anoisette

more fish eye fun.

a fish eye lens. purchased today. oops. (maybe).

last week i got this book out from the library to find out information about yakushima, which i hope to visit this summer. the boy ended up finding a nearby hike in ashiya that enticed us with reported sightings of boars in the mountains. i was a bit intimidated by the hike being 4 hours going up and down mt. rokko and was rather reluctant to go. but eventually, i was convinced. and i’m glad i went, we saw feral cats, a crazy 8 inch long centipede, boars, a lovely view of ashiya and osaka, and had an interesting encounter with a group of 20 senior citizen hikers. we were at a part where we had to scale up some steep rocks, there was a chain bolted to the rocks to help people go up. we saw a couple of people at the top ready to come down, so we figured we would wait for them to come down first. we stepped off to the side of the trail in anticipation of letting them pass. the first man came down and apologized, and then stood nearby waiting for the next two ladies to make their way down. as the second lady came down, she also apologized. the man apologized again. and then he said in english “20 people coming”. the boy and i looked at each other. 20 people! alright, we were going to be waiting for a while. surely enough people kept trickling on down, and as each one passed us, they each said “sumimasen” or “arigato”. as they all filed passed us, decked out in hiking gear (hiking boots, hiking pants with cargo pockets, hats, backpacks, and towels around their necks) i started feeling very self conscious about my own lack of gear, i was just wearing sneakers and a skirt, hardly appropriate hiking gear. in fact, one man waiting for the rest of the group pointed in surprise at my sneakers and said something in japanese to the person next to him. anyway, i’m glad i did the hike yesterday. sure my legs felt like jelly by the end but i survived. i have to say that living in kobe is great. in the morning i went for a run down by the sea, and in the afternoon, hiked up mt. rokko. there aren’t many places in the world where you’ve got such easy access to both sea and mountains.

the soft drink market in japan is an interesting one… this cucumber flavoured pepsi is just the latest addition. it didn’t sound as whacked out as the fizzy alcoholic yogurt flavoured drink which i’ve seen at my local grocery store that goes by the name yogurito (i don’t have the stomach to buy it and try it, as much as i would like to for novelty’s sake). however the cucumber pepsi, i could try. who doesn’t like cucumber? it doesn’t have an offensive flavour, how bad could it be? in fact, it wasn’t bad at all. it wasn’t particularly great either though. the color is pretty. but not in a color i’d like to be drinking kind of way.

a few weeks ago i watched a german movie called Erleuchtung garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed). it’s about two brothers who come to japan and their adventures once they get here. i really enjoyed the movie, and i could relate to so many of their misadventures. parts of it were positively hilarious, but towards the end it took a more philosophical and contemplative tone when the brothers find their way to a monastery. the other thing that was really cool about this movie is that it was entirely shot with a digital video camera, which gives it a more intimate perspective.

this is pretty crazy, a deep fryer with water at the bottom in which goldfish live. crumbs from the deep fried food fall to the bottom, where the goldfish can eat them. very bizarre.

i found out about another yarn store in osaka: avril. from what i can figure out, it’s in the daimaru in shinsaibashi. i’ll have to check it out next time i am in the area.

my first sock is done, i just need to kitchener stitch the toe (which ok i have been putting off because the first time i tried it it didn’t come out right so i had to undo it). and on the second sock i am at the point where i have to start shaping the heel. so they are coming along quite nicely and i am starting to think of what to make next. i want to make some toe up socks. or maybe a top down sweater? something easy that i can knit on the plane on the way to australia in a couple of weeks.

which reminds me, i should also start looking for yarn stores in sydney. so far i have only found tapestry craft.

yesterday we went on an adventure to the hyogo museum of ceramic art. getting there turned out to be quite the adventure and after finding ourselves on a train going in the opposite direction of where we needed to go, we got off at the next stop, which was this stop Sanda. i spotted this stamp and stamped my little moleskine notebook that i always carry around. these stamps can be found in train stations and popular attractions such as musems and other sightseeing spots, and each stamp has a special design for each particular location. i think collecting these stamps is a popular hobby.

as far as the museum went, we never actually made it to the actual museum! we did find some kind of pottery compound though that is next to the museum and spent the afternoon making pottery. they are supposed to mail our pieces to us, so i guess i’ll see the results in about 2 months.

and as far as my socks are coming along, the first sock is ready for the toe decrease, and in anticipation of spending a fair bit of time knitting on the train on the way to the pottery museum i actually cast on for the next sock. unfortunately i spent about 80% of my time on the train and waiting at various points while we got lost etc. de-tangling the yarn because i couldn’t find the start of the skein. this happens to me about 50% of the time when i start something from a new skein, i really need to learn if there is some kind of system to it.

first picture is the pretty origami paper i bought last week at tokyu hands. except i haven’t made anything with it yet. i think i will end up making little paper kimonos to put on cards. and maybe some boxes. i really like the way the little boxes came out. i made them in (uglier) cheap paper i bought to try first. i also made a monkey but after that completely lost interest. for some reason if it involves “pasting” separate sheets together, i don’t find it so interesting.

i think it’s neat to make something out of 1 sheet of paper, strictly folding it it, and having it turn out to be some intricate yet recognizable shape. once pasting together a bunch of relatively simple shapes is in order, i find it boring. and unfortunately i didn’t look at the book i bought quite closely enough before buying it, but most of the interesting looking projects are actually a number of simple shapes pasted together. such as the moneky, which is 3 separate shapes. so my interest in origami has waned and on to knitting we go.

today was grey and rainy, perfect weather to hole up at home and do some knitting. first order was to gather supplies to start making my first pair of socks. first i went to the hundred yen shop (dollar store) and bought a couple of sets of bamboo double pointed needles. then i went to union wool to find some yarn to make socks and was ever so delighted to find some regia sock yarn, on sale too! so i bought a couple of skeins.

i started knitting the first sock, with help from socks 101 and socks 101 on knitty while watching what the bleep do we know.

today is white day. here in japan on valentine’s day, it’s women who give men chocolates and things on valentines day. so white day is when it’s women’s turns to receive chocolates and things. so today the boy bought me this cake for white day. he said the cake shop was very busy, full of japanese men buying cakes. it was so busy they were almost going to run out of cakes! anyway, yay cake. i love the cakes in japan. they come in perfect little individual sized portions and look so exquisitely delicious. and of course they taste delicious too!