And yet more destinations

Just a quick update:

Russell is back in Kobe. The nuclear power plants seem to be coming under control (though they still warrant very close observation). From the information we have, Kobe appears to be plenty safe enough.

I am now in Dayton Nevada visiting my grandmother, as was my original plan from before any of these disasters hit Japan. I was anxious about being separated from Russell, but he will be very busy with work this week and I have none. I also want to see my grandmother and family just as much as I did in January.

Russell will be travelling home on a business trip in April.

That's the basic summary - I'll post more later.

Being able to now eavesdrop on people again is infuriating. I look forward to being able to turn that off again.

Wait, where am I?

The last week has been a long one, as I'm sure everyone is aware. Kobe is still totally safe and in all likelihood will remain that way. Of course, convincing family and friends on the other side of the Pacific of this is a tall order.

Our families are, naturally, very uncomfortable with the situation in Fukushima Daiichi plant. They would all feel better if we were closer to home. I have had a trip back to the US to visit my grandmother planned since January. We finished our textbook writing on Thursday, so now we are free to take vacation before the new term starts. Understandably, our families are both hoping Russell can just come with me for the visit.

The problem, is that flights out of Japan are pretty much booked solid now. You can occasionally get a seat for over 5K, but no guarantee. We did some searching and found a more reasonable flight, but we had to go to Okinawa.

Twist my arm.

Okinawa is kind of like the Hawaii of Japan. It is a smaller island far south of the main collection of islands we call home. We live on Honshu, there is another large island just south of Honshu (Kyushu) and if you fly for an hour south of the bottom tip of Kyushu, you get to Okinawa. The weather right now feels like summer, there is tropical fruit and flowering trees and apparently beautiful beaches if we can get out of Naha (the city with the airport). Add to that outstanding local cuisine, and I'm not so sure I really need to make a trip home anymore after all. ;)

We have been monitoring the situation back home. There have been no serious setbacks in a while, which is a promising sign and everyone is hoping power will get hooked up out there soon (which would allow for water to be pumped into the reactors normally again.) They are having trouble getting power hooked back up, and the rating for the nuclear disaster has been upgraded from a 4 to a 5. We clearly can't breathe a sigh of relief yet, but overall things are looking more positive than they were a few days ago. Russell still hasn't decided whether he will be coming with me to the US or not.

While we wait and watch, Russell is trying his best to get back on top of work and I am checking out local tourist attractions.

The two that are the most attractive are:

1. Shuri Castle - this is totally unlike other Japanese castles. The first castle was built some time before the 1500s by the kingdom of the island. It was rebuilt several times throughout history after burning down. The latest bult is, unfortunately not even remotely old (though based on old models). It was absolutely leveled in WWII because the Japanese military central command was housed underneath it. It was rebuilt in 1992. It does house a highly rated museum on Okinawan history (which is very separate from mainland Japan). And it is gorgeous in its new and shiny form.

2. The largest aquarium in Japan. If the aquarium were close to Naha, there would be no question. I have always wanted to go to this aquarium, its suppose to be awesome. However, it is a 3 hour bus ride (one way) away. I don't know that I want to spend six hours on a bus tomorrow. Especially before spending 18 hours on an airplane...

Difficult choice...

I'll let you know the result tomorrow.

So far, Okinawan food gets a solide 5/5 stars. Very different than Kansai, but equally delicious.

March 17 update

Sorry for the long silence. I've been busy finishing up textbooks and writing email to worried family members, so I just haven't been up to posting. Things should be better now, though. Textbooks are done and I have some free time before I head to the States for my Spring vacation on Sunday.

So how are things in Japan?

Some people are starting to move south from Tokyo. Not in a "droves of panicking people" way, but in a slow spreading way. Kobe and Osaka are prime destinations because they are very unlikely to have any serious radiation issues but they are not so far away by bullet train. Osaka in particular is big enough to absorb an awful lot of people, so the increase in population apparently isn't standing out much yet. Several countries are arranging evacuation flights out of Tokyo for any national of that country who want to get out.

