(and brief blog break 'til Sunday, Dec. 26-- Gomen Nasai! No Field Notes this week...:-((
Three fun origami for Christmas, from *very* simple (= kindergarten ok) to medium easy (first grade and up, or older kindergartner with some help).
First, the easiest one: Christmas Candy Cane! Cici is using a 5cm x 5cm sheet, but you can use any size, or cut a larger size sheet into fourths, or use a big piece to hang on the tree. Fold not quite all the way to the top (leave some white showing), turn over, and roll up! Like this:
See? Easy! The next easiest one is the candle--lower elementary age kids would have no problem making this, and 5 to 6-year-olds still in kindergarten should be able to do this, too. A four-year-old might need a little (more if they haven't done much origami, less if they do a lot of it). My daughter is using gold foil origami paper (just because it looks pretty for the flame--making several using red, orange, yellow would look good, too). Cici's paper is a fourth of a 15 x 15 cm sheet (thus 7.5 x 7.5 cm). First fold a triangle, then in half again and unfold for your guide folds. Like this:
Easy, desho! The Christmas Tree is a little harder--it involves the "open out and smush (hiraete, tsubusu)" move, which my daughter found a little challenging because it's in a small place at the bottom of the tree (regular open-and-smush she can do). Make the basic ice cream first...
(Thanks to my husband for the camera work above:-))
Here's a tree I folded with the Origami Star (7.5 x 7.5 sheet) stuck on top and little candy canes (as above) and paper punch shapes glued on:
So what did you do for the Winter Solstice? Here it's called Tooji, and you're supposed to eat kabocha (pumpkin--didn't get to that this year) and have a Yuzu (Citron) Bath, which we did. Smells nice--very relaxing and warming:-))
...our lovely (not) bathtub (it is nice and deep, though)
...above are some of the Yuzu (citron) I put in (yup--just like that), along with a Yuzu bath bomb that dissolves in the hot water (40deg C) and, at right, a Yuzu herb packet (like a teabag that you put in the water). That bathtub smells so good.... You can see the happy family all in the bath together at the bottom of the package--which is probably unimaginable for most Americans (possibly Europeans, too, for that matter). If you've seen My Neighbor Totoro, you'll see the two girls in the tub with their father. Which is *completely* normal.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year.
Yoi O-Toshi O! Me-ri Kurisumasu!
This has nothing to do with anything, just caught my eye. As a naturalist and a skeptic, nothing angers me more than the claims of so-called psychics, paranormals, alternative healers, new agers, and frankly most self-help gurus as well. My dad spent a significant part of his career detecting fraud, so I guess I come by it honest:-)).
I do, however, appreciate watching good magicians. Why? Because although their performances involve fooling the audience, they are honest about their skills. Note the use of the word skill--real working magicians don't claim to have 'supernatural' powers. They have actual skills which they honed over thousands upon thousands of hours of practice--one hundred minutes of practice for every minute on stage, or so I've heard. I enjoy watching magicians like Penn & Teller or James Randi who from time to time show you exactly how they did what they did--which astounds me all the more when they do it again and I *still* can't see them doing what they did. It's the same pleasure I get from watching skilled ballroom or tap dancers or basketball players or opera singers. It's just that, that kind of skill is natural--not supernatural. I don't doubt that there are 'psychics' who are, in fact, very good at cold reading--that they have indeed mastered a skill which allows them to make on-target guesses about a person whom they've just met, using physical clues that most people simply overlook. But that is a *natural* skill--and to claim otherwise is simply fraudulent.
The other day, though, over at Break.com, I watched, for the first time, a real magician. This man has powers that all the psychics, paranormals, aura-aligners, homeopathers, chackra-openers, lucid dreamers, and astral projectors can only dream about....
I don't actually own one of these ( 'I feel so unfulfilled!'), I've just seen it floating around the web. The GodJesus toy was produced in Japan in the 80's, and works more or less like a Magic8 ball, only more exciting. You ask it your question, clap your hands, and it rolls forward a little, nods or shakes its head, then bows and its eyes flash red! Mr. Salaryman, who lives up in Tokyo, put up video of his God-Jesus. Yes--he actually owns one! And not just one, but several,which he's purchased via on-line auction (not e-bay:-(( Ahh--to be so uninhibited! Though it must be stated, and even he admits, to a growing addiction for the diminuitive toy.
