The fact that but for twice a year, my place is fallen into neglect is not for any particular

reason. It is really due to the invention of D.D.T. A long time ago, I used to clean it once every
month or two months or so, but around the time of New Years’ the year before last, a wave of
typhoid fever erupted. Yaguchi, where I live, was the land that originated it - victims appeared
even in the houses next door, and so the occupying forces would send groups of trucks around,
and they would come to my house also to sprinkle D.D.T. Over the span of 10 days or so, they
would come five times to sprinkle D.D.T., and as we were warned to leave even our futons laid
out just as they were as best as we could, starting from the end of the last year of the war, the
perpetually laid-out futon was officially recognized as hygienic.
In its place, all manner of bugs met their demise. Whether a bee, praying mantis, butterfly,
cicada, moth, or jumping spider - it was the end for them as soon as they entered my place, and
seeing as how it would become a corpse after a day, the bodies began to pile up - this is the
only reason my place was just a bit dirty. Even so, without even having to worry about taking
care of the bugs gathering around those dead bodies, after a year had passed, they would all
naturally decompose once more into trash, following the laws of nature.
Even though there is mosquito netting stuck in the corners of my place left over from the year
before last, if I tried to fish it out it would raise a cloud of dust that would fall and get all over
everything, and seeing as how that would make everything dirtier, there is no plausible way I
can hang it up.
I expect there are various items to be found underneath the mountain of magazines and other
crap contained within the limits of the four corners of my desk, but seeing as how a tremendous
cloud of dust would be kicked up if I moved anything, I shall not look for them.
It really is convenient that you find various missing things when you clean up, but setting
things in order takes around three days, and it really isn’t something you can entrust to the work
of others, so I have ended up in this fix where I am unable to clean at all.
The most troubling thing is, when I get letters from people and throw them down somewhere
close by thinking that I should probably write up a reply sometime, at that moment its
whereabouts become completely unknown and I thus end up unable to write a reply. As loath as
I am to write a reply as soon as I receive a letter, once again, underneath the pile of
wastepaper, it will mix itself in quite well with all the other checks and money orders and such
that have already turned into crap.