Thursday, May 1, 2008

Here we are over a month later. Lots of things have happend: my computer has been fixed, I went to Thailand with my son for two weeks (too cool of a trip - we will be going back in June or July to show it to my husband)....

I am finally caught up with my work - so I went stumbling and found this cool site:
This site describes in detail how to dye yarn with Kool Aid. I always thought that "stuff", the Kool Aid was poison - the taste, the smell and the really bright colors. This site makes it clear to me : There is a use for Kool Aid and it is dying yarn - bright colors are great for yarn!!!!
Check-out the site at :
http://www.snowangels.com/sketchbook/?page_id=418

I will be trying to get some of the Thailand pictures up in a few days..... ( I took 3 memory sticks for the camera and got them almost full......).

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Cool idea for Origami paper....

I found this on another blog - Craft Avenue.
Using seed packages to decoupage on a flower pot. The idea made me think and why not use some Japanese origami paper to create an Asian flower pot.... Put a hibiscuss flower in it and it will become that Asian gift for a friend or a hostess......

I have added a link on the left below my etsy store link - so go and check it out!

Have not done much crafting this week!

My computer just took a dump: I have no internet, but my husband is workin just fine. I have tried everything I can think off, but nothing... So now, I will pay someone to look at it!
We went to the Local Azaela Festival on the north end of the island. It was stunning and we took over 200 pictures : everything from a butterfly resting on a piece of railing in a jungle, some really funky trees against the sun and of course the blooms..... Since I can not access them right here to add a picture please check out my husbands site. The link is on top of the page to the left!

I have however been shopping and I found stamps, stamps and more stamps. Some rather usual and some a bit unusual.... I will be listing them on etsy this week and next week. We are going to Thailand for spring break the beginning of April (we moved here to see Asia and now is as good as a chance as ever...) and will be gone from 4/2 until 4/11.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

The restrictions have been lifted....

The restrictions imposed on us by a general were partially lifted after 2 weeks. We are now allowed to go anywhere between 5 am and 10 pm. For the service members alcohol of base/camp is still not allowed and there is a curfew of 10 pm for all. We can however go to a movie on base at 9pm and go home, we can just not be walking the streets or be in restaurants, bars etc. The local business owners are pretty happy with the exception of the bar/strip joint owners....
The local English paper had quoted some of the local Japanese activist on the lifting of the restrictions. One comment by a lady in charge of a women's organization made me pretty upset: she thought that 2 weeks were not enough and we were not all sorry and apologetic for what a few have done (see my previous post on the subject) She suggested a 3 month or longer restriction for all including women and children. I am sorry, but I did not do anything wrong nor will I do anything wrong in the near future (drinking and driving, breaking into residences or kissing on 14-year old girls) . I am as disgusted by the behavior of a few, but I do not need to apologize for them, nor do I need time to reflect.... I do however agree with the alcohol ban for service members and the curfew, since most of the bad things have been happening late at night and often involve alcohol!!!!
Since the restrictions (or as the military called it: period of reflection) have been over I have been trying to be extra courteous and polite when I am out amongst the Japanese. I want them to know, that not all Americans ( I am not, but they think I am) are ruthless, thoughtless, selfish brutes (that is how we have been described in the papers here). I think, that is what all of us here one Okinawa need to do. This is their country after all and we are invited guest.

My newest craft - japanese Washi


Since we live in Japan it is time to indulge a little into the local culture and to me that means the local crafts. I have a friend, Reika, who is half Okinawan and half Philippine. She taught some of us the traditional are of folding that beautiful origami paper into a Kimono design.
We added the little shoes (with string to make them the traditional shoes) and the fan. The wire behind the fan was taken from a typical Japanese greeting card (I have a few in my etsy store)... All the items were attached to a special almost square pretty decorated cardboard as a picture. From what I learned during the class this is a pretty traditional craft. I am still debating on how to frame the 3-D picture and who to give it as a gift to.

All together this was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to my next "cultural" craft class. I just signed up for 2 free classes on Camp Kinser for the end of the month. One is for decorating an egg with washi (Japanese paper) and the other one is for Japanese gift wrapping (that involves cloth, paper, string etc and looks always pretty elaborate to me). The egg decorating class made me think of beads (well, I can not hide it I am a beader at heart) and the idea of decorating some wooden beads with the washi is floating around in my brain. I will know more after the class....

Monday, March 3, 2008

New cotton cloth tape !!!