We went to the grocery store today and noticed lots of aisles clearly set up just for hoarders. There were several aisles lines with bottled water, another full aisle of chocolate bars. Bags of rice, person high stacks of canned tuna and other canned fish and fruit, giant canisters of instant coffee and creamer. People had clearly been buying things, but there was tons still available. I have a hard time imagining serious shortages in any part of Japan south of Tokyo. As long as transportation is fully functioning, Japan does a really efficient job of moving things around. I can imagine temporary shortages but I don't expect any big problems. Especially since people in Japan are so inclined to share with each other anyway - and somebody's going to have plenty of stuff.

We have seen several interesting things on TV. The news out of Tokyo has alerts whenever an earthquake is coming. Its a chiming noise that really catches your attention. After you hear it, you have a few seconds to grab hold of something or turn off the gas, or open your doors and windows, or whatever you need to do. Then the news station starts shaking while the reporters do their best to look composed and in control.

We also saw an awesome program on how to rig a decent cook stove with a few empty beer cans, some cooking oil, paper towels and tin foil. This is assuming you lose gas or electricity but are at home with normal kitchen stuff. We didn't think it could possibly boil a whole pot of water, but it totally did! If I were at home I would build one ASAP.

So general theme for the day? Japan 3 steps ahead of anyone who might want to panic. Result? No panic. More people are farther from Tokyo and more people have more food on hand, but there doesn't seem to be too much anxiety south of Tokyo. At least at this point.

I'm off to bed soon, but happy St. Patrick's Day! We couldn't find any Irish Stout, but we did get some Yebisu black beer to celebrate. I can't decide whether to feel sheepish that its not related in any way to Ireland, or happy that it tastes so much better than Guinness.

March 14 update

Today I was back to work. Everything was pretty quiet again. One of my co-workers was extremely concerned about the nuclear reactors yesterday, so today another colleague with a personal contact inside the U.S. embassy called to see if there was any reason for us to be concerned as far as the US knew. The embassy friend said there was no cause for concern in Kobe right now, but she scolded us for not having registered with the embassy for emergency updates yet. We both did so right away. No updates so far, which is how I like it.

In Tokyo, the power company has started imposing rolling black outs to help conserve energy. I haven't heard of any plans like that down here, yet.

It sounds like rescuers are getting into the most isolated and devastated areas of the coast in the north. The next week will likely be a very sad one. I certainly don't want to downplay in any way the tragedy that took place along the coast in Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima provinces.

I do have some good updates. My co-worker who hadn't contacted his family yet was finally able to do so yesterday. His brother is a firefighter and was one of the first responders that worked in (if I remember correctly) Fukushima over the weekend. He is back home with his family now, resting. Everyone else is okay, too. I didn't realize my co-worker had gone the weekend without hearing from his family. It must have been a very long weekend. I'm glad everyone is okay.

I also spoke with my Hokkaido host family. They moved down to Tokyo a year or two before Russell and I moved to Japan. We visited them once last year. They are fine. They said they have been experiencing regular earthquakes and there were plenty more today. They are proud of their rock-solid apartment, though. They chose it because it shares their family name.

Aside from these updates my life is mostly re-establishing its orbit around next semester's textbooks. This is our last week to get them finished, so the pressure is on. I was planning to work Saturday to try and get ahead, but friends and family discouraged me. Frankly, after being evacuated on Friday I wasn't in too much of a rush to go work alone in the office on a tiny island. Today was okay, though. We kept an eye on the news, but everyone was back in the office. After Friday I am looking forward to sleeping, our university's first graduation and then a vacation to Nevada to visit my grandmother. It can't come soon enough.

March 13 Update

All still fine in Kobe.

Russell played a concert today, so we had a big outing to a place on the East side of Osaka. We had really good yakiniku for dinner.

We are still watching the nuclear situation unfold. I am less worried now that I have been learning more about what is going on. No thanks to the news, of course, but there are a lot of good resources on the Internet and I know much more about nuclear fusion than I did last week.

Here's an article Russell recommends:

http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/

Yes, its's a blog, but it was set up just to share this letter from an MIT guy.

If you (like me) feel nervous about any sort of nuclear abnormality, I recommend this article.

Going to bed now... its way too late.

