Shoji Repair

DIY Shoji repair!

While Shoji is increadibly easy to tear, it's also pretty easy to replace (thank goodness). When we moved in, there were probably about 12 tears in the Shoji throughout our house. Within a few weeks, there were probably close to 30. Cardboard boxes are a major enemy of shoji... That and a litte chihuaha who thinks it's okay to scratch at the paper door.

Step 1.
Locate the tears in your shoji door/s or window covering/s.

Step 2.

Gather your supplies. You will need Shoji paper (shown here in a small roll, but also comes in big rolls that will cover a whole panel in one easy application), special shoji glue (rice based water soluable glue, water soluability is very important, since you will be doing this again and don't want to have to carve off the remnants), and a very sharp razor blade. All told, my supplies cost me about $7.50.

Step 3.

Lay your Shoji panel on a flat surface face down and use your razor to cut out the square you plan to replace making sure to cut as centered on the little cross beams as possible (you don't want the next square coming loose). Rip out the part you want to remove. With a damp cloth, very gently remove any stubborn scraps. (If removing the whole panel, take your damp cloth and soak all cross beams and you should be able to just pull the whole thing off). Let dry. It only takes a moment.

step 4.

Put a thin layer of glue onto all four sides and the cross beams. Smear it with your finger or a paintbrush if you like.

Step 5.

Carefully line up your paper and press it down along the glue, making sure it's stuck in all areas. Be gentle though, because the wood slats may break under too much pressure, and once the Shoji paper gets wet it tears very easily (it too is made from rice). Then carefully cut the excess paper. Let dry again. This time it probably needs about 20 -40 min.

Step 6.

Now that your glue is dry, put your shoji panel back where it came from and grab a squirt bottle full of water (mine happens to be a repurposed hairspray bottle because it cost 750 yen for an empty spray bottle out in town, I figured it was cheaper to dump my hairspray down the drain and buy more later). Sorry I digress, anyway, lightly spray your new paper and probably those directly adjoining it and let them dry. Don't worry when the paper looks a little saggy immediatly following being sprayed. It shrinks as it dries and will soon be tight as a drum, but don't use it as one unless you really enjoyed this repair project.

Step 7.

Step back and enjoy your handi-work. Haha, yes I know my new squares don't match the old. I didn't want to invest in the bigger roll until I knew I could do this without ruining everything. So in the meantime, we have missmatched shoji, but it keeps the warm air where it's supposed to be and now I know I can buy the $13 roll next time without worrying that it's going to be a big gooey wad in the trash...

Need a little R & R?

If you are looking to relax and don't mind a little DIY (do it yourself) project, you can buy the supplies to make your very own pillow.















I'm not sure what the dark brown stuff is, but its some sort of natural filler.

Here is a close up of the white stuff, which happens to be plastic pellets or hollow plastic balls. (might mean you never get that hot stuffy pillow in the summer. hmmm, I might have to make one of these).

You can also get the supplies to make one of these, or you can just buy it for 7140 yen (about $74). This one is made from little tiny blocks of wood that have been put through something to round down the corners. For that price it really must do something good for you. Certainly has me curious!

And if sleeping on plastic pellets or wood blocks doesn't relax you as much as you'd hoped, just pop on a pair of these slippers and walk your way to bliss.

Interesting things you'll see in Japan from your car

Most streets don't seem to have names unless you are in a 'downtown' area. Once you head out into the towns and villages (we live in a village within a town) there are many signs like this that seem to be names of intersections. For example, I took this picture of the Nango Tunnel Ent. sign, about 50 meters after exiting the Nango tunnel, while facing straight ahead.
















Here is an Electric store I happened past during a walk. I'm pretty sure this stuff is outside day or night. Perhaps it's safe because if you move one thing, everything else will come crashing down and make enough noise that the owner would hear it. This is not an example of the regular business. Most are, though quite crowded, orderly and neat.

















DD LOVED these little bunnies!






















This building and many many others in Yokosuka are testament to the Japanese ability to focus on detail and be patient. I believe this building is 13 floors and still they took the time to tile and grout the entire thing with approx 3' x 3' tiles (where you see the darker ones, they are maybe 3' x 5').
















