What has Tae been up to in Japan?

9 min read

Deviation Actions

taeliac's avatar
By
Published:
14.5K Views
From Japan § Sewing Tutorials § Stock Photography § Online Store coming soon!




Kind of a lot of everything, yet nothing.

Festivals & Fotos


Lets see... well, for starters, a few weeks ago I got a new camera body. A Pentax K-5IIs if anyone is particularly curious. What this means is that I can take pictures in darker settings, because it's ideal for low light conditions, which means... MATSURI PICTURES! That's right, so many festivals, and most of them at night, which means Tae is a happy kitty!

Here, in fact, is a shot from Nakatsu Gion Festival this past weekend:

Gilded Cage by taeliac


Workin' hard


A month or three ago (jeeze, has it been that long already?) I started working at the same place as my husband. See, sometimes when you get new people, you just get the worst possible. They may interview well, but once it comes right down to it... well, that, and a combination of her thinking all of Japan would be just *~kawaii~* like Akihabara style. Yeah. Instead of just quitting, she literally left the country in the middle of the night. I wish I was joking. Bitch owes me $200 too, so I'm still bitter.

On the plus, I got one of her schools, which is the one I really, really wanted, since my koto teacher is the English head there. And I really like her. And now I really like the school. Well, the kids I can take or leave, but the teachers and the like are absolutely the best. Especially since my predecessor royally fucked it up, so basically anything I could do would be golden. The week before summer break, I was told by the vice principal that I have "the heart of a Japanese" because I brought in flowers and peaches for everyone, because they've been so nice.

Kitties! So many kitties!


So. Yeah, working. A lot, it seems. When I'm not working, I'm domesticating, doing things like laundry and stuff. The real bonus for working, though, is we have more money (hence new camera body and lens) to spend or save for fun trips, or, perhaps, for even moving. We're looking at renting a house, so that we can have cats. Because every stray cat here breaks my heart, and they're all so damned friendly and cute. I want to take them all in, I'm not even joking.

Here's a picture of our local friendly gimpy kitty that our neighbor took in as a kitten, looking all cute and stuff:

Beautiful Kitty by taeliac

She has a twisted front paw that she can't move, and so it kind of scabs up ickily and she limps along - it doesn't slow her down, though! I really want to adopt her, but I don't know if her owner would be cool with that, but you never know. He has four new kittens he's taking care of now, so... yeah. Many fuzzy!

Sewing & Crafts


I have also been sewing lately. Well, most of it has been for work (yay summer camps and stuff /s) but some of it has been for me as well! For once, right?

The biggest thing lately has been altering an older yukata (summer kimono) to fit me, and then, since I didn't like any of the yukata obi's I saw and the one I bought at a resale shop was too small for me, I decided to say fuck it and make it into a corset.

10448780 10154316587820246 5102047970737221287 N by taeliac10492576 10154316587935246 5086201182902392316 N by taeliac(also, yes, I did chop off all of my hair for the summer. In some ways, I regret it, but when it's over 30C out, nope, totally worth it)


Yep. I'm now the weird westerner with the corset obi, but this past weekend, so many people loved it, so that's a plus, right? I'm actually going to make myself another one, and maybe one to sell...? What do you think? Would anyone out there be interested in a second-hand yukata and matching corset obi set? It's all steel, just like a legit corset, just unlined since the brocade is tough as hell already. And if I can find any with pretied bows, I could do that as well :3 Because that would be awesome IMO, but sometimes I just wonder if I'm the only crazy person who likes things like this.

So, yeah, that was a huge hit (seriously, I got so many compliments in Japanese and a few in broken English, it was so amazing).

I also made my first temari ball - a traditional Japanese toy that is just pretty sweet to make, if you have the patience for it!

My first temari ball WIP by taeliac
Sorry for Instagram pics, I'll get good ones eventually!


And, lastly, I made my first legit corset in like a year a few months ago. I am so pleased with it, and I'm just happy to feel like I'm slowly getting back into the groove of things. It's hard, letting depression and then stress eat your life away, but I'm slowly clawing it back, one day at a time.

1385132 10154107626775246 8463305419079019380 N by taeliac


If you want to stay up to date with whatever is going on in my life, follow my Instagram or my Tumblr (which is pretty much just Instagram reposting, so be forewarned) but I am going to try to be more active here, since there's so much going on on this side of the world!



Skin & photographs © taeliac
© 2014 - 2024 taeliac
Comments10
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Nickle4aPickle's avatar
Good to hear from you again! :wave:
MATSURIIIIII~ oAo I've always wanted to gooooo~ Too bad we have none of that here in Upstate NY. ^^;
I hope to see more of your pics soon!

I adore that yukata + obi-corset combo! *w* Looks stunning on you!

Take care! :hug: