Holiday Inspirations from Sweden and Italy

Today I am supposed to finish that kimekomi dragon, get my hair in wedding mode, and try to remember the names of all my relatives so I can label their gifts before I see them next weekend, but I just can't concentrate until I wrap up the Yamate holiday home tour.

The Ehrismann house (he was Austrian) is decorated in the style of Sweden this year. The dining room is heaped with boxes numbered from 1 to 24. I almost wish I'd been born in Sweden. I wonder what the average size of a Swedish family is. I wonder how many gifts my parents would have had to buy to let each of their six children open a box every day in December.  I have a hard time multiplying 24 by six in my head so I get on with admiring the decorations.

The sunporch is festooned with pennants. Last week I volunteered to sew something like this for the JAW Superbowl party at the end of January so I snap dozens of pictures.

The living room couch and chair are decorated to look like holiday gifts.

Some of those numbered gifts are the dining room centerpiece

The primitive dining room table appeals to me. There are glass-covered insets scattered around the table; some are filled with candy and others with cookies. Highly impractical, I know. Seriously. I know from experience how many crumbs of crackers and how many ounces of spilled milk can collect in those cracks.

"A marshmallow wreath?"

"The coordinator of this house must be related to the coordinator of the French house."

"I'm getting hungry.  Let's hit the duplex and then head to Chinatown for lunch."

Thanks to a couple of Pinocchios and a table scattered with bits of Murano glass, we quickly label the duplex "Italy."

Two of us survey the duplex in record time. There really isn't all that much to see here other than dozens of cross-stitched Santas and such on the walls. These remind Peevish of her mother. She lingers. Wallowing in nostalgia is one of her favorite things to do during the holiday season.

A calendar on an easel near the front window on the second floor catches her eye, or maybe what catches her eye is the maple outside the window.



The calendar, upon closer inspection, seems to be a lace sampler of sorts. Peevish takes a picture for her fellow KnitWit, Hannele, a young Navy spouse from Finland who is becoming quite the expert lacemaker.

Will I miss the Yamate holiday tour next year? You bet. But I'll try to incorporate some of these incredible ideas into my own holiday decor.

All I need is a bag of marshmallows.

It Turns Out Estonia and Guatemala Have Much in Common

Berrick Hall was once a school, I believe. That would explain its somewhat utilitarian facade. I can't think of any explanation for the palm tree.

"Good Lord! That decoration suspended from the dining room chandelier must be at least six feet high. Do you think it's made out of popsicle sticks?

"A remark like that does not deserve a response. What country do you think we're in now?"

"My money's on Guatemala.  Come take a closer look at these colorful little disks hanging from the wooden geometric thing."

"Guatemala? Not Honduras or Mexico?"

"Okay, I'll go with a vague 'South America'. What I do I know about Guatemala anyway?"

"Apparently nothing since that docent lady just told me this house has been decorated to represent Estonia."

"Estonia? Where's that?"

"Not in South America, Peevish."

"I bet if we look up Estonia on Wikipedia we'll find that wool is one of their chief exports."

"You might be on to something.  There are a lot of yarn-wrapped wreaths in this house."

"I have been wondering what to do with all my leftover yarn!"

"It seems you'd feel right at home in Estonia. Guatemala, too, for that matter."

Ho, Ho, Ho: I See London, I See . . .

...France!

"How did you guess so quickly?"

"Pink and frilly! Remember, this is not necessarily how a French home would be decorated at Christmastime. It's how a Japanese person imagines Maurice Chevalier's home would look."

"That table's rather 'busy'."

"And really pink. But I love those window treatments!"

"I like the marshmallow tree in this little white room overlooking the garden."

"I like what they did to this long side porch. It seems to have a bird theme of sorts. They used a twiggy wreath on the horizontal and scattered eggshells around it so even Peevish would be able to figure out it's a bird's nest."

"I like how they spaced eight or nine of these simple twig and yarn trees at regular intervals along the window ledge."

"We could make those! They look pretty easy."

"Speak for yourself."

'Tis the Season: Yokohama Holiday Home Tour

One of the most fabulous experiences on offer at this time of the year in this part of Japan is the self-directed holiday tour of the Western houses situated on the Yamate bluff overlooking Yokohama. The houses are decorated differently every year and part of the fun is trying to figure out what country each house is meant to represent.

Click here for more information and directions. Peevish suggests you wear shoes that slip on and off easily since you will have to doff your footwear when you enter each house. After about the third or fourth house we just strolled around in stocking feet rather than squeezing our tootsies into those slippers and no one batted an eye. Well, perhaps they did behind our backs . . .

