How I extended our dining table with DIY cardboard leaves

We have a nice dining table that seats 4 comfortably. I needed a practical way to expand the table to seat 8 for when company comes, but with the following limitations: it needed to be easy, sturdy, and cheap. And the only power tool I've allowed myself to buy so far is a power drill (the less we buy now, the less we have to get rid of if we decide to move overseas again). Cardboard turned out to be a perfect solution. We had quite a lot of empty boxes that I saved for a purpose like this, and a friend who owns an electronics shop was happy to give us a few larger boxes. In the end, it really was as simple as measure, glue, cut, tape, and attach.

Here are the steps I followed:

1. Measure the width of the table and the new length you want to add. I didn't do this very scientifically. I just sat down in a chair off the end of the table and approximated how much space was necessary for a new place setting, given the width of the chair.

2. Gauge and glue. 

You want the thickness of your leaf to match the thickness of the table, so start stacking your cardboard layers. Figure on some compression happening. For sturdiness, the cardboard layers need to alternate direction. Cardboard has channels running through it and is always weaker in one direction. Also, it's best if your cardboard layer is all one piece, but you can use multiple pieces like I did here. Just make sure you don't have gaps lining up on top of each other or it will be too weak. A glue gun works fine to fix the layers together. I used a cheapie glue gun from a 100 yen shop, but would have preferred a better model that would heat up enough glue for one layer. You don't need to use a lot because the tape and screws that we add later will also help hold it together.

Planning the layers for the cardboard leaf. Single whole pieces are best, but you can glue two pieces close together if you're careful about it.

3. Cut. 

I just used a utility knife to cut through the layers one by one. It wasn't exactly easy, especially when I ran across the glue. It made quite a mess too, but I expected that. I rounded the edges, figuring that sharp cardboard edges wouldn't survive long anyway.

Cardboard leaf, mid-process

4. I wasn't happy with the top. It had some bumps to it. I tried to level them out with brown paper tape. It worked well enough. The trickiest part was cutting the edge that would meet the table. Our table edge angles under, so this leaf needed to match. I imagined the slope as a triangle with a base and a height, and flipped it upside down to find the part of the cardboard that I needed to cut away. Also a very messy step. Pretty sure at one point I was even using a serrated bread knife to get it done.

Nearly completed cardboard leaf, just needs the clips

5. Time to attach. Which means buying the necessary parts and getting them home by bicycle. It definitely added a layer of complexity, but I managed. Nobody died.

My ride

 

At first I tried plastic pipe, but it drooped. Thin metal pipe (often used for shelving) worked much better. At the top of the picture below is a pipe cutter, followed by the pipe clips, O-rings of various sizes to keep the pipe from slipping out, something apparently called a t-nut, screws to go into the t-nuts, and screws to attach the clips to the table.

Necessary parts

 

Ideally, each pipe will have 4 clips; two under the leaf and two under the table. Use the t-nuts on the surface side of the cardboard leaf, with screws attaching the clips from the bottom. Annoyingly, the t-nuts were sold 5 to a package so I ended up 1 short, which is why there is one clip missing on the cardboard leaf in this view. I plan to fix that eventually.

Attached leaf from underside view

I would absolutely do this project again. The cardboard is lightweight, and since the clips remain attached, all I need to do to extend the table is slip the pipes into the clips and then slip the cardboard leaf onto the pipes. It's incredibly sturdy, but also easy to pack away. Even better, the clips don't get in the way of the normal function of the table.  

Leaf in place, top view

Leaf in place, hidden by the tablecloth

Stained glass temari

If you like temari, this post is for you. If you don't, skip this one.

A few years ago we made temari as Christmas gifts for family and friends. My husband and I also wanted to make one for each other, but we sort of skipped that part. We had the balls wrapped and ready to go, but they sat on our counter, neglected. Last month I finally took it up again. My husband had wrapped it beautifully with purple, black and blue thread. I knew I wanted to make a pattern that would resemble stained glass, and after searching online and coming up with nothing, I found something that would work in our local library's temari books (I love living in a place where temari books are easily found in the local library).

Creating the guidelines was the first challenge. This ball is a compound 10 division, meaning the ball is first divided into 10 sections, and then after a slight rotation, is divided again, and then again...and it looks something like this midway through:

Two poles of 10 divisions each can be seen here, but more poles and divisions are needed before the guidelines are complete.

The guidelines are finished. Now it's time to create the main pattern.

After the divisions are finished, triangles join the pentagons at their sides. This pattern needs 20 triangles in 5 colors. Each triangle takes about an hour.

Two triangles weave together where they meet.

In the little video you can see how all of the divisions create a regular pattern of stars, diamonds and pentagons. Honestly the hardest part about this design was mapping out the colors so that each pentagon had all five colors, and each overlapping triangle was a different color. I had to plot it all out with colored glass pins before I covered the ball with triangles.

I got a little lost while trying to count my thread. The little pins are helping me keep track.

This pattern is a little tricky because each triangle needs to be wrapped the same number of times. If one triangle is wrapped 10 times, and another 13, the weave where they are joined won't work out right. I'm not very good at maintaining concentration during times of tedium, so there are a few triangles that I messed up and didn't want to go back and fix.

Half of the ball is complete.

You can see in the picture above that some of the edges are a little ragged where the two colors meet. I can fix that later by slipping my needle between the colors and pushing against the line.

Completed temari

I love stained glass, but I couldn't really find any examples that combined the look with temari, so I created my own. Bordering all the colors in black helps sell the effect. There are quite a few mistakes on this ball, but the black borders also help hide a multitude of sins :-)

The design inspiration for this particular ball came from this book, かわいい手まり (Kawaii Temari):

See the ball in the lower right corner?

Starting elementary school in Japan

The school year begins in April in Japan, but if you have a kid who will be a first grader, preparation begins in November with a required basic health-check for all entering students where their height, weight, vision, hearing and development are assessed. 

February is orientation time for parents and guardians. They gather at the local school gymnasium on a given day and time, and listen to the expectations for the guardians and the children. Forms are turned in for automatic payment withdrawal for the monthly school fees, a schedule is created among the guardians to ensure that the new students will be walked safely home for the first few weeks by someone they trust, and the parents pay for and hike home laden with bags and bags of school supplies.

Bags and bags of school supplies. Parking is sparse at schools, so most parents walk or bike all of this home.

School supplies, exploded view. Total cost was about $350.

Clockwise from upper left: 

• green box to hold art supplies
• gym clothes
• light blue placemat used during lunch
• indoor shoes (toe color is set by the school, dark green for our kids)
• disaster hood to be pulled out and used in case of an earthquake or other disaster (also doubles as a seat cushion)
• blank workbooks with a box of nendo on top (ubiquitous Japanese clay, different than play-dough)
• reversible red-white hat for gym, used regularly because they play so many red vs. white competitive games
• scissors
• pianica (piano that makes noise when you blow into it)
• packets and packets of information
• art supplies
• castanets
• and a very useful clipboard for school outings:

Clipboard used during field trips.

I really like how practical this is. Easy to carry, stores what you need, and gives you a hard writing surface anywhere.

The packets of paper outline a few things: 

• bags the student will need and the appropriate sizes for them 
• indoor shoes
• lunch bag 
• toothbrush and cup bag
• gym clothes bag
• and a carryall bag for everything else
• what self-care the student should be able to do before entering school 
• go to the bathroom by themselves
• eat the provided school lunch in 20 minutes or less
• read and write their name in hiragana
• wring out a cleaning rag
• general health and wellness guidelines such as getting enough sleep and eating a good breakfast before school.

The next step will be for us to fill out the health card and emergency contact info that will go in our child's file in school. We should have it done before the next meeting in April, where we will be given more school supplies including books and the all-important yellow hat.

The theme-less blog

Hey, it's been a while. I thought I needed to pick a theme for my blog and stick with it, but it would mean leaving out a lot of interesting stuff. So, no theme. Just me and whatever I find interesting. So some days I'll show you the latest craft I've gotten myself into. Other days it will be DIY home stuff. You'll have your random sprinkling of cool places we go, things we see, and things the kids are getting up to. It will be a total hodgepodge. You'll love it. Or you'll at least skip the ones you don't.

