Christmas Amigurumi once again

En français

So it's kind of a habit now for me to make Amigurumis for Christmas and to ship them all over the world do nice people asking for them. I know this Christmas I decided that I wasn't actually going to take requests. The reason for that was that I had a lot of nice people around who I could make something for. So I created an army of Totoros, 26 of them to be precise (well I still have 1 to finish and 2 to actually make). I never actually made that many Amigurumi in such a short time before.
But I think them liked them.

And as I know some of my readers probably want one as well, and as I created the patterns myself, as a Christmas gift for you I'm going to tell you how to make one yourself.

Body and head 
Make an amigurumi ring.
1) 5 sc in the ring.
2) 2 sc in each sc around : 10 sc
3) (1 sc in the next sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 5 times : 15 sc
4) (1 sc in the next 2 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 5 times : 20 sc
5) (1 sc in the next 3 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 5 times : 25 sc
6-11) 25 sc  
12) (1 sc in the next 2 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 8 times, 1 sc in the next : 33 sc
13-20) 33 sc
21) (1sc in the next 2 sc, decrease once) 8 times, 1 sc in the next : 25 sc
22) (1 sc in the next 3 sc, decrease once) 5times : 20 sc

Fill up with stuffing
23) (1 sc in the next 2 sc, decrease once) 5times : 15 sc
24) (1 sc in the next sc, decrease once) 5times : 10 sc.
Sew to close.

Arms (make two) 
Make an amigurumi ring.
1) 3 sc in the ring.
2) 2 sc in each sc around : 6 sc 
3) (1 sc in the next 1 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 3 times : 9 sc
4-9) 9 sc
Finish off

Ears (make two) 
Make an amigurumi ring.
1) 3 sc in the ring.
2) 2 sc in each sc around : 6 sc 
3) (1 sc in the next 1 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 3 times : 9 sc
4-8) 9 sc
9) (1 sc in the next 1 sc, decrease once) 3 times : 6 sc
Finish off

Tail
Make an amigurumi ring. 
1) 4 sc in the ring.
2) 2 sc in each sc around : 8 sc
3) (1 sc in the next 1 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 4 times 
4-5) 12 sc
Finish off


Stomach 
Make an amigurumi ring. 
1) 6 sc in the ring.
2) 2 sc in each sc around : 12 sc
3) (1 sc in the next 1 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 6 times : 18 sc
4) (1 sc in the next 2 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 6 times : 24 sc
5) (1 sc in the next 3 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 6 times : 30 sc
6) (1 sc in the next 4 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 6 times : 36 sc
7) (half turn)  (1 sc in the next 5 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) 3 times : 39 sc

Eye
Make an amigurumi ring. 
1) 5 sc in the ring. 
Close the ring.
Finish off

Sew the forms on the Stomach and eyes at the end.
Only the body and ears are stuffed up so the arms are free to move.

Merry Christmas !!

Japan : Trip to Kansai 海遊館

En français
In the afternoon, we went to 海遊館 (Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan), one of the largest aquarium in the world. They have 29000 animals from 470 different species. It is so big that they even have manta rays and a pair of whale sharks and several dolphins. A whale shark can measure 12.65 meters at most and weight 36 tonnes, those in the aquarium were of course smaller but still really impressive.
The aquarium is extended over several floors and finished with a museum part where you can even pet rays and shares. We went out to see the Christmas illuminations in front of it.
Travel table of content

Japan : Trip to Kansai 大坂城

En français
The first morning of our trip we went to visit 大坂城 (Osaka castle). The construction started in 1583 and several people continued to improve and renovate it during the next centuries. Now it's a museum so the interior doesn't look like a Japanese castle anymore. However we can discover the mystery of the construction and of the seals of the divers Japanese clans which participated in it's construction as well as the life of people there few centuries ago.
We also walked in the park around the castle and eat some 肉まん　and たこ焼き.
 Travel table of content

Japan : Trip to Kansai introduction

En français

From the 19 of November until the 23rd, I have been visiting Kansai with friends. They went few days earlier and we took the bus on the Friday night to join them in Osaka. We had a lot of problems to find our bus. Things can get pretty hard when you can't read basic information and don't even know where to read them but with some help it all turn out fine and we managed to get on this exciting travel to discover another side of Japan. It took us the entire night to travel between Tokyo and Osaka and we met the others at the hotel in the morning. Then we had time for shower and breakfast before leaving for our first day of discovery. In this new series of posts I will show you our activities in Osaka, Nara and Kyoto.
Travel table of content

まほろまてぃっく (Mahoromatic)

En français
まほろまてぃっく is a manga serie written by 中山文十郎 and anime directed by 山賀 博之. The manga was run between 1998 and 2004 and the anime diffused at the end of 2001 and beginning of 2002.

