Today I came home from school, stripped off my sweaty track pants and polo shirt, sat on my couch in my underwear, and watched TV while I ate rice and daikon (a big radish) kimchi. Does that sound strange? The daikon kimchi was so delicious, and it felt so good to be out of my sweaty clothes. I felt perfectly content as I sat there enjoying every crunchy bite. I can't wait to eat the rest of that daikon kimchi, and then buy more. I learned this week that kimchi doesn't work very well as something that you take to school for lunch. It's quite smelly. Even tupperware and a lunch bag couldn't really stifle that fragrant kimchi odor! I felt like there was a little cloud of cabbagey stinkiness around my desk!
Last weekend I called Jonathan and we met up to go for a swim. We drove to a near deserted beach in Kii Nagashima (where Jonathan lives) and floated around in the sea for awhile. It's been nothing but rain around here lately, and that day was no exception. So we swam beneath the clouds. There's a Japanese word for "sea of clouds". I'm quite fond of it. The word is "雲海".
I love that you can float on your back in the sea and not even have to move your arms or legs to keep afloat. There are some really beautiful beaches in this area. I wish I had gone swimming more during the summer! On the way home Jonathan and I saw about 8 monkeys by the road. We stopped to try and take pictures of them, but I was on the wrong side of the car for it, and the monkeys around here don't seem to like having their pictures taken!
I am reading "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami.
I am entirely obsessed. But perhaps obsessed is not the right word.
I am wrapped up in it.
I am filled up by it.
I felt the same way when I was reading "Norwegian Wood" by Murakami. I feel as if my own world is altered as I read about the world that the characters in his books inhabit. Wouldn't you like to read it and tell me if you feel any strange effects?
1 comment:
That's not strange at all. After a day of work, I come home stinking of sweat, and I sit on my couch with my kitty and watch tv. I am usually eating something I scrounged out of my kitchen, never, ever is it radish.
Kimchi is stinky. The first time I had it, was out of a jar marked mild. Mild my ass. It smelled spicy, much less tasted like I ate fire.
I love swimming, I want to find someplace to swim year round. Unfortunately, in Michigan, that means indoor.
I would like to read that and see what it makes me feel. Is that a challenge?
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