January Recap

Weeeelll, my hopes to keep up (better) with blogging have not gone so well so far.  The last couple of weeks in particular, I've been dealing with some heavy depression.  The thing that kicked it off was Jeff getting his orders for us to leave Japan..  in 6 months.  I really don't want to leave. 

Of course I've known this was coming, since before we even got here, but him getting the orders suddenly made it "real".  So that, coupled with several other things, got me into a rut and I've stayed there for the most part.  Not good news in the productive/creative department, though I have been working on some things.

Here's a summary of what went on in January!

The view from the Studio for most of the month

First, back in December, I got us a dog!  His name is Joey, he is a 2-1/2 year old yellow Lab, and he is the goodest boy.  It's been quite a while since we had a young, energetic dog.

We've been going on snowy walks...

...lots...

...and lots of snowy walks.

On the way back, Joey sleeps in the car.

Jeff and I went on another snowy adventure, up to the Hakkoda mountains, not far from here.

This is one of the roads up there:

We rode the Ropeway (cable car) up to the summit of Mt. Hakkoda, thinking we'd hike around on some of the trails up top.

However, at the summit, it was what I imagine Antarctica to be like: complete whiteout conditions, HIGH wind, heavy snow, bitter cold.  Here's Jeff, looking over the snow covered, partially buried trail map.

Below was as far as we could see and it's deceptively bright and clear in this picture (which my camera auto brightened).  In reality, we couple barely see the people here.  The trails were closed, we wouldn't have dared to set out in these conditions anyway.  In this picture, you can see some of the famed "snow monsters" - trees that get covered with so much snow that they form giant lumpy shapes. 

When not out braving the snow (with and without Joey) I've been doing some gaming, sometimes with Tealight looking on.

I've also been chipping away on not one, but two Arabian costume panel sets.  I'm not as crazy about this green and blue set as I thought I'd be when I made the pattern.  Though I figure that'll make it easier to part with if I ever actually turn it into a full costume. 

Next up on the creative department, I've finally started on my MEPSA Makeover horse for this year.  You may remember Rexy, last year's project.  This time around the mold is Lady Phase.  My goal is to make her into a race horse, in a full gallop, because, that's what I do.  haha

I haven't been documenting her progress as thoroughly as I did Rexy, but so far all I've done is a few chop and heat sessions.

I pulled out my Visible Horse, who helped a bit in the creation of Rexy, to double check the bone structures inside.  One of our bathrooms is my chop shop, since I learned the smoke/fumes during dremeling sets off smoke alarms in the house.  Also it's probably a good idea to contain (and vent, via the exhaust fan) such fumes anyhow.  I do wear a respirator and safety glasses. 

In the Happy Mail department, the latest medallion from the Mystery Medallion club arrived and she is beautiful!

I've now got a pile of medallions building up.  Just recently I saw that The Jennifer Show will have medallion classes and I think this means I need to get some of mine painted!  Eventually...

On the NaMoPaiMo front, I've started prep on my project horse, but quickly became overwhelmed by how much prep she's going to need.  I really don't like prepping.  However, I'll be back to work on her later today or tomorrow. 

I think that about wraps up the first month of 2019. 

Onward!

Happy 2019!

Happy New Year!

During our time here in Japan, we've tried to check out MANY cultural events.  For New Year's we've done a few different things. 

Our first New Year's here, we made the trek south to Sendai for their "Pageant of Starlight".  It was a truly magical sight: an entire city main street lined with towering trees, on either side and down the wide median in the middle, that were completely covered with tiny white lights. 

In another year, we went to a large Shinto Shrine to bring in the New Year.  That year we also experienced what ended up being the national shopping day, similar to "Black Friday". 

As this New Year approached, we had talked about what we should do this time.  We considered another trip to Sendai.  However, it is a long way away and, most notably, very expensive to go there on the toll road (the only real "interstate" type highway.  Neither of us were thinking we'd do that again.  We wanted to do something, but what?

I had an idea.

A couple of years ago, I came across the Japanese tradition of seeing the first sunrise of a New Year.

I'd already mentioned to Jeff that I'd like to go see a sunrise at the beach this winter.  It would be our last chance to catch a sunrise at a more reasonable time here.  During the summer, the sun is up by 4am.  Seriously.   