It has taken me a while, but I just have to write about it : cloth tape. I had never seen something like that before. It is a 100 % cotton fabric with adhesive on the back. The tape is backed on the spool by peel-off paper. How neat - no sticky residue.... And it is pretty cool looking too. The majority off it has a very Japanese feel to it, but there are also a few spools with typical Aimee/Kawaii Figures on it. I have been using some off it to deck out some old picture frames and am giving them a new Asian look. Each spool is 5cm wide and 100 cm long (approx. 2x40")... My son was using it for his homework assignment in Japanese class - he cut some off the fans and balls out and combined them with origami paper for a collage..... So it seems the possibilities are amazing .....

Stil under restriction.....


It has been almost 2 weeks since the restrictions were put upon us (all service members, Civilian employees of the military and every ones family members) here on Okinawa. The rules say that we are not allowed to go anywhere, but to the military installations on the island, churches of base, for medical appointments and to and from home (if we live off base). Okay, that does not sound too bad, but it is : just imagine you work downtown and are not allowed to pick-up your children from school on the way, stop for a coffee or run real quick to the post office.... You can see it, but you can not go!!!! Last week we had two incidents in our house that made me question the rules: our car needed to be jump started (the battery was old and I have since gotten a new one), it was 5 am and time for my husband to go to work. He called his boss, so one of the guys could come by for the jump start. His boss had to put that on hold to find out, if that was legal first.... The other situation involved our son, who just had gotten a new soccer ball. He was playing with it in the parking lot of our apartment building. The ball ended up bouncing over a fence and going down the ravine behind our house. The ravine must be over 100 feet deep - it is more like a cliff... We had a long discussion about it being legal for us to go look for the ball down below. It is not legal for us to do so! Even every day little thing require us to think "Are we allowed to do that?" It is pretty bad to be here on a beautiful island and we can not take advantage off it!!! There was a statement by the General in charge of all troops in Japan ( General Zilmer) that there would be a review of the restrictions and the policies today March 3rd. Well, it is almost 9pm Japan time and nothing has been said.... Not even a give us until tomorrow. So here we are with an open-ended restriction and no answers to be found. I think, I could live with this, if I knew when it is supposed to end.....

Just to remind the reason for the restrictions was mostly the allegation of rape of a 14 year old Okinawan girl by a 38 year old Marine . Those charges have been dismissed by the Japanese police and the guy is now in US military custody. He had always admitted to kissing the girl, but denied the rape. (What a 38 year old is doing picking up a 14 year old is beyond me and it was wrong!)Also there had been a few other incidents involving drinking/driving, breaking/entering a Japanese residence and an alleged assault on a Philippine bar worker in a hotel. Since we have been on restriction it has been pretty quiet except for two incidents last weekend: an air man breaking into a Japanese office after climbing the fence to get off base (the guy was intoxicated) and the husband of an air man (woman) being caught in a raid on a drug house... So there are more thing to hold over our heads.

My husband spend 4 hours (from 11 pm until 3 am) on courtesy patrol outside the gates of our local base going through the bar/club district together with some Marines, Soldiers and Air Men. The bars were mostly closed and they ran across nobody breaking the rules....

Most of the problems have been happening during the overnight hours and are alcohol related.... So how about the day time???? Freedom soon, hopefully.......
The picture on top is Shuri Castle here on Okinawa (now we can not go there either).....

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

FREE Shipping on selected items from www.koralle.etsy.com

Purchase any of the items listed above and receive FREE Shipping for your ENTIRE order: Purchase one of the items in the picture above from my etsy store and send me a convo with the message : Free Shipping from http://www.koralle-japan.blogspot.com/ (convo message needs to be send within 6 hours of purchase). I will then grant free shipping. If you have already paid for your items - I will refund the money with paypal, if you have not paid - I will send an invoice with paypal reflecting the FREE shipping. Please note that all payments have to be received within 48 hours of the purchase, to be eligable for the FREE shipping.
The item numbers are listed under the pictures in red and in the titles of all items at the end! The items are spread out amongst the sections of my shop. So happy hunting!
Here is a list of the items:
- Cute-Kawaii Japanese Note Book - Pink - USA HANA and her friends with names - Y59
- Pretty Patchwork Japanese Paper-Envelope-Sticker Stationery Set - Look on the bright side Y81
- Cute Little Japanese Envelope Set with Stickers - Good Friends - Y87
- Classy Japanese Envelopes - white with fiber - monutain and sun Y97
- Honey Bear and Bees Japanese Felt and Paper Sticker Set - Y138
- Japanese Origami Paper - Pastel Tones with Cute Prints - 6 designs - 36 sheets - Y186
- Lovely Japanese Self Sticking Cotton Cloth Ribbon - Rich Red with Pretty Colorful Fans Y356

questions??? There is a convo link on top of each etsy page!!!!

