lifting mistake. Sorry, I was taken by the colors I didn't notice I had that one mistake in the middle of the pic.

Everybody's fav from 2012: Mrs E's deliciously plump wool scarf. I couldn't capture it in my attempts to photograph these, but the variegated weft created not stripes but lovely areas of colors all over the piece.   

Unlike during my last visit, everybody is keen to learn more structures and weave patterns. While two-shafts sit quietly in the closet, all the shaft looms are in high demand. So, only the Rigid Heddle left for me, again, this trip. But this time Mom keeps me busy making up drafts and coming up with warp color plans, so perhaps there is no time left for weaving.

My To Do list has five weaving-related items at the moment.

Day 24/39

Dad's been good. He has good days and bad, and cold days and rainy days are bad. Today happens to be both. But on good days we laugh recalling the antics of family, friends and his past students, (he was a Chemistry professor,) until I fall off the chair and we're all crying in pain. I'm not sure how many more months/years we'll have these chances, but we don't worry about that too much; we're lucky we know funny or silly people, (mostly ourselves,) who do things we can laugh about decades later.

When I get mad at Dad, I try to remember the good things about him and our relationship. Without a doubt at the top of this list is how he's always been financially generous with our education and interests. Mom's most recent loom acquisition is case in point. Mom and I had a LOL moment when one day last week Dad came home from his rare solo outings irate, because I haven't been spending enough of his money since I've been back!!

Mom is better, cheerful and has gotten over a bad cold she had a few weeks before I came home. She has been weaving consistently, but does get tired, and her forgetfulness is a bit shocking. She is aware of this, and, like me, keeps making notes and tiny reminders but sometimes can't remember where we put them. Once again I'm reminded that aging is a gradual and steady loss of abilities we take for granted, and as she reminds me, we are at our youngest today.

I'm starting to get used to my parents' ways a bit; strange how I have to relearn their likes and dislikes every visit. At times I get a bit tired of their stubbornness and unreasonableness, but I know they like to do things their ways so I try not to challenge them. Too much. And then go back and do things my way when they are not looking. Sometimes.

* * * * *

On Sunday, I went to an exhibition of Japanese wooden chairs, in a museum I had never heard of, Yokosuka Art Museum.

From the road in front of the museum, we could see all the way to the Port of Yokohama and beyond to the right, and Chiba Prefecture's industrial area facing Bay of Tokyo. It was a rare warm, sunny day and there were quite a few folks out enjoying the view and a long walk by the sea, hopping into the museum, in some cases, only to check out the museum shop and perhaps have a cup of coffee in the Italian restaurant within.

The chair exhibition was wonderful, displaying hand- and factory-made wooden chairs of the last 150 or so years. It was lovely to learn that in some institutions, chairs made in the early 1900's were still in use. I loved the hand-crafted, somewhat ornate ones from the 1910's. Sorry, no pictures allowed.

What surprised me more was the quality of the paintings in their possession, and how much I enjoyed them. Again, the early 1900's were my favorite, and I never imagined Japanese artists painted wall-sized oils in such vivid colors back then. What a treat.

* * * * *

In Japan, department stores put on interesting art exhibitions and wonderful trade expos. At the tiny, and not so up-market department store we frequent, there was a wee craft show last week and Mom and I met lovely boxwood workers, Mr and Mrs Andoh.

In Japan, boxwood is usually used for making one thing: combs. But in Oita, Kyushu, a tradition of boxwood carving thrived for generations; now there are only a handful of crafts people left, making traditional items such as netsuke, but the Andohs have included accessories and more modern pieces in their product mix, and have managed to expand and thrive. Mr Andoh is the third generation in his family involved in boxwood carving. (He's also a mountain rescue volunteer.)

Mrs Andoh kindly took time to explain to us the special characteristics of boxwood which I can't recall, but the Andohs experimented beyond the traditional use/techniques and developed in particular what is called the "transparent" look where the shapes are left but gaps taken out, as in the first cherry blossom necklace seen here.

This was my favorite, a large peony brooch.

Boxwood darkens with use and age. As pieces gets handed down, they will darken with a slightly reddish brown. Lovely! And it's always a wonderful thing to be able to spend time with other makers.

Day 17/39

I've been busy, not completely with housework as our 2011 visit, but with some cooking, grocery shopping, and quite a lot of weaving-related activities. Dad is, well, difficult, indifferent, and sporadic slips into alarming senior moments, but as we head for early spring, longer sunlight hours and warmer temperature help his psyche. I don't know how Mom does it, though her dad was also difficult, so we laugh at her very low expectations of men.  LOL.