And now that that's over with, I'll get on with the real posting.

2015 and Grief

I'm long overdue for another post. There were a lot of changes back in America for me in 2015, and it never felt like the right time to talk about anything. I don't think that's changed, but it's getting easier to talk about.

This summer my family had to sell our beautiful lake-front cabin in north Idaho. It needed to happen because it was not practical to keep such a remote property that we could only manage to use a few times a year. It was the right and necessary thing, but it's still surprisingly hard to let go. And being so far away, we couldn't make one last visit.

After the cabin sold, a very dear family member got sick with incurable cancer. This was a person I've felt close to and admired all my life, even though we didn't communicate often. We didn't attend the funeral.

Then my stepfather was told he had blood cancer and a few months to live. My mother was a champion, and her family swooped in like superheroes to help out. The timeline they gave him was pretty close. I think he made it a week or two beyond what they said, and then he was gone. He was my first dance partner. I don't think we could have been farther apart politically, socially, environmentally, religiously, or any other -ally out there. But it didn't matter. We talked. He cheered me on and made me feel talented and smart, and we respected each other. And I was on the other side of the world when he died.

So, that's the thing that you can't prepare yourself for when you relocate: how much stuff of life happens back in your old life that you just can't be involved in because of distance. Big changes.

I still wouldn't change our decision to move to Japan. I always would have wondered and regretted, if we had decided not to come. Part of me knew that we might miss out on big things at home. Weddings happen, babies are born, and there are tragedies. And we miss out on being involved in those things, and others miss out on things here. There really isn't a fix for that, so we have to accept and adjust and find new ways to grieve from afar. And make up for as much as we can during the visits we are fortunate enough to have.

Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Disneyland's main entrance

I'm all over the place with my posting timeline. In February our friend Fumie helped us enjoy Tokyo Disneyland for my son's 7th birthday. She showed us that there was a bus that we could catch at a stop that wasn't too far from our house, and it would take us right to Disneyland's main gate. We woke up at 4:00 a.m., caught the bus at 6:00, and two hours later on a Thursday morning, there we were!

We stopped by the Gag Factory near the Roger Rabbit ride to get my son's birthday medal and Mickey doll. The hardest part was tearing them away from the cartoons that were playing on the TVs inside!

It was a beautiful day. We stayed in Toon Town for a little while, rode a few of the rides, watched a Frozen parade, and visited Mickey's House. Even though we arrived when the gate opened, and even though it was a Thursday, it was already a full park and the lines for popular attractions (like meeting Mickey) were quite long:

The wait time was nearly an hour, but 
thankfully it felt like much less time. 
We all enjoyed seeing Mickey's house 
come to life, and it was great to
meet Mickey!

Since it was our first day, we weren't really familiar with the ins and outs of the park. Fumie told us about the FastPass machines, but we didn't really understand how it all worked. We didn't know that there was a different machine for each ride, or that we really had to run around the park first thing in the morning and visit all the FastPass machines for the rides we wanted. We also didn't know that the passes were sold for a rather specific window of time, and that we couldn't have more than one FastPass for each time window. It all kind of makes sense now, but it was a lot to figure out on the first day. It was also difficult for us to figure out which rides were height-compatible with our kids, because there isn't a list of rides by height-requirement that we could find. (Scratch that, I think I found one in Japanese, but it was still difficult to decipher.) By day two we were much more familiar with the process and we made it on more rides.

There were FastPasses for shows, too. The most popular shows require a reservation that can be made online, but that site is only in Japanese (and most of the words are graphics that can't be translated by a browser, unfortunately). The shows are so popular that the FastPass machines for them give tickets by lottery. We tried our luck, but we were only allowed to try each show once on any given day, and luck wasn't with us. Next time I think we'll give the online reservations a shot.

Online reservations are also required for any of the sit-down theme restaurants like Pirates of the Caribbean. As with the shows, the reservation site is only in Japanese and again most of the text is actually a graphic that can't be translated. Hopefully I'll know enough Japanese before the next time we go that I can get that done myself.