But I don't want to stop! I'll buy every God-Jesus damn God-Jesus that comes my way and I won't apologize for it. --Mr. Salaryman
Yes--I desperately covet a GodJesus, and since toys aren't specifically mentioned in the tenth commandment, I think I can covet in smite-free safety...
But, you ask, is it cute? Isn't there a pink one? This is Japan, foolish skeptic--of coursethere's a pink one! And, it seems, Mr. Salaryman wasn't able to purchase this one... (although at Y9800, I probably won't be, either--boo hoo).
The image at top is via Engrish.com--and I highly recommend stopping over there, too, just to read the comments... My favorites:
"Holy spirit not included"... and "Now with realistic smiting action!"
p.s.--I debated whether to title this "Land of Cute" or "Manglish", because it's really both. I finally went with Land of Cute, but the post is filed under Manglish as well, since Engrish.com is (of course) a site completely given over to the delights of Manglish/Engrish:-))
Paper cutting is as fun to do as regular origami, although kids need to be a *little* older to be able to cut through the layers of paper (more like 6 than 3 or 4). Lower elementary grade kids should definitely be able to cut out the One-Cut Star shown in the video below. The fold shown is the 10-fold (there is also a 4-fold, 6-fold, 8-fold, and 12-fold). First you fold, then you cut--just one straight line, and you get a lovely star! Very mysterious...;-))
Did you do it? Notice that the angle of the cut changes the shape of the star--a less acute angle makes a "fatter" star, a deeper angle makes a star with skinnier arms like this:
See how the angle on the yellow paper is steeper than the one I cut for the silver star? It comes out looking like the photo below:
And what about that blue paper with two lines on it? Guesses? Right--an outline star plus a smaller bonus star...
....kawaii, desho!
And you needn't be restricted to straight lines. A curve with a nick at the top gets you this:
Springtime Cherry Blossom
For the more adventurous, how about drawing a little person on top of the straight line for the star? (I've used a black marker to draw my lines so they show up in the photos--you needn't. Lightly drawn lines in pencil are fine, or freehand if you are so bold:-))
We are the World...
...We are the Children...
And feel free to draw your own shape across the middle of the 10-fold! I tried drawing holly:
Merry Christmas to All
I'll try to get some other Christmas Origami up this week--probably the Candle, the Tree, and the Stocking:-)). Gambatte, ne!
I started out early one morning. Just kept walking as the kids went on to school. I walked 'round back of our building to see if anybody was in the persimmon tree yet--nobody. The dew was heavy, so I stepped carefully along the concrete culvert so my shoes wouldn't get soaked.
Lycaena phlaeas-- Japanese Copper, summer form
I looked ahead and saw something bright in the grass...Benishijimi. I moved quite close, but he didn't fly away. Closer still I could see he was clinging upside down to a blade of grass...dead? I touched him gently. He moved slightly. Dying.
Walking through dew will, to be sure, soak your shoes. But if you lie down on the street and look up, even plants that most people would call weeds are transfigured...
...the faeries' chandelier...
Weed (n.) an unwanted plant. A native or nonnative plant that grows and reproduces aggressively. An invasive species that grows aggressively, choking out or driving to extinction native species.
Humans call certain plant species weeds? Pot calling the kettle black...
...untouched by sun's early morning rays, the neighbor's camellia is still misted with dew. Mother-of-pearl petals curve around an ant foraging for food...
Up the road, daisy-like Chrysanthemums growing casually, or accidentally, at the edge of a garden...
Phytoecia rufiventris
...Kikusuikamikiri drinks. Nectar or dew?
Walking toward school, I stopped to sit in the sun on the low concrete wall separating the road from the field behind a small factory. It was cultivated, planted with onions and daikon radishes and bordered with the tallish, leggy daisy-like mums common to Asia.
Kitateha (Asian Comma) sunning on pink mum
...the bee was too busy to notice a ladybug making its way around the edge of the same golden mum...
