Re-revival!

Whoo! I am leaving for Japan in less than a week! Maybe I should try again to again have a blog where I can post pictures and stuff without annoying everyone on facebook.

So. I leave in less than one week. I have been acquiring vegan household items (e.g. seven bars of soap, vitamins, crap from Lush, etc) for the past few weeks. I don't generally spend a lot of money on myself, and I don't consider myself high-maintenance, but man. Seeing all of the personal hygiene products that I'll use in one year is a little alarming. And expensive. I am aware that things like deodorant and soap exist in Japan, but my logic is that it's hard enough to get my hands on vegan items in Canada so I don't want to set myself up to make a mistake that I'll feel gross about later (especially since I'm the kind of person who sometimes goes to brush her teeth in the morning and remembers that I finished off the toothpaste the night before. Ew).

Because everyone who knows me is very concerned about this subject: the cats are staying in Canada. They are kinda sometimesish ok with car rides, but three flights (or two flights and a 12 hour train ride) is probably a little unrealistic for them. Also, someone who will remain unnamed MAY be too big to be carry-on. And also I would need to convince another person to fly to / from Japan with me if I did want the cats to be carry-on. So the cats will be staying with their grandparents, which is fine with them because they like stairs, crackers, windows that look out on squirrel highways, and meat, which are all things that my parents have that I don't.

My junk is currently unpacked and is strewn across my parents' entire house. I should probably start really packing, this time for real.

Cabled mittens with pattern!!

My mittens exploded! I was really sad about it until I found a huge ball of crazy thick yarn right before the holidays. When I finally got around to trying to make myself some mittens, it turned into an ordeal because my yarn was so fat that I couldn't find a pattern that worked, so I finally gave up and made my own pattern. Here it is in case you find yourself in a similar predicament: 

Cozy Cabled Mittens

Materials:

•Cable needle OR spare dpn in gauge of main needles

•US 10 / 6.0 mm dpn (4 needles) or 2 sets of circular needles

•Tapestry needle

•“Super Bulky” (weight 6-8) yarn in colour of choice (approximately 400 g)

Abbreviations:

•K - knit

•P - perl

•k2tog – knit 2 together

•sl1,k, psso – slip 1 stitch onto working needle, knit one, then pass slipped stitch back over newly-worked stitch.

To make body of mitten:

1. CO 28 stitches in preferred method (I use long-tail cast on, but anything  with a bit of give would work).

2. Mark first stitch, then work k2 p2 ribbing across row. Repeat until 14 rows have been completed or until cuff has reached desired length (28 st).

3. Knit across for 2 rows. If desired, place marker at halfway point to delineate front and back of mitten.

4. K14. Slip 3 stitches onto cable needle and hold in front. K3. K3 from cable needle.  K2. Slip 3 stitches onto cable needle and hold in front. K3. K3 from cable needle.

5. Knit across for 5 rows.

6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 twice (i.e. until you have completed a total of 3 cables and are set to start a fourth).

7. a) For RIGHT MITTEN: K4.  Using scrap yarn of the same weight, K4.  Leave a long tail (5 cm) across stitches* and K6.  Move to 7c).

  b) For LEFT MITTEN: K6.  Using scrap yarn of the same weight, K4.  Leave a long tail (5 cm) across stitches* and K4.  Move to 7c).

  c) Slip 3 stitches onto cable needle and hold in front. K3. K3 from cable needle.  K2. Slip 3 stitches onto cable needle and hold in front. K3. K3 from cable needle.

8. Knit across for 5 rows.

9. Repeat steps 4 & 5 two twice. You should have a total of 6 cables completed.

10. Try on the mitten to check for size (it will be a bit tight because the thumb has not been completed). It should be just a centimetre or so shorter than your tallest finger. If not, K around until desired length is reached.

11. K2tog, K10, sl1, k1, psso, K2tog, K10, sl1, k1, psso (24 st).

12. K24.

13. K2tog, K8, sl1, k1, psso, K2tog, K8, sl1, k1, psso (20 st).

14. K2tog, K6, sl1, k1, psso, K2tog, K6, sl1, k1, psso (16 st).

15. K2tog, K4, sl1, k1, psso, K2tog, K4, sl1, k1, psso (12st).

16. K2tog, K2, sl1, k1, psso, K2tog, K2, sl1, k1, psso (8 st).

17. Cut yarn, leaving a long tail. Thread yarn through remaining stitches, then bind off and weave in.

* If you prefer, you can just cut the yarn at this stage rather than leaving a long tail. I prefer leaving a long loop because I find it easier to adjust the tension this way, but it’s fine to cut it as long as you leave enough on each side to weave in later.

