Hello blossom! Yes, despite everything that is happening, the cycles of nature just continue on. So the second flush of blossom is upon us – cherry blossom is now in full bloom. It is a sure fire way to make you feel happy; a sunny day and walking under the blossom. Troubles? Crisis, what crisis? Of course, there is more than just cherry blossom blooming, and we’ll come to that later.

Even pigeons enjoy the blossom

There’s not much to say about the weather at the moment – it is pretty much the same as it was in February. On some days you just want to get out into the sun, and other days it is not so difficult to be inside. We are not in lock-down here, though I think it is past time we were, especially in Tokyo. For us, life is pretty much continuing as it has for a while, except that we have no guests and no prospect of guests in the foreseeable future. The one ever so slight change is that we are limiting our exposure to the outside world, ie people, as much as possible.

One thing we are really enjoying at home is the sudden spurt of growth in our garden. Everything is coming up fast, especially in the last two weeks. We are particularly pleased because we were a little concerned about some of the plants which appeared to completely die off over winter and we had never had experience of this in these plants before. One example is our geisha plants. In Adelaide they remained green year round but here all the leaves eventually died off late in winter and we were very worried. Now, however, there are leaf buds all over them – relief. The other shock was when the hostas died, because I had hoped they would fill out the area I put them into. Anyway, I checked the electronic oracle and it said that they would grow back in spring. Low and behold, there are new buds pushing up through the ground right now. Phew!!!

Our potted veggie patch

Peonies on the way

My first ever tulips

Hosta growing fast

Another hosta, a bit slower

A bit hard to see, but there is new growth on the geisha

In terms of life outside of our home, our outings consist of shopping runs, going for walks on nice days and going to the gym – yes, our gyms are still open. I only do classes; 2 x ballet, 1 x latin and 1 x Pilates per week. Three weeks ago, the gym implemented a limit on the number of people in the classes, and the classes were all shortened by 10 minutes so that staff could go in to clean the rooms and any equipment used between classes. In the studio my classes are in the numbers are limited to fifteen, but I have to say that most classes are now smaller than that anyway, as many people are not attending at the moment.

There are hand alcohol stations set up practically every few metres, so I am making good use of them (I think my hands are becoming alcoholic…), and I wipe over the barre with alcohol before every class, just to make sure. I am also wearing a mask when in the lifts – not in classes, though, the number limit means that we are all well separated (or is that socially distanced?).

One last comment about the current world situation; it has been interesting seeing how panic buying has panned out in different countries. Most, if not all countries have had a toilet paper and mask issue, although, while the toilet paper scare hit here early on it settled down pretty fast. On the other hand it is still hard to find masks and hand sanitiser here. I read that in the US there has been gun and ammunition panic buying, while in Holland there has been marijuana panic buying. Priorities…

Recently, the spring sumo basho was held – without an audience. It was eerily quiet in the auditorium and you could hear all the noises the rikishi made, which you would never normally hear. Strange to watch and even stranger for them having to wrestle with no-one nearby except the referee, the judges and the yobidashi (the various assistants), I imagine. This was the first time this has occurred in the history of sumo as it is today. At the end of the basho a special ceremony was performed to thank all the people who had watched the sumo over the fifteen days. Apparently the numbers were huge. Oh, and Hakuho won – again 😊.

Hakuho at the front – not sure if he’s having a snooze after his win!

In terms of our walks in the outside world, we chose places to visit mainly for hanami, ie to look at the blossom. We went to Heian Jingu to wander through the garden and then walked back along the lovely canal into the Gion area. While it was a little early for much of the blossom at Heian, the garden there is so beautiful, that it really doesn’t matter what time of year you go there. Having said that, the massive beds of iris will be in bloom soon, so I am hoping to go back there for that.

On the way

Ah, the sun…

One of those “yes, it’s Japan” shots

A young couple in wedding attire

Did I mention I also love willow trees, especially at this time?

For our other walk we chose to walk along Kiyamachi dori (one of my favourite streets in Kyoto) into town to buy Craig a pair of shorts from Uniqlo, then back home via the Gion. It is unbelievable how quiet it is in these areas. One of the most famous streets in Kyoto is Hanamikoji dori in the Gion area, and normally at this time of the year it is cheek by jowl along that road, with hundreds of people pushing to get through. Not now. Truth be told, this means it is very pleasant to walk along there at the moment.

Hanamikoji dori on the left, another Gion street on the right

Given we haven’t done that much, I thought I would add in some photos of our local area in this blog, with photos taken in the streets nearby. I also took some photos at the bus stop recently, where I catch the Princessline bus – my personal chauffeur service, for the most part! It is near the entrance to the mausoleum of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, hence the giant stone lanterns there.

The children’s playground

East and west of the bus stop

North of the bus stop, and one of the stone lanterns next to the stop

The back of the large Buddhist cemetery

As a special extra this time I have more photos of the flowers in bloom at the moment, because I love taking these photos and I think we all need to see some natural beauty to remind us that “The promise of spring’s arrival is enough to get anyone through the bitter winter”, if you know what I mean.

One of our plants

Ah, camelias…

This one is ours

From a distance and up close. Unusual flower

Azaleas have started 

And these are our tulips 😊

Cheers !

Sometimes Craig sneaks me into some shots…

And sometimes I sneak him into some shots (although the last one was an accidental photo)

Starbucks during a pandemic…normally you can’t get a seat here

Took the first photo, then got the evil eye

These ducks just kept one eye on me

The view out our bedroom window

Miro just wants to be near Zowie

Toy race horses in animal costumes…?

Just because I liked these shapes and patterns

I like to dream…(it’s an Aston Martin Vantage, if you can’t tell)

Not even in the middle of a pandemic!!!

…and we’re live back here on Earth, as panic deepens over the new paper virus – known as sinechartus-20 – which continues to spread worldwide. The virus has proved to be particularly devastating for both toilet and tissue paper, with both vanishing from shelves around the globe. Scientists continue to study the spread of the disease, but are at a loss trying to understand the mechanisms behind the outbreak. It also seems that it may be crossing over to other cell types, with many humans starting to show violent symptoms. One wonders where, and when, it will end.

Hi all, I have been reflecting on the action of people over the last month or two, and find that many of those sci-fi shows, especially those about viral outbreaks or zombie apocalypses, are tragically very accurate. How quickly people resorted to violence and vitriol after the corona virus was first reported is very sad indeed. Now, masks I understand because many here in Japan see them as a panacea, although it took a while for the alcohol pump packs to disappear (which are much more effective in preventing viral infection, overall).

The virus was first reported on 31 December and the first know armed robbery of toilet paper happened on 16 February, in Hong Kong, at which point you just knew this was going to be serious. It was the same day that our first cancellation took effect – a family of four who were booked for four nights were due to arrive. They gave us around a week’s notice, which was fine. Since then, we have had more cancellations, but some brave souls are still coming here.

Kyoto is very quiet indeed; never has there been a better time to visit many of the very popular sites. Relatively, from what we know, the outbreak here is on the lower end of the scale, with most of the reported cases having been on the cruise ship which the government allowed to dock in Yokohama, along with some of the people the government brought back from Hubei early-on. Of course, the great unknown is how many people are out there with mild to very minimal symptoms – and this is the case around the world.

What I can say is that we were lucky to have gone to Costco earlier this year and stock up on toilet paper and tissues, in anticipation of a few (subsequently unrealised) busy months ahead. Phew!

Now, onto lighter matters – the weather, and, as so often happens, I say something in my blog and it’s like a dare to the weather. One day after I posted my last episode, it snowed over night…yes, and it continued to snow a little, on and off, during the day. There was even some thunder!! Nine days later, it snowed again, although again it was quite light. In between these days, about half way actually, we had a day of 21C. In fact, the weather has been all over the place recently. Yesterday it was mid teens and rainy, today sunny and 20C, and tomorrow we are expecting cool and rain all day. What do I know?

During February we celebrated two years since taking possession of our home here. Hard to believe it has been that long. We still get many people saying what a nice place it is, and they particularly like how it is a blend of Japanese and western style. I think, as Australians, we are used to blends of different styles and foods, so it doesn’t really feel overly surprising to us. Japanese people are very surprised we serve Japanese style breakfasts – they often ask us what type of food Australians eat, and we always say it is a fusion of many different cuisines.

We only had one major outing during February and that was to see the plum blossom. In the past we have visited Kitano Tenmangu and other well known temples and shrines to see the blossom, but this time we went south of the city to a shrine called Jonangu jinja. We happened to see a segment on tv that mentioned this shrine and thought it looked nice. We also thought it would be less crowded – wrong!

When we arrived there literally hundreds of Japanese queued to see the gardens around the shrine. Clearly none of these people were really concerned about the virus. It took at least 30 minutes before we reached the entry to the gardens. It was, however, definitely worth it because it really was a beautiful place.

