May 31, 2008

It's my third day in S.F.

It's too cold for me now, in San Francisco.
When I left my apartment in Japan, it was hot like summer so I brought clothes for summer mainly. But now, I'm freezing. Some people wear thick coats (But sometimes I saw some people wear only short sleeves shirts. Amazing!).

Today is the third day in S.F. for us. We are still troubled with the jet lag. But we walked ten thousand steps a day. We are really interested in this town of hills.


We went an italian breakfast cafe, "Mama's cafe" today. We should have got in line for about an hour. But the food tastes wonderful! And people who worked there were all good guys.
One of them was eating a green chili, and he said to me to eat it. I answered yes and I ate a little bite. It was ... hooooot !!!!! My mouth was burned! I drank a lot of water. It was awful... But they laughed and I enjoyed it. I like to joke with other people.

And then, we went to Fisherman's warf. I wanted to see sea lions there, and I could see them. Such a lot! They laid overlapped each other. It was most interesting sight there for me.


Next monday, our english course in city college of San Francisco begin. I should learn English more, and I want to talk with others.

May 27, 2008

Sushi-go-round restaurant


Before I leave japan, I wanted to eat sushi. So I went to my favorite sushi-go round resutaurant near my house.

Many kinds of sushi plates are on the belt conveyors. When I want to eat something that is not on the belt, I can order directly to a chef. There are 3-4 chefs in the restaurant.


These are small sardines. They are really fresh!

Squid arms. These are crunchy and sweet.

Flavored boiled rice wrapped in fried bean curd. The outside is flavored with soy sauce and sugar. I like this a lot.

Rolled egg(This isn't sushi). Usually, they serve very good roolled eggs in sushi restaurants.

Grilled eels. In the summer, we eat these with normal rice. But I also like this on sushi rice.

Tuna. There are some grades of tuna in the sushi restaurant. We ate medium fatty tunas("Chutoro") today.

These sushi plates have different color depend on their prices.

When we finished eating, we asked a waitress to check our dishes. She counted them and make our bill. Then, we paid it.

Today, we ate about 13 dishes and paid about 3,000 yen(about 30 dollars).

It was really nice dinner!

May 18, 2008

How to make an origami lotus


I'm going to explain how to make a lotus.
This origami paper is 20 cm square.

(1)Fold it in half to make a crease and fold back. Turn right by 90 degrees and repeat it. You make the pink creases.


(2)Fold the corners to meet the center lines.

It becomes like these.

(3)Then repeat it. Fold the corners to meet the center lines.

(4)Once more, repeat it. Fold the corners to meet the center lines.

(5)Turn over it. And then, once more, repeat it. Fold the corners to meet the center lines.


(6)Then, fold each corner a little.


(7)Turn over it. Then open each flower petal from the center. It's easy to break, so you have to treat it gently. It comes like this. you made 4 petals.




(8)Turn over it, and make next flower petals again.



It comes like this.

(9)The last ones. Turn over it, and make tha last petals. It's easiest to break! I made this lotus several times, but I've never made them without break these last petals...




(10)You finished it!

If I couldn't explain it in a good way, please leave a comment.
Thank you!!!!!

May 16, 2008

Origami


Today, I went to a public library near my apartment.
I went by train. This is a picture from it.
There I read some guide books about U.S. and some books of Origami.
When I go to U.S., I want to bring some japanese papers for origami to give them as a little gift for who I meet.
So I wanted to practice some patterns of origami. I fotocopied some pages and now, I made some.

This is a lotus bloom. It was difficult to make the shape, so the bottom of it, I broke... I have to practice more about this.


This is a cat's face, actually, it's a box.

This is also a box. It's simple, but to make this, I had to hold on many many times. I can put some small gift in it. I'm thinking of put some items I made and list up on my etsy shop.

These are like japanese kimono, it's a cloth that people wear at the festival. I made them from one square paper.

When I went to Italy, I made many origami to whom I met there. And some of them, made for me their origami. We enjoyed that change of origami really much.

I wish I could make origami for somebody and they like it.

Here are some photos of cats that I met today.
They were at the top of the bank very high. They seemed to be relaxed.

She( or He) is the poster girl of this loto shop. We couldn't see any persons except her. She sells a loto?

May 12, 2008

I sewed a coincase and a wallet for my travel



I want to look the coincase like a sandwich. I put red zipper as a slice of tomato, and green zipper as a leaf of lettuce.
The brown trim looks like bread crusts.


It was my boyfriend's idea, but I couldn't make it so good...
But it is good for use, so I bring it for my travel.

And I made the wallet because my usual wallet is a little bit heavy.
I looked up the size of dollar bills through the internet. The biggest japanese yen bill is bigger than dollar, so I made the wallet rather smaller.



These days, I cannot sew a lot because I have to prepare for my travel.
But today, I could sew for several hours and I'm really content!