Impulse Buy at the Bazaar

It's a cedar screen. It smells WONDERful. I'm still not 100% sure where it is going to go in our house...






So I went to the bazaar today looking to buy china to match my china back in the states and this is what I ended up with instead....

Bazaar (Not to be Confused with Bizarre) Finds

Vase
Kokeshi-ish Doll (This was a gift for Lilia)
I may have inherited this from my mother, but I love dolls. Always have. My mom started me out with a doll collection at a very young age and I have always admired her collection. I know some people think dolls are creepy. I think those people are weird.
My favorite thing about the Japanese dolls that I have encountered in my time here is the beautiful fabric used to clothe the dolls. Kimono and Obi silks in incredibly ornate patterns and designs cover the dolls in many layers. This was my most recent find and the Atsugi Bazaar. The bazaar itself was actually rather disappointing, but this doll made up for it! It was marked down when we were leaving because of a small crack in the glass. I ended up getting it for $10.00!
It is a warrior or samurai doll for "Boy's Day" or now "Children's Day" in Japan.
This is another doll for "Children's day" of a young prince. Poor Cliff thought this doll was a girl because of the long hair. It's not! It's a little boy. (My English students read me the kanji.)
This is a Hagoita or battledore paddle. The decorative paddles have a painting on the back as well and were once used by girls for a game played on New Years with a shuttlecock. I think they are BEAUTIFUL!
I bartered with the guys and got this one for around $15.00!! (That is a good price.)
I have acquired a few Obi and Kimono since we have been here too. I seem to gravitate towards the ones with gold or silver....
This was an antique picture that no one seemed to want. I wanted it! It was only $5.00!!!

My friends and I have wondered why the Japanese people are always getting rid of their beautiful things. Why aren't they passed down through families? One of the reasons is because the Japanese people can be extremely superstitious and perceive it to be bad luck or just a bad idea in general to hold onto things that belong to the dead. It is not entirely uncommon to see entire households auctioned off after someone passes away. Not of all of the Japanese people feel this way, of course, but a few still do.

Interesting, don't you think?

Remembering Thailand....

Remember these? I bought them for about $3 each in a Muslim village that was entirely over water (on stilts)

Well, I finally got them framed!! Don't they look great??

I'm so happy with them!
Beautiful!!

Batik Fabric from Indonesia

Cliff brought us back lots of fun things from his cruise this summer. This is what he got me from Indonesia!

Happy Happy Birthday (25th)..... to me.

Balloon from Nancy and Flowers from Robyn.
I love fresh flowers. If I wasn't so lazy or cheap I would have fresh flowers in my house every day.
A Lilia
This is what Cliff got me for my birthday. I've had my eye on this lazy susan since we arrived in Japan. I just think it is beautiful and I'm excited about pairing it with my china. When I picked a china pattern I went with a very simple design (it's actually called "Simply Anna" by Anna Weatherley) because I wanted to be able to mix and match in the future. My pattern is white with gold scalloped edges and the gold in this china will compliment what I already have.
I love all of the detail.
Isn't that gorgeous! Thank you Cliff!!!!
This is what Nancy got me :)
These pictures are actually from today. Lilia is 2 months old as of today! The doctors clocked her in at 12.5 lbs at her appt on Friday! She is in the 75% percentile for weight and the 50th for height. The doctor thought she looked fantastic. I guess she has caught up for having such a rocky start. She got her shots that day too. The nurses asked me if I was doing ok after they gave her the shots. I had to laugh. Not to sound like a bad mother or anything, but a couple of shots in the thighs after all she has been through? This was cake! She got more shots the week before when they had to give her precautionary antibiotics in the UCC.
If she wasn't 2 months old I would say that this was Lilia playing "coy"
Just look at those chubbola cheeks!
Aww!!


So my birthday...

The day started off... dreadfully. Lilia started crying at 4:30 am and continued on and off until 11:30 am. She wouldn't sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time. We had to leave for Yokosuka at 11:30 so that I could see the dermatologist and she cried the whole way there too. While I was in the doctors office she was fine because the nurse offered to hold her while I had a mole removed, but as soon as we left she was back at it. I fed her before the appt and I must have changed her diaper like 5 times while we were there but she finally fell asleep long enough for me to get a little shopping done and get back on the road. I thought she would maybe sleep on the way back to Atsugi, but no such luck. She screamed on the ride home.
I had been planning to go out to dinner with my friends Chrissy and Crystal that night but after no sleep and Lilia's all day cry-a-thon I really wasn't in the mood. I had invited my neighbor and good friend Nancy to come along too and she came downstairs around 5 to hang out until Chrissy got there. I told her about my day and how I really didn't feel like dinner anymore and she told me that I needed to go and that she would watch Lilia for me.
Now, originally I was not planning on leaving Lilia with anyone until she was a few months older as I am a paranoid new mom and she has already given me quite a scare but on this particular evening I couldn't have been more willing or more grateful to let Nancy watch her. This is where my day got a million times better. Chrissy and I left for the O Club and when we got there there was a table set up for us and Crystal was waiting along with Robyn and a beautiful vase of flowers. Mari showed up a little later and we had a wonderful dinner. They topped off the surprise with a homemade cake by Courtney ( OIC's wife) and singing to me. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends. I wish I had brought my camera to dinner but I really wasn't expecting anything!

Two hours may not seem like very much time, but it felt wonderful to have a little break that night. I am so grateful to Nancy and I learned that leaving Lilia with someone is fine. I may even do it again sometime. It's been really hard with Cliff gone and having to go it alone. I have trouble asking for help and thats why I am grateful for friends that step in and help anyway. Anyway.... so I made it! I am officially a quarter of a century!!

Do I still live in Japan? Oh yeah, I guess I do...

Cliff and I went to a bazaar in Yokosuka last weekend and finally bought the step tansu we wanted! I am sooooo excited about this piece of furniture!! If you have never seen one before you can google "step tansu" or "Kaidan dansu" and that will give you and idea of how versatile and beautiful this particular type of furniture can be!
We have ours set up more in the "Buffet" style but if you look very closely to the left you can see where the pieces fit together if we wanted to set it up like a stair case. We hope to have the room to do that eventually, but for now it is going to be a TV stand.
That's rice paper behind the glass and we have our DVD player inside. We can use the remote through the glass so that everything stays hidden!
So... I was bored the other day driving home from Sagamihara housing with Cliff and I started taking pictures... Typical day driving around Japan.
Watch out for people on bikes - they WILL NOT watch for you.
It was pretty grey and dreary on this particular Saturday, but we did spot some wisteria!! Anyone who knows me at all knows that I LOVE wisteria. LOVE IT!
More wisteria :)
So pretty!! They have white wisteria here in Japan as well. I know everyone gets all crazy about the cherry blossoms but this is more my thing. And below you can see an older Japanese woman that took the wisteria thing a little too far.... j/k I really have no idea why she has such a violent shade of purple for her hair color. I just had to get a picture, though...