The shrine was built south of Kyoto at the time when the capital had just been established here and was known as Heian-kyo, in 794. It was built as protection for the capital and to ensure the nation’s peace. It enshrines the deity of the nation’s territory, the deity of bravery, and the deity of safe childbirth and child rearing. The area surrounding the shrine became popular as a retreat in the early days, so the imperial family and many aristocrats built villas there.

In fact, we were unaware of the information above but luckily decided to walk in the back streets to get to the shrine from the railway station, because you can often find some lovely places this way. One road back from the main road there were some amazing and quite large old houses in there, which I wondered if they were samurai houses. Most were beautifully maintained and it was a pleasure walking in amongst them.

The actual gardens around the shrine comprise around 30,000m² of land, with a huge area mostly planted out with plum blossom trees and camelias. There were also some small lakes and artificial creeks, populated with the ubiquitous carp, and some very interesting trees and other plantings in what I call the Dr Seuss style. These gardens would be a wonderful place to have wedding photos taken, especially at plum blossom time. Despite the multitude people there, we were able to get many shots with few or no people in the background, thanks to the way it was laid out and some patience. Gorgeous.

? Not sure

A close by temple

From late February through to early March we had a friend staying here with us prior to her leaving Japan to live in Thailand. We had met her and her partner after they found our place and contacted us to see if we would make a breakfast for them. They lived nearby, so had almost literally accidentally run across our place – and one of them happened to be vegan.

Anyway, Milena likes to walk most mornings and has a very good knowledge of the local area, so she took us on a couple of walks in our neighbourhood. The first one was during the day and took us along a trail we had walked before, but she took us on a few detours which we had not done before. At one point we ended up in a small temple which had an amazing panoramic view of Kyoto, and no-one was there.

The other walk was at twilight and took us through the very large cemetery which is nearby, behind Chishakuin temple, and in through the temple grounds. It was a clear, cool night, perfect for walking and was also a very pleasant experience.

Before I sign off, I thought I’d mention that Craig had his 50^th birthday the other day. Incredible to think he was 19 when we first met! Again, I say, time flies 😊.

Keep calm and ration toilet paper.

Cheers for now!

It amazes me how many bonsai in pots are outside houses

A Valentine’s gift from gym

Hhhmmm, I wonder who is part of this club???

Hard to see, but this fish is actually an albino

Ouch!!!

Another glove tragedy – this one has hanged itself

These are still awaiting their hands

A couple of friends

Just gorgeous…

Hello one and all! Here we are in the second month of the year, and still no snow – that is, until the day I sit down to write this. I have to say, though, it is a pretty poor effort in terms of snow. The sun is out and the snow consists of very small flakes flittering around and gone before they hit the ground. There is a heavy snow advisory out, but I really don’t think it will be happening here.

Weatherwise, January was rather more like early spring than winter, with quite a few days in the low to mid teens, and many of them overcast. Not very cheery overall. So far, this month the temperature has been a bit up and down (today is cold!), but the forecast is for a maximum of 18C next week!!! The guests we had during January, who were from Germany, Denmark and Finland, all said this winter in their respective countries had been unusually mild, with little or no snow.

Speaking of guests, yet again they have been such nice people. One couple stayed with us for a week and I found myself missing them after they left. It is easy to build up a relationship over a longer period, and sometimes we really just click with some guests. This particular couple is involved in the theatre in Germany, one a singer and the other a choreographer. While he didn’t sing while he was here, we have seen clips of him singing with his band (a Queen tribute band). He also tours Germany in Jesus Christ Superstar (playing Judas) and other musical productions, and is soon touring with a rock classics performance ensemble around Germany, which includes Alice Cooper.

We also had a return guest stay with us for one night – a New Zealander who lives in Taiwan. He is writing a book on travelling in Japan as a vegan. He wanted a space that he could film a video that was somewhat Japanese and would be appropriately quiet, which we were more than happy for him to do. The book will be sold on-line as an e-book, and, of course, there is a section in it about us 😊.

Back in early January, we attended a Vegan Seminar hosted by some students from a local high school and a person I have mentioned before in this blog, known as Diethelper on Instagram. Chisayo (Diethelper) contacted us last year about attending this seminar and giving a speech (in English thankfully) about why we became vegan and also about the environmental situation in Australia (with reference to the fires). We said we would be happy to do so, and I set about preparing a speech (I have given many speeches during my working life, so felt comfortable about doing so).

On the day there were over 40 people there, including some people we had met before at various vegan events and at their restaurants. After the welcome the first item on the agenda was making bliss balls, of all things! They told everyone they originated from Australia and they provided a range of dried fruits, nuts and been pastes (red bean paste and black bean paste) to use – yum! After this, we were served a vegan eel dish. It was made with tofu, burdock root and shimeji mushrooms and served with rice and a dipping soup. Now, I have never eaten eel before, but I can tell you it was very good.

I should say that the event was held in a hotel and the chef there gave a brief speech before we ate explaining how it came to be that he started making some vegan dishes. He is not a vegan, but had a friend who couldn’t eat certain foods, so he started experimenting and has now added some vegan items to his menu.

After we finished the food, the speeches commenced. I had a full speech written, but wasn’t sure how and where it would fit in. Anyway, Chisayo had a 20 minute segment during which she asked a few people to speak about their experiences and I was one of these people. In the end I mainly winged it because it was a bit less formal than I anticipated. I had researched the situation in Australia, including what size area had been burnt, which I compared with Honshu (around half the size of Honshu was burnt in total), the main island of Japan. This had an impact on the audience, and Chisayo gave us some money to donate to WIRES before we left.

Chisayo on the mic.

Other than this, we have only had a few outings during this period; a visit to the Toka Ebisu festival in the Gion area and the Setsubun festival in the Heian-jingu jinja (shrine). We also went back to an antique shop in town to buy a pair of ranma which we had seen late last year and decided to go back to buy them – they were on special (a bargain, and I really love a bargain 😊).

The Toka Ebisu festival is based around Ebisu’s birthday on the 10th of January and held at the Kyoto Ebisu jinja. Ebisu, is one of the Seven Lucky Gods and considered the god of fishermen and commerce. There are numerous things happening on the shrine grounds each day and people go there to pray for success in their businesses for the coming year. As with all things like this, many stalls are set up outside the shrine, with most selling food and drink, to lubricate the festivities. Apart from paying my respects to Ebisu and asking for a prosperous year, we checked out all the stalls and then bought a new shikishi for the year of the rat to hang in our the stairway.

So, this doesn’t produce alcohol follicles?

Setsubun is celebrated on February 3rd, to commemorate the day before spring is considered to commence in Japan. Various traditions are observed which are meant to drive away evil spirits and bad luck and bring in good luck and cleanse the home and family for the coming year. We have previously gone to Yasaka jinja for Setsubun, but decided to see what rituals were observed at Heian-jingu jinja. While it is fairly boisterous at Yasaka, the ceremony at Heian was a much more formal Shinto observance. Despite this, there was a very funny moment early on when the children involved in the ceremony didn’t do quite what they were meant to and the Shinto assistants were literally running back and forwards trying to organise these children.

Preparing…

Yes, the mask does have two sets of eyes – not sure why

For fans of Monty Python...(sorry about the shakiness)

Slight panic…

After we left the shrine and had a warming beverage at Starbucks we headed home and then commenced our Setsubun mamemaki ceremony, which involves throwing roasted soy beans (mame) out the doors to chase away oni (demons) and attract happiness and good luck into our home for the coming year. Following this, we each ate our age plus one roasted soy beans for good fortune to finish this ceremony. Another thing I love about living here, there are so many opportunities to celebrate life.

Oni mask

We have to hope all these ceremonies help ward off the coronavirus, which is currently impacting the world. Here in Kyoto there has been one identified case to date, but it has definitely had an impact on the number of tourists visiting Kyoto. Around 50% of all tourists in Japan come from China, and so the travel restrictions are severely affecting many businesses here, particularly hotels, restaurants, kimono rental shops and all of the shops in and around the popular tourist destinations.

The centre of town is much quieter than normal and the other day when we visited the Kiyomizu-dera area, to buy some items for our business, it was much less busy than what is normal these days. You could really feel the relief of the shop staff that someone was in there buying something and notice the spruiking as we were passing other shops. It is likely to have a significant effect on those businesses which really rely on the Chinese tourists for the majority of their business.

As for me, I am being a little circumspect, given I have had pneumonia before. Viral pneumonia is a different kettle of tofu fish than what I had, which could be treated with antibiotics…
On a final note, our little street cat, Miro, continues to settle into our family, we just wish we could pat her, but she is still too wary for that barrier to be dropped. It will just take time and patience on our part.

Cheers for now, and stay healthy.

It’s all about rats (or mice)

If only it came in black

Looks like more than one!