Do keep the people in North Japan in your thoughts. The the news coming out of the region hit by the tsunami is devastating and truly worthy of the highest level of concern. One of my students from Toyo (several years ago) still hasn't been able to contact his family in one of the hardest hit prefectures. I don't know if they lived near the coast or not, but I'm very worried for him. Its so hard to reconcile my happy daily routine in Kobe with the destruction just 400 miles away.

March 12 update

Everything is still fine in Kobe. We spent the day cleaning the house and doing laundry. We went out to Cafe Kei for lunch and I had one of my friends over for dinner. Russell went to band practice in Osaka and will have a concert near Kyoto tomorrow. Of course, we also had the TV going all day.

The big news today was the explosion at one of the power plants. The reactor was not damaged and the new plan is to cool the reactors by passing a bunch of sea water through them. The process is expected to take two days. The update on the explosion claimed the cause was unknown, though many people are suspicious that the cause must be known. The evacuation radius was increased to 12 miles from 6 miles around the power plant. Another uncomfortable sign.

All of this is concerning, and we are keeping a close eye on it. We are 400 miles away, so the chance of a serious threat to us is very slim. I will post more tomorrow if I hear anything.

I know our family in particular is very worried, but please don't worry about us. We are all worried about the north of Japan, but we have been totally unaffected down here.

Here is a post by another foreigner living in the same region as us.

http://bibliophilia.typepad.com/writing-like-a-shark/2011/03/japan-in-the-midst-of-crisis-a-foreigners-perspective.html

March 11 Earthquake

Hi All,

Let me begin this post by assuring everyone that Russell and I are absolutely fine. Kobe barely felt anything and there was no damage that I know of in this region.

That story is quite different in Tokyo and farther north. There was a very strong earthquake (magnitude 8.7-8.9 depending on the source of info) a few hundred kilometers off the coast of Tokyo (at least I think that's what I understand...). Tokyo got an extremely strong and prolonged earthquake as a result and there have been many (more than 30?) aftershocks - a more than a few in the 6.0 - 7.1 range. The most frightening result of the earthquake was series of tsunami waves that caused extreme damage on the northern tip of Honshu Island (the biggest island) and along the coast line. As I'm writing this, most of the Eastern coast is still under high alert for tsunami waves. I'm sure you'll see some of the incredible tsunami footage on the news in the U.S. Its hard to believe. There was also a huge fire at an oil refinery in Chiba (close to Tokyo). Thankfully, there was no damage to nuclear reactors, even in the worst hit areas.

Here in Kobe I was at work, writing textbooks. A few hours after lunch, a student who was working on a college entrance essay in the English office looked up and said, "Jaci. I think its an earthquake." I thought she was kidding (I hadn't noticed anything) when I realized there was a very gentle shifting from side to side going on. It was like having a long bought of vertigo or stepping onto a gently rocking boat. Everything would lazily shift horizontally one way and then lazily shift back. There was no strong shaking or noise. It lasted forever, too. My student had time to get a text message from her mother, notify me, wait, my co-worker walked to the window and looked out pensively at the harbor, then looked back into the office, we waited, and then I sent a text message to Russell before it ended. It definitely lasted more than a minute and seems like it must have lasted several minutes - though I'm a bad judge of such things. I've never been in an earthquake that lasted more than 10 seconds, though, so this one seemed to go on forever. There were times I doubted it was still going and instead thought my mind was playing tricks on me. When it was over, we laughed about it and went back to work.

My student got a message from her brother (who is studying in Canada) asking if she was okay. She was confused about why he was asking and how he would know about the earthquake so shortly after it happened - especially when he is clear across the Pacific. I thought maybe he was talking about one of the earthquakes that hit Japan earlier this week, though those were only felt in the far north of Honshu. About an hour later someone informed us that there had been a giant earthquake farther north and a tsunami warning had been issued. My boss came in and asked us all to go home. The school had decided to evacuate everyone as a precaution. We are on a break for the end of the academic year right now, so there thankfully aren't that many people on campus.

It was also at that point that the tsunami damage on the very north coast of Honshu came up. One of my co-workers has in-laws in that area of Japan - and they live right on the coast. He raced home to get a hold of his wife. I just got the message that her family was okay, so that's a huge relief. I hope our students are all okay, too. Since its vacation time right now, they are spread far and wide across Japan. The ones I know of in Tokyo are fine, but the far majority could be anywhere.

After being evacuated I took the train back to downtown Kobe and even though the tsunami warning for Kobe was for less than a meter, Russell and I played it safe and headed home (which is far enough up the mountain that even a 10 meter tsunami wouldn't come close to us. I haven't seen an update on the tsunami peak heights in a while, but the last one I saw for Kobe was 30cm. I doubt that was enough to cause even slight flooding around Port Island (where my school is) or the docks around Kobe.

I haven't seen any footage on TV of heavy damage or injuries from the earthquake anywhere in Japan, with the exception of a few rural houses - which seems hard to believe. I don't think any other country in the world could have fared as well as Japan just has. That said, the footage of the tsunami in the north is pretty chilling. Apparently it crested over 7 meters in one city - so at least 21 feet high. I'm very worried about what the reports will be coming out of the north over the next few days.

My heart goes out to all the families that have been affected by this earthquake and tsunami.

I hadn't really thought of that...

From one of my colleagues:

"If they can make chicken flavored toothpaste [for dogs] why can't they make teleporters?"

I really can't argue with that logic.

Kyoto Shim Sham: Part II

Our intrepid dance group leader just posted the videos from our Kyoto Shim Sham event. We performed in four locations around Kyoto and they are all on YouTube if you care to see more. Here's my favorite of the four. We got a bit of a scolding at the end.

Quick Update

No much is happening over here in Kobe right now. I do have a couple of fun things to post, but I'm too lazy to download pictures right now.

At work, the school year just ended, so now its textbook-writing season. That's keeping us pretty busy, and decreasing my motivation to write on the computer when I come home...

At home, Russell is away on a business trip, and I haven't been up to much. I spent the first few days of his absence cleaning the house and reading. Now, I've caught a cold, so I'm just hanging around the house napping and trying to talk myself into getting ahead on my textbook writing. Luckily it was a three day weekend this week, so I can just lay around the house and don't need to go anywhere.

I will try to post something more interesting soon.

Questionable Progress

Yesterday (Monday) was the last day of final exams, so I asked to take today off to get some household business taken care of - especially while I have Russell available to help (he's got a business trip coming).

On the "to do" list was:

1. Sign up for a community Japanese tutor (can only be done on the first day of every month)
2. Try to figure out what taxes I need to pay
3. Renew our apartment contract (our two year lease is up in March)
4. Figure out how to dump our old moldy futon.
5. Finish grading writing exams

Russell's superior Japanese was needed for most of these projects, but he needed to put in some solid work time first, so I started with what I could manage.

First up, getting Japanese lessons. I already have an excellent tutor and friend who is helping me once a week, but I am beginning to be really frustrated that my Japanese isn't better than it is and I don't seem to be studying enough on my own. Having a set study time with a tutor really helps. Luckily, the line for tutors today was extremely short - and I was at the head of it. No problem. Task #1 taken care of.

Next, I decided to hang out in a coffee shop and grade writing exams. These take quite a bit of time, and several students haven't turned in the take-home part of their exams yet. I did grade all of the complete exams I have and I will finish what I can of the partial exams tonight. Task #5, mostly done.

At this point Russell was available to help. We went for some (awesome) vegetable curry and then headed to the city ward office to deal with taxes. Last year, I hadn't been in the country for a full year yet, and since Japan assigns taxes based on your prior year's income, I didn't need to pay anything (very nice). This year when I looked into taxes I got mixed messages. For the regular Japanese staff, I was told that taxes are withdrawn automatically every month and you only need to do tax forms if you want to claim a refund. When I looked up tax percents for Japan and compared to what had been withheld from my salary over the year, the numbers seemed way off. I spoke with a co-worker who has been in the country for at least a year more than I have and she told me the school doesn't withhold enough and that she had had to pay significantly more. She tole me to take my contract to the ward office and they would figure out what more I needed to pay. Russell and I set out to do that, but the ward office told us the university was taking care of it and not to worry. Just to be double sure, we went to the international community center to ask their opinion (they help foreigners with things like this) and they confirmed that the school would figure it out. They said if the school has not withheld enough, I will get a bill to pay more in the next month or so. Okay... I guess we'll wait and see...

We also asked about how to get rid of our futon. The community center lady helped us call the garbage center and confirm that we can get a special tag for our futon at a convenience store for $30. We then need to call the garbage center and arrange a pick up time and place so they can come take it away. Stupid moldy futon. Grrr. At least our new futon set up is working much better. The wood slats are working great an we are being extra good to dry the futon every day.

After a side excursion to get guitar strings we headed to the central office for our rental company. We hadn't ever been there before. After learning a great deal about the Japanese address system, we managed to find the building. We went in and asked what we should do to renew our lease. We were told it would be done automatically so long as we kept paying normally. Okay. Next we asked about the insurance renewal letter we had received. They confirmed that we should pay by bank transfer and not to them directly. Check. Finally, we admitted to them that we had managed to punch a hole in one of the closet doors, took full blame and asked how to go about getting it fixed. "Ah, are the doors not working properly?" they asked. No, no, the doors work fine, there's just a very large hole in one of them. (We look down sheepishly) "Oh, well, no problem, then. We'll just replace them when you move out. So long as their functional for you, we aren't worried at all." But... there's a hole - a big hole - in the door... "Not to worry!"

Add to the list: Find camouflage for the hole in the closet door.

I can't help feeling that while we technically covered everything on the list... we really didn't get anything done. I guess being better informed is a start...

First Earthquake!

I have been wondering for some time when we were going to experience our first earthquake in Japan. The first (and really only) earthquake I ever felt was in Hokkaido on my first trip to Japan. At that time I was told that earthquakes happen so often no one really even notices. It seemed odd, then, that we've been here almost two years with not a single shake.

I asked some Kobe-ites about this and they said that Kobe isn't an especially active part of Japan. Of course, anyone who was living here in the 80's knows first hand that Kobe is capable of tremendous earthquakes, but apparently this part of Japan is not especially quake-prone.

The earthquake tonight was very quick and not very strong. The news (which started reporting within one minute of the event) said we were between a magnitude 2 and 3 quake. It was enough to give everything a rattle, but not enough to tip anything over or shake anything off the table. It was over before Russell and I could even react.

Like well-trained Oregonians, we went and stood in a doorway for a few minutes. But we gave up within a couple minutes. Russell turned on the news and I started writing this post.

I don't ever care to be in a serious earthquake, but as long as they're small like this one, I don't mind.

Kyoto Shim Sham: Part I

Today was probably the most eventful and all together strange day yet of my stay in Japan. At 10:30am I met a group of fellow swing dancers (both Japanese and from other countries) in Kyoto and we proceeded to dress up in kimonos and do shim sham performances around various picturesque areas of Kyoto. We also had an amazing dinner to round out the day.

What is shim sham? For those who don't know, shim sham is a line dance most swing dancers learn. While swing is usually a partner dance, when the music for shim sham comes on everyone lines up and dances the same steps in unison. Its a real pain for beginners to learn, but its lots of fun once you do.

So why were we doing shim sham in Kyoto? One of the regulars at swing night - a lovely lady from Germany - will soon be leaving us for a new adventure in Hawaii. At some point she and some other regulars were talking about how it would be fun to do shim sham in kimonos. They did this once before in Nara, but this time more careful plans were put in place.

I'm dead tired after all the excitement, so I'll have to post more details later. The videos of our performances will be posted to youtube soon, and I'll make sure to link to them in my Shim Sham Part II post. I'll also walk you through the kimono process, some of the highlights of our trip and the amazing dinner we had in the next post.

Until then, here's a group shot of us just after we got dressed. This was SO much fun!

Really Big Mittens: Part END

I can finally report success on the mitten-front. While they did take quite a bit longer than the mini-mock-up mittens, they weren't so hard to do after all.

Unfortunately, I can't report a total success. I was very worried when I made the first mitten that it would come out a hair to small and all my work would be for nothing - so I tended to round up whenever possible. This means the first mitten came out somewhat bitter than strictly needed. Its not so big as to be useless, but it does look a little ridiculous.

For the second mitten I was better informed and knew what to expect. As far as I know the second mitten was right on target.

