Archives

Author: kuri
  • On the way back

    On the way back from the house inspection (whch the realtor declared “good”), I stopped at the local plant shop on Hakusan Dori to buy some trees for the veranda. What a delightful experience. The Shimamuras have friends in Chicago so they visit the US from time to time and speak some English. Our conversation…

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  • Links

    Good reading and access to other places.

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  • Whew. I found the

    Whew. I found the garage key. The garage key was in a desk drawer. Without a car, we never needed the key and it was put away for safekeeping. Of course, it was also half forgotten. Vague memories of “drawer” dredged up the right location after a few tries. This morning, I return to the…

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  • I love the sound

    I love the sound of trains. The Marunouchi line, an electric subway, makes a brief above ground appearance near our new apartment. Every few minutes, I hear the muted roar of trains going by. I haven’t yet learned to distinguish their direction, but I will. And I suspect that I’ll be able to tell what…

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  • Hikkoshimashita. We’ve moved. The

    Hikkoshimashita. We’ve moved. The past few days, I’ve been running around wearing a kitchen timer around my neck. It helps me to stay focussed by allowing me to work in 15 minute chunks. It’s pretty astonishing what you can do in 15 minutes. This advice came from FlyLady, woman and a website that’s difficult to…

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  • The final items to

    The final items to dispose of before moving were some small tables and lamps. The stone-topped coffee tables we acquired when we first landed in Japan were a favorite of Tod’s. He really didn’t want to part with them, but the interior plan of the new apartment proved that there’s no room for them. I…

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  • Today’s pre-moving activities did

    Today’s pre-moving activities did not go as smoothly as planned. After delivering our freshly washed curtains to the new apartment and discovering that they weren’t actually very clean after all, we decided to hang them up anyway. The new windows are considerably shorter than the old ones. The curtains trail the ground like a bridal…

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  • I shouldn’t read the

    I shouldn’t read the articles about blogging in the popular press. They make me question whether my blog is worthwhile. Self doubt creeps in when I encounter things like this: “When people begin to think that they are nothing more than a cog in the wheel of society, they look for any way to differentiate…

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  • Today is wall washing

    Today is wall washing and curtain laundering day. I’m making slow progress but progress nonetheless. Bookshelves and nightstands are on their way out the door this afternoon to a women who is furnishing a new apartment. This reveals a shocking number of dustbunnies I’m tired.

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  • We’ve been measuring the

    We’ve been measuring the new apartment. Now we have scale diagrams of all the rooms and of all our furniture. I’m not a very good interior planner but I have great tools. Where are we going to put the piano? Is it better to have the sofa facing the window or the wall? What about…

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