Driving in Japan (part 1)

Of all the changes we had to adjust to when we made our move to Japan, one of the biggest was the driving. Obviously, we knew beforehand that we would have to get used to driving on the left -

but there’s more. (That’s kind of trippy though, right? About a month ago I saw a photo of a street in the states, with people driving on the right, and I second-guessed my lane choice for days. It’s weird.) For one thing, while stoplights may look the same as they do back in the States, not all traffic signs do. Hey, look! A stop sign!

Not to be mistaken for a ‘yield’ sign. The blue sign under it is a school crossing. Quick, what do you think this sign is?

If you guessed highway sign, you’re wrong. (If you guessed speed limit sign, then congratulations! You’re good at this game.) Let’s not forget, though, that Japan runs on the metric system, so that’s 40…kilometers…per hour. That works out to about 25 miles per hour. 40 kph is a very, very common speed limit around here. You’re not going to see much above 50 (about 30 mph) unless you take the expressway, where you can pay the toll for the privilege of traveling 70 kph - or nearly 45 miles per hour.  Yes. So, even though Japan is a small country geographically speaking, driving anywhere takes much longer than the distance would suggest because of the low speed limits. Hmmm, what next? Oh, yes: gas.

Those prices are yen per liter. Lets translate; that’s 101 yen to the liter for regular unleaded, 111 yen to the liter for premium unleaded, and 87 yen to the liter for diesel. (These prices are actually a steep drop from what they were about two months ago, when you were looking at 169 yen to the liter for regular unleaded - about $6.50 - $7 a gallon.) That means that right now gas is a steal at about $3.85 a gallon! Still, with tiny, fuel-efficient cars being the norm, huge amounts of people walking or taking public transportation, and those low, low speed limits, sky-high gas prices don’t cripple the Japanese economy the way that $7 a gallon gas would gut the US. As a side note, all of the gas stations I’ve ever seen here are full service - we made the attendant dash out to her pump when we paused our car to take the picture. (I felt badly about that. It was pretty cold out.)

I leave you today with a peculiar phenomenon captured on camera:

KFC…Japanese style. But what is that?! Let’s zoom in, here:

Look! It’s a creepy Colonel Sanders! It’s both freaky and disturbing, in one convenient sculptural homage to the man who made arterial plaque a household name. Oh, my.

Well, that’s all for now. Next time: police cars, driving laws, what qualifies as a ’street,’  and more!

Remember This Guy?

You can now buy the pattern for the Sweet Little Horse at my site! It would make a great companion to the Sweet Little Cow, also available. You know, I have six more patterns in various stages of publication. Keep an eye out for those!

In other news, we went on a little trip today and I took tons of pictures. The next post should be a nice long one.

Happy Hats and Snow!

After a week of unseasonably warm weather which melted a lot of snow and gave us all hope that spring might show her face almost a month early, winter has blasted back in to finish things up.

It seemed like the perfect time to whip out a knit I promised Max months ago.

We were out at a restaurant after their bedtime (so the kids were already a bit cranky) when this Chilean woman came in. She set up a little table by the door and spread out a rainbow of colorful hats, scarves and sweaters. Bright, bold primaries in stripes and patterns, beautifully knit from (not wool, but) llama and then brought over to Japan, where apparently she can turn quite a profit.

I took Max over to the table both to distract him and to have a better look myself; he was entranced. He sat on my lap and stared at the colors, and begged me to buy him a hat. I actually thought about it, but we didn’t have enough cash on us. I told him we didn’t have enough money, and he said we should go get money from Daddy, who (obviously) could just take some out of his pocket and buy the hat. When I told him we couldn’t buy it, Max cried. He cried, and cried, and cried, and would not be consoled until I promised that I would make him a triangle hat in lots of colors with my yarn. I ordered the yarn the next week. Unfortunately, between ordering the yarn and when it arrived, other projects had come up, so it’s taken a long time for me to make Max’s hat. He’s got it now, though, and both of my boys are pleased.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why the boys’ snowsuits read ‘White Patrol’ and ‘Happy Snow,’ it’s because I bought them at a Japanese store. The BX didn’t have any (why? Why wouldn’t you stock snowsuits at a base that gets 12 to 15 feet of snow a year?) but my friends told me I could find some at “The Bunny Store.”

Not particularly creative, but then, it’s not intended to be. (There’s a huge bunny sign out by the street, as well.) It has a real name, and those who read Japanese better than I refer to it by that name, but for ease of recognition most Americans just call it the Bunny Store. It’s a children’s clothing store, and they have some of the most adorable little outfits in there that you have ever seen. Sadly my boys have moved out of the ‘adorable little clothing’ sizes and most of what’s available for them is ‘little man’ clothing, but I keep meaning to buy them a few shirts there.

At any rate, I plan to make the patterns for the boys’ hats available a little later, so if you like them keep an eye out for that!

Happy February!

Well! January was fun, and I’m sure I did a better job with the Inner Child Crochet birthday celebration than I did last year. Next year, I hope, will be better yet! February has been good to us so far.

My husband is back! Yay! As a result I haven’t been spending as much time on crochet as I have over the last few months, but as it happens I have something else to show:

It’s a mug! (It’s a huge mug.) I painted this a few weeks ago at the Arts and Crafts store, but it sat around until they had a full load to stick in the kiln so I only picked it up last Saturday. It’s adorable.

Adorable, and cheerful, and awesome. I’m so pleased with how it turned out. It was my first time glazing anything, and in case you didn’t know, glazes are not the same color before they are fired as they are after. In this case, the blue was a wet-cement gray, the white was dirty, and the green was muddy chartreuse. Nice. Fortunately the shop had a book with the colors the paints would become, and so I was able to make a good guess as to which to use, but it was an act of faith. (I’m not even going to go into the thick triple layer of mint green I had to put over my careful painting…) Anyway, it was fun, and now I have a mug the size of a cereal bowl: just what I’ve always wanted.

I’d like to point out that this month we celebrate our first full year in Japan, so over the next few weeks I hope to show a little bit more of the country and culture than I have yet.