(This entry has a very special soundtrack. Please open this link in a new tab or window and listen along as you read.)
On Saturday my friend Mami had a birthday party at a small bar in Gifu and I decided to sew her a little something as a gift. A few hours before the party, I flipped through a recent issue (Vol. 27) of Cotton & Paint and saw a fairly easy-looking tissue holder with a pocket for a handkerchief.
Both tissue and handkerchiefs are necessities in Japan, as public restrooms sometimes don't provide toilet paper and rarely provide paper towels for drying your hands. (And carrying a hankie around means less waste. Mottainai!)
I didn't have time to embroider anything complex, so I settled for a simple cross-stitched "M." The fabrics are all Japanese cottons and I especially love the blue floral print. The ribbon was a 100-yen store find.
Mami seemed surprised and happy to receive a handmade gift, but honestly, not as happy as she looked when a huge group of us surrounded her and sang along with Fannypack: "Hey Mami! You sexy! Hey Mami! You beautiful!"*
Hey Mami! It's true!
* I thought I had never heard this song until Saturday, but I realized tonight that it was featured in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which I think demonstrates how completely I have tried to banish that movie from my memory.
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Comments (10)
kawaiiiiiiiii!!!!!!
Posted by marol | June 11, 2007 10:51 PM
HAHAHHA... I watched that movie after one of those convoluted Wikipedia journeys where you look something up which leads you to something else, which leads you to something else, etc. until you end up on something totally unrelated.
Well, anyway, I found out that the movie had a cameo in it of the actual Drift King as a fisherman watching from the sidelines. And it said what his line was, and how they had completely changed what he said for the English subtitles. For some reason this made me want to actually watch the movie. (I must be nuts.)
The fun part was, while watching it I recognized two people:
1) Sailor Mars from the live action Sailor Moon series, playing the younger "techie" girl;
2) One of the lawyers from "Seven Women Lawyers," a show I happened to catch on TV while I was in Japan, playing the kid's homeroom teacher.
I guess the amusement of that made it worth watching once... but the rest I sort of wish I could burn out of my brain.
Posted by Julie | June 12, 2007 3:14 AM
Yeah, the movie set in Japan that featured, oh, NO JAPANESE PEOPLE.
Posted by Mariko | June 12, 2007 4:09 AM
um...most amazing post. ever.
that tissue holder looks just like the picture in the book!
you should integrate r&b/hiphop/rap songs in every post! it'd be marvellous (perhaps "got my vans on" by pack? a song solely about how amazing vans are)
Posted by sonya | June 12, 2007 4:33 AM
So lovely and thoughtful. I am intrigued by the idea of carrying the hanky to dry ones hands. With a fantastic holder - that is a great idea!
Posted by Lori Magno | June 12, 2007 5:18 AM
So cuuuute! And I love that song. Luckily her birthday anthem isn't Cameltoe...
Posted by Zena | June 12, 2007 6:38 PM
No, the show that was filmed in Japan where people around them don't speak JAPANESE. Ha! :)
Posted by Amy | June 12, 2007 10:43 PM
Last week on vacation I recieved alot of smirks for using my hanky to dry my hands in public restrooms. Now I need a special holder for my hanky. Something to match the inch wide, blue and green, crochet edging.
Posted by Bunny | June 14, 2007 12:42 AM
i just read every single post in your archives & let me say WOW your life is wonderful to read about
i have a question about you being in japan and teaching english; HOW (or in a few more words, how do you go about doing something like that?)
Posted by alyssa | June 14, 2007 10:15 AM
That's such a gorgeous little gift! I love the fabrics you've used.
Posted by Emma | June 14, 2007 5:52 PM