Last night I was feeling lazy, watching a movie and relaxing on my couch when my doorbell rang! Whenever my doorbell of phone rings, I have come to assume that I will just have to say “wakarimasen, nihongo, iie, sumimasen” (I don’t understand, no Japanese, I’m sorry) and the person will give up and hang up/leave. However, last night I was pleasantly surprised to see it was the mother and son of the new family upstairs. They gave me a nice wrapped box, and introduced themselves, and I’m sure said a bunch of other things that I didn’t understand. I said, in po
or Japanese, that I was Joy, and I teach at the school her son is going to (elementary). Twas all very nice. Then they left and I opened the box-- laundry detergent! Yep! the same kind I had to give my neighbours when I moved in. Maybe she was saying" I've moved into your apartment block, here's some laundry soap!" Who
knows, but you've gotta love it.
Because my house is relatively cool, flowers last forever in the winter/early spring . I've had these mums for over 4 weeks. The spider plant was a gift from the caretaker at Awaga, and the hyacinth was an impulse buy because it smelt so good
I started ikebana class (Japanese flower arranging) and this is my first one. This is the traditional style, and the top area represents the heavens, the irises (middle) represent people, and the purple flowers (which I don't know the name of, but smell wonderful) represent animals/nature.
It's also cherry blossom time in Japan! This is on sakurayama once the trees started really going.
It smells lovely.
