Random thoughts from emails to a friend

So my friend suggested I put some of these emails on the blog, and since I've been lame about posting, I want to get some things here, anyway.

So:

1. I wonder how anyone is supposed to dry clothes around here! We don't have a clothes dryer at the apartments here. We are to hang laundry out our windows or on the clothes line. This is all fine, except that the clothes I hung out there last night are just as wet as when I put them there. They are under an overhang, so it rain is not the culprit, I think. Thankfully none of those clothes are in urgent need of being worn today.

reply: The trick is to do your laundry in the mornings, and not at night.
The night's drop down to comfortable temperatures, but the days suck,
right? If it rains, you will still want to bring them in, I think, as
we get some pretty steeply sideways'd rain.

2. I discovered some delicious crackers yesterday. I think I need to go get more. I am quite addicted and they are fairly inexpensive. I sort of randomly chose them because I wanted something to go with canned meat/fish for my dinner since I didn't have cooking supplies yet. They looked to be a good size and shape for that and I hoped for tastiness...and they went beyond my hopes. YUM!!!
I also like the fact that when you open the bag, they are packaged in pairs so the rest don't get stale.
Oh, the canned fish I chose was tasty, also. In fact everything I've tried that I purchased has been good. The cracker things happened to be superlatively so!



3. I kinda figured that there wasn't tasty chocolate here, as I've heard it is kind of weird, but I wanted to try it since there was some right there. I really like the one I purchased. It tastes like good dark chocolate I am accustomed to eating, has a nice texture, was only 99 yen, and a little goes a long way, as in much dark chocolate. Happy chocolate!

I love shopping here. It's kind of like a game to find stuff I want to try, to find stuff I already like eating, to identify some stuff, to figure out in what way some stuff could possibly be useful, to figure out creative things to do with stuff that I have no idea of its intended use, and so forth.

I also like wandering around here. I may not like it so much when I have to be somewhere in a hurry or something, but in this casual setting I really really like it.

(Hyaku en store is kind of like a dollar store)

4. It is interesting where my apartment is that there are so many houses crammed together and yet it feels natural and peaceful This closeness in the US would drive me nuts. Here, where I am, anyway, there is so much nature everywhere. It is noisy, but not from people and vehicles and such...from cicadas and unique sounding birds. The cicadas are LOUD. The bees are HUGE!!!! I saw a dragonfly whose length was about from the tip of my middle finger to my wrist. The hugest bee so far was as big as my thumb on the body --- only saw one that big and it was slow and bumbly, not wasp-like, so I actually liked it. I've seen other largish ones, too, but none like that first one!

We have cool blue-tailed lizards in the driveway area. I have yet to get a picture of one because they don't mind being seen, but they are camera-shy.

There are some purple flowers on the way to hyaku en store that I must go photograph, as well as some purple wisteria, which we have in the US, but they are so pretty and I want pictures of them, also.

5. I found similar crackers to those I really like...and bought another package. They are a different brand, so I don't know if I will like them as well, but the I know where to go get more if they aren't the same. I know I'm going to eventually run into some foods I don't like, but so far I've made good choices.

And yay, now I have eggs...and they weren't really more expensive than Ellensburg, where egg prices have become ridiculously high for who knows what reason. I was able to purchase half dozens of large eggs at the hyaku en store, which is slightly less expensive than the last eggs I purchased in WA.

Anyway, so far, I am quite enjoying the adventure.

6. I should have known that pouches of spaghetti sauce would have somewhat of that Spaghettio's flavor. It's somewhat better than those, especially because it actually has some meat and is tastier to some degree. Kind of funny, though. I bought a couple of different brands to try.

7. I got up this morning and walked up to the top of the hills behind here, along the main road. I was inundated by school children walking and running to school Very cute...
Anyway, it is along the backside of Kinkakuji, I think. Pretty walk, and I finally bought a drink from one of the zillions of vending machines here. A tasty one, at that...apple, peach, mango.




8. So I guess there are special ways to take care of tatami mats, and the futons that go on them. Apparently the futons go on all the beds, here, but some of the other people have regular beds, and some of us have tatami. The other people here at this building have beds. I could have had a large bed, actually, but I really like my tatami mats. They are quite comfortable.

So this morning I have my futon hanging out in the sun, while I set up the tatami to dry, even though it doesn't seem like it's wet. Apparently at the other apartments, it is not only tatami beds, but their whole floor is tatami, like the upper rooms in our school. I was told I could use the extra tatami mats here and make my room a tatami room if I like, also. I am thinking about it, but I'm not sure why I would do that other than that it would look cool, which is reason enough, I suppose. I do like it, and it gives the feel of a bit more traditional Japanese experience.

(Usually, the tatami have a futon mattress on them, and bedding. I just took it off to show the tatami mats. Hopefully my room isn't always this messy, but I shoved things around to get the stuff off the bed. You can see through the window, my laundry is hanging...)