So, I proposed that for our last New Year's here, we should go see the first sunrise.

Yesterday, we went to our friends' house and had a great time, eating, playing games, and laughing until our sides hurt.  We didn't come home until about 10.  Last night, admittedly, I was second guessing my idea of getting up early, in the dark and cold, to go stare at the horizon...

But, we did it!  (and I'm so glad)

Here's what the sky looked like shortly after we arrived at the beach:

Interestingly, the colors faded and stayed that way for a little while.  I worried that we'd actually missed the sunrise?

Oh wait, what's that?

There it is!  Hello, sun.

We watched as it moved behind a cloud, which seemed perfectly positioned.  As it neared the top, the cloud was so bright and we could see the rays spreading across the sky. 

It's all the way up, too bright to look at now.

Time to head back up the beach. 

When we first arrived, one car had just beat us there.  On the walk back, Jeff said "look at all the cars!"  The section of beach where we and the other car had parked had turned into a parking lot.  We saw many people out to catch the first sunrise. 

On the way home, I got a text from my friend Jennifer. 

I had a good laugh at that.  Last year, I had messed around, asking where the signup page was, on January 1st, over here.  If you didn't know, we are a day ahead - a fact that I've had a lot of fun with at times.

Okay, okay, let's see...

As soon as we got home from the beach, I went to the studio to consider my options. 

I hadn't actually narrowed down my choice of model or color -at all- but invigorated from just spending a couple of hours out at the beach, I thought it would be fitting to (finally) paint my Chincoteague Pony mare resin.  After all, it would be great to get some pictures of her here on the beach before we go...

For color, I ended up choosing palomino tobiano, which is terrifying.  Not so much the tobiano part, I don't think... but the palomino bit.  Despite loving palominos and buckskins, I've always found them a massive challenge and very intimidating to paint. 

I filled out the entry form, sent off my entry fee, and made a quick post to the NaMoPaiMo Facebook page all jumping the gun, before those in the U.S.

And with that, I'm committed!  Or, maybe I should be...  Heh. 

Jeff, Joey, and I weren't the only ones who enjoyed the sunrise this morning.  I found Tealight basking in the glow of it in our upstairs hallway. 

After all of that excitement, I crashed on the couch for a couple of hours. 

Happy New Year!  ;)  I hope it's a good for you.  :)

Here is another article about Japanese New Year traditions, if you'd like to learn more: New Year in Japan

Yabusame Competition - Quick Recap

(A quick recap here, much more to come!)

The Yabusame event was this past weekend.  I've been in recovery mode all of this week.  It was a HUGE thing for me to do, on many levels - battling my social anxiety, stage fright, etc., etc., and it took a lot out of me - though it was AWESOME!

In the weeks leading up to it, I'd decided that I had three goals for the competition:

1: Stay on the horse.

2: Don't drop anything (bow or arrows).

3: Fire off all three arrows each run.

Once the event arrived, I added another goal:

4: Run a qualifying time each round. 

After all of that, the cherry on top would be to get points for hitting a target.

I'm happy to say that I did 1-4; I stayed on Toby, held onto all my gear, managed to shoot all of my arrows each time, and ran qualifying times.  What I did not do was hit any targets.  I was missing consistently, hitting about 6-8 inches past the target.  I think it was because Toby was running faster than he does in practice and so my usual point to fire at was going by faster too.  I was dialing it in though and I think with another run or two, I might have gotten one!

For the practice sessions the two days before, and the practice runs each morning over the weekend, I wore a Go Pro on my helmet.  Jeff and several friends were there taking pictures.  As a result I have a TON of video and pictures to go through.  I need to finally stop procrastinating and learn how to edit videos.  (for example: the first practice day resulted in 21GB of video - need to trim that down!)  I can't promise when I'll have videos available, but hopefully soon-ish...?

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from the Saturday morning practice:

Travel Tuesday - Hachimantai

The idea of semi regular travel posts is one that I've had for a long time.  I made my first Travel Tuesday post back in September (about a trip we had taken in February...).  I hadn't intended it to take so long before I did another one - we have done a LOT of travel this year!  The whole situation with Max had knocked me right off the blogging train, but I'm hopping back on to bring you another travel post.  Enjoy!

