My favorite things to do when it rains

In October, it rained every weekend.  Two big typhoons came to Japan and I couldn’t spend my family time outside.  When it rains, I usually make something by origami paper at home.

Origami is an art of folding paper.  When I was a little child, my grandmother taught me how to fold papers to make bird, box, boat, flowers, etc.  It looked like a magic and I loved the time with my grandmother.

The traditional origami paper is in standard colors with no patterns, but recently there are a lot of origami papers in different types of patterns, like Japanese traditional patterns or modern stylish patterns. 

I also learned there are many blogs introducing ideas how to fold papers to make fancy home decorations.  Then, I started making stars and put them on walls or string them down from the ceiling.  I pick up blue and green papers for summer and replace them to red, green and white for coming winter season.

Now I am preparing a Christmas wreath.  I am going to fold over a hundred origami papers to make flowers, and then put them in a hoop.

Lucky or unlucky things in Japan

The Black Cat

A detective novelist "Edogawa Ranpo" is well-known in Japan. Do you know his name comes from an American novelist "Edgar Allan Poe" who wrote about terrible people with strange lives? "Black Cat " is one of his masterpieces.

There's a man who loves animals and keeps a beautiful and intelligent black cat. At first he lives happily with the black cat but he changes slowly to be unkind, selfish and violent because of alcohol.

Eventually he cruelly kills the black cat. Some days after he finds another black cat and keeps him. One day he kills his wife because she stops him killing the new black cat. He buries her dead body in the wall but it is found by the police because a voice like a child crying comes from inside of the wall. When her dead body appears, the black cat is standing on her head covered with dried blood.

This story will frighten you!