something from nothing,

I want to say more about these things. I want to say more about all the things that I am seeing and doing here. But I will not submit.
I don’t and won’t take up instant message-something posting. Even blogging is something different compared to letter-writing. I mean the real slow thing that they call ‘snail mail’ these days. I will stick to blogging. And I will fare my share of letter writing.

I would love to tell you about how I took part in our elementary school’s annual window cleaning day. Yes. The mothers of most of the students came today -near the end of the day. We were divided up and every faction went to a different part of our two-storey school and we.. cleaned the windows.

An aside,
For your, and my, information -the students are the ones responsible for cleaning the school. Every day. They are assigned tasks monthly and they do them. They do them whether they like it or not. That is my understanding of it. That is how I think it works.

And you will no doubt find this amusing, we used a window cleaner called ‘my pet’. At least that’s what the katakana lettering spells out when you read it. And that is what the students were yelling around the school in Japanese when they need a splash of cleaner for their window. ‘Give me my pet!’ You’re allowed to laugh, I think.

I had a bottle of the home-use version of the stuff and I kid you not, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with it.

It wasn’t until during the classroom cleaning (classroom cleaning happens at the end of the day along with a brief spot clean of each class after lunch) that I asked the second year or grade two teacher what the bottle of ‘my pet’ was. Now I know.
And now after today, all the windows in our school are glistening. I wish you could see it.

Moving on..
Yesterday I discovered さんま, or Sanma.. that is Saury (a fish) that is for sale at our makets now. Because it is Fall we can enjoy several seasonal specialties including, chestnuts, mushrooms of the sort, Sanma (fish -they look like long silver arrows with ballpoint pens for noses), Nabe (a pot-cooked soup-y dish)and stuff like that !

I grilled and ate my first Sanma at home yesterday. The friend that I ran into the supermarket yesterday told me the simple recipe for the fish. Just add salt, he said. And just add salt -I did.
The fish tasted good and I am satisfied knowing that I am not only continuing to enculturate myself here in Japan, but that I am eating fresh, fresh fish coming from the ocean right next to me.

I still have a hankering to re-visit the sushi shop down the street from my place. Well, that would be the sushi shop that is around the corner and past all the construction happening to the main road-ish/highway that runs through town.
Did I mention that I live in a small town ? Well, I live in a small town.

Thanks for listening.
And if you behave and read well, then the next time I’ll tell you about the thunderstorm that turned on my living room light about three or four times in the middle of the night.

..but that’s only if you behave.
Pictures to follow !

Enjoy your Fall wherever you’re at !