Mystery Shoot

I noticed this coming up under Baba's window. It comes up every year. That dried stalk sticking up is from last year.

Keep an eye out for it. I'll post it as it grows. Click on the picture to get a good look at it.

Seventh Grade Sewing Projects

Little Brother just finished seventh grade. School was out on the 25th. He brought home his sewing projects.

All seventh graders at his junior high school made a cloth pencil case this year. They were given the white piece of cloth with the zipper already sewn into it. They had to sew the checked piece of cloth onto it. They were also given a button to sew on the bag.

They also made a trivet, a hot pad. They were given squares of felt. They cut out a design and glued the squares together. Little Brother glued the yellow star that he cut from the felt on the other side. He used a sewing machine to stitch around the trivet.

Click on the labels below to see his elementary school sewing kit. He uses it for junior high sewing projects.

A New Sign This Spring

It looks like a kite, but it's a newly painted sign on our street. Our street was torn up recently to work on the water pipes. They finally finished the pipe work and paved the street. They chose to use asphalt. Not my favorite choice. It stinks! Especially in the hot summer sun.

This diamond sign means slow down. It's really big. That is a manhole on the left.

This was written near the end of the street. It says tomare. It means "stop" in English.

This one is kanji, a Chinese character for the sound to. Click on the pictures so you can see the chalk lines they used to paint the characters.

This one is hiragana for the sound ma.

This one is hiragana for the sound re.

Kids Web Japan--kanji
--hiragana chart

The Machine that Painted the Street Signs

Workers used this machine to paint the signs on the street. They finished using white paint and moved on to yellow. I didn't see them use either one! They were finishing up when I came back with the camera.

Click on the picture to enlarge it. There is a flame under the paint. Can you see it leaping up?

The paint was loaded into the machine from the truck. It oozed down those chutes. It emptied from the chute into a vat.

Here is a close-up of the chutes on the truck.

The paint was then moved into a smaller vat by another shorter chute. The paint was heated in the smaller vat.

This is the gas tank.

Equinox

The spring equinox is a national holiday. Read more about it by clicking on the link below. The label below will take you to posts about the autumn equinox, too.

The cherry blossoms at our park are about to bloom. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Kids Web Japan--Vernal Equinox Day

Butterfly Award

Back in February, Paper Tigers nominated Here and There Japan for the Butterfly Award.

This is a meme award and the rules for passing it on are:

1. Put the logo on your blog .
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Award up to ten other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your awardees on their blogs.

I have nominated the blogs I like to stop by:

1. Poetry for Children By Sylvia Vardell
2. Antinomia by Linda Wingerter
3. Grow Wings by Laini Taylor
4. Grace Notes by Grace Lin

Uncovered

March winds blew the net off the field of greens. Can you see the two birds that are taking advantage of the winds? Click on the picture to enlarge it.

In Theaters Now

Movie theaters here have pamphlets to advertise movies. This one is for Madagascar 2. It is now showing at Toho cinemas. Check here.

The pamphlet has a recipe and an idea for a cookie that looks like Alex.

It looks like cauliflower, but it's broccoli. Broccoli left out on the stalk too long. Its florets are blooming.

A Japanese Garden

There are several gardens in our neighborhood that have their own little shrine and torii.

This is the entrance to this garden and house.

Those glass doors are not the entrance. Those are shouji (long 0) or paper screens behind the plants. In the summer these glass doors will be open and the residents will sit there in the evenings.

Check Journal of Japanese Gardening if you are interested in Japanese gardening.

Apartment Garbage Cubby

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Pick Up

When you have dinner delivered to your home, you have to leave the dishes and trays outside your door or gate. These were left outside the lobby doors of a high rise apartment house. Looks like somebody had sushi for dinner. These look like sushi trays. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

an early bug

I was sitting at the computer when all of a sudden this little bug buzzed up on the telephone. He landed on the "O". Was he trying to call out? No, you don't get the operator when you push "O" in Japan. The green message light below was flashing. Maybe he was attracted to that.

He looks like he just climbed out of one of our potted plants. He's carrying a pile of dirt on his back. How did he get in there? There are three plants on our windowsill that are usually outside. Maybe his mama bug laid an egg in one of them.

He looks like a June bug. He's too early! It's too cold to put him outside. What to do? Well, anyway it goes, I need to dust the telephone! Look at all that dust. Move over, early bug. Or should I start with you? Ever heard of brushing a bug?

Blossom Cakes for Girls' Day

Papa's aunt sends these cakes to Big Sister and Little Brother every year. This year they were huge! Probably 7" x 5". Can't say for sure. They were eaten up before I thought about measuring them. Measuring cakes sounds weird.