I continued on up the road to see what I could see, turning down a narrow road I hadn't gone down before. A large empty lot stretched ahead on the right--empty to a developer. But filled with susuki (pampas grass), and edged with a long row of glowing Shokugiku--edible Chrysanthemums...
These mums were tied to the fence so they wouldn't be blown over in the wind, thus deliberately planted, not fortuitously growing there.
Look....
....look closer...
...it's still so early the dew has yet to evaporate
...
...Kitateha has followed me. The yellow mums are tastier than the pink ones after all...
Mums adorn nearly every garden I pass--some common garden mums, others unusual varieties I've not seen before.
...some bi-colored, edged in white, single petals angled upward...
...behind a shed, unseen, ignored, a luminous white specimen with chartreuse centers tumbles down a small slope...
...graces the rain grate..
...and, naturally, I've seen some growing out of the cracks in the steeply sloping concrete embankment of the river...
Some intrepid gardeners attempt to grow the 大菊, Oogiku--the great Chrysanthemum, the flower of the Imperial Seal. The Chrysanthemum Throne refers to the position of the Japanese emperor, the present emperor and those past. Though it was first cultivated as a flowering herb in China from the 15th century BC, modern hybrids are grown world-wide and boast thousands of cultivars like the Oogiku...
The head of the Intermediate Incurve cultivar is so heavy it requires a special wire frame to hold it aloft.
The number of these high maintenance, hard-to-grow mums I see is silent testament to the general skill of Japanese gardeners...
...a car parked in front of such spectacular specimens is somehow...unseemly...
Artificial selection produces fireworks as stunning as any created with gunpowder
...
A variety of Spider Chrysanthemum--the disk florets are completely hidden by the outward explosion of tube-like ray florets...
...white ray florets droop elegantly downward, a lady's fashionable crinoline flounced over a hoop skirt...
This star is a little more difficult than the Message Star--it uses only one sheet of paper folded down to get the star shape, rather than three sheets glued together. But my first grader can do it, so it's definitely within the reach of kids in the lower elementary grades. Kindergartners....maybe, if they're already 6 and have done simpler origami before. If not--have a go, Mom! Use a regular 15cmx15cm sheet of paper the first time or two you try it, then try making it with smaller squares for decorating packages or to put on top of an origami Christmas tree (which I'll put up next Sunday:-)). Be sure to have the color side up to put in the vertical guide folds, and flip to the white side to put in the diagonal guide folds...
Make a bunch and hang them on the tree... or from the ceiling... :-))
Mata asobou, ne!
Cici lost her wallet a week or so ago, so Papa took her to buy a new one the other day. A different color than the old one, but otherwise identical. Or so I thought until I actually *looked* at the thing:
...wait a minute. What does that say? Was that not there before? Am I blind, or did I just not notice?
"We would like to hand our goods to you. You must be satisfied with it!"
We would like to hand our goods to you.... somehow that just doesn't seem like a very wallet-y slogan....
The Message Star is the easiest version of an origami star--my kids did this one second or third year in Yochien, so it's totally easy to do with 4 to 6-year-olds. Or make small ones (1/4 of a regular sheet of origami paper) from gold or silver foil to use as present name tags:)) You need three pieces of paper, all the same size. They can be all the same color, although I used three different colors in the video so it would be easier to see what Cici's doing. Start off by folding all three pieces in half to make three triangles...
I have been watching birds all my life--it's not so much a hobby as an unconscious habit. According to my mother, I toddled around at two years of age saying "slate-colored junco!" (the first bird whose name, apparently, I knew). A great many of my childhood memories involve birds. Watching the birds in the feeder out the kitchen window. The baby screech owl (we named him Oopik) we nursed to health and taught to fly. The loon and her baby who swam next to our canoe in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. The Great Blue Heron and the Belted Kingfisher at the lake we went to every summer. A new bird in the feeder meant grabbing the bird book out of the blue desk in the kitchen--tick!