http://koralle.etsy.com

Soda machines - the Japanese have two or more everywhere




Here is a little about life on Okinawa, Japan. Some things stood out when I first arrived on the island. One of the dominant things were the Soda mashines: Well we thought, that there is a lot of them in the US, but the Japanese have us beat!!!! There are at least 20 of them within a 5 minute walking radius of my apartment building in a very residential neighborhood. The Japanese just love them. The coolest thing about them is that they are mostly filled with tea - green tea, hot tea, cold tea, black tea, lemon tea, apple tea etc. - and with coffee drinks - milk coffe, expresso, black coffee, hot coffe, cold coffee etc. The mashines often have hot and cold items in the same mashine. The hot items are really hot - even in the winter. They usually have a red button or a red label. That is how us non-japanese reading people identify them. The tea and coffe seldom is sweetend and sometimes even bitter. There are a few sodas and energy drinks along with water in the mashines. The fanciest mashines are coke mashines that have a TV screen in them - the TV shows a cute coke comercial over and over again.

Overall nobody has to go thirsty here, all one needs is a 110 Yen.....

I can not leave my house....

Okay, this is a bit of the beaten path, but worth mentioning! As of today we (all Americans affiliated with the US military) can not go anywhere! That is a direct order from the US military. We are guest of the Japanese government here on Okinawa. About 10 days ago a 14 year old local girl accused a 38 year old marine of picking her up on his motorcycle, taking her to his home and then sexually assaulting her while taking her home in his car. First of all that is horrible!!!! No male adult has any business picking up teenage girls (they wear pretty obvious school uniforms here)!!! The guy is in jail for up to 46 days without charges being filed while the Japanese police is doing their investigation. Then last weekend two marines messed-up again - one drinking and driving and the other was found in a locals home with no business there. There are ongoing protests against the behavior and the presence of all Americans on the island. Last night at a family meeting we were informed that of today all military members are restricted from all activity not involving the military installations. Family members were told not to venture out also. We are "banned" from stores, restaurants, bars, clubs, any tourist facilities, the beaches not belonging to the US military etc. We were told that we could travel from and to work, go to all military installations, but nothing else. Since I live about one mile away from a military installation and we have only one car, I am stuck at home unless my husbands work schedule lets me work something out with him, so I can drop him off and pick him up later on....
This situation , we were told, can last anywhere from days to months.... The reason we were given is that we are supposed as low profile as possible, while the powers that be work things out. The last time something like this has happend, the US military ended up giving major amounts of land back to the Japanese and had to pull out troops from the island.
It is very sad that the alleged actions of one idiot reflect upon all ...... I am a female and I do not think, there is a great danger for me to go out and hurt any of the locals....
Let me hear what you think about this!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

I saw the sun!