It is the story of an fighting android Mahoro who has been created to fight against alien invasion. For her good work she is given the choice to do what she wants for the last 398 days before she stops functioning. She decides to become the maid of 美里 優, the son of her last commender who died during the war. She then moves in with him and starts to develops feeling but the aliens are still there and as she has access to all her weapons she needs to keep on fighting. 美里 優's classmate andcrazy teacher are also around to either be friendly or come between her and 美里 優.



I think this anime is really funny. I like how Mahoro freaks out every time there is something perverted in the house and her continual fight with the teacher. I also like the little poems at the end of each episodes. Watching this was a lot of fun.
Cinema, Manga, Animation Content

Japan : Trick Art museum

En français
You probably remember how some times ago I went to 高尾山 with some friends. (If you don't have a look here). At the end of the previous post I was telling that three of us had decided to go to the Trick Art museum. Should I say the craziest and more courageous of us? Probably according to what happened to us in there. But I think the video is going to do all the talking. Welcome to the best museum ever, ever, ever... did I say best ever?
Travel table of content  

神話 (the myth)

En français

神話 is Hong Kong action movie from 2005 staring Jacky Chan and directed by Stanley Tong.

Jack, an archaeologist has been having recurrent dreams for three months in a row. His friend comes to see him to ask him to help in his project of discovering the mystery of levitation in the kingdom of Darsa. While in the temple, Jack discover a sword belonging to the character he is incarnating in his dreams, general Meng, and the portrait of the woman he loves, the concubine Ok-Soo. He will pursue his travel to unravel the mystery of his apparent previous life.




I like this movie because it shows that two people who are supposed to be separated by everything, family, place in the society, time can still love each other and stay true to each other until the end. Ok-Soo will trust Meng until the end even when everything tend to prove that he is dead.

 Casting : 
Jacky Chan as Meng and Jack
梁家輝 as William
金喜善 (김희선) as Ok-Soo
मल्लिका शेरावत (Mallika Sherawat) as Indian Princess

Cinema, Manga, Animation Content

Demon and fairy final part

It has been a long time since I gave you a part of "Demon and fairy". (If you need a little bit of memory refresh about the story you can have a look at the previous part here.)
Here is the last part of the story as I finally finished the first draft few days ago. It took me 5 months.
"Demon and fairy" has probably been the story I had the more troubles to write for several reasons.

It's the first story in which my main character is a boy. I don't think that it is much of a problem, I really liked to be with Seti. I like the beginning when it's only him and me and all I had to do was dealing with his feeling about the unfairness of his life. But at some point it started to be difficult not to go see other characters. Kallisto is also really interesting. She is just sweet and nice and she trusts him as soon as she looks at him no matter how dangerous he could get. I think in a way she doesn't really understand how much he could hurt her, but as long as he is not doing it intentionally that's ok with her.

One other problem is the scenery. My stories so far had been confined into mostly one or two places -the house and the cave in "Demon Soul" and the attic and Teneria in "Attic Mirror"- my characters didn't really need to move too much. In "Demon and fairy" however there is this research of love that is going to take Seti in the "Fairy World" far from everything he knows. I needed to make a real contrast between the "Demon World" and the "Fairy World" and this also gave me some trouble.

Another difficult part was to have to deal with so many characters at the same time, especially when they are all in for different reasons, have different background and feelings and would react totally differently to the same situation. One of the character most difficult to deal with was probably Azazel. He wanted Seti's power and life without knowing about it and at some point I was really ready to give it to him, the problem is that he didn't react to it as he had expected.

"Demon and fairy" is also my longest story, with a total of 101267 words. I must say I had problem to see the end until I actually get there.

Now if you actually bothered to read all my state of mind about the story, I think you deserve to actually know the end. I hope you'll have as much fun reading it as I had writing it.

PS : let me know what you think about the references to "Demon Soul" all over this book. It could be considered as a second part in a way.

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