Where I'm at: The Ups and (a Bit of) the Downs Or Welcome to my New (old) House! (Patreon)

Let's start with a blue sky. The above photo was taken on my New Year's walk with my expat friends. It was a 20K+ step walk and absolutely lovely. We walked from one friend's house to the the beach, ate lunch and enjoyed the view, then piled in my car to another friend's house for coffee and Greek New Year's cake and more soul feeding conversation.

How are you all this Fire Horse Year, so far? ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶ Reading news is so, so painful. I'll leave it at that.

Okay, on my tiny, "doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things" end, my days have been filled with ups and downs, whiplash head-spins and grab-the-side-brake-and-pull stops 🥴. Everyday is me "breathing through this" or "what can I learn from this?" or "why, yes!, I do need a bright red rug for under the that old pleather sofa, that'll make me happy!". Today I thought of something else that makes me happy, and that was YOU! You all make me very, very happy. And I can't say often enough to everyone who has reached out either here or social media or email or Discord, how much it means to me. You really are keeping me afloat. Thank you 💕.

What a better way to chipper my mood right up than to make a post and share with you the house I'll be moving into (hopefully) soon.

The house itself is about a fifteen minute drive from here and was built by Ojiichan and Obaachan (my in-laws) 50+ years ago. Ojiichan passed away during the height of the pandemic and a huge sadness I still hold is that no one was allowed to visit him while he was sick. So I feel like I never got to properly say goodbye. Obaachan sadly is in a care facility and has been for something like seven years. The house has been sitting closed up for all that time.

At about the time my ex husband and his younger brother had decided to hire a truck and just haul everything in it to the dump, I suddenly was in need of a place to stay. When I went to talk to them about the possibility of living there, I learned their plan. And also that as soon as Obaachan passes away, they're going to sell the house (land), and split the money.

When I told them I needed a roof and some walls and asked if I could live there for a bit they thought that was a great idea, only..."there is so much junk you probably CAN'T live there, because it's really, really bad." I said I'd help clean it up, get rid of stuff that could be gotten rid of, air it out, pull weeds. So they gave me a key and I went to check it out. They weren't kidding.

Yes. Fifty+ years of stuff. And many rooms you can't walk into.

Below I bagged up a lot of clothes. Note: I did eventually take that yellow smiley-face cushion out and keep it.

It's old, but it is a nice house.

I decided I'm not even going to tackle upstairs. But downstairs...I can make livable. That is the goal. So here's how progress is going.

There are two 8-jo (8 tatami-mat sized) rooms, I plan to use one for a bedroom/recording/meditation space and one for my desk and for all my books. But first I had to clear out some things. ergh.

For the past several weeks my routine has been to write in the mornings until my brain is fried, then head over to the house and make slow progress until my back hurts too bad or I hurt myself in some dumb way.

Next, I come home, hot bath, space out (or go hang with my crows on the veranda, watch the sunset) and try not to get upset about someone who gets to stay in this nice house (that I furnished) and is using ai to seemingly thrive and after a visit to the States suddenly has a lot of money despite not having worked for eight years and depending on me to buy everything from forks to curtains to paying his health insurance, pension, etc. <-- apologies, I keep trying to stamp down the "Waah! Poor me!" but it raises its nasty head. Even he admits it unfair.

On to happier things. It took many weeks, but I got the above (the two 8-tatami mat rooms) cleared out (a lot of it just moved to the foyer, but... hey! I'm going through things a little at a time).

And 🥁〜🥁〜🥁〜

Tadah!! ↓

That's one of my tapestries that I hung after I wiped down the tatami and all the dust off the shoji windows. A little symbolic claiming of space, I suppose. I spent 25 years sleeping on futons even when I was pregnant and sick and I tell ya, my bed is one of my most prized possessions. So it will go right there back against the sun and moon wall hanging. I'll probably move the tapestry up higher.

There's also a small pine tree outside the side sliding doors and I'm going to hang some bird feeders so I can wake up to bird song. Eventually want to make a little garden.

I had to get carpets because you don't want to ruin the tatami with furniture. I was proud of myself for carrying both of these carpets from the store to the car and from the car to here. The lady at the carpet store told me I wasn't strong enough. So Ha! Lady From the Store! They really weren't that heavy.

Need to figure out how to get the creases out though. And all the closets are packed full so I can't yet bring over my clothes and things. But definite improvement.

Here's what the kitchen looks like. I did have to buy a new refrigerator. The big one on the left here smelled putrid. The little on on the right still has food in it and I've only opened it once and quickly shut it because 😩. We'll worry about that one later. See the kamidana (god shelf above the window? Ojiichan LOVED kamidana. There's one in almost every room.)

