In a last ditch effort to see 紅葉 (colored leaves), which were apparently still in season at Mt. Akagi, maiaide came out to Maebashi this weekend. After a drive of many circles and "Crap, were we supposed to turn there?"s, we reached the summit of the mountain and lake Haruna, and discovered that no, in fact the leaves were all done. It was on the drive back to the city when we stopped at the visitor's center (which is about to close for the winter) and the lady behind the counter confirmed that the season was over. But the lake was still very pretty and there is a lovely shrine on the water and we saw a small girl out in full dress for 七五三.

We had a snack at the visitor's stand, bought apple mochi, and drove back to the city (and circled many streets) where we had lunch at a shabu-shabu place (which, since it was lunch time, was surprisingly cheap). Then we drove in yet more circles (since I really never drive beyond the area where I live and the moutain is far away from where I live), finally managing to find our way to Keiyaki Walk. I showed maiaide around the mall, we did purikura, I bought two new books, and then we drove back to my place.

On Sunday we woke late, showered, and headed out for breakfast and coffee at the mall, because I had nothing in my apartment that was remotely breakfasty. (Or lunchy for that matter.) The single cutest thing happened while we were at Starbucks. A tiny boy wearing a Mickey Mouse hat was waiting for their order with his father; naturally he turned to stare at the scary foreigners. However, he was also holding a giant bag, and he was playing with his hat so much that it fell from his head. Since he had the giant bag in one hand and his father was holding his other, he couldn't figure out how to get the hat off the floor, so I put it back on his head for him. This started a game of him purposefully dropping his hat - but by then his father got in on it and was picking it up for him. Finally they got their order, and the boy's father let go his hand, so this time when the hat fell the boy picked it up and held it out to us. maiaide reached for it, and he gave it to her, walking away without it. (This resulted in his father being all LOLWHATAREYOUDOINGTAKEITBACKLOL.) It was adorable.

Once again we wandered through Keiyaki, got caught out by a gaggle of my elementary school students, and I now have coffee enough to last me probably two months if not three or four. This is excellent.

Also. If you have not indicated to me a desire for a Christmas/Chanukkah/New Year's card via PM you can still do so. Even if you think I have your address, please give it to me anyway.

It's that time of the year again! (And it's coming even earlier than usual to account for laziness, procrastination, and the time it takes to mail stuff from Japan.) It's time for Christmas/Chanukkah/New Year/Holiday cards!

If you want super shiny awesome traditional Japanese cards from me, please PM me with your address. I say PM because I am not, repeat, NOT screening the comments here. PMs will be just as private and secure.

And while I freeze slowly to death out here, they may be the last you ever hear from me, so get 'em while the getting's still good.

Didn't place in the Shoneen contest. Color me shocked. [/sarcasm]

Got a thank you gift from the Arashi fanclub yesterday. It's cute enough. No idea what I'm going to do with it - it looks like it's for passport sized photos and I have none that size. Oh well, I'll think of something.

Today has been a fantastically lazy day. It's Culture Day, so of course there was no work, so I've sat inside with my heater on. I suppose I should be doing something productive, but of course I'm not. Maybe I'll pretend to get somewhere on a 'fic. Maybe.

After two classes this morning, I have been keeping myself occupied by reading up on the Yankees's delightful World Series and smirking to myself. The stations around here have reported on a couple of the wins because of Matsui, but they never give the whole story. 3-1, one win to go. If my dad were still here we'd probably be on the phone every night. (His big thing at the end of every season was telling me that Steinbrenner was going to call him up for the postseason; it became a big yearly joke. He'd probably still be trying to convince me of it.)

It's hilarious reading the comments on the MLB website. Apparently the only tune anybody can sing to explain why the Phillies are losing is the lack of a salary cap. (Usually the only tune anyone sings when the Yankees win ever, anyway.) People seriously need a new line.

I cut back all my Yankees icons because I'm getting rid of the extra 100 user pics option, but now I wish I hadn't. I need to make new icons anyway.

Finally, it is dark as anything and freezing here and I want to go hooooooooome. T^T

I finally did it. I turned off my alarm for the weekend, left it off, forgot that I'd turned if off by last night. And this morning? I was awoken by a phone call from my junior high vice principal, asking if I would be coming in.

.___________________.

Luckily they're all treating it as something funny since it's the first time in eight months that it's happened. And they called me instead of calling Joytalk, which means I don't have to tell the dear old company anything that happened until the 10th of December - and what are they going to do about it then?

So yes. This week is off to a fantastic start.

