Fashion crisis!

I've been shopping for the Japan trip, keeping in mind that the climate of the area of Japan that we'll be in at the time of year we'll be there, is much like that of Atlanta. So everything I've been getting is lightweight. Naturally, this year the only lightweight pants out there are all cropped above the ankle or are capris (mind you, I'm short enough that a capri is not actually a capris on me).

Now, I've got this weird thing about pants short enough to show my socks: they make me feel like an incredible dork in highwaters. Which means I'm going to be dorky for the entire trip, since there's no way I'm walking around all day and not wearing socks with my shoes - I blister way too easily for that.

So, I consult the internets. If it makes any difference, these are the shoes I've got that I will probably be wearing. :)

[Poll #1012370]

Memeage

The oldie-but-goodie meme going around again.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4-7 sentences on your LJ along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest (unless it's too troublesome to reach and is really heavy. Then go back to step 1).
6. Tag five people.

It's a timeline from the back of Gerard Chaliand's Nomadic Empires: From Mongolia to the Danube, because I was listening to a history podcast on the way to work this morning that was all about the steppe warriors of Central Asia and got interested in the topic, so grabbed a couple of books from the stacks.

1480     Ivan III declares the end of the "Mongol yoke," but it proves premature.

1492     Granada taken by the Christians.

1502     End of the Golden Horde. Foundation of the Sefavid dynasty.

1520-1566     Suleyman the Magnificent.



Consider yourself tagged if you want to be.

(no subject)

20 min. 3.7 mi. Total: 460.7. Made it to Rivendell! Man, whatta dump. Heading on out to Lothlorien. Heading out of the valley, on to the moors.

Baa.

( How smart am I? )

Aaarg! Foiled!

So I set the TiVo to catch this travel show called Grannies on Safari, which was visiting Kyoto, a hot-springs resort, and Tokyo, to see if there was anyplace that looked interesting. One of the places they visit in Kyoto is a workshop or something where they paint kimono, and they got to paint (well, stencil, really) squares of fabric with traditional kimono patterns, and then went and watched women hand-painting kimono fabric which will eventually be made into very expensive kimono. That looked interesting, so I went to their website to see if they mention what the name of this place is ... nothing like that on the website. They really want you to buy the DVD set. I figure no problem, I'll see if it's listed in the credits. Well unfortunately, the screen freezes halfway through the show and stays like that until the end, when the TiVo switched to start taping Bleach. Aarg!


ETA: Witness the Powah of the Librarian! I found it! And it's eminently reasonable to paint small items like furoshiki, placemats, handkerchiefs, etc. rachelmanija! Let's do it! :D

ETA2: There are designs like the ancient traditional penguin

ETA3: Oooh, a shibori museum and craft center, where you can take a 2-hour class and dye something! (Shibori is an awesome method of dyeing that is not well served by translating it as "tie-dyeing." It's way more complex and doesn't look a thing like crappy tie-dye T-shirts.

ETA4: Nishijin Textile Center, where you can see weaving, or weave yourself (my mom weaves, so I don't have the urge to go weave, because I can do that whenever I want. :D) But I do want to go to it.

Adachi Kumihimo Gallery, for Japanese braiding, of which I've done a little, so it'd be cool to see.


all found through here.