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On October 9th, 2017, we hopped on Jeff's motorcycle and took a trip south to Hachimantai.  I had never been there, but Jeff had taken a trip down last year (as it turns out, on the same exact day).  We had hoped to see the autumn colors and boy did we!

I was stunned by the range of colors that we saw and how bright they were.

A thing that caught my eye was that every so often I saw a vine with bright red leaves, climbing a pine tree.  The contrasting colors were interesting.

There are several onsens (hot baths) in the Hachimantai area.  We stopped at a couple of them to look around.  This was the first one we explored.  What had looked like smoke in the distance turned out to be steam coming from the ground!  The whole area is volcanic.

Many bubbling pools could be found in the area.

The steam was everywhere.

Marshmallow was along for the outing and I had to get some pictures of him.  Jeff, in turn, had to get pictures of me taking pictures.

Marshmallow, prancing at a volcanic hot spring.

We explored a couple of trails and I took a ridiculous amount of pictures of the stunning fall foliage.

No, really, a LOT of pictures.

 At the next onsen, the main one, Tamagawa, we found food on a stick.  Jeff was happy.

I also found the biggest, juiciest, sweetest Asian pear I've ever seen, so I was happy too, and made quite a mess of myself.  No pictures of all that.

After grub, it was time to explore the Tamagawa Onsen.

As we got closer, Jeff got excited.  There were vents belching out steam all over the place.

Potential danger!  Jeff was like a kid at Christmas.

Volcano!

One of the vents (I think the one in the middle)  had steam just screaming out of it.  You could hear the noise of the steam shooting out under pressure.

At a viewing area, across from the vents.  I was struck by the contrast of brilliant fall colors with the volcanic dead zone.

Marshmallow had to stretch his legs again.

And take in the scenery.

The other side of the dead zone, more autumn color on the hillside behind.

Every time we are out adventuring, we come across warning signs for bears.  We have yet to see one, and from what we hear, that's a good thing.  We've been warned that Asiatic black bears are not the black bears we might be used to from the U.S.  Apparently they have attitude and every year at least a few people in the mountains nearby are killed by them.

I would really like to see one...  from a safe distance.

Another view of the dead zone, surrounded by lush greenery.

After admiring from a distance, we went down on the path right in front of the vents to get a closer look.

I decided to test out the zoom on our new (bought in a rush on the way to Sapporo) camera.

It was able to zoom right in on the interesting sulfur formations around the vents.

The path is quite close to some of the vents.

Bright yellow.

A hole into the Earth.

Jeff studies the vents.  He was carrying my coat at this point, it was warm here!

I absolutely loved this view.

Toward the end of the path, we came across this: a big pool of water, aggressively bubbling!  We weren't sure if it was actually boiling or if it was a big steam vent under the water.  Or maybe that's pretty much the same thing.  It was impressive, and a little freaky, to see that much water churning away.

I wanted to get a picture of Marshmallow with the big bubbling pool.  Jeff suggested standing him on the post to the left of the picture below.  However, neither Marshmallow I were comfortable with that.  Instead, I kept a firm grip on his tail while I documented the occasion.

Marshmallow surveys the roiling water.  Nope, don't want to go swimming in that!

A few more steps up the path, and right before we got back on the bike to come home, we met a lovely older Japanese couple.  Between their broken English, my broken Japanese, gestures, and laughing, we managed to have a conversation.  They shared their lunch with us - baked sweet potatoes, edamame, and the sweetest sweet corn we think we've ever had.  A friend of theirs stopped by to visit also and asked if she could take our picture.  I asked her to take one with our camera too.

The husband of the couple spoke very little English, but he told me his name was Naomi.  His wife said "girl name!" and pointed at him, to which he shook his head, waved his hands back and forth and said "no!  no!"  I think this joke has come up before.  They were delightful people.

Naomi-san wanted to be in a picture with us.  Their friend tried to get his wife to join us, but she emphatically shook her head and hid behind their friend.  We all laughed.  Some things transcend any language barrier.