It's been cold but not that bad for me. We finally had snow on Tuesday but it didn't stick around. Further northwest, in Niigata, Aomori Prefecture, they've had record snow of well over five meters, resulting in railroad workers having to manually shovel so the snow-plow trains can get out and get to work.

It started as heavy rain, than became vertical slush.

A few hours later, it was real snow.

This is Mom's wee veggie patch seen from upstairs. There was a wee bit more the next morning but by 10AM Wednesday, it was gone.

Mom got her second 8-shaft Ashford table loom on Monday and has been busily working on her first, "Leftover Red Wool" project. All yarns used in this project are thrums and other leftovers from past projects, and not only has this been a fast, inexpensive, risk-free project, but also a nostalgic one, every thread reminding her of the pieces she made, people she gifted them to, and in many cases, the two looms she's given away in preference for smaller, lighter ones. She's making two cushion covers.  Mom also has two more projects planned, one a pink and blue cotton scarf with rectangular lace windows for herself, and a cashmere scarf for Mrs Suzuki, one of the women who helps her with housework.

Before I got home, Mom complained she had a hard time thinking about weaving except when her students come fortnightly. (Although all she needed was a loom to weave on.) Coincidentally Ben noticed a whole heap of photo paper specifically for a tiny photo-only printer during with a half-used ink cartridge during our last visit. So I came ready to make a bunch of photo buntings in her stash/work room, her walk-in closet, (which used to be one of us kids' bedroom,) and her loo. I've done the first and the last space, but not her closet. So far I shot images of textiles around her stash/work room, and of her favorite pieces of clothing, and she and her students have been pleasantly surprised how different they look from a different perspective. (Thank you, Kathryn, for the idea.)

Mom had one class session two days after I came home. I helped two students thread.

Here are Mrs Endoh and Mrs Yamaguchi; hay fever season started with gusto this week.

Mom showing Mrs Tahara how to select warp ends from cross sticks for threading. Previously Mom did the threading for them, but Mrs Tahara is ready to do it herself. 

I've spoken to Mom and her students a little about different ways of looking at twill, of using eight shafts to create two or three blocks, and of using the entire width of a piece as one repeat of, you got it, twill threading, i.e. undulating and networked, but haven't made any tutorial handouts. Mom's classes are so casual it felt foreign to hand out pieces of paper. I may still get around to writing something for the Japanese blog, but we'll see. I've also consulted Mom on many possible projects using what cashmere she has; we cleaned and reorganized her equipment, books and magazines, and her notes; and we reorganized her silk chest. We have a big chest of drawers of her sample pieces to go. As for her wools and cottons, I suggested she continue to go through them with her students a few times a year so they can put dibs or keep them in mind for future projects. They have such fun doing it anyway.

I've been trying to draw, but it's usually at the end of the day when we're watching the telly. Dad sits very still so he's easy to draw, but Mom keeps working until she goes to bed so I don't have any of her yet. I brought my tiny book on Italian but haven't touched it since I got it out of my pack. I've been having fun at art supply and stationary shops, though not so much in bookshops. Cost of living in Japan started to go down about the time Ben and I left Japan, (1994) and every time I came home I went crazy shopping in these places, but inflation since the earthquake two years ago has gone insane, and I notice that most markedly in book prices. As well, things have gotten smaller; for e.g. I found stationary/letter papers as small as a business card, with matching envelopes, as well as twice that size. These things were always available, but at times I feel hard pressed to find anything of "normal" sizes. This goes from toys to cars to food, and I, at 145cm, feel like a giant sometimes.

Oh, Heather, Jane and Julie are keeping me company, too.I'm sorry we haven't been anywhere interesting.

I haven't been to any exhibition yet; there seem to be not a whole lot I'm interested in, but there is one wooden chair exhibition in Kamakura, Yokosuka, and I'm still keen to go see the model looms at the Ag University. And Mom and I are planning a trip to one yarn store of, according to her, not very exciting wools. LOL. 

Hi from Yokohama

I arrived here on Monday night and had a thrilling Tuesday stocking up on food with Mom as we were expecting to possibly be snowed in Wednesday. (Did I mention we live on top of a very steep hill?) Alas, came Wed and we had a bit of rain and that was it. How disappointing! But I'm told by multiple sources we have snow forecast for next Wed also.

I dreaded coming home in a way because the last time we were home in Nov/Dec 2011 was in retrospect exactly when Mom and Dad were having to adjust to a new, down-graded or lower-keyed (depending on your point of view,) lifestyle. If you could call it that. Mom and I were doing housework and serving/caring for Dad and his new potassium-free diet from 7AM to 9PM every day without 20 minutes rest for a cup of tea, and I was expecting to do just that again. However, it's hasn't been as hectic at all. Mom is more used to Dad's diet, Dad is healthier, and both of them are now used to tax-assisted helpers coming and going almost every weekday. The arrival of the cold season is the worst or both of them, which is usually sometime late Nov/early Dec, so I think I am more useful then. By now it's much colder but everything is set up for winter.

