My daughter-in-law had always wanted to visit Toyama before I moved, so at the beginning of May, she and my son came and stayed at my apartment during Golden Week, which is a holiday period in Japan. I needed to declutter anyway, but that was why I hurriedly deep-cleaned and tidied my apartment in April. I especially focused on the kitchen, the bathroom, and the sink—what we call just one word 水回り (mizumawari) in Japanese, meaning the areas with water.

It was really hard because I live on the fourth floor with no elevator, so just taking a lot of garbage down to the ground floor zapped all my energy. After that, though, I used all my energy to deep-clean the areas that had been hidden by clutter. I was really proud of myself and looked forward to seeing my son's reaction to my spick-and-span apartment. However, he didn't seem impressed the moment he entered my apartment. He said it's tidy, but that was far from enough. I was a bit disappointed, but I enjoyed spending the holidays with my family. It was the first time I spent intimate time with my daughter-in-law, and she was honest, cute and nice.

After they left Toyama, my son admitted that he was actually surprised, but pretended not to be—because if he had shown his surprise, his wife would have realized how dirty and messy my apartment used to be. I never realized he had become so considerate. Honestly, I didn’t care about that at all—I just wish he had shown his surprise.