Just seeing what we could frame with the lantern…

And just to prove spring is here

So, what is next? Ah yes, Valentines’ Day

A slightly blurry photo of Miro – had to take it fast

Hi all – before I launch into this new year and new year episode, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry it has taken so long, but I have been having huge problems with WordPress. While the text below was written over a week ago, I haven’t been able to upload the photos like I usually can. There was an update late in December and something is not working properly with the upload process, but I can’t find out what. Anyway, one photo at a time, sometimes working, sometimes not (then with added cursing), I finally got enough in. Not exactly what I had planned, so I hope you enjoy it none-the-less.

Happy New Year! Yes, we have now entered 2020, and I am into my fourth year here in Kyoto. I know I have said it before, but time really does fly.

We are well into winter here, while I know Australia is roasting – literally. We have been very saddened to read about the devastation that has been occurring over the last month, or two. I know people have died and many buildings and homes have been destroyed, and when you add to that the estimated ½ billion native animals that have died, along with farm animals that couldn’t escape and people’s pets, it deeply saddens me.

In relation to the weather here, December was mostly cold (sub 10C), however, we have had the odd warmer day, and I mean that in both ways. Some days have been in the low teens, and a few – like today – are in the mid teens. Strange. There is no snow on the horizon, at this stage, which I felt sure would be coming by now given how cold the start of December was. It seems to me that if we have to go through a cold weather, at least give us some snow!

During December we were notified that an official was going to be coming to check our business, in relation to our check-in process and record keeping. We had no idea exactly what they wanted to look at, so we asked our employee, Takako, to talk to them about it. All that she managed was a time being arranged, and even though the person coming was going to be able to speak some English, they wanted her to be here. They also said they wanted a copy of our check-in form and our hotel manual…

We, don’t have a hotel manual, and up until they mentioned a form, we didn’t realise that one had to be filled out, given we take a copy of all guests passports. We tried to find out precisely what had to be on the form, but it was somewhat unclear, especially because they had never sent us a copy of the hotel rules, despite being asked to. It turned out that the rules had recently been changed, to add more information being collected at check-in time (and we didn’t get anything about that, too).

So, we scrambled and made up a form, with the absolute minimum of extra information, beside that on the passports (eg home address and dates in Japan). Interestingly, we had a visit from a police officer a few months prior, and he seemed happy with us taking copies of passports alone (and very relieved we were actually doing this). We also printed a copy of our hotel policy statement document to give the person and re-sorted all the records we have, to make sure it was neat and well ordered.

On the day, the woman checked that we had our name out the front (on our letterbox there is a plate with our business details in Japanese) and, of course, our name on the front of the building. After this, she came inside, asked where we checked people in (at the reception counter) and what we told them during this process (usual things, eg fire information, curfew time, please be quiet on the nearby streets, no smoking and down throw your rubbish on the ground). She also asked how long we keep the records (she had to give us a hint on that one). She was pleased with our responses, took our documents and left… All up she was here just over five minutes! Living with Kyoto bureaucracy.

Last time I mentioned we were listed in the new Lonely Planet Vegan Travel Handbook. Well, about a week after that was published, we had contact from a journalist from an online site – Veganary – which helps people accessing vegan travel options and also posts articles about various vegan related topics. She told us that we had been listed in a news story entitled “Top Unforgettable Vegan-Friendly Hotels” which she had written!!! We have no idea how we were chosen for this and had had no indication that we were going to be listed in an article for this site. In fact, we didn’t even know they existed.

It says in part; “In this list, we have compiled some of the Top Unforgettable Vegan-Friendly Hotels from all around the world.” and “The guide features locations across Europe, Australia, Africa, Asia, and South America.” The section on us reads as follows:

“This B&B is tucked away in a quiet spot in Kyoto and has a rotating vegan menu that changes nearly daily. The decor is in a perfect blend of traditional Japanese and modern styles. Because Japanese cuisine is often focused on meat and seafood, it can be difficult to find fully vegan spots in Japan. This makes Minshuku Sanbiki Neko a must for anyone looking to have a quiet stay in Kyoto. The B&B is also close to many attractions, including Kiyomizu-dera, Fushimi Inari and the Gion area.”

Since this, we have also been mentioned in a few blogs – written by ‘influencers’ – so, it seems that the momentum is continuing to build. We are hopeful that all of this will help us grow to a level that we need to keep the Japanese government happy with us 😊.

Late in November we had contact from the woman who had provided the translating services between us and our builder and architect. She just wanted to catch up with us. So, just before xmas, we arranged to meet her at a restaurant she had found nearby, which she said had some food options for us. Enough time had passed since the issues we had getting our hotel licence, so we decided it would be nice to leave that behind us.

The restaurant was a really nice place – very atmospheric – but there weren’t really many options, so unfortunately, while very close (and the food was nice), not really suitable to recommend to our guests. It has a huge garden on the hillside behind it, where they grow many different fruits which they use for preserves and drinks. It was a nice walk after eating.

What was interesting to us is that she apparently hasn’t seen her sister and brother in-law (our builder) for quite a while, which we suspect is a direct result of her husband being ‘let go’ from his job at the building company due to the issues with organising our hotel licence. Sad that it seems to have caused a rift in the family – the whole episode certainly caused us a lot of stress.

Now on to xmas day. Each year since we have been here, we have gone for a long walk then had lunch somewhere nice. This time it was no different, except that rather than go to Fushimi Inari to walk around the mountain, we decided to walk part of the Kyoto trail we hadn’t done before. We decided on the change because Fushimi Inari was getting too crowded.

So we headed towards the trail behind Kiyomizu-dera, which heads up to the top of Mt Kiyomizu (we didn’t know it was the name of the mountain prior to this). It was a lovely, sunny day, with a max temperature of 14C, so perfect weather for mountain climbing. It took us around two hours from our place to the end of that part of the trail, and it was a really nice and somewhat invigorating walk. It was also very quiet – we only passed around half a dozen people on the trail.

In the photo on the right, if you look really (really) hard in the centre of the photo, between the trees, you can see the Yasaka pagoda in the distance…

After we completed that we went to a vegan restaurant called Sunny Place, which we had been meaning to go to for a while. We had met the owner many months ago at a vegan festival. She had a stall there and we had had one of her burgers each for lunch that day. When we walked in, she treated us like friends she hadn’t seen for a while. It was very welcoming and we really enjoyed our lunch – especially after all that exercise!

The other xmas traditions we observed were watching Nightmare Before Christmas on xmas eve and Love Actually on the night, with a very nice bottle of Mumm. All boxes ticked 😊. Oh, and we had made a xmas cake to share with our guests who stayed here over xmas – a pumpkin spiced latte cake, with caramel latte icing…YUM!

…and speaking of guests, we made them a special xmas morning breakfast, not very Japanese, rather more British, since they were from the UK. Sausages, fried potatoes and gravy, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach and a vegetable waffle.

For new year’s eve we had a friend over to share home-made pizzas and Mumm (again!!! 😊). We had planned to go to a local temple to witness the bell ringing and do the traditional Japanese new year celebrating, but it was a cold and rainy night, so we piked and had an early night (ie finished pre midnight).

She brought with her some kagami mochi, which is a special new year’s decoration for good luck. On 11 January, you open the packaging, use the mochi cakes in a soup and symbolically crush the packaging. It is the year of the rat this year, so the one on the right has a rat atop.

Last post I related the story of the owner of Muku restaurant turning up here unexpectedly and wanting to have brunch here. Well, it finally happened last Sunday, the brunch, that is. She contacted us on the previous Saturday and asked us if they could come the next day! We said it would suit us better the following week. So, she said there would be three coming. Then, the day before she said there would be four…mild panic ensued as we rushed to get some extra provisions to cover that extra person.

Later that night, she contacted us to say the fourth person couldn’t come after all. Anyway, she came with her husband (in person) and the woman who prepares the food for her restaurant. They were lovely company and we learnt a lot about both her and Taiwan (we will definitely have to go there one day). In relation to Diana (her English name – her husband’s is Charles…) she has very big plans to spread her vegan businesses to other parts of Japan. She already has two guest houses as well as the restaurant, and she plans to open more restaurants and guest houses. Definitely a ‘go-getter’ – she’s on a mission.

Before I sign off, just one short story that really reminded me of why I like this place so much, and the people. I was waiting for the bus in town the other day and it started to rain, just lightly. I didn’t think I’d be waiting long, so just stayed there and covered my glasses. I had noticed a woman a few metres away from me, mainly because she was a very elegantly dressed woman and she looked a lot like Yoko Ono, but about 15 years younger. She even had a pair of sunglasses on like Yoko has worn in the past.

I had noticed her looking at me, but wasn’t paying too much attention – I was trying not to stare at her! After a short while, she started walking towards me and ended up standing next to me, holding her umbrella over both of us. She was a lovely person, we spoke briefly but then her car turned up, so she had to leave.

That’s all for this episode.

Cheers!

Yes  scooters can come in all shapes and sizes…and behind it an ‘ordinary’ motorbike – they are rather more rare here.

An interesting collection of Tanukis – but what’s that in the centre???

Yes, it’s another different kind of motorbike! A frog-nut bike?

Another interesting collection – of random things

A xmas tree at the Princessline bus stop 

A bit blurry because taken from a moving bus, but I couldn’t resist the xmas post box.

Craig sneezed…😊

A fungi we found on the path

Frog vodka – it’s artisan.

Yes, it’s that time of year again, and it’s happening again. So sad to see these lone gloves, left abandoned – seems it’s worker’s gloves at the moment.

Various new year’s decorations, the last being the one on our front door

Hello and welcome to the momiji episode! Ok, so momiji literally means autumn colours and this episode is going to be chock full of autumn colours, so be warned! This episode also covers the period which marks the end of my third year in Japan. Does it feel that long? Well, yes and no, and I say that unequivocally…😉.

And so, to the weather; winter appears to have set in early this year. Certainly it has cooled down earlier than last year, with the consequence that the momiji (see above 😊) came on somewhat earlier this year. It really is a lovely time here, quite magical, and I’m not sure if I prefer blossom over momiji! While the blossom is the promise of the warmer weather to come (and spring has always been my favourite time of year, as a result), the momiji is the celebration of the warm weather which has passed.

As it was momiji time, it was time for us to take the trip down the Hozugawa again – my birthday present. We had some guests here at the time, so we just picked a day when no-one was arriving or leaving and the weather was good (if a bit cool). We didn’t want to leave it till too late in the month, in case the momiji was past the best. We also hoped there wouldn’t be too many people there waiting to take the ride, since we ended up arriving later in the day than we had originally planned. Luckily we only had to wait about 15 minutes. The momiji was wonderful and the trip was yet again fantastic – I suspect it is one of those experiences that can be oft repeated without getting weary of it.

Just another day at the office…

The passing sightseeing steam train – they wave at us and we wave at them

The ride was a little rougher than the first time in a couple of places and I’m not sure if it was the result of there being less water in the river (hence less protection from the rocks to the side and below) or the ‘poleman’ being a little less careful about keeping us away from the rocks. There was also a little more water splashing over the side of the boat onto some of the people up the front. This, however, just added to the overall adventure, I think (although, I wasn’t the one getting wet 😊).

At the end of the ride, when we reached Arashiyama area, one of the guys propelling the boat asked if anyone wanted a picture taken of them. I don’t recall them asking this the first time we did the ride, but then we were further back in the boat so may have missed it. Anyway, I thought this was a good idea, so handed over my phone, He then told us to stand up, which we weren’t sure he was serious about at first, since one of the rules of the ride is to stay seated. After he motioned us up, we sort of half stood up…

They didn’t have to yell at too many people in boats to get out of the way this time

After disembarking, we made our way back into town and went to a new restaurant – Muku. It is a Taiwanese vegan restaurant which we knew would be opening somewhere, and it turned out it is a lot closer to us than we had hoped for. We had a lovely lunch and introduced ourselves to the woman running the place as we were leaving. She was excited by this and wanted photos with us! A few days later I received a call from her asking if she could come to our place to have lunch, at which point I had to explain we don’t generally serve lunches.

Anyway, a couple of hours later I got another call from her saying she was in the area and could she come to see us!! So, we said this would be fine, and then she said she was just down the road!!! Yes, we were rather surprised at all this, but she was a lovely person and we had an interesting hour or so with her. It turns out she also owns a restaurant in Wakayama, and three guest houses. She is, in fact, Taiwanese and her husband is Japanese. He was working in Singapore at the time, but she called him to meet us over the phone (video call) 😊, which was an unexpected turn of events (to say the least).

We had one other ‘momiji outing’ during the month, to Kodaiji at night, which they light up specifically for the momiji. It is something we have never done before, despite it being an annual occurrence. We left home before sunset, so as to be there to see the sunset – it was a clear night. Yet another wonderful experience (despite the bus load of tourists that arrived just as we did…), which I will highly recommend to our guests. They also light up the temple grounds during spring, so we’ll have to visit at that time too.

After walking around the grounds, we walked into town, through Maruyama park, Yasaka shrine and the Gion area, to have dinner at a ramen restaurant that has vegan ramen on the menu and is really good. The owner now recognises us when we arrive, since we go there often enough.

The xmas metal origami crane…

Something that has really been reinforced to us recently is how lucky we have been, overall, with the guests we have had (ok, barring one couple, and it was only one of them that was the problem). Overall, they have been such lovely people. We have spent quite a bit of time talking to many of them, and they are just such nice, engaging people. It really is a pleasure to host them.

We’ve had quite a mix in terms of ages, countries of origin, singles and couples and families. Many of the younger people are  professionals, quite frequently in the IT area. I was very excited recently when a young US couple stayed with us who had PhD’s in Maths. Our first Mathematicians…kindred spirits. We also recently had our first international pilot, who flies out of Taiwan. Sometimes it’s a little sad to see some leave. All we need now is more people staying with us.

These lovely people came to Kyoto for a friend’s wedding (Shinto). They live in Norway, although he was born in Russia. We just had to get a photo of them dressed for the wedding.

On that front, we recently had an advertisement in the GlobeRovers magazine, thanks to a friend from Australia who writes articles for the magazine. The owner of the magazine had recently visited northern Japan and we piggy-backed on the article he wrote for the magazine. It is a good article about winter in Japan, highlighted with some glorious photos. He offered us a free half page ad, which he said he would upgrade to a full page ad in return for a free two day stay here at some point. An excellent deal, which we happily accepted!

The really big news is that the Lonely Planet Vegan Travel Handbook is now available – and we are in there!!! There are various topics covered, and then individual countries, which is where we are (the chapter about Japan, of course). They contacted us some time ago to ask if we would like to be included (no brainer, although at first we thought it was a joke) and we sent them some photographs which they asked for. So, we are in a section of the chapter called “Dream Digs”, just us and a Buddhist temple retreat, which is in Wakayama.

Vegan Minshuku Sanbiki Neko
The Australian owners of this welcoming Kyoto inn are a great resource for vegan travellers to the region. Wake up to a delicious vegan breakfast, chill in the communal area and shower with cruelty-free toiletries. Find it in a quiet, residential area of the historic Higashiyama district. www.veganminshuku3neko.com

😊

Fingers crossed this gives our profile a big boost.

Finally, yesterday we hosted a brunch for the Kyoto Vegans Meet-up Group. We had to limit it to 14 people, which is the absolute maximum we could fit in the dining room, although in the end one person couldn’t make it (at the last minute). So, we had 13 guests for brunch – the last brunch (for 2019…). Silliness aside, it started at 10:30 (however, two arrived at 10:15 – I suppose that makes up for all the times we arrive early, which is nearly every time…) and the last people left at 15:20!! There was a lot of talking and they all enjoyed the ‘tasting plate’ we served them (basically all Craig’s work – he really does enjoy doing the cooking, and I’m happy to see him happy working).

It was quite funny watching all the people taking photos – of us plating the food, the plates on the table, other people eating, etc. Quite a few of these have ended up on Instagram. It was an interesting mix of people which included two here on holidays from China, who run the vegan group in Hangzhou and were interested to see what the groups do here in Japan. Slight difference in size, though, less than 100 in Kyoto, and 500 in theirs (this, apparently, is the size limit of any group as imposed by the Chinese government).

We really had a great time (and this despite me having a cold…☹ – thankyou to the makers of cold and flu medication). I suspect we’ll try to hold another event, if we have no guests on a Sunday during summer.

So, that’s your lot for now

Cheers and see you next year!

Vale Clive – I can only aspire.

Sunset…

Various views of Kyoto

Our momiji

So, we both had the HDR setting on, on our phones, and only a few of the photos turned out…

The most amazing cat tower ever!

The MOMAK shop window, a never ending source of entertainment. Taken one week apart – the mice seem to be breeding!

Not sure if you go there before or after!

Another interesting shop window

This person just keeps on adding items to the front step

What every well dressed dog will be wearing this xmas

A couple of the xmas decoration displays. Not sure what the things are in the bottom photo – Casper the Friendly Xmas Ghost?

This display greeted me when I went to gym last week! Possibly the nicest decoration I’ve seen this year – or ever. I wanted to take it upstairs for my ballet class.

A new decoration (not xmas) at Engine Ramen. I love it!!!

A bit glary, but you can see enough, I think – the Vegan group at brunch (and some loony in the background)

Miro – a street cat who is living on our back deck – we hope to encourage her inside permanently, at some point. She’s very wary of people.

And another month passes! This month was one of those milestone kinds of months, in that I passed another one…(and I won’t say which milestone it was, but it was a big one – sigh). October is always one of my favourite months, since it isn’t only my birthday but also the month of Halloween. I get to put out decorations which are black and purple and orange, and which are bats and witches and ghouls, etc. Being in Japan, I also get to see lots of other similar decorations around town. There was (and still is, as of today) a massive black spider and web outside a nearby shop, so large the tip of one of its legs is resting on the ground and the opposing leg tip is at roof height! Very impressive 😊.

No trick or treaters, so we got the treats!

Weatherwise, we are on the downward trend to winter, with nearly all days this month in the low to mid twenties. We also had some typhoons pass through, along with some very heavy rain. We didn’t get hit overly hard this year – we still got a lot of rain (and an evacuation order was put out for areas around the Kamo river), but nothing like there has been further north/east of us. It has been incredibly wet there, with record rainfall in many places and many deaths, mainly from flooding and landslides. There is now so much rubbish built up in some areas that they have run out of room to put it all. Huge numbers of big items such as ruined fridges, washing machines, tatami and furniture, along with other rubbish line the streets.

On a lighter note, one night, just prior to typhoon 19 which is the one that did the most damage, they were talking about the need for people to prepare themselves on the English translated news on NHK, as this storm looked like it was gong to be very big and damaging (as it was). On NHK they have a few translators, who take turns on different nights and for different items. Some are much better than others – as it happens, the best one is an expat Australian, Murray Johnson. Anyway, the translator undertaking this very important role this night happened to be the one who struggles most with fast translating, and at one point she said ”…there is no way Japan could escape it’s path…”. Well, we just collapsed with laughter, imaging the population pulling out poles and oars in a valiant effort to move Honshu…

Speaking of tv programs, I accidentally happened across a special sumo ceremony on tv this month. It was the retirement ceremony for Kisenosato, a sumo wrestler who was in the top rank at retirement. Virtually all wrestlers end their career with a dampatsu-shiki (hair-cutting ceremony), during which their topknot is cut off. As he was a yokozuna, it was held in the Tokyo sumo stadium and televised live. There are many parts to the ceremony, but the main event involves many people who have a connection to the rikishi one by one stepping up onto the ring behind the seated rikishi and cutting a single strand of his hair with gold-plated scissors (as best they can).

The final cut, which removes the topknot completely, is made by the relevant stablemaster. Once the retiree has bowed to everyone present, the rikishi then heads backstage for his first cut and style in years by an ordinary barber. Of course there were tears, especially as the final cut was made. It was very interesting to watch, particularly as I had wondered how long he could retain his topknot after retiring from wrestling. As happens with many top sports retirees, he is now commentating the sumo events fairly regularly – it’ll be interesting to see him with an ‘ordinary’ hair style.

The unkindest or kindest cut?

One creature I didn’t mention last time that we have been watching in our backyard since late spring is a lovely orb weaver who decided our back deck was a good spot to set up home. We actually had two living on the deck, a larger one up quite high (thankfully) and a smaller one down low, but near the far edge of the deck (ie, out of the way). We assumed the larger one was a female and the smaller a male, which turned out to be correct. They are called Joro gumo here, and are members of the golden orb weaver family. They are quite attractive spiders (I know some will say no spiders are attractive, but we think these are). I nicknamed her Spike.

After a couple of months we noticed the male spider was suddenly resident on Spike’s web – so they became Mr and Mrs Spike. All well and good, until one day they decided to move house…around the corner to the area where we hang out our clothes; right across the path. So, then Mr and Mrs Spike were relocated to a new home in the backyard between the fig tree and the deck. There they lived happily (and took in another male, it seems) until the other day, when I noticed both males were gone and Mrs Spike seems to be getting a lot bigger (side note; females can and do sometimes eat the males after they have served their purpose, if they don’t get away fast enough…). Apparently they can lay between 400 – 1,500 eggs. I expect we’ll have some Spike juniors next year!!!

We had one major outing this month, which just happened to be on my birthday 😊! We had never been to Kobe, so when Craig suggested it as I was trying to work out what I’d like to do, I thought it was an opportune time to go. It is only an hour by train to get there, so an easy hop from here. As it happened it was a lovely, sunny day and comfortably warm. Our first destination was the harbour, with the very famous tower, Maritime museum and the Oriental Hotel along the water front.

We then made our way along the harbour edge, and found many interesting buildings and features along the way. One thing I noticed about Kobe is the multitude street art installations dotted around various locations, from the small to the very large, which included a giant work called Fish Dance. It was designed by Frank O. Gehry and constructed with the oversight of Tadao Ando. It is an amazing work. Of course, there were some other installations that I wasn’t exactly sure what they were or who did them, but interesting additions to the landscape, none-the-less.

We also walked through an area with a number of beautiful Art Deco buildings and some other European designed structures – not overly surprising in a port area that there would be foreign influence. We didn’t get to the Earthquake museum, but found an installation along the side of a road which had some pieces of very damaged structures and associated photos (from the 1995 Kobe earthquake). After this, we headed to the Chinatown area, to find a particular supermarket (which turned out to be disappointing) and then on to lunch at a vegan restaurant, which was nice.

After lunch, we went to find something I was very keen to see – the Tetusjin-28 robot, standing at 18 metres tall. It was built to commemorate the resiliency and strength of the communities affected by the earthquake and to stand as a protective figure against further disaster. Tetsujin-28 is a manga character from the very popular 1956 manga “Tetsujin 28-go”. It was a little out of our way, but definitely worth it – absolutely amazing, especially as I didn’t know how big it really was before I got there!

Yes, that’s me down there -again tried to look tall!

Our final destination that day was the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art. There were three parts to the current exhibition: Form in Art ― Perceiving with the Hand (Hatta Yutaka); New Acquisitions and the Yamamura Collection (Gutai and the Japanese Avant-Garde 1950s – 1980s); Murakami Kagaku.

The first exhibition is part of an ongoing series of exhibits allowing visitors to touch and feel the art pieces. This was the 30th edition and featured the artist Hatta Yutaka’s (1930– ) Nagare (“flow”) series, which he began creating in the 1990s. Thee works feature shredded mulberry tree and other materials that he pasted onto flat surfaces using only his sense of touch. We actually decided not to go through touching the works, as it involved a number of rules, including taking off rings and I have a few which I can’t get off without significant effort (and possibly removing the finger ☹). Despite this impediment, we both really loved the works visually.

The Yamamura Collection was truly amazing, and it is wonderful that this gallery has the collection nearly in it’s entirety – he donated seven works by foreign artists, including Miro, to the National Museum of Western Art and continued collecting works from post war Japan.

As a post-script to our Kobe visit, that night on the news we learned that two yakuza were assassinated that afternoon, fairly near to where we were! According to the media report, the man who committed the crime is a member of a rival yakuza gang. Apparently he posed as a weekly magazine reporter when he was questioned by police shortly before the incident, after they became suspicious of him. While the officers were scuffling with him trying to check his belongings, the man pulled out a pump-action handgun and shot two men from close range as they emerged from their gang’s office. The police were stationed near the office to prevent any violence occurring…

Recently, when we went shopping at Aeon Mall, we were lucky enough to be there just as a Maiko was about to put on a dancing performance in the open atrium area of the mall next to the supermarket. It was a free performance, so of course we stayed to watch. She danced to two songs and it was very beautiful to watch, quite ethereal and gentle in movement. Unfortunately the photos don’t really do it justice, however, they give you some idea.

That’s all for now – cheers!!!

Another MOMAK item in their shop…

Zowie and Zo (Japanese word for elephant)

An Anpanman friend

This one’s for you Steven!

I tried to stand up tall!

Halloween in Kobe

Just some kawaii things

Ultraman bust display – a good shop!!!

???

…and so say all of us!

Halloween at my gym

Wine dressed up for Halloween

Me at the Pearly Gates – it seemed to early to me…

Me being angelic (or something)

What a lovely month September has been! The weather is definitely changing and the days at the moment are practically perfect even if overcast, like today. Temperatures in the high 20s and occasionally low 30s, though they are becoming less frequent. The first half of the month was still quite humid and well into the 30s, but we had some wonderful thunderstorms, which more than makes up for any humid heat.

There were two particularly good storms, the first of which I rated as 10 out of 10 on the Addams’ Thunderous Applause Scale. Yes, the perfect storm…The thunder and lightning lasted for over 45 minutes and was basically continuous – fantastic. It sounded and appeared as if Raijin was having a thunder deity conference, and they were all having a red hot go. I, of course, imagined Thor there amongst the others (yes, the Chris Hemsworth version, of course 😊). There was a variety of lightning of both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground types. I took about 15 minutes of video of the storm, but I won’t bore you with that (unless, like me, you are also a thunderstorm watcher and really want to see it). What I have managed to do is take some stills of the cloud-to-ground lightning from the video. There was a second thunderstorm which I rated highly, 7 out of 10, mainly because it continued for over three hours!

One of the other things I had mentioned previously about the summer weather here are the wonderfully monumental meringue clouds. These have continued on into this month and I set myself a task of trying to get some good photos of some of them. I probably should have used the ‘big’ camera for this, but often they were spur of the moment shots, so not brilliant, but they do give a brief perspective of the summer sky.

It has been interesting to continue watching the garden grow through the summer weather. Since the nearly daily rain has subsided, the garden has grown a lot more. I’m not sure if it is the increased sunlight, or that there was just too much water – likely both. The flying insects have also been taking advantage of the drier weather – we have had many different bees, wasps, at least one hornet, butterflies and moths. One of the latter provided me with an interesting search through the electronic oracle trying to work out what the hell it was.

You know when you have a “What the…?” moment, well, this was definitely one of those. Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera with me, so I have now resolved to always carry my phone when I go outside because I have also missed a few visits of the giant swallowtail butterflies; both the black and the yellow and black varieties. Anyway, back to the moth (which it turned out to be). It’s wings were moving extremely fast, although I could tell they were clear, and it was making a loud humming noise. One other thing I noticed was a very brightly coloured lobster-tail looking abdomen. This proved to be crucial in finding out that it was a Pellucid Moth, or Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. I found a couple of photos on-line – interestingly, one is feeding on a lantana, which is where I saw the one in our yard.

The one in our yard looked very close to the bottom photo

Continuing in the ‘creatures in our yard’ theme, we had an interesting visitor a few weeks back – a Japanese Weasel. The kids were outside at the time when we suddenly heard a ruckus. We assumed that one of the neighbourhood cats had come in to visit, but when Craig looked outside, he said “ah…stoat…weasel!!!!” By the time I looked over, it had run out of our yard and into the back block, but I saw it’s back end. It was a ruddy brown colour, not overly big. It moved very fast and so there was no photo.

As it happened, we saw another one the other day, when we went to a shrine for a festival. We were standing next to a deck, when we heard some people near us saying “itachi, itachi…”  (the Japanese word for weasel, which we had learnt following our experience). I looked down and it was about a metre away from me, a little face peeking out from under the deck. It was clearly trying to get out from there, but with the hundreds of people around, it was a bit wary. None-the-less, it eventually leapt out and ran across the deck (I was worried it would get hurt). I did, however, manage to get my phone turned on and focused in time to get it’s disappearing rear-end.

Other than unusual creature encounters, there were three major events we witnessed during September; the Harvest (full) Moon, the Seiryu-e procession and the Kushi Matsuri. The first – Harvest Moon, is the most important full moon of the year in Japan, and is celebrated at many shrines. It happened to fall on 13 September this year, which was a Friday! I had planned to celebrate this full moon by attending one of the shrines (one was giving a glass of sake to those who arrived early 😊), but it turned out that the guests who were arriving here that day, couldn’t get here until after dark. They said they’d arrive at 8pm, so any shrine visit was out of the question.

As it turned out, they arrived just after 7pm, so we were able to get out earlier, which was lucky because it had been cloudy all day but cleared up just after 7 for about an hour, then later after 10pm. My plan was to do the traditional Japanese way of moon viewing, which involves seeing the moon three ways: in the sky, reflected in a body of water and reflected in a cup of sake. We walked down to the river and managed the first two views, however the third proved much trickier than I thought. As a bonus, there were also little bats flittering around the bridge, which was wonderful.

After that, we spent some time at a nearby beer bar, which has a small courtyard at the front, so we could see the moon while imbibing. It’s a newish bar and it turns out the owner spent some time in Australia and experienced beer gardens, hence the courtyard area. It’s not overly common here, yet should be given the weather in the warmer months. Despite being outside, there was too much light for reflections in glasses. After we came home, I took my cup in hand and went in search of the reflection (it had water in it, but still…). I had significant difficulty but finally managed a shot using the flash, so not sure if the reflection is of the flash and the moon, or something else.

The Seiryu-e procession is held at Kiyomizu-dera and through the main shopping area nearby. There is a local legend that says a blue dragon (seiryu in Japanese), an incarnation of Kannon, flies to drink from the waterfall that is in the temple grounds every night. In 2000 this event began using an 18-metre long figure of the blue dragon which had been created to lead the way through the area, with prayers being given for regional peace and to expel bad luck. The dragon is carried by some men who perform the movements of the dragon and is joined by some monks and other attendants, who chant and play some hand held instruments. With most of these people wearing a blue green coloured outfit, it was somewhat reminiscent of the guards of Emerald City.

After we had some kakigori (shaved ice with flavourings) to cool down

The final event, The Kushi Matsuri, is held at the Yasui Konpiragu shrine in the Gion area. The shrine was built in its present form on the site in 1695, but its history goes back over 1,400 years. One of the deities worshipped there is Ōmononushi no Kami, a serpentine water deity. A legend says that he spent time hiding in his snake form in a woman’s comb case, and due to this association a burial mound (of sorts) for combs was created at the shrine (a kushizuka), Kushi is the word for comb and hence the matsuri celebrates combs, along with other hair ornaments and the hairstyles associated with them.

Ceremonies begin in the shrine in front of the kushizaka, then combs which have been donated to the shrine (ended their usefulness, etc) are added to the mound. After this, a woman dressed as a maiko performs a dance called Kurokami (black hair) on a stage in front of the main hall. Finally, the comb procession begins where each woman is introduced and her hair style and ornamentation is described. These may date back as far as the Kofun period (starting around 250CE) through to the present. After being presented they gather out the front and proceed to walk through the Gion area.

We were positioned in front of the stage, so didn’t see the commencing ceremonies as there were many hundreds of people there and if you moved, your space was taken. We should have guessed how crowded it was going to be – as it was we got there around half an hour before it started and ended up near the back of the crowd. Anyway, Craig was tall enough to get some good photos. There were 42 women in all in the parade and it was extremely interesting seeing the styles developing through the ages, from the very simple, to more Chinese inspired designs and finally to more distinctly Japanese styles. Some of the styles were so complex, I’m not sure how they kept them in place. The kimono they were wearing were stunning.

Well, that’s it for now – what will October bring I wonder?

Cheers

On the night of the full moon, the muse was upon me (or maybe the whisky I drank…)

The moon floats in the sky;

O, what a wondrous night;

A small bat flitters by;

When full moon’s in sight.

😂🤔🤗

Our street on full moon

Not sure exactly what this is – at the shrine and it looks like you can crawl through it

Young people standing round chatting?

You can buy transport here quite cheaply…

Zowie enjoying the cooler weather

Late season flowers – the one on the right is ours

Halloween pics

Autumn shikishi

Autumn grasses

The dragon suddenly entered this shop – then it emerged How did it fit in there???

Hello all, I am here yet again to sit and talk about what we’ve been up to, and anything else that takes my interest!!!. So here we are at the time when summer starts to recede and autumn should be advancing into our lives. Well, that’s the theory anyway. In fact what has been happening more and more recently both here and elsewhere (from what I hear) is that summer and winter are both getting longer, while spring and autumn are shortening, becoming more like inter seasons.

This year the warmer weather period has been very different to how it was last year. There have been significantly fewer typhoons this year; we have only just had number 12 move through Asia. In my last post I noted the rainy season, which I said appeared to be over, had lasted a lot longer than last year. Now we seem to be back into a rainy season – rainy season part 2. We have been getting some rain nearly every day over the last few weeks. Perhaps my statement that it appeared to have ended stirred up the two gods related to weather – Raijin and Fujin – who then decided to prove me wrong.

Raijin is the god of thunder, lightning and storms, while Fujin is the god of wind. They are feared deities in Japan because of the damage typhoons and storms have caused here over the years. In an interesting aside, apparently parents used to tell their children to cover their bellybuttons during storms, because Raijin likes to eat bellies! Anyway, they are often depicted in statues at the entrances to Shinto shrines, as protectors for the shrine.

Speaking of storms, this year we have had only one typhoon pass fairly close to us; number 10. It was a very large cyclone, and also very slow moving. It impacted the more westerly areas of Honshu along with Kyushu and Shikoku for quite a few days, causing significant rainfalls and associated flooding. For a while it looked like it was going to turn further east than it did, which would have brought the eye very close to us, however, it wasn’t to be, so we just had some heavier than usual rain (around 120 mls in about 7 hours).

With so much rain about, we have been spending more time inside, sometimes looking to see what midday movies are on BS Cinema (which plays in the original language as well as overdubbed or sub-titled in Japanese). Recently, a film was advertised – Johnny Oro, which the Japanese called Apple Kid (not sure why) – and they termed it a “macaroni western”. Interesting, so I just had to find out why this genre title was used.

Turns out that it dates back to the time when Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars was released in Japan around 1964. A well known Japanese film critic (Yodogawa Nagaharu) in his critique said that “spaghettis are thin and meagre”, which he obviously thought this was not, so he instead referred to this genre of movies as “macaroni westerns”, a name which has stuck here in Japan.

A DVD set

A CD

A book

Despite the weather, we have managed a few outings during this time, mostly trying to fit them in around the rain. The first outing was to the local Buddhist high school (Otani School) to view the Daimonji (fire) festival. People who live in our area are invited each year to go to the school and watch the fires from the roof. Last year we couldn’t go because I had a broken toe, so we decided to take up the offer this year, and we went with a friend who lives near us – Rachel.

