Oh yeah, you bet I did...

I thought this one deserved a thing all of its own. That is a toilet in Japan. That armrest thing on the side is all kids of fun flushing/cleaning/sound barrier creating goodness that (while the plane was boarding) I had to play with. 

Not only can you adjust pressure and volume, for those sushi loaded times of the day you can press the 'powerful deodorizer' 
I did push it, and was disappointed that some fan just came on from somewhere in the bowl. I guess i was expecting more of a incense infusion to be released from above me. 


In all I was dissapointed. The fart muffling flushing sound was obviously prerecorded and everyone would know exactly what was going on when you push it. I couldn't figure out how to easily stop it so i had to just turn down the volume really low. 


The seat didn't have time to probably warm up and neither did the water. Making it a rather chilly spray. I will say this, that toilet's aim is dead on...and that's all I'll say.


I still have never used a bidet and i didn't want my first one to be in a Japanese airport. I still don't know how those things work and seems like I'd waste more tp drying off than would be used normally. With all the paper we're saving using computers and kindles and email and ipads I'm sure there's plenty of paper to go around.

what is with these smells?

I don't know if its just my place or this city in general but there is another mystery smell. This time I have identified the source of the smell but not the culprit behind said noxious fumes. This is ridiculous and and frustrating.

A sickly sweet yet pungent rotten flower smell keeps wafting out of the AC for the first five mins when ever I turn it on. 

At first I thought some cat died on the roof or something but it was pointed out to me that rotten flesh just doesn't smell like that. And believe you me I have smelled some putrid carcasses. 

although dad says he's never smelled anything like the dead cow pit on some relative's farm. Except that one dude in the locker room of the YMCA. His words were "It hits you like a wall." 

My situation I believe to be a tad different in that its not so much a wall but a gentle wafting through every corner of the living room. No escape, no febreezing it away, no turning on a fan. Just in the air, every breath you take. 

I made the mistake of burying my head in a pillow from the couch. I don't know about your pillows but I probably should wash mind more often. besides being where I balance my food I can only imagine the dust, skin, hair, sweat, blood and tears those pillows have soaked up. Nasty!

Yes, that was what I was wearing today. Plaid shorts. And yes my couch really is red and cream and freshly febreezed. 


And yes, Febreeze is now a verb.

You know its time to do laundry when...

Point one: when you can't identify where that 'smell' is coming from...

And yes, I wear my Charlie the Unicorn shirt backwards from time to time, like I said...its time to do laundry. 

point two: when creepy things are living in your laundry

Point three: When Ikea has run out of clean towels for you to buy

Point three: When you go to work in nicer and nicer clothes, because there's nothing else to wear

 

One more time because its awesome...
Charlie the Unicorn!!

there's something stinky in the kitchen but its not a hamster carcass, what could it be?

Only one of these things hasn't been found in the kitchen before....

idea number 1=  the things that soak up blood when you buy packaged meat

idea number 2= rotting vegetable matter

idea number 3= rotting cockroach carcass

idea number 4= a week's worth of used tissue, that one week i had terrible allergies and drank a lot of milk....thick and gooey!

idea number 5= dinosaur poo

idea number 6= hamster carcass, like that one other time....

rain rain, go away...wait no, come back...its too hot

This will start as a climate issue, and then digress into my sweatiness, you are have been warned.

Living in tropical climates really tests ones ability to withstand minor irritants that grow into giant sticky itchy sweaty rashy soggy major irritants. Observe my 'stinky shoes' for example.


I have a pair of beloved and cherished sandals that have been in the Pacific ocean, various lakes and city streets and have probably retained a bit of each environment in the form of odor displacing microbes.
I have only to wear them and remember rainy typhoon days that swept bits of the street dirt into the lining and i'm still knocking out grains of sand from the last beach visit....like six months ago.


Every summer my shoes make their debut to the chagrin of those in close proximity to my feet. These shoes have molded to every curve and crack of my soles so perfectly that it would be a tragedy and a lot of hard foot stomping work to start again with a new pair. I'm too lazy to even break in new shoes and prefer the ease of spraying febreeze and calling it good. Now these shoes have followed me to the humid habitat of Taipei and have taken on a whole new.... life.

I've found insects happily making babies in my shoes. eww



Minor to major irritant number two....t shirts. specifically white, gray, pink, yellow, or any other color that happens to change color where ever there is a collection of moisture on your body.

I'm under the impression that Asian people don't sweat, not like I do. That's why there is no deodorant here (I've found some men's deodorant but its only used in extreme emergencies of b.o.)

 I guess this climate has opened up new pores i never knew were connected to sweat glands.

Because I imagine sweat comes from some kind of gland like place floating under my skin...like  this
 







now that's tasty









but bank to my point, my students end up asking me if I just took  a shower, why is my shirt wet in the back, front, pretty much from the neck down. Like this

And yes, it drips just like that.

for the most part.

End of rant for now, I'm going to take a shower and cool off. And put my shoes outside.