A full moon, a couple of lanterns & mooncakes.

Happy Mid-Autumn everyone! A favourite Chinese celebration in yet another city. 

Happy Mooncake & Lantern Festival too. There's a full moon tonight.  

The day started with this pretty box of mooncakes which friends have brought back from a recent Singapore trip. Thank you Chiara, Silke & Kalim.

 These often takes the place of a birthday cake since my lunar birthday is also today.

Yes, the Chinese have two birthdays - lucky us! We really try to keep our Chinese lanterns intact, as we move from city to city. 

On other days, the lanterns are displayed as part of our garden-trellis-headboard, in our guestroom & also by the kitchen windows. Too pretty to be brought out once a year. 

Tonight, we make & eat these jiaozi. Then we'll stroll around our Dubai neighbourhood, with the lanterns.

And a homemade card from my Annika. 

Special times.

I never had any toy as a child. Not store-bought ones, at least. We play like most kids in our village - running around, hide and seek games & climbing lots of trees. One fond memory was the "5-stone" game we did, similiar to "jacks", I think. With no spare fabric scraps & no rice nor beans for the fillings (these are for eating only), I became quite good at this game as I had to use real stones. 

Now, I made these for my kids, not only when they were small but to play with, even now. It makes great sewing-projects-on-the-go. There are green beans stuffed in them as I no longer have to save every morsel for food. Seeing these makes me think of my mother, whom we visited over Easter. She gave up schooling at 8 years old so that she could work & support her family. She taught herself to read & write our Chinese language & now reads the Chinese newspaper every day. She adopted me so I could live & have a better life. And funnily, I have inherited my sewing skills from her.

She learns English so she could communicate better with my children, whose Chinese are sadly, not as fluent as their Po-Po's ( Grandma in Mandarin ) English. All these make us children & grandchildren, love her more. I am proud of her as she is proud of me.
Happy Mother's Day to my Mama. Happy Mother's Day to you all.

A special day. A special quilt.

In the past months, we have traveled quite a bit & I have sewn quite a bit too. And blogging always gets more difficult the longer I stay away. But it is that special time of the year again so I am finally back, with some pics.

It is also my Chinese birthday when the moon is at its fullest tonight. It is a special time for us because it's mid-Autumn & it's our traditional Lantern Night & Mooncake Festival, all rolled into one! We shall drink tea & eat mooncakes & walk around the park with our home-made lanterns. Make wishes with huge flying lanterns. And eat homemade jiaozi (Chinese dumplings in soup).

For the first time, I sew for my mother. A quilt with lanterns on the front & bamboo shoots on the back. I worked on it as we went from city to city. By the time we reached Singapore, it was pretty crumpled !

"Red Lanterns" for my mother as she loves red & because she found me during a Lantern Festival, when I was a few days old.

Happy Mid-

Autumn everyone!

Happy Mooncake Fest!

Gong Xi Fa Cai !

Today is Chinese New Year & the first day of spring. Our ume (plum) tree is blooming pinks!

Besides 2010 being the Year of the Tiger, these are also Tiger-years : 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998 (...in case you are wondering if you are a Tiger).

Tiger people are sensitive, capable of great sympathy, courageous and powerful. Born to command & able to sway the crowd. Sincere, honourable & humorous. A good friend to have.

Tigers are most compatible with those from the years of Horses, Dragons, and Dogs. It is my mother's year & my husband's year too! So according to this, both of them are not compatible with their spouses since my father & I are not born in those years :) .

Last night, we had our traditional Chinese New Year's Eve, reunion dinner. We made our own Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings in soup or potstickers) & almond cookies too.

The new year brings new bags. "THE BAG" - so named by my son Niklas as he & Annika were impressed & intrigued by the flexibility of the design. My kids are very kind to my work.

THE BAG converts from a cute petite handbag to a larger carryall. Start the day small, do your errands & chuck everything into the same bag, which has "grown" bigger.

Many pockets inside & outside (those are just patchwork). And it has a detachable shoulder strap when you get tired of carrying it. This is now my favourite bag, at the moment!

Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone!
Happy New Year!

A Wall & some distractions.

We have left these houses & our own real house to go climb a wall.

Climbing a wall : It has always been my dream to bring our kids to China, as they are also part Chinese. My husband & I have been to Beijing a number of times, way back before we had the kids & also before we know each other. This will be the first time we are there, as a complete family.

This week is our autumn break so when you are reading this.....we will be in Beijing, climbing the Great Wall of China (长城/万里长城 Wàn Lǐ Cháng Chéng) !

The Great Wall, built over 2000 years ago, stands for the wisdom, tenacity & spirit of the Chinese people. I was pretty emotional the first time I stood on that Wall, one spring day, many years ago.

Legends of the Great Wall : Many died during the construction & they were buried under it. These "convenient" burials save funeral expenses, save building materials (good, environment friendly bones) & also, bones help "deep fertilize" the wall, making the roots of plants go deep, thus protecting the Great Wall foundations. And I thought roots would wreck foundations but what do I know!

Most all, according to Chinese beliefs : the spirits of those who died for the Great Wall, made it stronger. The Wall is 6400 Kilometres, about 4000 miles long.

And contrary to popular belief, the Great Wall cannot be seen from the moon. It is hardly recognizable from 65,617 feet high. It is totally invisible at a height of 196,850 feet, not to mention from a space ship whose orbital altitude is on average 1,312,333 feet high. So sadly, to say that an astronaut can see the Great Wall is merely an exaggeration.

Click HERE, to see a dizzy 360 degree

panoramic view of the Great Wall.

Sewing : While preparing for this trip, we were sidetracked so many times! I am in the middle of an exciting swap with a fabulous crafty blogger-mom (hi Laurie!) & as she wished for Japanese fabric scraps, I had to start organising my messy lots of scraps.

While sorting, we were so distracted by the colours & made these patchwork items instead of packing. And now, we have new colourful cushion covers to replace the boring old yellow ones, more fabric houses & other cheerful things!

A special time for the Chinese.

Today, the Chinese celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, our 2nd most important event after Chinese New Year. We shall have yummy dimsum lunch in Chinatown Yokohama & enjoy the atmosphere there!

If we were in Singapore, we would go to the Chinese Gardens which will be decorated with hundreds & hundreds of lanterns!!! But we are in Japan & sadly, this is not as hugely celebrated here.

Tonight, the children shall take their lanterns through our neighborhood's Komazawa Park. We shall eat "mooncakes" because the moon is at its roundest & fullest. So tonight, go gaze at your moon & see how much rounder & brighter than usual it is !

This year, we made this "moon" lantern. However, we chose the crescent because of it's interesting shape, instead of the full moon - yes, we're weird! This was made in the traditional way, using string, wire, bamboo sticks & rice paper.

Today too, I have my Chinese birthday. Most Chinese do not remember their Chinese birth-dates but my family & friends remember mine because long ago on one Lantern night, I was born.

There's the regular calendar (as most people know & use). Then there's a Chinese lunar calendar based on the phases of the moon. So I had my regular birthday in late September but in the year 19xx when I was born, it also happened to be the 15th day of the 8th lunar month - today - Mid-Autumn or Mooncake or Lantern Festival. Are you confused yet :) ?

Each year, whichever city we live, I would get a mooncake! In addition, I had these wonderful things from my wonderful family :

- Gorgeous flowers in a pretty hand-painted "fishy" vase.

- Colourful cheery card by Niklas & a door-hanger by Annika for my busy sewing/crafting days.
- Lovely chopsticks for my collection.
- Really cute green fabric with rows of children in traditional costumes & all sorts of sweets. I love the adorable Chinese girl in red, with a mooncake!

- 2 books Emma Hardy's "Quilting in no time" & Kaffe Fassett's "Passionate Patchwork" . When these 2 books did not arrive as expected, Annika made 2 little mock-ups for me to have first.

Mooncakes are traditionally golden-brown pastries with fillings of dark brown lotus paste & a egg yolk.



Nowadays, they come in various shapes, shades & flavour too! Some pics here are from magazines since I couldn't find many actual mooncakes here in Tokyo!

And here are the children when they were very little, with more home-made lanterns.

Gong Xi Fa Cai ! And a mother on a break . . .

As you read this, I'm in Singapore!

This past Christmas, a present from my sweet family is : one week's holiday & air ticket to Singapore, to spend Chinese New Year with my mother!

My husband is taking this week off from work, to do my "mothering" duties as the children still has school here in Tokyo. Meanwhile I will not drive, clean nor cook for a week! The last time I had a 4 day break was about 7 years ago when the kids were in Kindergarten & Annika was a toddler. Then, it was a 4 days & a ticket for Hongkong & I had missed my family so much, I called my kids 5 times each day!