Got a story submitted to the Shoneen Club contest and have no doubt that it wouldn't make the top 5 if there weren't only 5 entries.

Instead of having a Halloween I spent the 31st in Mito, the capital of Ibaraki, with capncosmo. Mito's pretty enough, and has a huge park in it, which is apparently one of those places in Japan that everyone should see (but only in February when the plum blossoms are out). We had a pretty good lunch at an Italian place, and stayed there much longer than either of us had intended. But even though the day was good, I wanted a Halloween. Sometimes being here really sucks.

... The TV show on right now apparently couldn't afford actual Billy Joel songs so instead they have some really bad covers. Ugh.

13:50

I have made deliciousness in the form of banana desert gyoza. The only sad thing is that a single banana creates at least 10. That is too many for any one person. T^T

So. Japan does weird shit with their food - particularly the "foreign" cooking styles - all the time. They put corn in everything. But they've never heard of grilling corn or roasting marshmallows, and were surprised that apple and pumpkin grilled well.

Japan. Why so strange?

Aside from that, this year is so weird. I can't believe I don't have plans for Halloween. :/

I woke up 10 whole minutes early today and decided to see if there was weather on. There wasn't, but I caught Jun the 'Idea Man' on Zoom-in Super. Tons of VTR and not much talking. He looked particularly un-made-up, but that could just have been me.

Work is a ghost town. Due to the outbreak of influenza here, 3 of 5 first year classes, 2 of 5 third year classes, and one of the second year classes are all out. On top of all that, the head of the English teachers is out, so I have no schedule. I did nothing yesterday except to check over the first year classes introductions and shiver. Today... is probably more of the same, only minus introductions to check. Fun times.

So I spent all of last week being sick (and not working on my dress). I went into work four out of five days. I could tell you about the bullshit I had to go through on Thursday, when all I wanted to do was sleep and be miserable. Suffice it to say that it is not worth it to call out sick; much better to get into a pile-up on the way to work and tell the company later 'I told you so'.

Instead I will talk about my dress, which I haven't talked about in a while. Basically, my pattern lied. All this talk of cutting out 1 on the fold is lies. In order to make the skirt proper one needs 2 on the fold at least. Then for the two over skirt layers it encourages cutting out two on the selvage. This is crap. If one is going to gather in those two layers with the rest of the skirt like they're supposed to, the over skirt layers wind up somewhere over the hip. The point of them is to still reach around enough to look as though they're coming down directly from the bodice. You can't do that if you don't cut out 4 panels.

In conclusion, the pattern is crap.

But I spent the weekend cutting the four new panels needed and sewing them together. So the new overskirt layers are together again; I just need to pin them back to the skirt proper, rerun the gathering stitches and regather, and then I can finally sew the skirt to the bodice. After that it's a matter of hooks and eyes and hemming.

That much of my life is exciting, at least.

So my company keeps earning strike after strike. This time it's about the rental car. The company they work with (I haven't actually been to the office so this is hearsay) is apparently a literal mom-and-pop place. The wife deals with the customers and the husband and son are the mechanics. So what they don't do is inspect the cars.

Upon retrieving my car in Tochigi two weeks ago, it came to me with an empty tank of gas and an absolutely filthy interior. I naturally made it my first stop to go to a gas station and get the tank filled and the car cleaned. While they were cleaning I was made aware of a battery problem and the need for an oil change. Calling my boss got me only the great advice that the garage was probably trying to get more money out of me and that if I wanted to get the car looked at I should stay in Tochigi overnight so I could drive an hour out to the company base and get it looked at. This was on a Saturday, which would mean driving all the way back from Tochigi to Gunma on a Sunday - that would have meant either driving back by myself or driving back with capncosmo only to put her on the train. I decided to continue driving.

Now I can't say that the fact the battery failed this morning is Joytalk's fault - I could have gotten it looked at either two weeks ago or last week (because it's so very convenient to drive to Tochigi). But nonetheless the battery did fail this morning. (It was fine on Saturday.) I had to take a cab in to work this morning and I will have to be driven back home this afternoon. Apparently the car company will now have to drive me down a new car - this will take two days, so I'll probably have to do this tomorrow and Wednesday, too.

The reason this earns my company strikes is that, well, if they worked with a company that maybe inspected their cars before sending them out, this wouldn't be a problem.

