Preparations for moving are definitely underway. We have piles of boxes where the sofa used to be. Ultra Bob collected the sofa last weekend and traded me an electric bass for it – a trade I am very happy about. If it all works out, our unwanted furniture will have a happy new home: the old piano is due to go today or tomorrow; we have someone picking up the bed on Sunday. I have my fingers crossed as plans have fallen through a couple of times already. It is hard to give things away. I am becoming a good fan of Craiglist.
The apartment is hysterical in its disarray. There is unpacked stuff everywhere. It’s dithering time – will I need that in the next couple of days? Which box should this go into, anyway? It’s totally nuts. The stacked boxes are a visual relief from the clutter.
And, in the spirit of knitting a horse, I started practicing writing the kanji for our new address. I realised yesterday when we went to the Bunkyo city office to register our move, that I could not write the new address except in English letters. I recognise the kanji to read and I can type them on the computer, but writing the 16 stroke “kamo” by hand seemed impossible. Even “ken” had me a bit stumped and forget “ba.” For me, that feels like defeat. So I looked it all up, watched some stroke order animations when I couldn’t figure out the order myself (though I have to give thanks to Oyama sensei for drilling me on writing all those years ago), and started practicing. After 40 minutes of meditative writing, I can remember all the kanji, though as usual, my handwriting is looks like a 5 year old’s. But it is legible and it will get better.
So we are moving right along. It will all get done. We will be at our new address (all 65 strokes of it) this time next week. Wow.
