Yeti in the Bedroom

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23

I had a lot to show for today, but not much to write. Three loads of laundry later, I will have clothes and socks again, which is exciting for me, and probably only me. (Although, I'm sure some people with less smell-resistant noses will be grateful.) I also swept and mopped the apartment, and then cleaned the tatami in my bedroom and half of the second tatami room. This hasn't been done in weeks and, my god, does it show! It's INCREDIBLE the amount of hair that can hide on tatami. It's like I had an entire yeti in my bedroom and didn't know because it was spread out.

I had “Silas Mariner” playing in the background and eventually finished the story. I enjoyed it, although it started slowly. I shuffled through a few things (“A Journal of the Plague Year” lost me at an endless list of dates, following several other (seemingly) endless lists of dates.) before finally settling into “Pinocchio.” Having only seen clips of the Disney move, and never the movie itself, it's been interesting guessing what made the film, what I remember, and what was definitely changed.

I did dishes and took out garbage, and generally made my apartment somewhere that I would feel comfortable having a guest over in. (Note from the future: it lasted about as long as it took me to clean it.)

For dinner, I decided to experiment. I took a recipe for a spicy peanut sauce (for pasta) and decided to attempt it with what I had over rice. Having barely any peanut butter left, I used the end of my peanut cream (which, for the record, probably didn't work nearly as well.) Added were various spices, soy sauce, and such. I then decided to modify it by adding some sugar to balance the salt, then some curry sauce to improve the taste, then some yogurt as a thickener. I fried up some tofu, made my rice and dug in. Amazingly, and I wasn't expecting this, especially by the end, it turned out tasty. Not “rush out and make again!” tasty, but most definitely edible. I couldn't taste the peanut butter, but the sauce did resemble the color of peanut-butter puke.

I then brought my bike into the apartment and set to work putting the basket and fender back on it from the bike trip so many weeks back. I had taken notes, but not careful enough, and my poor bike is being beaten up by constantly falling over from the high winds. The fender is slightly bent.

I did some travel planning. I want to go to Nara and Himiji. Also, while looking through my Lonely Planet, I saw mention of an event in Kyoto in the first weeks of November. A careful scan online turned up an e-mail address with English directions, so I fired off an e-mail and have my fingers crossed. I'll let you know if it works out.