Nose Job.

I sniff. Before I step foot into the elevator in our building, I do a pre-entry sniff. Some days it is safe, other days… The most offensive smells are dog urine + unwashed canine, cigarette smoke + dog urine + unwashed canine, and rotting garbage. The little old lady who owns the dog doesn’t exactly smell pleasant, either.

The other end of the spectrum would be pizza, ramen, perfume, shampoo + conditioner, and a sprig of one of the local plants. These are all nice, but yesterday I had the ultimate smell experience. Tatami.

Tatami:

There are three different parts to an authentic tatami mat–the reed or rush cover, the straw core and the decorative cloth edging. In Japanese these are the tatami omote, tatami goto and the tatami beri. The tatami omote is made of a soft reed and each one needs about 4,000 to 5,000 rushes. Hemp or cotton string is then used to weave the omote together. To make the tatami goto or straw core, 40cm of straw is crushed to just five centimeters. Finally, cloth is used to border the mats.

That smells good.

The Elevator Ride: 7 Floors of Bliss.

The last time I got a good solid nostril full of tatami, I was moving out of my old apartment in the late ’90s. Unfortunately, the apartment I was moving into, my mother-in-law’s place, had carpeting on top of the tatami, so the smell was masked. This explains why for seven floors my brain ran around shouting, “What is this lovely smell?! My God, it is wonderful! Anyone got a label for this? (quizzical looks all around.) Don’t we know what this is?” Frustration.

All was revealed to me on the first floor.

Eureka!

Standing on the first floor with a tatami mat in his hand’s was the tatami dude. I said, “I LOVE THE SMELL OF TATAMI.” Initially, this startled him, but a big grin bloomed across his face. I followed up with, “This is the best smell on the planet.” He agreed with me and then I walked away.

Links:

Tatami Maintenance ^[1]
Japanese Tatamis, a way of living ^[2]