That Dad is healthier means he's also "back in control" of Mom's and my lives, which creates a lot of tension; he's bullies Mom to no end, so it's a good thing both are hard of hearing and forgetful. It didn't take long for Dad to start picking on me this morning, Day 4, but if lightens the load on Mom for the next six weeks, so be it. I feel sad for him for never having developed an interest outside work; reading the newspaper, watching the telly and picking on Mom are about the only things he has to fill in his days. Mom, Sister and I tried for about 40 years to introduce him to various musical instruments, art and craft, sports, special interest books, but nothing ever worked. And now that he's on a special diet, he can't even enjoy normal meals, so his is a very constricted way to spend the last few years of life. And though it is of his own making, Mom and I keep trying to get him interested in something, which from his perspective, is a lot of unnecessary noise. Still, I'm going to propose one more project that involves grandchildren and see if he finds it interesting. 

Watching and talking to Mom, though, I'm reminded once again that the body will never be healthier than it is now, so if I want to loose weight, if I want to get fitter, I really have no time to waste. Even with regular use, and Mom was far fitter than me all of her life, the body and mind only deteriorates in time.

But fear not. We're having a lot more time for weaving talk this trip. Tuesday night I showed her some samples I brought from last year and discussed, among other things, weaving in blocks and network threading, but now I have to write a simple but illustrated tutorial, in Japanese, so Mom can remember and if need be explain to her students. She also showed me recently purchased yarns; I'd seen them in our weekly Skype sessions but it's lovely to be able to feel them. And though there are only a rigid heddle or a similar two-shaft loom available now, (her students are using all the four-and-more-shafts looms,) I'm wondering if I can come up with a project. After the tutorials.

Now for pics.

Mom's stash/weaving/class room, and my temporary office until next Wed when the student return. On the work table are my laptop, blank paper for doodling/drafting the tutorials, some of Mom's textiles I want to photograph, and two bags of yarns I'm having a hard time choosing from. Elsewhere in the room, if you know where to look, you'll see three looms setup for students, a warping board with one of the students' next warp, and an RH with my little niece's first project. I'm listening to my brother's old Sheryl Crow CD on his huge boom sitting on Dad's ancient desk. Awwww, home.  

Niece turned seven yesterday. After she learned that Big Nephew tried his hands at the craft, she wanted to try also, but after this far Mom is not sure the project is "finished". If so, I hope to make a wee purse with her cloth.

Department store bonito flakes (for stock and gazillion other purposes) section of Mom's fav supermarket.

Soy sauce section.

Mom's fav fishmonger; we place an order with the woman wearing an apron; if need be, she then give instructions to the guy inside the window, just to the right of the big poster, and he cleans the fish to order. She did a splendid deep-fried horse mackerel on my request Tuesday night. My miso-and-vinegar flavored mackerel was well-received last night.

 

Upstairs the March 3 Doll Day "Hanging Hina" decoration is up as in 2010.  The individual pieces this year are bigger, though, and the space looks crowded and messy. But more Japanese folks, including men, are stopping by to have a closer look and even taking pictures. Nice.

These pieces are made by students in a hobby craft class nearby. So it finally makes sense that they are taken down long before March 3; the pieces must go home to their proper place in time for the Girls' Day celebration. 

OK, lunch, then tutorial. 

Almost...

I'm going to the tiny Nelson airport in eight hours and getting on not a jet plane but propeller in nine, although tomorrow is only the third day of Ben's five day weekend. Pooh pooh. I packed lightly, too; well, light for me. About 1/3 of the suitcase is a bulky but lightweight present for Mom, another 1/3 a serious winter coat I'll need to put on the minute the case comes off the carousel, and minimum change of clothes, but 1kg of chocolate, some honey and herbal tea bags, and a whole lot of colorful cotton samples. No art supply, as I found a whopper of an art supply shop right by Yokohama Station that I didn't know about, and there is a nice small one in the same building as mom's favorite fish monger closer to home. Oh, city living! 

We also went to see Stella's Bliss exhibition this afternoon. It was great to see here there and talk to her about her monkeys and her jewelry, especially the hearing-aid-shaped pieces I've only seen photos of before.

I wanted to weave off my purple piece as Ben overhauls my looms for me while I'm away, but instead I weeded the veggie patch and put in some seeds I hope will come up while I'm away, among them spring onions which we use a lot.

I'll arrive at Japan on late Monday and it's supposed to snow on Wednesday. Bliss. Next time I post it'll be from my parents' home.