Before many arrived

Daimonji is the culmination of the Obon festival, on 16 August, which involves the lighting of five fires on the hills around Kyoto. These fires form specific shapes and are lit as a send off for all the spirits of ancestors who have revisited the household altars during Obon. (Obon has been celebrated in Japan for over 500 years.) Specific families in Kyoto have the hereditary duty of organising all the logistics of the bonfires, and they spend many hours each year maintaining this tradition.

The teachers and students were very welcoming, with some of the students practising their English on us. There were many people there and you could see all but one of the fires, though not in one position. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any good photos of the fires – the limitations of a phone camera. I should have taken the ‘big’ camera. When we were leaving, some of the students were walking around passing out ‘yoyos’, which were actually small balloons with some water in them and a longish piece of elastic tied to the top. A bit of fun learning how to use them!

You can just see the orange glow of the front of the boat

The next day we met up with a Taiko friend from Adelaide, who had been travelling around Japan with a tour group. It was a hot/humid day, so we spent a lot of the time with her indoors, at Starbucks for a coffee, then Mumokuteki for lunch. This café is mostly vegan, so Dot (who is a vegetarian) enjoyed having a complete meal, as the tour group didn’t really cater well to her dietary needs. Later we walked across to the Gion area. It was nice, as always, to spend some time with someone from Adelaide.

Speaking of vegan restaurants, we visited another place which we hadn’t been to before – Yamashokuon – a vegan Indian restaurant. It is run by two Japanese people and they serve mainly south Indian oriented cuisine. Not sure how this came about, but the food was good and the restaurant was an interesting space as it was part of a hiking goods shop. One thing that really caught my attention is that they had two curry leaf trees growing in pots in the shop. I asked if they bought them here, but they said they didn’t – they did, however, offer to try to grow a sapling for us from one of the seed pods. We have our fingers crossed.

Our final outing during this period was to see a teamLab installation at Shimogamo shrine. You may recall we went to an installation of theirs in August last year, with many, many hundreds of other people. This year we decided to go during the week and it turned out to be a night which was slightly damp, ie raining. This, however, was a good thing as there weren’t anywhere near as many people there so we could move around quite freely, see things easily and didn’t have to wait for long periods to take photos.

The installation was a mix of some of last year’s eggs and spheres, with the addition of a long screen in the forest in front of the shrine, on which figures were moving along a virtual track. It was not a pre-recorded video, but rather a computer simulated creation using an algorithm which meant that it continually changed in some ways. There was also some music and sounds playing, including mooing of the cows/bullocks as they moved past. Again a fantastic experience.

So, that was August. There is one final incident worth mentioning – I call it “the Lizard Incident”. I have mentioned the skinks that live in our backyard, well Ziggy has recently started trying to catch them, as they are moving around a lot more at the moment. Despite the fact he is on a lead, tethered to the deck, he has managed to capture a few. If we see him do it, then we try to save them (at the moment we are at around 40% success rate, because they often die just from the shock).

The incident in question happened when I rushed outside to get him and he rushed inside with the lizard. As I battled to get it away from him, it escaped…into our house. After a bit of searching we found it behind the large cupboard which is in the lounge area. Following the removal of some weight from the cupboard, we were able to move it but couldn’t see the lizard. Eventually, we discovered it on a ledge underneath, and coaxed it out. Then we spent around half an hour nearly getting it in a container (it was very fast), only to finally lose sight of it. Some time later I noticed Zowie showing some interest in something in our spare room and finally, after another 15 minutes, or so, we caught it. Thank goodness it survived all that! Lesson learnt.

Cheers 😊

  Love dragonflies

More of these mouse/cat/bear creatures

This is outside the front entrance of a clothes shop…

Ah, my favourite time of year – Halloween is coming. Thankyou Costco!

The science of happiness?

A friend on our deck – note the food leftovers in the web, including other spiders

Would you buy these?

Just a lantern

There were three geckos grouped around this light – one on the other side, two this side – but one ran away

Finally coming into flower after being transplanted

Hello one and all, it’s that time again when I enlighten you with a little of what we have been doing and generally augment this with a lot of photos. This episode will be no exception, and, as is nearly always the case, I begin with a summary of the weather – wet then hot. Yes, that’s basically it, the rainy season extended well into July, but it appears to have ended and the heat is setting in, with most days now above 35C.

Having said that, we are still getting the nearly daily weather advisories which come directly to our phones. Most of these are for thunderstorms, although we are still occasionally getting advisories about rain; “heavy rain for ground loosening” or “heavy rain for inundation”. So the pattern for the last week, or so, is it starts out sunny and hot, with a medium level of humidity, then, in the afternoon the clouds start moving in – huge cumulonimbus clouds (or, as I like to call them, meringue clouds). Not that these advisories always come to anything; it seems that we get one actual event in about four or five warnings, and mostly it’s just the thunderstorm.

Meringues looming over our neighbour’s house

Recently, we have had a couple of days when we had the trifecta of warnings; thunderstorm, ground loosening rain and inundation rain. After a while, it becomes a bit like the ‘boy who cried wolf’, we assume it won’t happen, or is not very likely. I don’t know how long they have been transmitting these advisories via mobile phones, we only bought new phones here in the last year, but I do wonder how much attention people pay to them here. Still, we do get the clouds moving in and it could happen. Certainly if we were living in one of those areas where the rain events are reasonably regular, then I would pay them serious heed.

The interesting thing about this year is that both the cyclones and cicadas have started later this year. By this time last year we were into the high 20s of the numbered typhoon, while this year we are currently awaiting no. 8. It is interesting to me just how different these last two years have been. Anyway, we now have ‘the sound of summer’ happening, which I really do love, with the cicadas singing their songs for us.

Craig found this discarded exsuvia on our new fence post

I rescued this cicada from the side of the road, but it must have been on it’s last legs, as I found it where I left it later

Zowie being serenaded in the morning

In my last post I added some photos of lotus which were just coming into bloom. As a follow up to that, we made the pilgrimage to Tofukuji to see the large lotus pond there, which is a truly beautiful sight when in bloom. Tofukuji has many different garden areas, most of which you have to pay (separately) to get into. The lotus pond, however, is out in the free to visit area, which is an added bonus, and it is in front of the Sanmon gate, which makes a fantastic backdrop to the pond. Simply glorious.

July is also the month of the Gion Matsuri, a fantastic celebration which has been happening annually since the year 970CE (the floats became part of the matsuri in 999CE). Actually, it started out in the year 869CE not as a celebration but as a way to appease the gods thought to cause fire, floods and earthquakes. The floats in the parade are divided into two groups, the larger hoko and the smaller yama, collectively called yamaboko (or yamahoko). The nine hoko represent the 66 halberds used in the original purification ritual to appease the gods, and the 23 yama carry life-sized figures of famous people.

The lead float is always the naginata hoko (it has a halberd at the top of the spire) and on this float a young boy in Shinto robes and crowned with a golden phoenix rides up front. He is known as the chigo and is chosen from among the Kyoto merchant families as the sacred page (a great honour). He has to go through weeks of special purification ceremonies and is carried onto the float, as he is not permitted to touch the ground. The boy must also cut a sacred rope (shimenawa) with a single stroke of a real sword to begin the festival.

The naginata hoko (l)

What I didn’t realise until this year is that the floats are built in situ, on the streets, which we discovered from the tv show we watch fairly regularly. It never occurred to me that they were dismantled every year and then rebuilt literally from the ground up (but then, where would they be stored and how would they get there???). The floats are made with wood and held together with ropes – no nails or screws are used – and they are covered with incredibly ornate tapestries. So, while we have seen the floats before and the junko (parades) we hadn’t seen the floats being constructed, which meant I just had to go and have a look.

After watching this for a while, we went to buy new chimaki for our home (one for our door and one for the front door of the minshuku area) and then, to top it off, we went to one of my favourite places to eat, Engine Ramen, for a delicious spicy vegan ramen for lunch. Yum! Interestingly, on our way into town on the bus, we happened to pass the procession of the chigo going up to Yasaka shrine, where it is his duty to pray for a successful matsuri. He must have done pretty well, because the rain held off for both parades…

Speaking of eating out, the Kyoto vegan meet-up group recently had a get together, which was held at an Italian restaurant which only serves fish, vegetarian and vegan dishes, called Pettirosso. We decided that, as we were free, we should go. I’m glad we did, as we met some new people there, with the gathering including both Japanese and foreigners living in Japan, and the food was good. A very enjoyable night and surprisingly cheap, given the food we had.

Finally, I thought I would update you about my activities at gym and how it is going. I am still doing two ballet classes per week and really enjoying it. Both of the teachers are very good instructors and are also very good dancers. The teacher on Fridays spends a lot of time really explaining how to do things correctly, which is important since most of the class have never done ballet before. I have to say, I find it quite impressive how hard they try and how well they do, overall, since the majority don’t have the background in ballet like I do.

