My damp, but clean apartment & dinner

For the past few days it's been rain, rain, and more rain. There's a typhoon moving through and should be out of our area by Monday. For now though, it's cloudy skies and constant rain (changing in its intensity, but never quitting.) Obviously my river rafting didn't happen this morning and the tournament baseball game scheduled for tomorrow is postponed until Monday (which is a holiday here). Rainy views from my apartment-- Today when I got up and walked into my kitchen/living room, I wondered "How in the world can my apartment get this messy?" I live alone, but somehow (I'll blame it on recent social demands) my apartment really needed a good cleaning. Since all other plans seem to stall when there's a typhoon, I spent the day picking up, scrubbing, and making my apartment oh so shiny and wonderful. And when I walked in the front door tonight after dinner (ok, so not ALL plans get cancelled because of the rain...people with vehicles occasionally go out :)) I smiled and said aloud, "I love a clean apartment!"

For dinner we ate nabe (literally translates: saucepan or pot), a soup of sorts that customers cook at the table, usually with lots of meat and vegetables. We had two kinds, one with a soy sauce base and one with kimchi. Both tasted great, but the spicy kimchi especially hit the spot on such a cool rainy night.

"The steps of making nabe"

Add the ingredients to the pot: various meats, mushrooms, tofu, and vegetables

Relax as it cooks Eat up and enjoy another entertaining nabe experience with good friends and delicious food