I was surprised at how long the lines were for everything. The rides, the food, and shopping at the end of the day (tip: do NOT shop at the end of the day)! Thursday wasn't quite as crowded, but Friday coincided with a holiday for China (Chinese New Year) and there were a LOT of Chinese tourists that day. Apparently it's best to be an expert on Chinese, Korean, and Japanese holidays, because they greatly impact the crowd level.

This is the line...for churros!

Speaking of food, this is the main indication that you aren't in any other Disneyland in the world. The park looks so similar to the one I've been to in California that if it weren't for the food and the Japanese signs, I could be forgiven for thinking I was back in America (even the character actors are white and speak English). But back to the food. Especially the popcorn! There were 3 flavors: caramel, chocolate, and curry! We could follow our nose to any one in the park. Sometimes the aromas overlapped. Chocolate curry smells weird :-) And smoked turkey legs are a very popular food cart item!

Aside from the popcorn, the other food items at the park definitely had a Japanese spin on them.

A sample menu at one of the more kid-friendly
snack shacks. Picky kids may not enjoy the
Chinese steamed bun or the corn on the pizza,
but I thought they were delicious!

Even the hot dogs are a bit different from what you might expect:

"Pluto's Favorite Sausage" has a real bone for a stick!

All in all, it was quite an eventful trip for us. We rode a lot of rides, walked a million miles, and ended the trip with dazed but happy kids. Next time: Disney Sea!

Did I leave you with questions? Put them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them!

Japanese BBQ

Back in April a friend of ours invited our family to enjoy a barbecue in Kasama city's Kitayama park with his family and his church group. We try to say "yes" to every invitation, because we always learn something new and we're usually exposed to something delicious :-) This time was no exception.

Grill area, complete with storage for the grill plates

The setting was a beautiful grill area, complete with shelters, a bathroom, a long sink with running water, and a playground. The weather was gorgeous, and the whole place was very clean.

It was quiet, clean, and cool beneath the shady trees

The entire affair was interesting to witness. There is no fee to use this site, but reservations are required. With the reservation comes a key to the storage area where the grill plates and other items are stored (1st photo). While the kids ran around, the experienced adults set up the grill plates and carried mountains of food and supplies from their cars.

The food was cooked on metal sheets that rested on a cement oven. Charcoal logs (one of the many items carried in that day) were placed in the firepit area underneath. While the surface was getting hot, everyone went to work. The kids were given the job of destroying shredding the vegetables while other adults chopped onions or opened packages of meat. Our daughter and son thoroughly enjoyed pretending to be monsters while they ripped cabbage and sweet bell peppers to tiny bits. It was less messy than I thought it would be!

Thicker pieces of meat went onto the grill plate first, and then the vegetables. Last were packages of yakisoba noodles and a delicious sauce. The entire process only took about 20 minutes, and then everybody tucked in. It was so delicious! Even my son loved it, and he's a hard one to please.

Yakisoba is a delicious and easy dish
that can feed many people

We enjoyed a dessert of berries and roasted marshmallows, and then helped with cleanup. Japanese kids are required to clean up in schools, and the training to be efficient and thorough clearly lasts through adulthood. Ashes were swept, the tile surround was scrubbed, and all borrowed items were returned to the shed just the way they were found.

Before we knew it, everyone was packed and ready to break camp. We were told that there was a very long slide only a little hike away, so we enjoyed the short walk through the forest to get there. We stopped by the visitor's center to get the foam seats (also fee-free) that you really want to sit on when you go down the slide. Another short walk took us to the bottom of it, and we could see why the seats were important. The slide was about 500 meters long and made entirely of metal rollers that can pinch skin or clothing if the seats aren't used.

Wisteria growing near the visitor's center.
Dozens of bees hummed lazily in the
flowers above our heads.

In spite of the steepness of the hill our kids raced to the top at least 3 or 4 times and thoroughly enjoyed the trip down. "Raced" isn't the word I would use for the adults, but we enjoyed ourselves just the same :-) From the top to the bottom, the trip takes about one minute. (No, literally, one minute! That's a long slide!!)

Just a portion of this long, long slide!