I’m happy to say that I have improved since returning to ballet, with my balance and flexibility much improved after a gap of nearly a decade. I have, however, changed the other classes I am attending; I am now doing Pilates before the Friday ballet class and there was an enforced change after Tuesday’s class, with a change of timetable from the beginning of July, when Zumba disappeared and a Latin class replaced it. I was a little trepidatious at first, having limited experience at Latin dancing, but I am loving it! The teacher is a professional dancer and he is teaching the correct way, starting with the Samba. He is very Strictly Ballroom, which I initially thought was somewhat hilarious, but it was such fantastic fun that I have continued on. The music is great and I think that I will end up with abs of steel if I continue on, with the exercises he gives us at the beginning of class, Pilates and ballet 😊.

I wonder if I should get an outfit like this?

Or any of these?

One other thing I should mention, before I sign off, I am now catching a different bus to gym, which is much less crowded and is apparently cleaned (somehow) to ensure the inside of the bus is a healthy environment, ie germ free. It is a bus line named “Princess Line” and has specifically been set up to service the Kyoto Women’s University and the all girls school near it. So, I am now chauffeured to gym in a big red bus, and when I say chauffeured, I am often the only person on the bus into town, mainly due to the time I catch it – just me and my chauffer. Oh, and their symbol is a pumpkin…

Princess Line with the sounds of summer. The only bus stop I know of where there are red couches to sit on…

Cheers!

A butterfly in our backyard

Yves St Laurent goes all dream catcher

Tomorrowland? Looks more like yesteryear…

Are you serious?

Just decorations in the gym building

There are so many interesting things to see here, sometimes you miss things – who knows how long this has been here and I didn’t see it?

Not sure I would want my nails done here!

You rarely see police stopping cars here for traffic violations. This poor guy went through a red light (I think) and the car that stopped him had 5 officers in it, who all piled out!

Hello there – funny meeting you here, especially as I am at home sitting at the kitchen bench…It seems I am now returning to the keyboard about once a month. I suppose we are doing less at the moment, in terms of visiting places, not because we aren’t interested in seeing new things, just we are spreading things out a bit more and we have had different things happening that require attention.

Weather-wise, we are definitely having a rainy season this year. We haven’t had many days with very heavy rain, but we are having much more frequent rain. Looking at the Himawari satellite images, it appears a lot of cloud is streaming up through here from the tropics. A small typhoon developed a couple of weeks ago, but otherwise we haven’t had any big storms here. That has not been the case in other areas – Kyushu, in particular, has been hit hard. In a recent five day period they had over a metre of rain in the south Kyushu areas. Unsurprisingly, it is becoming more humid here now.

Our backyard is nearly finished, in terms of plantings and ground cover. It is wonderful to be able to sit out there and enjoy the scenery of our yard, including the wall (which, technically, belongs to our neighbours). As I mentioned previously, the plants are growing quite fast, which is lovely to watch. I had to move the elephant a bit recently, as she was getting overgrown by the hydrangeas! I have had a few iris flowers, which are beautiful, although I haven’t yet seen the third iris because the gardener (NiwaShin) accidentally broke the stem of the one flower that was growing on that plant. The flowers on one of the irises are really interesting looking and the petals are quite textured.

The growth of one month…oh and everything now planted…and Ziggy  photo bombing

Anyway, the irises are gradually spreading, so I’m sure I’ll have plenty to look forward to next year. One of the hostas also flowered, which was a nice surprise. One thing this has done (apart from make me happy) is there are more butterflies coming into our yard, most of which are quite large, including a different type of swallowtail butterfly.

Around a month ago, we went to the nearby Four Seasons Hotel,at the invitation of one of the employees (Pin), to participate in a wellness activity. Pin had introduced herself to us as she lived in the area, had noticed our establishment and her and her partner are both vegans. She wanted to know if we served food to people who weren’t staying here. Long story short, we said we’d be happy to make a breakfast for them and they have since maintained some contact.

Pin is the manager of the Health and Wellbeing area of the hotel and she (along with other employees) were hosting some events over a weekend. We decided to join Pin in a ‘forest bathing’ experience. This involved walking from the Four Seasons up to part of the Kyoto trail and then ending up at the Toyotomi Hideyoshi mausoleum. At the mausoleum we put the yoga mats we had been carrying on the ground and lay down. It was very peaceful, especially after having walked at a reasonably brisk clip up the trail to the top of the hill.

Laying there, she encouraged us to listen to the forest around us and really relax. She then went around and gave everyone a short neck and shoulders massage, using an aromatherapy oil as part of involving all the senses. It was really very pleasant and I would recommend this to anyone who is able to do it.

Pin, if you are wondering, is from Thailand and has been living here for a while, working at the Four Seasons. She actually worked at the Four Seasons in Thailand, with the same General Manager, and I think she moved here at his request after he moved here to manage the new Kyoto establishment. In fact, the GM and his two daughters came on the walk with us, although we didn’t know who he was at the time and talked to him as if he was a tourist staying there 😊.

Pin has since contacted us to see if we would be interested in partnering with her to provide these kind of experiences for tourists, so that they stay with us for one night and Pin takes them on a longer forest walk here, then they go to Nara and stay in a farm house and do a vegan cooking class using the organic produce of the farm. We, of course, said yes. Unfortunately it means that Pin is leaving the Four Seasons to return to Thailand and work in a wellness type spa resort (at Ko Samui). Still, hopefully we’ll see her occasionally, if this business works out.

Returning to the Four Seasons, wow, what a place! It is amazing in many ways starting with the architecture. It houses nearly 200 hundred suites (can’t remember exactly how many) and also has a venue for weddings and conferences on site. The rooms start at around ¥100,000 per night! Inside they have a number of artworks, including paintings and ceramics. There is a set of three giant ceramic flowers, which are stunning, created by Yasuyoshi Sugiura, from Tokyo. I wonder how much they were???? Outside, there is a beautiful old garden on the property with two tea houses.

We have had one other outing which was just for enjoyment, to Chion-in temple. This temple has the set of stairs at the front which Tom Cruise runs up in The Last Samurai, if you’ve seen that (no, the stairs do not lead to the emperor’s palace). I thought it might be nice to go there while the weather was still comfortable (ie not really humid), because we hadn’t seen all of the temple. As it turns out, the second garden was closed so I didn’t get to see it, but we walked around and went to an area up the back of the grounds and also into the cemetery, although that was more to check if we could see the second garden from there.

The bell is supposed to be the largest temple bell in Japan, at 74 tons

While walking around the cemetery area I noticed a small man-made waterfall and went to look over the fence to see what it was like. As I was looking at the pond, I noticed something in the water, which looked like a lizard (I completely failed to notice the bright green frog very close to me, which jumped in the water to hide as I moved to get a better view of the ‘lizard’, ah wel)l. It wasn’t moving and I assumed it was a dead lizard, until I noticed quite a few more and some were moving around! In fact, they could move quite fast, in a sort of swimming motion. After much searching of the electronic oracle, I found out that they are in fact newts, called Akaharaimori, or the Japanese Fire Belly newt. They are endemic to Japan and are usually around 9 – 14cm in length, with the females being bigger than the males. In Kyoto they are listed on the Amphibian Red List, which means they are being monitored because they are nearly endangered, due to loss of habitat. An interesting discovery.

Another interesting discovery on that day, was that there is a nationalist group which drives around in black vans and buses that have slogans written all over them and many have the national flag and the military flag attached. They are called “gaisensha” (街宣車) or “propaganda trucks” in Japanese, and they blast right-wing slogans and songs through loud speakers. While Japan does have noise pollution laws, it also has free speech laws, so these vans are able to get the same licenses that allow political parties, and even religious groups, to drive around and broadcast their opinions. They are quite intimidating looking, and the men inside (we only saw men) were all wearing grey, military style uniforms.

The inscription says something about “defend to the end” and “loyalty to ruler”, also the Kuril Islands.

From what I have discovered via the electronic oracle, there are a number of right-wing groups, or uyoku dantai (右翼団体), and they have existed in Japan since the country opened itself to the West. Apparently some members are connected to the yakuza because it is difficult to arrest uyoku dantai members as freedom of ideology is protected by the Constitution of Japan. Hence some yakuza use them as camouflage.

I have to say, we were alerted to something going on while we were walking to Chion-in by the large number of police lining the roads and particularly on corners. As we approached Maruyama park there were many (many) police buses parked together, presumably to bring in extra police for the protection of the populace. They were wearing helmets and some had what appeared to be protective jackets on. While we were in the temple grounds we could hear very loud voices and music, not a very relaxing ambience, that’s for sure.

Finally, as a follow-up to the last post, we received an extension to our visa last week, for another year. We hope that next year they may consider giving us a three year extension…

Cheers for now

We found this on the road near home and thought it was dying, until it flew away!

Who is that man?

One of my hydrangeas

I was taking a photo of this flower, then something flew, then something photo-bombed it!

A carpenter bee, I think – big!!!

Some days you just want to stay in bed, by the fan

There seem to be more creatures here every time I go past

In memory of our lovely Serena