Hello and welcome to my second blog of the year (and we’re already into August!). Following my last post we have done quite a bit, including a visit to our immigration lawyer, a few visits to the Vet and quite a few outings, of varying distances and activities undertaken. As a result of all this, there is quite a bit of ground to cover (literally) and many, many photos – too much for one post, so this post will be the first of two covering June and July.

After the last guests left in early June, we spent the first week or two getting our house in order, ie cleaning, washing, ironing, etc, then after that we started winding down. The weather, on the other hand, was doing the opposite, ie winding itself up into a hot, hot summer. The June rainy season wasn’t overly wet, though there were some moments of heavy rain, but it has been hot through this time, in an unrelenting kind of way. Recently we have had a couple of weeks with every day over 36° and every night at least 27°. Hot! So, we did venture out into the furnace a few times early on but held back a bit until our friend Triscia arrived here, in the second week of July.

Prior to her arrival, as mentioned above, we ventured out to go to Osaka to see our lawyer and organise our visa renewal. The good news is that we have been approved for a three year visa this time!!! Thank goodness 😊. In another administrative activity, we have also been working towards being approved for a modest mortgage loan, so that we can have a home to move back to when we return to Adelaide. I say modest, because lenders are not at all keen to give out loans to people who are living overseas and they also don’t like lending to self-employed people – a double whammy for us. In fact, the mortgage broker who has been helping us could only find one organisation willing to take us on, imposing both a risk fee and higher interest rate. Ah well, at least there was one.

As to the June Vet visits – we had our regular Ziggy appointment, which turned into two visits, but we tried a slightly higher insulin dosage and it has brought about a positive outcome for his diabetes, which is good. We also had to take Zowie for a couple of visits, an issue with his teeth, but all the test results were very positive, and he is back to eating normally. Craig also took our friend’s dog (a Doberman) for a couple of visits, for an ongoing issue and the final visit was an emergency run for a street cat.

We have a few street cats who visit our yard, and we leave food out for them every day. The unwell cat might have visited once before (we’re not sure) but somehow, when he was almost literally on his last legs, he made his way here. He was skin and bone and very weak, staggering in from the road, when I saw him. So, I grabbed a sachet of wet, paste style food, which we keep on hand for cats with significant dental issues, and took it out to him (he is an un-desexed male).

Thankfully he ate fairly well and finished it off. Craig then got one of our cat carriers and took out some cat treat Ciao Churu (cats love it), encouraged him into the carrier and immediately took him to the Vet. He also contacted some local cat rescuers we know, with one saying they would take him on once he had been to the Vet, been checked over and the Vet thought he might survive. The next day, they sent him off to Tokyo to a Vet they trust with street cats. This was rather harrowing, as he had to go via the Shinkansen and another train, and he was still very weak, but he made it, thankfully. He is now being looked after by a foster carer, and seems to be improving, overall. We were asked if we wanted to name him since he came to us for help, so I named him Rian, an Irish name meaning little king (I figured he had the luck of the Irish making it to our place in his condition). He is now looking a lot better, is around 3.6 kgs and soon he will have some surgery on his teeth and to de-sex him.

Rian – not well

Rian today

Other than these adventures, we also went to see a Yayoi Kusama exhibition and to a temple named Hokongo-in which I read about in the local paper, known for its garden and especially the lotus pond, which comes into flower early in July. The garden was designed in the 1100s and is designated as a Special National Site of Scenic Beauty.

Triscia arrived here on 11 July and we spent that day settling her in and giving her time to recover from the flight. The sightseeing schedule started the next day, with a local adventure, starting at Hakusa Sonso, which was the home built by the artist Hashimoto Kansetsu. He designed everything from the home, to the gardens and the art gallery in the back yard. It is a beautiful place, very serene, and it is particularly lovely in July when the giant lotus plants are in bloom. To be honest, his garden, to me, is better than the garden at Hokongo-in – just a personal preference.

After we spent some time there, we walked to the nearby Philosopher’s Path for a walk under the trees, in the heat, making our way to the temple Nanzen-ji, where the large, brick aqueduct is located – a good place to sit for a while to cool down a little.

Following that, we headed over to Heian Jingu shrine, which had set up some areas with many dome shaped glass wind-chimes, as a special Tanabata Festival display. Tanabata Festival celebrates the legend of the celestial lovers – Hikoboshi (based on the star Altair), a cowherd and Orihime (based on the star Vega), a cloth weaver. Though they are deeply in love, they are separated from one another throughout the year and can only meet on the 7th of July. The night of that date is when they are allowed to cross the Milky Way and to briefly reunite.

So, we went there to see the wind chimes and enjoy the lovely garden – but, something very special happened on this visit, I finally saw a Tanuki ‘in the flesh’. In fact, we saw four Tanukis, a mother and her three cubs!!! I cannot understate just how excited I was on seeing them. I have wanted to see a live Tanuki ever since the first time we came to Japan in 2007, and all I have ever seen is photos and the ubiquitous ceramic Tanuki effigies (of which we have three). Seeing them in the beautiful garden setting of Heian Jingu, comfortable, playful and looking so healthy was just bliss for me. Normally they are nocturnal creatures, but here they were, moving around and seemingly unconcerned about us.

After this fabulous visit to the garden, we went to Toriba Coffee for a drink, something to eat and to cool down – which was helped by having a lovely kakigori, a special summer shaved ice dessert, mine with mango topping. What a truly fantastic day this was.

The next day, we took Triscia into town to buy some items she wanted and to see the floats for the Gion Matsuri. Still hot, but the floats are always worth seeing.

This is a good point to end this post before we start the really big adventures!

Cheers for now!

When guys are working, there’s always that support crew…

The flowers of summer

Tonbo