Not every day here is one spent gazing out at the ocean blue, lolling about on the patio, or splashing in pool or surf. Mid-morning today found me on hands and knees, surrounded by an assortment of cleaning agents, rags, sponges and mop. By three in the afternoon everything was back in place and looking spiffy. So, why the big cleaning crunch? Most of the time the place here is kept in order, and at least superficially clean, and while it works for me, it falls a little short of what you’d call ‘ready for guests.’ And especially what I consider ready for guests from Japan. Two friends from Tokyo are arriving tonight for a week’s stay, and for that my goal was to get the whole condo spic and span from top to bottom. Sitting now and looking around, or walking about room to room, furniture glows with polish, tile floors freshly mopped glisten, glass sparkles and I’m worn to a frazzled nub.
The friends arriving tonight are my long, longtime friends, one going back to 1978, the other 1980. Over the years their support of me in Japan was what you would expect from family, complete and unstinting. I have written about them once or twice in this blog, describing their family and the old farmhouse in the countryside. It will be a great feat indeed if I am able to entertain these friends half as well here as the entertaining and hosting they showered on me endlessly in Japan.
But I’m confident we can make a swell week of it here in my slightly Japanese-accented play house at the ocean’s edge. Few concerns that Kumiko and Ikuko won’t be dazzled by the spectacle of pie-in-the-sky weather, palm fringed scenery, warm ocean surf and white sand. Maybe they will even catch a glimpse of a sea turtle nesting.
Apart from their company, the payback for me will be the week of talking about the latest in Tokyo, and falling back into Japanese conversation. It may just be a week of Scriblets-lite.
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