So when I came to Japan and saw Little Egrets in every river I crossed--heaven! Indiana gets the Snowy Egret and Great Blue Heron, but you doesn't often see either unless you're on vacation near a lake or marshy wetland area. Japan, however, is replete with the shallow rivers these birds love, and they seem to be coexisting relatively well with humans in the urbanized rivers of Yokohama and Tokyo. My Lucky Bird I called him, because I felt lucky just to see him--even if I saw him every day (I don't cross rivers or ride alongside without checking:-)). I found out later that storks are Ko no Tori (Bird of Luck) in Japanese, babies and all--you know--but I still call the Egrets my Lucky Bird privately.
I never tire of watching them plucking their way down river--elegant white feathers ruffed by the breeze, goofy yellow feet lifted clear of the water.
Aosagi (Ardea cinerea) the Grey Heron (female?)
Less often the Grey Heron comes for a visit. For some reason he seldom comes as far down as our branch of the river--he generally hangs out in the main branch of the river near the station, though I don't see him every time I go that way.
Last month I got lucky--walking along the river (*with* charged up camera), not one, but two lovely Grey Herons (not the Great Blue, even though his name in Japanese is "Blue Heron"--different species, very confusing).
They stood majestically in amongst the reeds for me while I took their portraits, long necks folded down into graceful double curves.
...understated black feet, no goofy yellow galoshes...
And then there were these two hooligans, hanging out on the steps of town hall... cussin' and smokin'...
;-))
And this morning? On my way to the station, I glanced over...twelve Little Egrets and a Grey Heron. Twelve times lucky-- and a noisy flock of aerodynamic seagulls who don't usually come this far inland from Yokohama Bay...
I managed not to fall off my bike. And I even remembered to switch over to video:-)) At :45 he nearly catches a fish, but...a ra ra...drops it... (no tripod--please excuse the shakiness:-((
As I watched, an older gentleman walking by noticed me looking intently at something in the river and stepped over to see--he asked me if there were usually that many egrets in the river. I told him there weren't generally, and that the Grey Heron was also down there, as well as a flock of gulls. He was surprised, I think, when he noticed he wasn't talking to a Japanese woman--he didn't ask where I was from, but seemed pleased, somehow, that a foreigner was taking note of the Beautiful Birds of Japan....
The first two birds in the video below are a male and female, I think, because one was chasing the other in that "Hey, bay-beee" sort of way (caught the end of that just at the beginning). Little Egret also shoos a gull away from his fishin' spot, and Grey Heron comes grandly swooping in at the end (more shakiness--sorry! arm was getting tired...really need to get a tripod...).
I realize that not everyone will find this as exciting as I do, but maybe with the next pictures and video I will make some converts...
Earlier in the week, I popped out for a walk while waiting for a video to upload. I walked past the park, toward the rice paddy and the Crawdad Pond...
...and stopped to have a look at a rotting fence post.
That's what knotholes and branches look like on the inside--wooden spikes twisting inward like an instrument of the Spanish Inquisition...
...the cosmos are nearly done...
...most of them beginning to form hips, seed pods--I'll watch to see what they do before winter, since I've never paid attention to that process.
Picking my way toward the pond, I saw somebody in it--the first glance said "Kosagi", the second glance said, "No!"
Dai Sagi (Egretta alba) Great Egret
A yellow-orange beak and black feet--not the Little Egret! He was unafraid--crossing the water on the post bridge that the kids use, he moved obliquely toward me (don't move! don't move!).
...a loooong neck...
...and big black feet--clearly not the Little Egret that I usually see, whose body is roughly 60cm long. The Great Egret is about 90cm, and probably double that if you count his neck.
He was very photogenic, and seemed rather to like having his picture taken...
More than the Little Egret, the Great Egret's feathers ruff out on the top of his head and down his neck. Clearly bigger than Kosagi,
and just a hair smaller than the Grey Heron (whose body length is an impressive 93cm). The pamphlet I got from Maioka Park had a photo of all three white egrets--the Little, the Intermediate, and the Great. This is the first time he's stopped by our pond for a visit. At least, it's the first time I've ever seen him.
I'm trying not to be too tedious--I know you don't need to see all fifty-seven photos I took of him (he turned this way and that, modeling his splendid head and neck for me...:-))
...neck doubled down, ruffed outer feathers touched by the sun...
....an avian arabesque, a graceful pose on one leg...
And there was enough charge on the video to catch him catching a preying mantis to eat:
