My latest work of art. I didn’t cut off my finger this time, but it could’ve been a close call because we had to use a glue gun to attach the eggs (they’re real) to the wire that you use to stick in to the pot o’ things. And yes, I realize that Easter’s over.

Of course, in Japan, you would never even know it happened. I’d forgotten about it completely until we received an Easter package from my in-laws.

This is Ann Norling’s basic kids sweater that can be made in one piece, top down. I made it with one ball of washable green tweed yarn on size 8 needles. It took me about 3 days. The sweater also has crew neck pullover as well as v-neck cardigan and pullover alternatives.

We went to Matsumoto recently with our friend Carrie who is visiting from California. The Matsumoto Castle there is one of the best preserved castles in Japan and considered to be a national treasure. For 600 yen, you can go inside the castle and climb all 6 floors (including one that is hidden from the outside).

The problem with this, we quickly discovered, was that the stairs are extremely tall and steep. Apparently, they were made this way on purpose to slow down enemies in the event of an invasion.

My thighs are still sore from climbing up and down those things. Makes me wonder how many people have broken their necks on those stairs.

This is the titillating title of a Japanese book that is generating some buzz these days. It’s not really a book as much as it is a compilation of a so-called blog entry and the responses to it. Earlier I wrote about an ad campaign for a portal called Goo run by Japan’s dominant telephone company NTT.

Well, this portal has a feature called Ask Goo in which users can write in with questions and the community can freely respond to it (slightly different than Google I think). Well, one day some guy writes in saying that he found out that his wife planned to commit adultery next week and asked the community what he should do. He also knew which hotel they were going to because the first one he called randomly happened to be the one where they had booked a room. The book is a compilation of the hundreds of responses he received in just two weeks. Some people told him to storm in at the scene and beat the guy up, others suggested hiring an investigator to gather hard evidence for when he filed for a divorce. Some people got pissed off at his indecisiveness, others were sympathetic. Reading the book gives nosy people like me immense satisfaction.

This is not the best picture of my latest masterpiece since it was taken four days after I made it. You might notice the edges of the flower petals drying up a bit. But voila.

I made this for Ben and Rachel’s new baby girl. The pattern is Minnowknits Cotton Roll #184. I made this with Bernat cottontots yarn which is machine washable and dryable, but it could probably be made with wool. I’d probably make it again.

I’m going to make a wild assumption here that foreign terrorists will not be interested in hijacking a domestic plane in Japan and ramming it into the Tokyo Tower. I recently took a plane from Osaka to Tokyo and was reminded of how lax security is in Japan as much as they try.

It all comes down to one thing: as long as you present the credit card you bought your ticket with, you never have to show an ID to prove you’re the person you claim to be. It doesn’t take a lot of brain power to realize that you can easily travel under a fake name.

On the other hand, when you pass through security, they examine any plastic bottles of drinks that you’re carrying to make sure that the liquid is actually the liquid it claims to be. (They have a special machine for this).

Other interesting flying details in Japan: You only need to arrive 15 minutes before your flight and if you want to catch an earlier plane with another airline (JAL and ANA are basically the two options), all you need to do is have the airline with whom you have the original ticket stamp your ticket and take it to the airline whose plane you want to get on. Gotta love the regulated industries.

Showa is the era in Japan that starts in 1925 (I think). The book is about the history of mainly the World War II years by Kazutoshi Hando, a known WWII scholar and a former editor-in-chief of a respected Japanese monthly called Bungei Shunju.

Right at the beginning, he presents this premise: Japan has created and destroyed the country in modern times in 40 year increments. Specifically, he defines the start of modern Japan as 1865 when the Emperor declared that the country would be open to foreigners after being closed off for 200 years. From there, Japan spent 40 years through 1905 turning the country into a global power. It won not only one, but two wars against Russia. Then, however, the country “becomes conceited and overconfident, declares war against the entire world and destroys the country that former leaders had worked so hard to build.” That takes us to 1945. Jump to 1952 when Japan regains its autonomy after seven years under U.S. occupation. The country again works furiously to become an economic superpower this time, but again, in exactly 40 years, the bubble bursts.

It’s an intriguing thought given that we’re more than 10 years into an economic slump (another 30 more years according to his theory?). Anyway, he presents a remarkably balanced and human account of what triggered World War II in Pacific Asia (a war-hungry bumbling idiot military and a system that covered for their mistakes) complete with excerpts of diaries and official documents as well as their translations into understandable Japanese. It’s a real shame that it’s not available in English.

Hold music can say a lot about a company sometimes. I was calling the Minstry of Internal Affairs and Telecommunications (Japan’s FCC and other stuff) for work today and they put me on hold. The music? London Bridges(you know the one that goes “London Bridges falling down, falling down, falling down…”).

My father-in-law sent me this picture, but this is the sort of thing that makes me homesick. The right one is my puppy, Ada. The left one, Tristan, belongs to my in-laws, who are also taking care of Ada while we’re in Japan. She’s probably the only dog in the world that has her own bank account/trust fund.

We found a new cafe in Omotesando. At least I think it’s new. The cakes looked incredible. And huge. I had a banana caramel cake and PMK had a caramel mocha cake. PMK did point out that all the cakes were designed so they could be created on a shell without baking. But they were yummy.

(This isn’t the best picture but it was taken with my mobile)

Okay. Perhaps not by Chicago standards, but definately by Tokyo standards. I don’t remember it every snowing like this in Tokyo, much less in March. This winter has been a strange one going back and forth between warm and cold weather. The result is that the plum trees have been blossoming since early February. Now we’ve got snow on the plum blossoms.

Picture yourself on a train in Tokyo on your way to work or to an interview (in my case anyway). The train is crowded but not too crowded. All of a sudden somebody a foot away yawns or talks and you get a waft of a god-awful smell. This is unfortunately a common occurence. A lot of Japanese people have a really bad cases of haliotosis. Some of them are so bad they can be on the other side of the train talking and you can tell exactly who is responsible.

It’s all pretty disgusting and it makes me paranoid of my own teeth. I’m scared to death that I’m going to start smelling just as bad. My mouthcare ritual these days consists of regular flossing and rinsing with tartar control Listerine in addition to teeth brushing. PMK tells me that they get haliotosis because they have such bad dental care. He’s right. Even some of the celebrities on television have horrible teeth. But that doesn’t stop me from worrying that I’ll get it as a result of something I ate.