Saturday 2 July 2011

Grasspicking day


Today was  apartment building grasspicking day. Four times a  year - or three if   the organizers are laudably low on initiative - the apartment building members  gather to pick out the weeds in the  garden.  Picking the weeds is less important than being seen to pick the weeds. There are still plenty of weeds in the back corner but because noone was interested in taking on the mosquitos for very long, they remain intact to contribute to reducing the heat island effect for the rest of the summer.
At the end of the picking, there are drinks and snacks - what better reason could there be to drink beer at 10am than spending the morning grasspicking.     It's always bothered me that that the "gunte" gloves are used once and thrown out - scandalously wasteful.   I was commenting today to one of my neighbours that it was a great pity to waste them like that "mottainai".... she heartily agreed.  In an inexplicable act of ecological self-righteousness / community mindedness I gathered them up to wash and bring back for the September grasspicking day....    
I am not really sure that they meet Japanese specifications of whiteness... but I feel better than throwing them all out.   We didn't have anywhere to hang them, so they're (much to Hiro's dismay) layed out infront of the window to dry.


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2 comments:

The Purple Room said...

I was going to ask if you had enough laundry clips to hang them out to dry...:)
Good for you!

Anonymous said...

ahhhh....we paid out "100 bucks" to the neighborhood association and am just waiting to get the "cleaning" schedule. I'm just praying it won't be on a day that I am full to the gills with students or some other project!