Hello and welcome to Week 43! Yes, it’s me again, bringing you the latest from the far north (north from Australia, that is). This time I have managed to find some free time at the computer earlier, so that it is only one week since my last posting!!

After the flurry of bureaucratic encounters and putting together our internet presence, it has been quite a calm week – and the weather has been lovely. The extreme humidity has definitely passed now, and even though most of the days have been in the low 30s it is quite comfortable to go outside. It is also really nice to have the windows open most of the time. The kids have also been much more lively – when they’re awake…

This week we continued trying to increase the exposure of our minshuku, through finding as many relevant websites as possible to list ourselves on and we have created a business card to hand around here. We plan to visit all the vegan and vegetarian restaurants we can and hand out these cards. Also, it is just the done thing here to swap business cards.

So, to The Frame – until all the doors are on, I can’t really call it The House. We decided to visit on Sunday, with the hope that no workers would be there so that we could go inside and climb up to the second floor (Australian translation: first floor). Until the stairs are built, the only access to the floor is via a ladder and I don’t think the workers would take it too well if we just decided to take over their ladder and get in their way (though, I’d guarantee they wouldn’t say so).

The first thing we noticed is that the front entrance area has had the final concrete pour to bring the level up to the floor level. This is the area just inside the front door where you enter with shoes and then take them off to walk around inside the rest of the house. We also have an area like that at the entrance to our area from the outside. In our area, there is what appears to be space for a shoe cupboard just inside the door, too.

The next thing we noticed is that most of the windows and glass doors have now been installed – they are all double glazed, which I was very pleased to see. I had thought that this would be beyond our budget, so I really was thrilled when I saw them. Heating and cooling such a large space will be quite expensive, so any extra insulation is a very good thing. We also noted that the walls were having insulation put in them – another good thing.

I must say, it is feeling more and more like a home every time we go there. I look forward to the day our goods and chattels arrive and we can start decorating our space. Our part of the house, which is about 25% of the total area isn’t that huge, but I imagine that it will feel like a bigger space because of the rest of the house being so big.

(cool drinks fridges and payment box!)

After exploring the first floor (Australian translation: ground floor), Craig got the ladder and we climbed up to the second floor. I should note here that we had to climb over a fence to actually get into the building site, as it was closed up for the weekend. The climb into the site was a little difficult for a person who is vertically challenged (me), and the climb up the ladder was somewhat more precarious. The ladder was a foldout ladder and bounced a bit as I climbed it…

The upstairs area is where the guestrooms are located – all five of them. It was amazing walking around in them and getting a feel for how they will be. The balcony area had been coated with waterproofing material and looked like it might still be drying, so we didn’t venture out there. We also got to see the cupboards that have been created between the rooms, which are long and narrow, but which will provide us with some much needed storage space. This innovative solution was suggested by our builder when I said I was worried we wouldn’t have enough space to store larger items, such as our suitcases.

Next week, we are having a meeting with our builder and architect to look at the interior design – the part I really like! I am definitely looking forward to the selection process. We have already talked about the benchtop material for our kitchen and the colour of the tatami-style tiles, now we need to choose the colours of all the other surfaces. It’s a pity that the wood of the frame is going to be covered, because the colour of the wood is really beautiful.

On the way back from The Frame, we decided to explore what was behind the very large torii on the next road over from the road leading up to our building site. Torii mean there is a shrine somewhere behind them, but we had no idea what it was and how far up the hill it was, because it is a wooded area. So we headed through and climbed the stairs that lead up to a plateau, which had a path to the entrance of the shrine, but interestingly also had a large parking area, which was filled with buses. It was a parking lot for the bus company that runs around Kyoto and up to the Kyoto Women’s University, which is just the other side of the torii.

Ahead of us was the entrance to the shrine, but still no clue as to what was there. There was a small building up further, which is the place where you pay the entrance fee and can buy small amulets related to the shrine – most temples and shrines have such a place. We asked the man what the place was and he told us it was the mausoleum of Toyotomi Hideyoshi!! I had no idea that he had been interred in Kyoto, although I knew he died here.

So, we paid the entrance fee and as we were about to go in, the man in the booth said it was up some stairs and would take about half an hour…he wanted know if we could make it ok!!! So, being the cavalier people we are (???) we said we would be ok – Craig even said we were fit! I would suggest it’s more like “fitter than I used to be, but we’ll give it a go”; after all, we climbed up to Kurama dera via the back way – once.

So, we go through entrance gate and are faced with a set of stairs going straight up the side of the hill. They were broken up into five sections, with a short level area between each section. I’m not sure how many stairs were in each section, but I’m guessing somewhere between 60 and 70. Not to be immediately defeated, I put my head down and started up. I had to stop a few times, but overall I did a lot better than I initially thought I would.

 (yes, this is half way up)

At the top of the stairs was another plateau and another gate, which I hoped led through to the mausoleum. Just before the gate, leaning against a tree, was a broom. The brooms here look like classic witches brooms, so my immediate thought was that it would have been much easier flying up here…Craig agreed.

On through the gate and we are confronted by another staircase – not as long as the first, but still a long way up, this time without any plateaux. By this time my legs were feeling a little less solid, so it was a bit harder going up, with the burn starting about half way up. After several rests to catch my breath and try to beat the lactic acid out of my thighs, we made it to the top. There was a five stone pagoda which sat on top of the burial mound of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It was in a lovely setting on top of the hill, surrounded by trees.

We paid our respects and then rested for a while before starting the long descent. On the way out, I asked the man how many stairs there were up to the mausoleum. He said there were 489. Adding on the stairs up to the entrance, that was 522 in total (we counted them on the way out). My legs started stiffening up after we got home and I had had a cup of tea. I tried to get up to clean my cup and found that gravity had increased; or was it that my legs weren’t working as well as before??

Before I sign off, there is just one thing I haven’t mentioned in the last two posts, but which is a source of endless delight for me. Since the beginning of September, the signs of Halloween have been in evidence in nearly every shop you go into, with multitude decorations for sale, along with Halloween packaging on many standard food items and drinks and special Halloween food items for sale, especially cakes. It has been very difficult for me not to buy many, many items, although I have bought a few decorations for our flat, including one for the front door.

That’s all for now!!!!!

Cheers