To make thumb:

1.Carefully remove scrap yarn from step 7.  You should be left with 8 loose stitches (4 above and 4 at the level of the yarn). Pick up these stitches and pick up 3 stitches on each side of thumb gusset. Place marker at beginning of row (first stitch on underside works well) (14 st).

2. K14. Repeat for 12 rows or until thumb has reached desired length (should be less than 1 cm from tip of thumb).

3. K2tog, K3, sl1, k1, psso, K2tog, K3, sl1, k1, psso (10 st).

4. K10.

5. K2tog, K11, sl1, k1, psso, K2tog, K1, sl1, k1, psso (6 st).

6. Cut yarn, leaving a long tail. Thread yarn through remaining stitches, then bind off and weave in.

7. Cut loop from behind gusset (if you left it) and weave in.

I am leaving Japan!

Sadly, I am on my way home because for some reason I should go to school again :(

The last few days were amazing. I went to the Edo-Tokyo museum and learned some stuff. At the museum there were a bunch of kids on school trips, and kids kept coming up to me and saying "HELLO, HELLO!!!!" lol. I've heard that that is pretty common: kids get excited at the chance to practice their English when they see a foreigner.

After the museum I went to Akihabara,aka the promised land for nerds. It sure was a place! It was fun to see store after store after store selling nothing but electronics and video games and manga and action figures. There were also several crane game parlours: I won on my first try, but the coolest machines were super complicated and required several plays so that you could work this elaborate trap mechanism. There were also several maid cafes >__>  They all had maids on the street advertising for them, and the best was a comics-themed maid cafes where the girl advertising on the street was wearing a Chopper hat. By the way, One Piece is still crazy popular here.

I also visited a famous gate and shopping area in Asakusa, and visited this amazing street that only has restaurant supply stores. All of the restaurants here have fake food in the window to advertise their food, and this fake food all comes from Asakusa!

Finally, this morning I visited the shrines to Meiji, the dude who established a constitution in Japan, then walked around Harajuku, a high-fashion area. Then I made my way to the airport, and now I am waiting to board my plane to Vancouver. I have had a great time and I can't wait to see you all soon (and to share my weird candy with you)!

Back to Tokyo!

The conference is over (or rather, I left....), and I am on my way back to Tokyo for a few days before I head home!  Sapporo was really nice and I wish I would have had more time to spend there.

For people who have asked what Japan is like, here is a summary of stuff that is basically exactly like in anime / video games in my super limited experience:

- When you enter a store, the staff always stops what they are doing and calls irashaimasse (welcome). ALWAYS.
- There is a lot of bowing. If you buy something expensive the staff will chase you out of the store and continue bowing after you on the street!
- There are vending machines and convenience stores everywhere (as in, usually more than one per block on every block) and they are crazy cheap
- There is a lot of random English around but most people don't really speak it.
- The tv shows are really, really weird. I saw a reporter taking about what looked like a really serious car accident, and then he turned to his co-anchor... Who was talking to a puppet.

Finally, in terms of how stuff looks on the streets, I would say that Katamari is an excellent representation.

I am still in Japan!!!

I haven't been deported or anything!

On Sunday I met up with my professor and traveled to Sapporo for the conference. Sapporo is a really pretty city - it's comparable to Ottawa in size, whereas Tokyo is like Toronto x 1,000,000. The temperature here is also way more comfortable. Tokyo was SO HUMID! I thought Ottawa was bad but Tokyo was just insane!

So far I have eaten a lot of delicious stuff. The convenience stores sell all kinds of sushi rolls and rice balls that come in this amazing packaging; the nori and the rice are in separate compartments, but if you open them right they just automatically come together in this crazy self-wrapping way from the way that the plastic slides between them. Clearly I can't explain it well but suffice to say that the Japanese are light years ahead of Canada in the rice snack packaging department.