With the past weekend being a three-day weekend, on Thursday I was asked if I cared to run away to Nagoya. Not having been to Nagoya in two years (and two years ago seeing nothing more than the train station), I agreed. It was so last minute that a hotel was not in question - the idea was to stay in a karaoke booth and/or internet cafe. Since at the time it seemed like a fun experience, I agreed. Sadly, karaoke booths are far too loud and constantly moving. The internet cafe, while a much better deal with 6 hour packs and being open 24 hours, is a much better choice.

However, having had the experience of sleeping in one, I can safely say that I am not ever going to do it again unless forced. The matted, flat booths are the best choice of accomodation, of course, because otherwise you're stuck in a chair, and they come with a pillow. That's all you can count on. The place (called Rounge, by the by) had a man who snored constantly, but not consistently, and LOUDLY. There was a light directly over head, every time something was cleaned the cleaner made a loud announcement about it, and it was freezing. I woke up about once an hour every hour between 3:30 and 8. So an experience to be sure, but not one I wish to repeat.

The rest of the trip consisted of a very admirable 5 prefectures in two and a half days.

Nagoya is in Aichi. On Sunday we went first to Tsu, the capital of Mie (yes, you read this right, it's called Tsu). Then we were off to see Lake Biwa in Shiga. For dinner that night we went into Gifu city, Gifu. (Coming back and retrieving our things from the coin locker in Nagoya, we then proceeded to become fantastically lost trying to find the hotel we'd booked that night. Considering the sheer walking we did going around Biwa, the luxury was well in order.)

On Monday we left from Nagoya and went into Shizuoka, where we stopped to have lunch. The original plan had been to go up into Koufu in Yamanashi and thus make it six prefectures in 2 and a half days, but because of our running late, we missed the train that would have gotten us there at a respectable time. Instead we went to the science museum just outside of the Shizuoka station.

With all the Shinkansens and dinners and souvineres and whatnots, I now must resign myself to going nowhere for the rest of the month. But I give myself a week before I break that.

Guess who has no Arashi tickets but must wait for their refund? If you guessed me, you'd be right. *sigh*

In other news, I am now a driver. And not just a paper one. I got a rental car from my company in Tochigi last Saturday and wound up driving the near four hours (most of it night driving) back to Gunma. As I am still alive and minus any accidents, I suppose this car thing is going to turn out okay. It was really nice to not go into work soaking wet today when it started raining this morning. And now I can actually go food shopping and not have to worry about fitting it all in the basket.

I still don't like driving much.

I'm afraid I lied; I'm not editing the last post with the dress diary. I've done enough work on it, I think, that it merits its own. I don't remember all the dates exactly, either, and a lot of steps are without a photograph documenting them.

( At least you get an lj cut )

Sports Day got rained out. (I knew I should have brought my sewing. They still teach Home. Ec. so there are bound to be irons in the school somewhere.) This means I am regulated to the desk once again, unless some teacher picks me up and attempts to have a class. I doubt this will happen. I just hope there is no rain when it comes time to go home and buy an iron.

I will probably edit this post with the beginnings of my dress dairy when I get back. For now the photos of what I've done are up on my flickr (which, I admit, I forgot I even had entirely). As you can see, I do most of my work on the floor, as I don't have a table large enough. Don't do this at home, kids - it's made me the world's worst cutter of fabric ever. (Why yes, I am a total amature of sewing even now, how did you guess?)

Also in exciting news, Mom sent me Macaroni and Cheese which arrived yesterday. Fake yellow cheesy goodness. I am so excited for it.

Yesterday afternoon, approximately 9 yards of fabric arrived at my door; bunched together in a tiny package and costing upwards of $100 with shipping, which I had not been aware of. I kind of really don't care. It is GORGEOUS. I was a little concerned about the cream lining - it's not really that cream and it looked a lot heavier than I would have expected for a lining. But cutting out my toile of the bodice proved that it's quite light. The only problem I have now is the actual cream georgette which is to become my inset and underskirt. It's sheer, though it looks good enough over the lining.

I have all the fabric for the bodice cut out, today I'll begin actually sewing it. It's going to take me forever because it's all handsewing, but I will persevere and win this battle. Tomorrow, perhaps, I'll start a dress diary for it. I am quite excited. I think I need a sewing icon now.

Tomorrow is also my school's Sports Day (the one I have to go to). I want so badly to bring my sewing with me.

Last night I saw my grandmother in my dreams for the first time since she died. I've seen my father four times already, I think. I like to think grandma just got lost on the way over - it's a long trip between the Bronx and Japan after all. I don't remember what we spoke about, but I remeber us being in some kind of period setting. I got to tell her I loved her. It was a good dream.

