Life in Japan - Year 3 Day 277 (07-22-09)
CLEANING ALL DAY LONG THIS IS THRILLING.
I dreamt of cleaning, and of opening the cabinets underneath the sink and finding a dark cavern of mud with massive river of brown, churning water, with old cardboard floating on top of it, amassing at one end, and I bore the knowledge that I had to clean it, and that cleaning it would be impossible.
I didn't sleep well.
Mrs. Tsunoda came by at 9:10 to help me clean. We started with my bedroom, and we moved things around and she insisted that she clean the ceiling with her dry mop. To knock down the dust. Though there wasn't really any dust up there, all of the dust was in corners and on the ground. We moved things and swept and moved and swept and scrubbed and cleaned and eventually we got my bedroom finished. So then we took a break.
I had made butterscotch pudding and I shared it with Mrs. Tsunoda. She enjoyed it, and had never had American-style pudding before - in Japan puddings are more technically custards. She gave me buckwheat tea that she brought. Then we tackled the front room for awhile, again moving and cleaning and throwing things away. She asked if she could have the birdcage. I told her she could have it gladly.
Then we broke for lunch - she didn't have lunch. And since I had nothing that I could do that wouldn't take a long time to make, I went to 7-11 to buy lunch. I brought it back and I ate it, then afterwards we continued to clean.
She said I looked tired, I told her I was tired. So she told me to sit down sometimes. Half the time she told me to sit down I'd go to some other area where I would clean and pick things up, and the other half I would sit down. We worked our way slowly to the front of the apartment until it was 4:30pm. And she offered to clean the bathroom and the toilet room but I told her no, she'd done enough, and I thanked her for all of her help. She really did help me get a lot of stuff put away and picked up, and with somebody else here cleaning was less stressful.
She had some gifts for me before she left. She had a furoshiki cloth that she had sewn for me - it's bright red and has a lot of Japanese decorative balls on it. She also had some postcards with artwork of flowers for me. She also had very colorful washi - traditional Japanese paper with visible fibers for me, too. And then she left. And I went back inside. And after cleaning all day long I couldn't pack anymore. I just couldn't. So I made dinner and I wrote my journal and I watched things on the internet, but I did not pack.
I dreamt of cleaning, and of opening the cabinets underneath the sink and finding a dark cavern of mud with massive river of brown, churning water, with old cardboard floating on top of it, amassing at one end, and I bore the knowledge that I had to clean it, and that cleaning it would be impossible.
I didn't sleep well.
Mrs. Tsunoda came by at 9:10 to help me clean. We started with my bedroom, and we moved things around and she insisted that she clean the ceiling with her dry mop. To knock down the dust. Though there wasn't really any dust up there, all of the dust was in corners and on the ground. We moved things and swept and moved and swept and scrubbed and cleaned and eventually we got my bedroom finished. So then we took a break.
I had made butterscotch pudding and I shared it with Mrs. Tsunoda. She enjoyed it, and had never had American-style pudding before - in Japan puddings are more technically custards. She gave me buckwheat tea that she brought. Then we tackled the front room for awhile, again moving and cleaning and throwing things away. She asked if she could have the birdcage. I told her she could have it gladly.
Then we broke for lunch - she didn't have lunch. And since I had nothing that I could do that wouldn't take a long time to make, I went to 7-11 to buy lunch. I brought it back and I ate it, then afterwards we continued to clean.
She said I looked tired, I told her I was tired. So she told me to sit down sometimes. Half the time she told me to sit down I'd go to some other area where I would clean and pick things up, and the other half I would sit down. We worked our way slowly to the front of the apartment until it was 4:30pm. And she offered to clean the bathroom and the toilet room but I told her no, she'd done enough, and I thanked her for all of her help. She really did help me get a lot of stuff put away and picked up, and with somebody else here cleaning was less stressful.
She had some gifts for me before she left. She had a furoshiki cloth that she had sewn for me - it's bright red and has a lot of Japanese decorative balls on it. She also had some postcards with artwork of flowers for me. She also had very colorful washi - traditional Japanese paper with visible fibers for me, too. And then she left. And I went back inside. And after cleaning all day long I couldn't pack anymore. I just couldn't. So I made dinner and I wrote my journal and I watched things on the internet, but I did not pack.