Both mittens should keep Russell very warm. The knitted liner worked great. The resulting fabric is nice and thick and very tightly woven together.

Really big socks are the next request - though they have to wait for me to figure out a Christmas-gift hat pattern first.

Wish me luck!

Japan Hearts Capybara

One of the harder cute things to explain in Japan is the capybara stuffed animal. A real capybara is an enormous semi-aquatic rodent that lives in South America. I'm not sure how it attained the level of popularity it enjoys in Japan, but somehow it did. You can find them at most large zoos and a number of aquariums. There's nothing wrong with a capybara - they are reasonably cute critters and I can see their place as a curiosity. After all, if you don't grow up with capybara wading through the river in your local jungle, you might not really know how to classify one.

Somehow, though, a clever marketer in Japan managed to make the capybara an instantly recognizable plush toy. While many fad toys pass on quickly, capybara have enjoyed a relatively long success - I can personally vouch for their prominent end-of-aisle position at several stores since we've been in Japan and I had seen them before that.

In the picture you can see the plush toys I'm referring to. Note they come in a variety of sizes and colors.

Of course, once you have an established character in Japan, you are free to dress it however you like. Now, for the year of the rabbit, you can get a capybara dressed as a bunny. I suppose that's not so very unlike you or me dressing as a monkey, so perhaps I shouldn't be so puzzled. They do make for cute pictures - also as would you or I dressed as a monkey.

Study Abroad Highlights

The first round of study abroad students has returned to Japan. Today we got to listen to their speeches about the highlights of studying abroad and their favorite memories.

Here are a few highlights of the highlights:

New Mexico:
White Sands National Park
Playing midnight hide-and-seek in the city central park. (This was mentioned by several people).

Michigan:
An awesome roommate who introduced the student to a local comedy show.

New Jersey:
Jumping out of the second story window of the dorms into snow drifts.
Spending every weekend in New York City

New York:
Not skipping class too much
Being really cold

Oregon:
Going on vacation to Tiajuana, refusing to pay $50 for a taxi ride leading to being handcuffed by the police, leading to paying $50 for the taxi ride.
One of our boys dressed as the cutest Snow White ever for Halloween.
Host families that took our kids hiking, jack-o-lantern carving, christmas tree cutting, etc.
And my favorite story:
Best purchase: A North Face jacket - it kept her so dry she didn't even need an umbrella.

It was really fun to listen to the students. Its so strange to hear them speaking with totally different accents and using elaborate turns of phrase they've picked up. The speeches also get VERY LONG (but in a good way). I can't wait for the 7 month students to come back in March.

Popsiclothes

Yesterday I put a load of clothes in the laundry. I had to go meet someone, so I asked Russell if he could hang the clothes for me when he came back from lunch (we were going together). He agreed.

After lunch, Russell decided he wanted to be out of the house (even though he's been coming down with a cold) so we walked downtown together. We both forgot the laundry.

On our way home that night, we remembered. At this point it was cold outside. Not snowing, but only for lack of precipitation. We got home, thought about it, and decided the clothes couldn't possibly mildew in this weather - we could leave them overnight.

This morning I got up to finally hang the laundry and when I started pulling clothes out to hang, I noticed something was a little off. It turns out they had frozen over night. They thankfully hadn't frozen together too much, but I had to pull them all into a flat position before hanging them and they didn't exactly "hang" on the hangers and drying bar.

Laundry Day

I know I've posted about this before, but for the most part, no one uses dryers here. Most families have a small washing machine (half the size or smaller than typical American washing machines) the only water temperature is cold and all laundry is hung outside to dry. There are dryers at laundromats if you must get something dry quickly, but it usually isn't that big of an issue.

This was one part of living in Japan that I was suspicious of. Having a large washer and dryer seemed pretty necessary to me when I arrived here. I have to say, though, line drying, when you are set up for it, is no big deal. I actually prefer it.

Of course, being set up for it is a major factor. We have two sturdy aluminum rods within arms-reach of our patio door. The washing machine is right next to them (also arms-reach from the door) and there are all sorts of clever clamps and hangers designed to fit over said metal rods to keep your laundry from flying away. We even have a little overhang to give us a decent chance of rescuing our laundry if it starts to rain hard and seems to keep the birds from leaving presents on our laundry for us.