In 5 entries, I will arrive at my 1000 post. It only took me 8 years to make it. I don't know if I should be ashamed of my lack of prolifity or proud that I spammed the internet rather less than I thought I would when I first received the code. Also nothing has changed much in 8 years. I began this journal complaining about anything and everything and it seems that that is exactly what I still do. Ah well. If I didn't complain I doubt I should ever have anything to write.

I have begun a new book, having finally finished Death on the Nile. This one is by Josephine Tey and is called The Franchise Affair, written sometime between 1920 and '50. I adore Mrs. Sharpe like none other. She is a straight-backed old lady with an acerbic tongue and holds her own against the Scotland Yard detective and her accuser with not a hint of weakness. Brilliant lady.

Also I need to stop buying fabric. The place where I ordered my tea dress fabric from put out an e-mail for their sale not two days ago. Naturally I had to peruse the offerings - I found the fabric needed for my walking jacket, a yard of embroidered knit overlay that I've no idea what I'll do with, and lawn fabric for my Gibson Girl blouse. Also I'm determined to make a Chemise la Reine after the disaster that became of the one I attempted not very long ago, and I've been looking at new patterns and portraits to decide what I might like. (What do you mean, finish a project and then start a new one? Piffle!)

I had a stray cat attempt to follow me into my house yesterday. It was the second time I'd seen it - last time it ran off rather quickly. S/he is orange, white and black - a right proper Halloween kitten - and just as fluffy as my dear siberian back home. S/he's still a bit skittish, but only when I stand. If I'm sitting s/he'll sit right in my lap and purr. I desperately want to keep him/her, but I know it would never be allowed. Stupid Leopalace.

Now if only the fabric would appear at my lonely door, I could play with the dear thing outside.

Poupee has finally heard the calls of people and given us something more interesting than modern fashion (although still with a ridiculous overly pink and ribbon tinge). I am excited.


by poupeegirl

I did not realize that Mao had a movie coming out. However, now her appearance on Shukudai-kun makes a lot more sense.

Asumi called back about 19:30 tonight. Apparently I don't have to go to the Sports Day at either school - except that she'd called to ask which one I'd decided on going to. I don't get the day off promised if I do go, and too bad, I have plans made already.

Seriously am not looking forward to being filmed tomorrow. Except that it's the first time I'm meeting with these fourth years, so a good portion of the class is going to be self-intro and student questions. Use that for "training", Joy Talk.

...There is a commercial wherein the song is "Bicycle, biiiiiiicycle, biiiicycle, I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike". Has anybody else seen this? The stupid song gets stuck in my head so easily.

Still waiting for fabric.

Himitsu will probably be the death of me tonight. If nobody sees me after an hour, you'll know why. Also, Nino will never be the chosen one in the VIP room segment. Never.

Has anybody seen the new Josei Jishin cover? Nino looks like Higashiyama-sempai. XDDDDDD

According to Shukudai-kun last night, by the way, Nino was also a girl in his past life. Show of hands, who's surprised by this?

Also, in 10 posts I will have reached 1000.

So my very annoying company is sending grant into Gunma on Thursday and Friday. He's going to video Giovanni and myself in our schools, so OF COURSE he picks Eimei - my least favorite school. It's on a super special day when I'm going to be with the fourth graders, too. I'm NEVER with the fourth graders - any video he gets will not be representative of my usual teaching there. I'm not sure if that's a bad or a good thing, yet.

It will bring up a chance for me to bully Grant into giving me a car (though what I really want is a scooter). The bike was fine during the summer. Sure it was hot and oppressive out there, but I can deal with that. Now that it's cooling into winter? The northern head winds going several miles an hour are constantly blowing, and by the time I get anywhere - the Family Mart, work, home, the cleaners - my chest has constricted and I have trouble breathing. It's that cold and that much work to keep the bike moving forward. It's worse when it rains and I don't even want to think of what it could be like when it snows.

Either that or Grant can prepare for a metric ton of receipts for taxi cab rides coming in, because I'm just not going to deal with the bike anymore. I wasn't supposed to have the damn thing to begin with.

My patterns still haven't come. Neither has any mail for that matter. On the bright side, I am reading a lot more these last two months than I have all year. I finished three books in August and I'm on my fourth of September as we speak. I didn't realize how much I missed reading until I found myself with little to do and nobody to talk to online.

Totally unrelated: I am not happy about the loss of the Dragon Cave fansite. Since it, I haven't been able to grow my dragons beyond hatchlings. They all die. orz

( About-to-be-dead dragons under here )