Day 40: Bugs, more weeding and cleaning

I left a part of my window open last night which resulted in what seemed like hundreds of bugs dancing under the light of my room. I didn’t want to sleep with them, so I carried my comforter into the main house and slept in one of the rooms there. 

I felt much more at ease today. For breakfast, I ate the delicious thick Japanese bread that I've been conveniently ignoring for milk and cereal over the past five weeks. I took the recyclable plastics out before I started working in the field. 

To my surprise, I’d gotten better at weeding already and was able to pull out weed more efficiently and quickly. One big achievement was that I was able to use the big spade. I learnt that one can identify a plant by its leaves and I learnt how to identify the potato. The leaves of all these different plants still look the same to me though. It was still tiring and I felt quite hungry after two hours in the field.

We ate spaghetti for lunch today, with lots of home grown vegetables. I ended up sleeping after lunch again. 

After lunch, my task was to dry laundry and vacuum the house. I felt exhausted and sleepy and was really slow at most of it. My body hurt, especially my legs. Nevertheless I got through the vacuuming, and later the mopping. The bucket here used for mopping is really interesting (it looks something like this). It has a pedal which you press down. Two bars inside the bucket come close together as a result. The function of these bars is to squeeze extra water out of the mop. Sayaka-san told me how to mop the right way. She mentioned that I need to apply a fair bit of pressure. She said the same when I was washing dishes later at night. While brushing my teeth, I found myself applying for pressure to my teeth. 

I unfortunately can't tell the difference between the city air and the "fresh country air" as many people say, although its a little bit cooler here. Its certainly quieter and greener. I’m learning to tolerate bugs better. Today, I accidentally touched a dead frog stuck to one of the mops. I was freaked out by the slippery texture of the frog's skin, but I recovered as Sayaka-san buried the frog's body in the soil.