Having A Laugh With David

 David and I went to the other house this morning.

He didn't have work Sunday night, so he rested a bit and could drive this morning.

We got there early, about 8am. The weather is warming up, so it's better to go as early as possible.  I know once the temperature hits 30C I'm finished.

The morning sky was so cloudy, I thought it might rain but it stayed dry.  The humidity, however, was high, 87%.  Really not nice.

Clouds covering the mountains

David decided to tackle the bathroom.  The carpets in there were awful. They had gone moldy in places.  He pulled up the old carpet, moved the washing machine out and the one shelving unit, which I think is for the kitchen! He used wet tissues to get some of the dust from the ledges.  

While he was doing that I rolled up the carpet in the tatami room.

In Japan we don't wear shoes in the house. The entranceway, genkan, is for changing from outside shoes to slippers.  But when we started to clean the house we noticed that most of the floors were damp and there was a strong smell of urine!  There were no slippers so we have been wearing our shoes inside.  After I pulled up the carpet I noticed that the tatami mats were in very good condition, so took my shoes off.  David came to see if I was okay, I asked him to take his shoes off, and not to step on the tatami with them on.  He stood in the doorway, jumping on and off the tatami, saying "On the tatami, off the tatami", until he smashed his head on the door frame.  I couldn't stop laughing.

At this point, I needed the toilet and a cold drink!

David wanted to go to a DIY store to pick up a few things.  I directed him to the closest store. When we got there I was amazed at how busy it was. The parking lot was almost full and massive trucks were parked at the entrance.  We were directed to park on the far side.  As David was parking a security guard came over and asked us to move so the truck could turn around.  We both realized that the store wasn't open, it was being revamped!!  David asked when it would reopen, not until the 20th!

We found another store and got the things we wanted.  One thing they didn't have was slippers, so we went to the 100 yen shop.  In the shop, David went one way and I went the other.  As I was looking around I heard the sound of breaking glass.  My first thought was David.  I was right, I found him with a broken glass vase apologizing to a staff member!!!  

After another stop we went back and did a bit more.  I found an old vacuum cleaner, about 30 years old.  It still works.  I gave the tatami room a quick vacuum and got up most of the dust.  There's also a very old fan, but it works. It's so old that there is no swing action on it. But it was nice to sit in front for a few minutes.

The bathroom, floor looks good

Tatami room

I took a couple of photos outside. One is a nice flower, but I have no idea what it's called.  The other of the mountains. We can't really see the mountains from the house because of the house in front.

Very cloudy but hot!