Tohoku trip 2013. Ferry from Tomakomai to Hachinohe. April 27th.

We set off on the night ferry from Tomakomai to Hachinohe. It was REALLY windy so I was worried that the boat would rock but it wasn't rocky at all, much to our relief. Up till now we have gone to Akita or further down to Sendai and they were long journeys. This was only 8 hours so much more bearable.

 Yoshi and Jiichan shared a first class cabin. We did this for Jiichan's bad knee and Baachan was supposed to be coming but Yoshi lucked out and got her place!

 Yoshi insisted on going out on the deck while the ferry was still docked. It was VERY VERY VERY windy. On night sailings the doors are locked before the ferry sets off to prevent accidents.

 The ferry was brand new. Very shiny with lots of places to relax. Harry was in front of a huge TV screen here. I am a bad sailor so just want to take my seasick pills and lie down before it sets off!

This was our cabin - four bunks and a little carpet space with a low table and a small TV. Not bad!

Baachan in hospital. April 25th.

Baachan has been in hospital since the beginning of April. She and Jiichan have always been so fit but since the end of the year, it's been one thing after another. Jiichan was in hospital over the new year having a knee joint replaced. That went really well and he was home after a month, but during that stay they discovered bladder cancer, so after a couple of weeks at home he went to another hospital and had the cancer removed. He finally got out on the morning of Harry's elementary school graduation, on the 18th March. Then about a week later Baachan confessed to have been feeling ill for a while and it was discovered that she had holes in her bowel. So she was sent to hospital on the 8th April as an emergeny measure. She had lots of tests over ten days or so and last week had the surgery to repair the holes and remove some sections of bowel. She is still on a drip and unable to eat or drink anything while it all heals but she is looking remarkably well and walking about the ward and says she has no pain at all, which is great. Sadly she won't be able to come with us on the planned trip to Tohoku. It's been decided that BIL and SIL will stay home to look after her and we will take Jiichan as planned as he wants to visit the family grave and it's weighing heavily on him that he hasn't been since the grave was rebuilt last year. 

Garden photos. April 24th.

The shed was finally removed late yesterday afternoon while I was teaching, so I only had time to jump out onto the front step, snap a picture and get back to work. Today I took more and better pictures.

The view from the living room window.

 From the front step.

 Standing right next to the new shed, looking down the back of the garden.

 All this space to do something with, but what?? It's really quite nice soil, too. I was expecting it to be horribly muddy.

 Standing by the back fence looking to the road.

 Back to the new shed.

 Down the back of the house to the veggie patch, which will be sunnier but also windier.

 The pom pom primula is in full flower now.

 One of the perennials I bought the other week.

Some tiny flowers from bulbs I planted a couple of years ago. These are only about 1cm across.

The old shed has gone! April 23rd.

Going.....

 Gone!

Studio photos came back! April 22nd.

I am really pleased with them! It's sad that BIL could not come for the photo session as we'd have had the full set then, but never mind. My favourite is the one of the two boys in their school uniforms. Handsome lads. 

More messing with the camera. April 21st.

Tried out the camera again this morning - and took some garden pictures for this year's records.

 Brother in law Atsushi came round with Jiichan to deliver five bags of fertilizer. I swapped them some pansies.

 This new bed needs dealing with. It needs digging over then the fun of planting up can begin!

 All the gaps round the stones need filling in and then something clingy needs putting there to hold the soil.

 Daffodils are poking through.

 The shoots in front are hyacinth and the ones behind are yellow dogtooth violets (katakuri).

 The pink rose survived the winter but it got broken under the weight of snow. I didn't realise how much would build up there. It will have to be properly staked next winter.

 Snowdrops! I had six, now only three. Have to buy some more!

 The old blue shed is due to be demolised in the next couple of weeks. Can't wait.

 Pansies all in the ground now.

 The coloured primulas are the ones I bought the other week. The green shoots round the stepping stones are all primulas I've had for a few years now. They take a bit longer to get going.

Nearly goodbye to the shed....

First test shots with the new camera. April 20th.

These are all untouched, straight out of the camera, which was right out of the box, no instructions read or anything yet.

 How close can it get? Detail of broderie Anglaise on my shirt. Pretty close! 

 Yoshi (we were messing about with the camera while we were waiting to see his allergy doctor.)

 Three closer and closer and closer shots of the kimono fabric I'm working on right now.

 On the way home we tested the zoom which is 5X optical and a lot more digital but I cut the digital off as quality is lost. The photo above is of our local area just taken straight, and the one below is at 5X zoom.

 You can see the mountains really clearly.

 At lunch we messed about with the settings - fisheye....

 Old fashioned (similar to Instagram and I hate it. Hated the yellowed faded photos when they were REALLY like that!!)

 Toy camera. (Dark round edges, orangey overtones. Again, not going to use this one much.)

 One colour picked out. This is blue. But I can't work out how to choose which colour it is. Got to mess with this one more and read the English instructions.

 Plain monochrome.

 Straight auto.

 Back to the house where I went right out into the garden to try my hand at a few flower photos.

 Steadily increasing the nearness to these primula buds.... 

 REALLY happy with all these shots!

 Finally the diorama/model setting. Above is the scene from our bedroom window taken on just normal auto setting, and....

This is the same shot on the diorama setting. Cute!