The green tea here tastes really different and doesn't have that weird cigarette smoke aftertaste that some tea at home does. Did I mention that I once read a paper about food authenticity that found that a lot of packaged green tea was like 80% grass (i.e. The stuff on your lawn)??? That may explain that weird flavour lol.

Yesterday I was mainly just at the conference (but I went for a walk and ate lunch in a park where there was a huge flower festival!), but today we have a conference field trip. We're going to the Sapporo brewery and to a horse park. The Sapporo beer that is sold in Canada is actually brewed in Guelph, and our student councils are always organizing tours, so I think it's a bit funny that I will go to the Sapporo brewery in Sapporo before I go to the one that is literally 15 minutes from where I live.

In conclusion, I have taken a billion pictures but I don't have a way to transfer them to my tablet, so here is a picture I took of the Rockies from the plane.

I looked really hard for sheep and / or sasquatches but there were none to be seen.

PS Japan needs daylight savings time because it is not quite 4 am and the sun is basically up.
PPS I thought I was totally not jetlagged, but it is not quite 4 am and I am wide awake lol.

I am in Japan?!

I am in Japan!!?!

So far it has been exciting, fun, and mildly terrifying, often at the same time! My flights went smoothly, but pretty much every time I go to take the train I spend at least the first 5-10 mins freaking out that I am on the wrong train... but so far, I have actually been ok so far. I got to my hotel at about 6pmish on Friday and I was super tired so I only went for a short walk around because it was already dark by the time I had unloaded all of my crap!

Yesterday I went to Nikko, a rural town about 2 hours from Tokyo which is basically infested with shrines and world heritage sites! The town itself is pretty tourist-trap-y (it reminded me a lot of Banff) but the shrines were really amazing! When I got back to Tokyo I took the loooooong way home by walking back from a distant subway station and getting distracted by toy stres and kitchen stores lol. My legs may fall off but it was fun (and humid).

So far, being in Japan has been a really interesting experience.  In terms of the language barrier, I have (I hope) stopped blurting out French when my brain short-circuits into non-English mode (that poor lady next to me on the plane was really confused when I tried to speak to her in a mishmash of three languages o__o ). I have also succesfully managed my first interaction with a train dude who did not speak any english (when I briefly thought I might be trapped in Nikko forever). My dad said that he has a collegue who does a lot of travelling, and he said that Japan was the only place he's been where he truly felt illiterate, and man, I TOTALLY get it!! I (foolishly) thought I would be at least ok with knowing katakana well and hirigana ok, but the reality is that that is liteally below a 1st grade reading level! It's a bit disorienting, but it's a really interesting experience!

Finally, I tried natto and it was totally not that gross! On a related note, convenience stores are EVERYWHERE and they are dirt cheap! I got a natto maki roll and a juice for 190¥! Also, in Japan, gas station sushi is not even sketchy!

Today I am heading to Sapporo for the conference, but I am going to try to cram in a shrine or two before I go!!

Iced coffee and natto maki: the breakfast of champions!

I am leaving soon!!!

I leave for Japan in just over a week!!! This trip has really snuck up on me. I spent so long trying not to get over-excited about it because I knew that I wouldn't be able to work or focus on anything else, and I did such a good job of not thinking about it that now I feel totally unprepared! I'm actually in ok shape: I have been trying to learn a bit of Japanese, and I'm finding that it's a good thing that I was such a mega-nerd in high school because I'm realizing that I had actually managed to teach myself a pretty decent amount back then and it's come back to me pretty easily. I'm mostly worried about not offending people by not eating 99% of the food that I will probably be offered (because there is fish. in. EVERYTHING), but oh well!!

In other news I am SO CLOSE to finishing a major knitting project and I'm really proud of myself for a) actually finishing it and b) finishing ahead of schedule!! All I have left to do is to weave in the final loose ends!! I've already started my next project, but now I'm trying to decide what the heck to bring on my trip. Apparently you can only bring plastic knitting needles on planes (.....................) so I'm trying to decide if I should just break down and buy some plastic needles (I wonder if bamboo is ok???) or if I should just bring some crocheting??? Boo for rules!

Finally, here is an awesome picture of an awesome real-life Angry Birds game that I saw at the Let's Talk Science conference I was at a few weeks ago!! The coordinators at Calgary made this and I am totally going to steal this idea because it was super fun and physics-tastic!