redoutable - another chance to applaud my fabulous j-gparents

So seriously, the best people in the world. Tonight they had me over for din, as per our Thursday routine, and served MEXICAN FOOD. Basically it was fajitas without the tortillas but so good and actually spicy and just some kind of wonderful. Then Tadashi shows off a) his quickly improving english skills (they complement eachother so well - he always knows the english for plants and flowers and places that Yoshiko doesn't) and b) his new dance steps. Sweet.

Then he ran off to his dance class and Yoshiko and i got down to business - sweet potato cake and a discussion of her latest editorial. So we spent an hour talking about the uranium situation in Tehran, active and passive voice in writing, movies, the upcoming presidential election, and her latest read - the autobiography of Hilary Clinton. There is no way in life that i will ever be as cool as Yoshiko.

In other news, my apartment smells like a combination of bleach and kerosene. To some this may seem both obnoxious and dangers, but those are the sad uneducated populus, unfamiliar with the quirks of life in Japan. The kerosene - its the first week of march and after a day of temps in the 60s we're back to frigid japan. The bleach - the beauty of the cold Japanese winter, besides the complete lack of wintry whiteness and life without central heating, is the humidity of the winter. What happens is that the poorly sealed windows and doors let in the humid and cold air outside. Then i turn on the kerosene heater and heat the humid air, which forms condensation on the inside of the windows. Because it doesn't stay warm and because the air always remains humid, the condensation doesn't dry but rather forms mold... not just on the inside of the windows, but really everywhere. Luckily i have finally found the solution to the mold issue: KABI KILLER!!! Woohoo! all i do is take out the spray bottle of super-concentrated bleach solution, spray it all over, pass out on the floor from the fumes, and when i wake up the mold is gone!

So thats my life. Or at least the smells of my life.