Tuesday Then and Now

Ten years ago this summer I spent two months in Yokohama, subletting the apartment of a friend of a friend and attending a Japanese language program for North American grad students. I met a great group of people, a number of whom are still friends, and made a whole lot of amazing memories. The school was in a beautiful spot overlooking the water, right by Queen's Square and the Landmark Tower, only a few minutes from Sakuragicho station.

In the ten years since then Sakuragicho has changed - new shopping complexes, more stores, new developments... I hardly recognized it when I went last week. But looking at the Nagasaki University's Metadatabase of Japanese Old Photographs it has changed even more in the past 100 years...

What is now Sakuragicho station is on the site of what was the first Yokohama station.

The station is now dwarfed by the surrounding buildings and almost hidden, but the sky was a lovely shade of blue and I enjoyed doing a bit of reminiscing...

The station itself got in on the now and then - it is decorated with old photographs, maps, and descriptions of what the area used to look like.

Splash of Blue

More knitting, more pictures of knitting draped over colour-coordinating greenery in our garden. I'm really lucky with the colour-coordinating part as the hydrangea is juuust starting to bloom and it is the only thing that will be blue the entire year. Does this mean I have to spend the next few months knitting green before moving to brown and grey next winter?

This narrow decorative scarf/tie, turned out to be a super quick knit and I am hoping that the coworker for whom it is intended, who waited with anticipation for the red shawl to be finished and given to another coworker, will be surprised and pleased. She often wears silk scarves and pulls it off with a flair I've never been able to match.

She impresses me for far more than her ability to accessorize with silk, however, as she has successfully managed both family and career, something not so common among her generation in Japan. She had a home-based personal consulting type business on the side when her children were young, gradually working on more contracts as they got older and she could spare more time. Once they were in university (but not out of the house, of course!) she found herself a job outside of the home and has continued to acquire new skills and embrace new technologies as she goes.  Truly impressive and somebody I hope to be able to emulate!

Tuesday (Then and) Then and Now

We spent one day over the Golden Week holidays in Yokosuka. It was a gorgeous day - cloudless blue sky, sunny, and a light breeze in the air. Not too hot, but not chilly in the slightest. It was the perfect day trip - no crazy Golden Week traffic, silent greenery, shrines, a delightful quirky little teahouse, and beach combing.

One of the shrines was at the top of long long flights of stairs and gave a beautiful view of Yokosuka and the ocean. By the lookout point was a signboard with a copy of a Hiroshige image of the same view...

While not the same view, the Nagasaki University's Metadatabase of Japanese Old Photographs has a few photographs overlooking Yokosuka and the bay...