Today is going to be the dullest day on our trip so far – or so I thought, when we got up this morning. It’s supposed to be raining all day long, and we’ve done another switcharoo on our calendar to do school work today, in exchange for a weekday full of adventure later on.
We started off strong, both girls doing their Social Studies at the kitchen table, before we ate a quick lunch and were about to head to the grocery store. As we were leaving our AirBnb, we got a message from our host saying they’re going to send a pest control inspector in to see if they can get to the bottom of what kind of bug is biting me every single night. I’m up to 42 bites as of today. The message came in at 2pm, the inspector (and the host!) would be stopping by between 3pm and 4pm. Would we be home? Yes, we’ll be back by 3pm, I told the host, and off we went.
What ever will I write about in my blog today, I thought, so I snapped a picture of the face someone had put on the floor cleaner vacuum at the store.
It was the Sunday before a holiday Monday (Oct 13th is National Sports Day to remember the opening of the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo), and the shelves were absolute full to bursting of all the ready made meals you could wish for. I honestly wish I was here for a full year, I’d start at one end of the store, and eat my way through everything in sight. We picked up some groceries for a makeshift Thanksgiving dinner, even though our plans started out similar to what we had last year, and ended up becoming more like a chicken pot pie filling, sans crust. We also grabbed some desserts, and headed back for our expected visitors.
Along the way I was still at a loss for what to write in the blog, so I wanted to share some more of our view, even though it’s a 5.5 minute walk, so I have limited buildings to show you. The below is a very typical street in our area, where your front door is right there facing the street, and if you’re lucky enough to have AC, your motor has to sit somewhere, why not right there on the street? Right next to your tiny little flower pot with the tree that grows a little bit bigger just about every single day.
But then! There’s our favourite palm tree, right there in a factory/industrial parking lot, towering above a beautifully manicured enormous tree! The Japanese really do make the most of the little greenery they have space for.
Ok, so we made it back well before 3pm, and unpacked our groceries. Yesterday, on our way back from Osaka Castle, we picked up a Nintendo game for the girls, and we started talking about playing video games. I told them about one of the two games I know how to play, the original Super Mario Brothers game on the old NES I used to have, and Joe said – we have that on our console. So you bet I was showing the girls some of my (very old and rusty, but still impressive that I remember all these things) skills.
3pm came and went, 3.30pm came and went, and at 3.45pm, our Airbnb host (or a representative, at least?) showed up on our door, apologizing that the inspector was now expected at 5pm, and she had to head home. She came in for a few minutes, and we explained the situation, how I keep waking up with a couple of new bites every single day. We’ve already laid out so many mite traps, ant traps, sprayed for dust mites that like to hide in tatami mats, and it has all made zero difference. The lady was very nice and apologetic, and put her faith in today’s inspection providing a solution.
5pm came and went, Joe prepped dinner and cooked dinner and we ate dinner. More apologies and the inspector would now be coming between 6.30pm and 7pm. At 7.10pm he finally showed up, and after a thorough examination of my bites, a lot of Google Translate, a bright flashlight on futons, tatami mats and everywhere inbetween, he discovered fleas (!) and suggested he treat the entire house with his chemicals right away, otherwise he could not return until Thursday.
I set off to find dessert with the girls while Joe stayed behind to supervise and lock up after the inspector was done. We tried to head to our conveyor belt sushi place, but it was SO busy, every single of the 16 parking spots was taken, three cars in the middle waiting for the next available spot, a parking attendant with a flashing airport style wand and a line up of cars around the block. We tried the restaurant next door, which was completely deserted, one other table occupied when we arrived, and as luck would have it, they had ice cream! Maylin picked strawberry and vanilla, Téa double vanilla, and I had matcha and vanilla.
Joe finally arrived around 8.45pm, and at 9.30pm we went back home, feeling uneasy but at least we had a solution, a treatment and a plan. Step two would have to be performed tomorrow!