The Shift

There is a shift in the air.  Expat life is mostly fun and amazing as you have probably noticed. What I don't mention often is when it's frustrating or downright difficult. Expat life is full of goodbyes.  It seems like many we have met or gotten close to have left or are leaving before we do.  Thankfully there are a few close friends that will be here till after we leave.  We are in a season of goodbyes.  Matane means "see ya later".  A Matane party is a goodbye party.  They are bittersweet.

I have one young friend leaving at the beginning of April.  She asked me and "S" to take pictures of her and her daughter in kimonos.  "S" is a much more experienced photographer than I am.  It was super fun to watch how she works a portrait shoot and especially how she handles a toddler.  I don't think I want to do portrait photography, but I really did enjoy it.  Although I felt inadequate and was sure nothing was going to turn out.  I thought I'd show you some of my favorites.  As you can tell, I prefer more candid shots.  This little one looks just like her daddy.

There were also amazing Ume trees (plums) blooming, so I got a few pictures of those while I was there.  This is our last Spring in Japan and I want to savor every moment of it. Ken and I will be traveling to Kyoto and Hiroshima at the end of March which should be beautiful this time of year.  

This week I went to another Matane party for my two young friends that are leaving.  It was a Karaoke party with toddlers!  It was really fun and again, I took my camera. Oh yeah, there were Moms there too.  

 I can't even get enough of this cuteness!

Goodbyes are hard.  I treasure these sweet friends.  Thankfully, I will see some of them again because we will be moving from California to Texas when we return.  Many are going to the same place.  If you've followed me here long enough you'll realize that this means we will be selling our beautiful home and relocating.  That is a hard one.  But, no matter how we plan our days, they don't usually end up the way we think.  God has much better plans than we can ever dream of.  So we are trusting in His direction one step at a time.  

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to proper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

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.  

Ajisai Season -In All It's Glory

I took advantage of Hydrangea (Ajisai) Season recently.  It gave me a lot of wonderful opportunities to work on my photography skills.  I've attempted to use the Manual setting on my camera for several months now.  Taking pictures of flowers are fairly easy subjects.  They don't turn around and walk away from you or run by.  The wind is a factor sometimes, but basically, they are gorgeous and stand still.  I'm going to take a portrait photography class this next week.  We will see how I do.  

I had two different opportunities to take pictures of beautiful hydrangea gardens.  This first one was in the Nagoya area, so just a short subway ride away.  

I loved this old, distressed map of the garden.

We met friends there and so I got Ken to join me.

 This next stop was an hour and a half train ride away.  We left in the afternoon because of schedule conflicts, and we also wanted to get the afternoon light which is better than mid day.

My photography friend likes to get down low.  

I tried it and it definitely gave some fun and interesting results.  

 I tried some new angles.  I had fun with these two photos, using my screen while I held the camera down low.  I have yet to perfect my focusing skills doing this.  The effect is fun for something different.  The photo below would've been even better if we would've had blue skies to contrast.

 Another "different" perspective shot.

We stayed until the lights came on and got a few fun photos with them.  We left around 7:30 to go home.  When we got to the subway we eventually discovered that all the trains in the area were cancelled, due to an "accident" on the tracks.  It's a very real problem in Japan.  Many choose suicide by train as the solution to their problems.  It took quite a lot of thinking to get home.  We ended up taking an expensive cab to a station two stops away.  When we arrived there a train was arriving that was two hours late which is unheard of in Japan.  When at another stop, we could tell we were being instructed to move to another more express train.  I ended up taking four different train lines home after the taxi ride, finally arriving at 10:30 pm.  I'm so thankful my friend speaks Japanese! 

So many photos, so little time

It doesn't help that I LOVE taking photos here and am doing my best to improve.  Today I'm just showing you some random photos from exploring close by.  I have pictures from a Kyoto trip, but that deserves a post all it's own.  My husband and I explored around Nagoya castle in order for him to see the Sakura blossoms a few weeks ago in April.  When you're working all day and getting home in the dark, it's hard to see some of this natural beauty.  Not to even mention that he's out of the country a lot. The Sakura (cherry) were almost finished blooming, but we found a few still going strong in Meijo Park which is next to the castle grounds.  

This guy was getting quite a workout on his bouncy band.  I'm going to try to post a video of it.  

On a different day, a friend and I explored a local shrine that we were walking by called Atsuta Shrine.  The grounds were much larger than we realized and absolutely beautiful.  

 The gardenia trees were HUGE and the ground was covered with blossoms.

I guess you can tell that I love taking pictures of flowers.  I'm in a private FB group for local photographers.  Recently there was a challenge to take pictures of wisteria.  One day, I set out to find some.  Here are a few pictures from that search.  Boy, it sure smells amazing.  

 I just couldn't resist a photo of this cute dog.  He wasn't on a leash and was having the best time.

A very typical scene, here.  

Okay, one more flower excursion.  

 These lovely girls were my exploring companions that day.

And there you have it!  More excursions and more flowers!  Thank you all for sticking around.  I have more to show, I really do!  Have a great weekend.  (It's Thursday here).