pigs are flying and hell has frozen over

Yes, prepare yourself for the shock... I ironed tonight! For those of you who don't know, I despise ironing and it usually sits in a pile for months on end (like 6 or more). I have taken to pullling shirts out of the dryer immediately and shaking them out as a (pretty crappy) alternative. Actually, in the seven years that I have lived in Japan, I think I have ironed twice. Yes, you read that right.

Well, my new 1200 yen ironing board from IKEA is a great incentive to actually do it. Before we literally had an ironing board. A square piece of wood that has the heat resistance padding, but no legs. Most Japanese boards, if they do have legs, are meant to be used while sitting on the floor, hence the legs are about 3" in height (ie useless). My new ironing board folds up to the correct height of right around my waist.

Of course I might just iron my own shirts from now on - I showed Hiroshi one of his cotton shirts that I ironed... and I must point out spent quite a long time ironing because cotton is a pain compared to blends... and he couldn't even tell that there was a difference between it and the shirts that were just pulled out of the dryer. Geesh.

The scariest part of this whole exercise was that I actually found ironing relaxing. Next thing you know, I'll be ironing pillow cases like my mother!