I was thinking about how nice our set up is today as I was hanging our laundry IN THE SNOW. It wasn't snowing hard, but I thought - you know, if I were in Oregon, I would probably see the snow and assume laundry was off. Here, so long as there isn't any worry of the flakes accumulating on my undies, laundry day is on.

Really big mittens: Part III

I've been working on Russell's giant mittens for the last few days. Yesterday, I finished the first one. It actually turned out to be a bit too big. I was worried that it would be too small, so I tended to take every opportunity to round up when I was figuring out the number of stitches I would need.

Even so, the liner worked out well - this little paw bags is going to offer serious protection against wind and cold, so even if its a bit too spacious, it should still do the job. I'm going to start the second mitten today and scale it down a bit. I may remake the first mitten at some point so they both fit better, but I have a feeling I'll be finished with mittens for a while by the time the second one is made.

I put my first tiny mitten next to the Russell-sized mitten for scale.

New Bed!

Woo hoo! We got a new bed!

We have been sleeping on the original double futon that we got on our first day in Japan. If you've been reading the blog for a while, you know that we have been battling mildew and mold for the full two years. We have had the futon directly on the floor - which is fine if you have a traditional room with tatami mat flooring, but not so fine if you have laminate - which is what we have. Every morning for 9 months out of the year, the bottom of our bed was soaked through with condensation.

We had several strategies for battling this. At first, we tried to prop the bed up every morning and let it dry out. That sort of worked, but didn't always get it fully dry. At some point we got lazy and just started flipping the bed over every day so the wet side could get some air. On sunny days, we tried to hang it outside (a highly recommended strategy for both drying the bed and zapping any mold spores with UV light.) Unfortunately, we rarely got around to hanging the bed out more than once a week, and often lapsed longer than that.

Around this time last year, our bed was showing definite mold spots and started to smell bad. I wanted to dump it and get a new bed, but Russell didn't want to figure out how to dispose of the first one and didn't want to spend the money on the new one. Instead, he decided to bleach the bed. One day while I was at work, he put the bed in the bathtub with hot water and bleach. He then hung it out on the back porch to dry. It took about a week to dry sufficiently because it was the middle of winter, but it did get relatively dry. To finish the job, we decided to buy a futon dryer. It consists of a nylon bag attached to a hot air blower. You put the bag in your bed, turn on the hot air and it pushes hot air through the bed until its dry. It worked very well.

SInce then, we have been trying to flip the bed every day and dry it out with the dryer. We occasionally missed a day, but we did pretty well. The problem was that one side of the bed was always face down and the room itself was often dark. Eventually, the mold came back. It had gotten so bad that our bedroom smelled strongly of mildew. It was grossing me out, so I decided to use my winter break to take care of the problem once and for all.

I pulled everything out of the bedroom, washed bedding, washed the walls and floors with a bleach solution, cleaned out all the window tracks and washed the windows, everything. Unfortunately, the bed was clearly moldy again. I banished it to the patio, set out our guest futons as temporary bedding, and went searching on Amazon.

After a little searching, I found some wooden slats that could be rolled out as a very slight lift to get a futon off the floor. They were, of course, designed for exactly our problem. In the cart they went. Then, I looked for a nice futon. There were several cheap ones, and there was also a nice big fat one. I showed everything to Russell, we agreed that the fat one would make sleeping on slats more comfortable, so I placed the order and we waited.

We got a message later that day that the color of futon I wanted was out of stock, which took us a while to decode. Finally, we figured out what the problem was and agreed to take another color (this is all in Japanese, of course, so we're a bit slow).

Last Friday, the futon arrived. The slats still hadn't come, so we just put the futon out as it was. The next morning, the bottom had standing droplets of water on it when I lifted it. I propped it up under our heater and made sure it dried out. The next day was the same. Finally, the slats arrived. I set everything up, we went to bed, and the next morning? No water! The bed wasn't even damp with the exception of a small strip at the very top that had sagged down off the slats and touched the floor.

Success!

Hopefully we will be able to enjoy THIS bed for a long time to come with no fear of mold.