SHICHIGOSAN

On the last Saturday of August, our we went to a photo studio in Aobadai to have Maiko's SHICHIGOSAN family picture taken. A few weeks earlier, I had taken Maiko to the studio to pick out a Kimono for her and for myself and make reservations to rent out Maiko's Kimono on November 15th, the date of the actual SHICHIGOSAN ceremony.

Maiko, who is usually dressed in various shades of brown and beige, enjoyed her pink floral Kimono and fluffy hair-do, as well as all the attention.

I was surprised to see that she had had her picture taken alone without any tantrums while I was being dressed up in my Kimono.

I was also surprised that the studio allowed Ko to take snapshots of Maiko in her Kimono inside the studio.

Unfortunately, the makeup lady and hair lady - both of whom were presumably in their 50s - did an aweful job with my face and hair, so no photos of me. According to my beloved husband, I looked like someone from Ishikawa-cho. I don't even know what that means, but really. It could've been a compliment if he'd said "Ginza", right? But noop, he says "Ishikawa-cho." No offense to those working in Ishikawa-cho, but I guess I wasn't really aiming for that type of look.

Ponyo

Hey to all. It's been a while since I wrote my first entry for this blog. You all must've been wonder what happened. I hope you'll forgive me for being lazy because this will probably be the pace at which I will update my blog.

There are so many things I need to do everyday - not just the things I have to do as a working mom and a wife - like playing with a three year old, preparing meals, doing the laundry, cleaning up the house, working etc.- but also the many hobbies I have - tending the garden, reading, doing embroidery, knitting, sewing etc. - that keeping my blog going is way down there in terms of priority.

Anyway, this is what I've been up to lately.

A couple of weeks ago, we took Maiko to see Ponyo. It was her first time in a movie theater, so I had to prep her for days - she's afraid of dark places and loud noises so I had to tell her a hundred times that the room was going to be dark that the sound was going to be loud, that the screen was going to be much much bigger that any TV she's ever seen etc.

Luckily, it all paid up and she really had a great time. She fell in love with Ponyo, that as soon as we got home, she yelled "Mama, make me Ponyo." I was hoping she's get over it in a few days but the next day she insisted we go buy fabric and yarn for Ponyo, so I gave in and spend the next two days planning and sewing and here's my creation. Cute huh? I think I did a pretty good job considering I had nothing but a couple of pages of printouts from the movie website to go with. The difficult part was her back side, as I couldn't find any pictures of Ponyo's back and had to rely on my memory for her hair style and overall shape.