Get a Move On

Finally, I woke up with some stress about the upcoming move and all the things that need to happen in my apartment before it comes in less than two weeks.  Less than two weeks.  It's all very manageable, but items need to be relocated or thrown away, sorted and sifted.

I went a step further this morning and even took some bags to the consignment shop, nodding my way through the process of exchanging things.  They sorted through each item, determining its value while I browsed the shelves and racks looking at everything from towel sets to yukatas to wet suits to turn tables.  It is a store of many wonders.  And when I was finished they gave me 850 yen for everything.  It's not much, but it's a few less things to be incinerated or put in a landfill, a few less things in the apartment.

Yet to do is to collapse many boxes, hand off a few more things to friends and clean clean clean like I've never cleaned before.  I think I've realized how dirty I feel in Japan.  Foreigners just don't know how to clean or keep things clean like Japanese people do.  Or at least I'm given that feeling.  We didn't grow up with the same kind of intense cleanliness ethic and so I always feel very dirty.  It's a strange way to feel.  And in the next two weeks I will have to look for cleaning products and tools that I've never considered to accommodate the shapes of drains and the prevalence of mold in tiny places everywhere.

Yes, a healthy amount of stress has begun, but it's a good thing.  There is still much to be done, but still plenty of time to do it.