Here's what the back of the house looks like. Having even a little space in Japan is very precious, so I'm so happy there is some room outside. One problem everyone has and always needs to be asked is: Is there parking? So here a couple cars can fit, so yay! Friends!

One weird thing is there seems to be houses on all sides that can look at all parts of the property. Believe me, I was looking for a blind spot where I could attract and feed crows, but haven't found one yet.

For reference, the two newly cleaned, carpeted rooms would be the two far right shuttered windows on the first floor. That's the pine tree I was talking about.

The left-hand side shuttered sliding glass door and that smaller window are the below living/dining/tatami room. I'll change the curtains to the ones I bought for this house. I really hate having to leave so much of my stuff for this person living here to have. But I just can't take it all. But one set of curtains, I'll bring. And I ordered the bright red under the sofa rug. Note: All carpets and rugs in Japan are some shade of beige or these fancy Persian kind of rugs. There isn't a lot of variety. Curtains, too. It's so hard to get colorful things.

Unfortunately, the above now looks like the below from a different angle.

But, look! Another tapestry! My elephant! Another kamidana (above the Julyan photo), too. The sink was filled with little jars and ornaments that go on them and never got washed. So I still need to do that as well. I've never taken care of kamidana, so get to do that.

Here's a sad: The below made me break down and cry. This area has very strict recycling rules and all those bottles need to have lids taken off and separated, separated by color, there is all kinds of stuff in there so old the plastic bags are disintegrating. The place that takes bottles and gas canisters is only open a few hours on the weekends and the men who run it can be nasty about what you're throwing away. I got a little of this cleaned up. But not much. Filled the backseat of my car with bags, came home exhausted to someone hap-hap-happily doing his thing...Look at what I made with ai! Isn't it great! 🤬

That was another growing rift. Despite the short Uncanny Robot stint (back when ai was dumb and wonky and before chatgpt and so many decided to outsource their brains and phone in creativity), I don't use it. Someone, though, uses it for practically everything.

Speaking of dial, let's dial back in something happy and pretty.

But I did manage to get one corner of the living room tidy and ... MORE tapestries! Red carpet going under that sofa 🟥...which was covered in mold, but I wiped down, but I kind of wonder if that's still not good enough, but I'm already spending money I don't have and can't afford anothe sofa, so maybe it's okay? It is comfy!

I'll end with some pretty photos. This is the genkan/entry. Obaachan had planned on starting a business sewing kimono with a friend and wanted the big genkan for some reason, to lay out the kimono, I believe. But the business didn't happen and she really regretted it later because (repeating) in Japan space is precious and this is a big waste of space. But it is pretty. It doesn't look like this now. It's filled with futons and old fans and boxes and bass amps (ex's) and an old enormous karaoke machine, rusting fishing gear, a million zabuton pillows...

But this photo is nice. It'll eventually look like this again.

The below is the front of the house. I've always loved this, but the front gate opens right onto the street so no one uses it. Everyone comes in the back door. I'm thinking of putting a chair somewhere here (more bird feeders!) and have my morning tea or coffee here.

So I don't know. It's work, the book deadline, the moving and cleaning here, the cleaning and tossing stuff there, and the trying to stay even keeled and manage with my roommate here.

But I really can't complain. As someone who had third stage breast cancer at age 32, two DVTS years apart that were both life threatening, and then also somehow managed to la dee dah~ follow a sea turtle underwater in Hawaii, pass a break in the coral reef and get zipped out by a riptide into the dark, cold, choppy sea so far from shore I couldn't make out people...and get so close to drowning that it really feels like you're being pulled underwater...this next Life Thing I'm going through isn't all that. Especially when keeping up with heartbreaking news.

Oh, one interesting thing that happened: Remember the beautiful rice fields behind the house that they have threatened to build on for a couple years now and people complain and the companies back down, but then a new one steps up? Well, we got this yesterday.

It's the newest map of how the new neighborhood will be divided up and built upon. The house I'm in now marked "me". They're really going to take out a lot of fields and frogs and other beautiful bits of nature. It's supposed to start in earnest in February. That's when I'm planning to be out of here.

A very strange feeling really. Watching this happen probably would have made me so, so sad. So...at least I don't have to witness this. I'm gonna miss the crows most of all.

And to end on a lighter note. Kaho-chan sent me this hilarious photo she took of Gimli tearing through the house on one of her zoomies. She appears to be lifting up a cloth covered footstool with her cheek. Maybe I'll get a rabbit.

I wish for all of us the Power of Lil' Gimli. 🐰💪💕

I'm going to record more Pillow Book this week and...as you've probably noticed there hasn't been an Uncanny Japan in awhile. There are reasons. And that's another story. But I do need to start working on that. Details in another blog post, soon.

XO, and the Power of Gimli-chan ✨

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