How I keep myself out of trouble

I have lots of pictures of flowers I really should get on posting, but classes have started full force here and I have been a little... less than focused on blogging. It looks like each week we will be needing to memorize upwards of 70 new kanji (Chinese/Japanese characters that represent ideas and words). One teacher alone requires 40 new kanji and 120 compounds derived from those kanji per week... it's going to be tough. I'll keep going though, I just need to get into the swing of things.

Anyway, below will give you a taste of how I keep myself busy without internet in my dorm room. The project is a kusudama, which in origami terms is a modular flower ball decoration. Kusudama derives from the term for an incense brazier carried by a priest to smudge the place of worship (thanks Jason).

We will likely be traveling more soon, so I should have some more interesting things to post on! Next week it looks like we will be visiting the ocean and eating sushi as big as my head.

Making a Kusudama

Make 60 of these

Glue 5 of the 'petals' together to make each flower:


You end up with 12 flowers like this:
Glue 6 together:

Glue the next 6 together and lay a string through the middle:
Glue the two halves together, and you are done!

This was the first I made, and I've since found it is a little easier to not glue the two halves together, just to build the module piece by piece. Anyway, here is the finished product hanging in the international student lounge.


You can find directions here. Thanks to the wonderful person who took the time to draw out and post them!