Annika who has waist-long hair that needs to be tied or plaited on sports & swimming days said "who's going to do my hair?". We told her "you'll just have to get your hair cut!". Ha! Ha! In reality, my husband has been practising on Annika's hair - first, spray some oil to detangle the wavy hair, comb through starting from the ends, comb please & not yank, tie firmly & not loose.

Year of the Ox : 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997.

The Chinese Zodiac Calendar is based on a 12 year cycle. Our Niklas who was born in 1997 will be 12 years old this year. So will Mary Kate's daughter, Emilea, over in Malaysia!

Those born in the Ox years are : reliable, sincere, cool, patient, meticulous, tireless, dedicated, obedient, neat, unpretentious, modest, fond of solitude, faithful, good listener, traditional, systematic in a conventional way. Yep...amazingly, this pretty much describes my son!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Xin Nian Kuai Le!
Wishing you luck & prosperity! Happy New Year!

How many "hongbaos" did you get?

These "hongbaos" or red packets are every child's delight at this time of the year!

On this 1st day of Chinese New Year, parents give "hongbaos" containing "lucky" money to their children. These are given by married people to unmarried people. We give to my mother too.

On this day, Annika & Niklas greet us in the traditionalway - on their knees, hands clutched closely & greet us, "Gong Xi Fa Cai, Mama & Papa". And then, they will receive their "hongbaos".

The Chinese "hongbaos" are normally red with lucky symbols or Chinese characters. The symbolic giving of the money represents a wish for fortune & wealth in the coming year.

This tradition is derived from the legend of "Nian", a monster that used to terrorise a village. Then, children are given red papers to protect themselves if they ever come into contact with the beast.

I have been stocking up on these pretty Japanese money envelopes as each year, I "supply" these to my mom & sis to use. Somehow our traditional Chinese ones, doesn't look as nice as the colourful Japanese ones.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, this is what we do.

The "jiaozi" (Chinese dumplings) signify family reunion. Chinese families traditionally spend New Year's Eve together, preparing the dumplings. Crescent-shaped "jiaozi" are a symbol of wealth and prosperity because of their resemblance to ancient Chinese money (silver ingots). I have taught our children how to make "jiaozi" as per our tradition, so that they can in turn teach theirs (ok, ok...hopefully decades from now!). But honestly.....these taste so good, we make them even when it's not Chinese New Year!

Today is Chinese New Year Eve. Tonight, all Chinese will gather for a special meal, known to us as THE Reunion Dinner. This is “Tuan Yuan Fan” in Mandarin, or literally ”reunion rice” – rice being the main staple of the Chinese. It’s similar to the important Christmas Eve dinner, where family members get together.

Most Chinese living away from their homes would make special effort to attend this meal with their families. On that day, everyone is expected to do his best to return to the main family home by Chinese New Year's Eve. In all my years of living overseas, I’ve made it back most of the time. This year, I will be in Singapore & will have reunion dinner with my mother. Sadly, my kids & husband cannot come along as this event is not a public holiday event in Japan & so there is still school to attend.

So instead of having our reunion dinner on CNY Eve (Sunday), we had it earlier as a Saturday lunch, hours before my flight. We had steamboat, a sort of Chinese fondue except with the regular Western fondue, I get very impatient threading stuff one piece at a time, onto little skewers, so I prefer our steamboat! Everything is thrown in to cook & then, you fish them out!

(Left) This was our lunch, our “tuan yuan fan”. It was a yummy meal & of course our homemade “jiaozi” was gobbled down enthusiastically!

Every Chinese has more than one birthday & Happy Lantern Night!

Today is also the 15th day of the 8th Lunar month in the Chinese calendar. Today, we celebrate Mid-Autumn (中秋節, zhōng qiū jié). This is an important & popular Chinese celebration, the most important festival after Chinese Lunar New Year. It is also referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival.

The moon tonight, will be fuller & brighter than in other months. A full moon is a symbol of togetherness. As such, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunion. Traditionally, on this day, family members & friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, drink tea, eat moon cakes & pomeloes. Children would carry lanterns at night & get to stay up late too. In these old pics, Annika & Niklas carry German & Chinese lanterns which they made themselves.
In my family, no one remembers their Chinese birth-dates but they all remember mine because long ago on one Lantern night, I was born. This past August, we had visited my mother & she cooked the traditional birthday longevity noodles. She knows how much I like it so she made it way in advance since the last couple of years, I was not with her on Lantern Night. On this day too, my children & my husband will give me a mooncake as per my wish since I do not want anything else. Just a good old-fashioned mooncake.....even if we're living in the North pole!

And we will celebrate by going to our favourite restaurant, Ukai Toriyama, truly one of the most beautiful restaurants ever! Check back later for more on this incredible restaurant!

A Sewing Project : Dragonflies with rice bowls" - my first handmade bag (ever!) using the wonderful sewing machine that I brought back from USA.

I have added : a little transparent loop so that I can hook keys on it & not have to fish for keys at the bottom ; a pouch to hold a mobile phone ; little cherry blossoms covered-buttons (also self-made) because I love all these Japanese fabrics!

Do come back again for more belated posts on our past summer trip in America.....
"The Continuing Adventures of an RV in the deserts!"

The dimsum goes around in Chinatown Yokohama.

So off we went again, to have yummy food at a favorite restaurant & view all those scrumptuos delicacies rolling by before us. Yes, rolling by as the food in little plates or bamboo baskets, were on this merry-go-round conveyor belt, that really went around the whole restaurant!
All you do after you arrive is to plonk yourself down & start eating - no waiting at all - how's that for service!




Dim sum (in Cantonese dialect) or "dian xin ( in Mandarin) is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves many light dishes served alongside Chinese tea since tea helps "wash" the fats away (- I wish!!!).

Usually served in the mornings until noon time at Chinese restaurants & at specialty dim sum eateries, you can have it for dinner like we did.

Dishes come in small portions and include meat, seafood, vegetables & all sorts of desserts. The items are usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate. "Yum cha" (in Cantonese) or "he cha (in Mandarin) is the term used to describe the dining session.

The only problem is that it's hard to stop eating! You take food off the conveyor belt, finish them & the empty plates get cleared away quickly so then, you lose track of what you've eaten. We always end up eating waaaay too much!

Over the river & through the hills,

...past the ocean & on a plane, to Grandmother's house we went! Today, my mother is 70 years old. In our culture, we might not celebrate our birthdays each year but the big ones, mean a lot. And that's why, we flew to her for this!

My mother, is a typical traditional Chinese mother. She doesn't show her love physically, as the Chinese mothers of today would. She shows mainly through food (extremely "Joy Luck Club"!). When I was younger & living overseas on my own, trips home were always full of "Eat! Eat! Look - you're getting skinnier each time I see you! ". Now it's "Eat! Eat! If you don't eat now, you will regret & wished you ate more of my cooking, when you go back to Tokyo!". Or "Learn to cook this or my grandchildren will miss it too much".
My parents met outside a train station, when my father was lost & asked her for directions. Coincidentally, he was looking for her neighbours' home. So, she brought him there, on the back of her bicycle! My father is long gone now. He passed away just months before we were married. My mother, as per our tradition, lives with my brother & his family : 3 generations under one roof.

Traditionally, an envelope of lucky money would be one of the birthday gifts. So my mother gets this pink lucky envelope & as usual, she says "oh no need! no need!". A typical Chinese response - ask anyone with a Chinese mother. And a nice handcrafted bracelet, made just for her.

Yippee Day !

It's a wonderful morning! Kind Genevieve made my day again! She showcased me in her blog. Genevieve has a fab shop & I really like her berets & shawl pins. She featured my item in a treasury last week but it expired before I could save that page. Her webblog also makes for enjoyable reading!

And Heather...a new friend, a great penpal all the way from Ontario! Thank you too for featuring my necklace in yr treasury - all pure white yet memorable! You do such beautiful creations so it's truly an honour that you like something I made.

DIM SUM AGAIN ! So off we went again, to our favourite restaurant in Chinatown Yokohama. This time with fellow residents : Gloria (from Spain), Christoph (from Austria) & their son, Carlos (Niklas' classmate). An earlier post on our delicious dimsum meal had convinced them to do the same. So the 7 of us trooped into the cosy restaurant & ate too much!

Celebrating in Chinatown

On the 3rd day of our 15-day New Year celebration, we went off to Chinatown in Yokohama, for a dim sum lunch! "Dim sum" means "order to your heart's content" or the more poetic translation, "a touch the heart". Traditional dim sum consists of steamed or fried food, in small steamer baskets or small plates.

This restaurant is one of our favourites. It is special because the dishes are placed on a rotating conveyor belt, that winds through the restaurant and moves past every table and counter seat.

You can still place additional orders, but most just pick their selections from a steady stream of dim sum dishes, moving along the conveyor belt. Unlike in a typical restaurant where one orders & then wait. Here, we could start eating almost immediately, which was good since we were hungry!