Fall in Japan

Hello again.  What's up?  It's turning cold here in Japan.  Chilly really, not super cold.  But, I'm finicky.  We are heading to Kansas City over the Christmas holidays.  It's suppose to be arctic cold while we're visiting.  I hope Kansas City lives up to it's reputation and vacillates back and forth between cold and mild when we arrive.  What have I been doing you ask?  I know you've been wondering.

Well, the days do seem to be flying by.  Can you believe we have lived here almost 16 months? When we return from Christmas we will have about 8 months left of our stay here.  Therefore, I'm trying to take advantage of everything I can.  My youngest daughter came to visit in late October.  We crammed as much as possible into those two weeks.  We did glass blowing, pottery and indigo dyeing.  We visited Kyoto and Tokyo along with sites around Nagoya.  It went fast!

I've done some more pottery since then and think I might make several more trips there before I leave.  I pretty much love everything I make.  Here are the pieces I made from this trip. 

I've been doing a lot of knitting.  I have several friends that knit.  We meet often and hang out at a coffee shop or a friend's home.  I have a shawl that I need to finish asap as it will be nice to have this winter.  I know you can't really tell, but its a beautiful chunky Noro yarn that should be nice and warm.  I've got two scarves in process and just added two different shawls to my queue.  Although I haven't bought yarn yet.  I definitely have enough to keep me busy.  Here are the new possibilities, The Parlour and Find Your Fade.

I was also able to explore some new areas and take Fall pictures.  Fall and Spring are very big in Japan.  They take it seriously.  Japan illuminates the beautiful fall trees and it's a site to behold.  First of all, I'll show you some trees from a Shrine out in the country on a rainy day.  

Last night I went to an Illumination and took some fun pictures.  

Fall is now all over and winter is upon us.  I don't have plans to travel to Sapporo for the Ice Festival. I hear everyone in Japan goes to the Ice Festival.  It's too late to get flights and reservations, etc.  So you may just get more photos of knitting.  Sending you lots of love and wishing you all a 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.