The weather has not changed much over the last few days - I am still cold, but the sun was out for a few hours. I broke down and spend money on two pairs of men's houseslippers - one for me and one for my husband... I do have big feet, but womens shoes end at around an american 8. Men's shoes are kind of the same, but they do get a little bigger to a men's 9 or women's 10. So we have two choices shop on base (very limited selection and everybody shops there, but okay for jeans, socks and underwear) or order through the internet. We are not only to tall and big for Japanese clothing, but the clothes and shoes here are a very different style from what we are used to. The womens clothes at the mall have a lot of very big prints on them and look to me as if they were made for a bunch of teenagers... The mens clothes are alo very flashy. Hey, what can be expected from a bunch of young guys that spend as much time blow-drying their hair in the morning as the girls. And the shoes.... well, the shoes for girls it is the higher the heel the better and also the flashier the shoe the better. For the guy flashy still applies. A few days ago Josh and I were driving or better sitting in stop-and-go traffic on the way home. We were going down Gate 2 Street (the street starts at a gate of a base, is about 1/2 mile long and is lined with clothing stores, bars, eateries, clubs with live bands and more bars (lots of the bars are in either basement or on the second or third floor above the shops). So here we are, sitting in traffic, and it is cold, rainy and windy... There are not too many people about. All of a sudden Josh says: "Mom, look at that bruise on her leg". I look and here is this young Japanese woman wearing a pair of short shorts (daisy dukes come to mind) , a heavy black patent leather looking fur-lined jacket, a pair of black High heel boots, that come up well above the knee complete with gold spikey heels, a pair of socks a little longer than her boots and a knitted cap. Half of her thigh is bare and showing of a huge bruise... That seems to be the dress code for the young ladies here - minus the bruise. One would think, that this outfit might have had something to do with the location, but no - girls dressed like that are to be found at the mall further away from any american base. I just, happen to remember that girl and thinking: If I had that bruise, it was this cold, the last thing I would be wearing is the shorts and boots (if I had the figure).
I have to quitt complaining here!!!! The Japanese have a different dress style and there are lots of people that dress not as flashy - normal in Japanese kind of way. And the great thing is I can wear what I want - in jeans, mulies and a plain blouse. Of course I get stared at a lot, because not only am I taller than most men in this country, but I am also not skinny and have a very light complexion, light brown hair with blue eyes in a country where everybody has black/drk brown hair and brown eyes..... When we go to places, where not very many foreigners go, the staring becomes more obvious. My son is also amazing to them: he is obviously a teenager, but he is way tall for them. Overall the people are very friendly and try to help in any way they can. The politeness is amazing: At night one can frequently see drivers dim their headlight when waiting at a red light to not blind the person in front of them or across the intersection..... Americans and Europeans could learn from them! So there it is: I hate the clothing, but love the people and their wonderful politeness... Just another little slice of living on this lovley island waiting for warmer weather and more sun!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

It is flat out cold on tropical Okinawa!!!!!!


Here is one to cheer us all up:
the bearers of spring
Sakura or Cherry Blossoms
We went to one of the many Sakura Festivals here on the island on 2/3/08
Here we are almost Valentine's day and it actually has become cold in Okinawa. Maybe I have brought that onto us by taking about BBQ on the balcony in January.... But it feels really cold outside (it was around 56F/14C around early afternoon). Here that is cold, because we have a humidity of about 70-80% at all times, plus it has been raining with no end for the last few weeks. It also has been very windy. Tonight it is whipping so bad, that I felt the wind pushing on our ity-bity car (I kept thinking, boy am I glad not to have my big pick-up from the states here).
I laughed when my dear son Josh took his furlined house slippers to a tropical island last summer, but now we are taking turns with them : tonight my husband has them and I am sitting here with cold feet!!!!! Yes, there is a heater in our appartment, but not the kind most people would expect: it is part of the Air Conditioning unit and there are two of them.
When I first saw gloves, hats and heavy coats for sale, I laughed, but now I see the reason.... The Japanses walk everywhere and right now they are very bundeld up!!!!! Just like in the mountains in the middle of winter.... I have not gotten that bad yet (remember I moved here from Colorado, where it actually gets cold!!!!), but I am wearing long sleeves sweaters and a light coat most of the time. I think, the worst part for me is not the damp cold, but the lack of sun...... (Colorado had around 300 days of sun a year and I have not seen the sun in about two weeks.....)
Well, it will not last forever and according to my husband we will be nice and warm again in March and flat out hot by April! And that will last for 6 month. My friend from the Philipines, that moved here from Yuma, AZ, complains that the weather is way to hot and humid in Okinawa. One would think she is used to the heat. Go figure.....

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Hello Okinawa !

Hi there!
Here I am sitting on my little tropical island - Okinawa - in the middle of January and I haven't worn a coat all winter yet. How nice! Yesterday, we grilled steaks on the balcony..... I sometimes wake up and wonder how did I get here???? It is a long way from home on the other side of the earth. I was born in Germany, grew up in France, married an American, moved to Oklahoma, then Colorado and now I live in Japan...... If I think about, it it is mindboggeling....... I wonder, what is next, there are a few places in the world left.......
I have gotten a few questions from my etsy store www.koralle.etsy.com about How I got here and how life here is.....
First of all I like it, but it is not without challenges..... Somethings are no fun like being illterate again at the ripe old age of 42!
I will try to talk about my daily life here and try to answers most quetions this way.....
But I just burned dinner ( I am usually a good cook, but I was staring at the computer....) so my men ( husband and teenage son) want food and we have to go out for it. The boys are waiting so I better go!
Until later......