This little sticker on the back of this car indicates that this is a handicap driver. They decided that the little guy in the wheelchair didn't seem very pleasant, so they have switched to clovers which are a symbol of goodluck and happiness. Do I detect some irony??

It's also common to see two-toned water drop stickers on cars indicating that it is an elderly driver. Allowed for those over 70, mandatory for those over 76.

And then the most scary sticker looks kinda like an open book, with one page yellow and one page green. These are the people you want to avoid! It is a requirement for new drivers to have this sticker on their car for the first full year they are driving, after that they are free to remove it. If you happen to be in an accident with someone who's a new driver, even if they t-bone you, guess who's fault it is... That's right, it's yours! Because as a seasoned driver, you should know how to get out of their way. More scary though than the fact that many of these cars are new drivers is that most of these drivers are Americans who, because they are nervous have put these on their car in hopes that others will avoid them. (if these folks hit you, it's shared fault, because they are not in fact 'new drivers') Anyway, their stickers work, cause I stay as far from them as I can.

Side note: Insurance here is SUPER CHEAP!! For our JCI (Japanese Compulsary Insurance)/liability it cost something like $350 for 2 years. The military requires us to have additional liability ins just in case, which cost us a pocket wrenching $280 a year. For both of us. The reason ins can be this cheap is that unless you are in an accident with someone handicaped, over 76 or driving less than a year, everyone is to blame. Doesn't matter who hit who. One of the guys from my husband's command was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle. He tried to tell his insurance that he had no fault. They refused to acknowledge the claim unless he accepted 1% blame. So he finally did and his 'at fault' portion was that he can't speak Japanese, which makes him 1% guilty in the accident. lol.

















An overhead crosswalk system.

Japanese speed bumps.

A trip to Yokohama

Just the other day I decided that rather than pay someone $45 to take my paperwork to the LTO (Land Transportation Office) I'd do it myself.

The LTO is about 40km (25 miles) away from here, but takes nearly an hour to get to, even with the use of toll roads, but I was set for an adventure and had the car stocked with little baby sized water bottles, crackers and string cheese, plus a pile of yen, so we were set to go. Here are some pictures from my adventure.

Never has a Semi looked so big as when you see them in Japan!

The sides of the tollway through Yokohama are lined with windows, for kilometers and kilometers, it's really an amazing thing. I wonder how much time is spent washing them each year.

Here is a brave fellow.

This is the little paper I got one of in the video. It tells the person at the next toll booth where you got on the tollway at so they know how much to charge you. It certainly beats tollways like the E470 in Denver that makes you stop every 2 miles to pay them another $2. Jerks! haha, anyway...

We ended up making a day of it and I'm sure offended some very nice folks in a little Ramen shop by the LTO, by not eating the food we ordered (as I mentioned in my video, everything tasted like fish, even though I'm pretty sure it was beef broth in my ramen). Japanese custom is to eat everything you are served, even down to a final grain of rice, and in turn, this restaurant didn't even have the means to dispose of our leftovers inside the building. I saw the poor lady looking around trying to figure out what to do with it and finally just set the dishes on the floor by the back door. ooops! I tried, I really did. For those of you who don't know, I'm a vegetarian, so even trying to eat the beef broth was a huge stretch for me, but to have the overwhelming smell and somewhat taste of fish mixed in was more than I could deal with. I managed to eat about 10 or 15 bites before there was just no way anymore would go down. I hadn't even meant to order the ramen for me. I just wanted some rice and some noodles for DD because she was hungry and I figured I could wait until we got home. However, when I don't speak Japanese yet and the only English the man behind the counter spoke were infact rice and noodles, it made it hard to portray that I just wanted a little dish with some rice and some noodles, so we had a little dish of rice and a huge bowl of Ramen, each with a big slab of some sort of boiled meat set on top and a 3in x 3in square of Nori tucked into the side. DD grabbed the Nori tried a taste and that was that, she wasn't eating anything there... So we paid, I gritted my teeth at the rudeness I knew I was perpetrating and we got out of there as fast I could.