For those of you who aren't able to partake of this year's tour, I took loads of pictures when I visited Yamate with two highly opinionated but extremely camera-shy friends today.  It's going to take me a few posts to capture some of the highlights.

"I'm thinking Ireland is the theme of this house."

"Was the shamrock your first clue?"

"The stockings are hung by the chimney with care!"

"I spy another shamrock!"

Then Peevish rounded the corner into what seems to be a Victorian drawing room.

"Hey! Come check out this centerpiece! Now I am absolutely, positively certain that Ireland is the theme. There are three glasses and three of us.  Hmmm."

Holiday Tour of Yamate

The spirit of Christmas is alive and well on a bluff overlooking Yokohama. The City of Yokohama offers free admission to seven Western-style houses in the Yamate neighborhood and every December those houses are decked out for the holidays.

Yamate is where foreigners lived when the port first opened in the mid-19th Century. The houses we saw this week are less than 100 years old since the neighborhood was destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, but they are quite interesting and worth a visit any time of year.

Val and Rita in the garden behind the Diplomat's House

A nice Japanese businessman pointed us in the right direction when we exited the train at Ishikawa-cho station. Our first stop was the Diplomat's House. We had a hard time tearing ourselves away from the garden which offered a splendid view of Mt. Fuji, meaning we fortuitously picked an incredibly clear day for our walk.

Bluff 18 Ban-Kan

Bluff 18 Bank-Kan was where the Catholic priests lived.  The holiday decor in this house made lavish use of white feathers and alcohol (see left).  Go figure. 

We had to exchange our shoes for slippers to enter most of the houses. Note to self: wear slip-on shoes next time.

234 Ban-Kan, a duplex, featured decorations from Poland

The Foreign Cemetery is at the top of the hill. The Catholics were buried over to the side, reminding me a bit of St. John's Cemetery in my hometown.

While I was resisting the temptation to examine several hundred tombstones, my companions disappeared around a bend in the road. There's really no accounting for priorities. Most of my siblings would have spent more time wandering through the cemetery than the houses.

Now where did those ladies go? Are they ordering waffles inside The Best Cheesecake restaurant? Alas, no. Between the restaurant and the cemetery, I have two great reasons to return to Yamate.

This picture might have been taken in the Ehrismann Residence. A common thread in the house tour was the lavish holiday table settings.

After our tour ended at the British House near the top of French Hill, we descended several hundred steep steps to Motomachi Street where we paused for a late lunch at an Italian restaurant.

Several ladies succumbed to the upscale shops on Motomachi Street - yet another reason to return to Yamate - but I hopped on the subway with the others. I was hoping to initiate one of those Flash Mob song-and-dance numbers on the train but Artistic Explorer immediately put the kibosh on that plan. Next time I'll make darn sure she rides in a different train car.

Kathy Takes Up Mountain Climbing

Donna was game for an adventure and neither of us had seen the Western-style houses in Yokohama's Yamate neighborhood, so I printed a map, verified train directions, and off we went. Between the sweltering heat and steep inclines, both of which approached 100 degrees, we were glad (a) we had remembered to tuck little towels in our purses and (b) we had not invited any of the under-50 mountain goats on this adventure to witness our wheezing, gasping, handrail-clutching ascension of the first 200 or so stone steps. Remind me to study a topographical map the next time I'm planning an adventure . . .

Yamate is situated on a high bluff overlooking Tokyo Bay. It was designated for foreign settlement in the mid-1850s when Japan opened its doors to the rest of the world. Most of the 19th Century houses were constructed of wood and all but one - currently the Yamate Museum - were destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 (gulp). The museum was worth the $2 (roughly) admission fee. We learned that the vases and ceramic doodads our grandmothers dusted daily (perhaps weekly in the case of my grandmothers) are considered quaint and historic by lots of Japanese people.

The eight houses on the self-guided tour (example above) were all built in the late 1920s, after the earthquake, one of my all-time favorite housing decades. There is no charge to tour the houses (assuming Donna and I did not commit a gross cultural faux pas and overlook a ticket booth while mopping sweat from our faces) and they are blessedly air-conditioned. The two we toured, including the former British Consulate, were not large by Biltmore or even contemporary McMansion standards, but the Japanese tourists wandering through the rooms seemed impressed. Or maybe they were simply smitten with the a/c like the two glistening American ladies.

Donna says we hiked about five miles along that bluff. I decided to reward her for all that effort by introducing her to Mr. Donut and she was so appreciative she let me eat half of her donut after I inhaled mine.