Hello and welcome to week 37 and my new reality – having the family back together! (2 x 2-legged & 3 x 4-legged). Yes, we can finally settle into life in Kyoto together and start the serious planning for our new venture. One of our first priorities is to develop a website so that we can commence marketing and ultimately start taking bookings.

So, what have I been doing this week???? It is divided into two parts; pre and post Craig’s arrival. Pre-arrival, I spent a lot of time trying to work out how we would fit additional clothes and other paraphernalia into this small space. I moved things around and generally worked at making more space. Unfortunately, unlike the tardis, the flat stayed the same size no matter what I did.

Post-arrival, we have been doing things together! The flat is still the same size, but now has more in it. Also, there are now two human voices having discussions…So life is moving along now, not stuck in neutral as it seemed to be for such a long time. It is also really good having Craig here in time for the construction phase of the activities towards fulfillment of our dream.

Speaking of which, we visited the ‘once was carpark’ on Monday to see how things were going and, as you can see below, found that preparations have been made for the foundation pour. I’m not sure when this is going to happen but I assume it will be some time this week. We’ll have to take another walk up there later this week to have a look.

When we arrived up there, there was a man and a woman tending a vegetable garden which has been planted around a disused pottery factory across the road from our block. When the woman saw us, she rushed off and I suspected she was going to tell other neighbours we were there. The man, on the other hand, just looked at us without engaging at all, then walked off. As we got our cameras out, the woman returned with two other women, who you could see were keen to check us out.

We greeted them and at once they started talking/asking questions. Unfortunately, we couldn’t understand everything they were saying, however, one asked if we were from Australia and the other if this was our block. We then tried to explain that we would be living there once it was built, but I’m not sure how well they picked that up though, as one of the women asked us if we were moving in. They also asked if it was going to be a minpaku, which is essentially a private residence where you rent out individual rooms, unlike what we are going to be doing, which will be a licenced accommodation. I said it was going to be a minshuku and hoped that would allay their fears a bit.

They also talked about the area being a small area and the need for quiet. I tried to convey that we would be talking to our guests about being considerate of our neighbours and keeping noise levels down, however, I’m not sure how allayed their fears were because they did repeat the quiet part a few times. At this point I decided to divert the conversation to the vegetable garden that they were growing and this seemed to go well. I told the lady who was most conversational that we didn’t eat meat and fish, but only ate vegetables, so we were impressed with what they were growing. After talking about that for a while, we said our thankyous and left, hoping we had made a reasonably good impression.

In the area around our block, there are many temples and shrines, many of which I have now visited, however, there are three largish temples in very close proximity that I had never visited, which I thought we should drop into on our way back from the block. None of these is in any list of top places to visit in Kyoto, but I thought we should know our own area as thoroughly as we could. The closest of these temples is the Chisakuin Temple which was established in 1598. The main hall is relatively modern (1975) replacing older halls which was burnt down at least two times, the most recent fire destroying some priceless sliding screens.

Some of the screens which were part of the temple precinct still remain there and are now housed in a small, purpose built museum. These are considered national treasures and really are very beautiful, depicting natural landscapes. The other feature of this temple precinct is, as is so often the case in Buddhist temples, a garden. There is a small tatami hall facing onto the main part of this garden and is a lovely place to sit, relax and contemplate.

The next temple is Myohoinmonzeki, which had many structures, some older others modern, however, there didn’t appear to be anything open there. The website indicates that one of the buildings was ordered built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and has some amazing paintings inside, but this too was closed.

The last temple we went to is the Otani Mausoleum, which has a lovely entrance across a bridge over a pool with many lotus flowers. At the front there is a very traditional building which is the Buddhist temple, but behind is an amazing modernist style building, which was built in 1966, called the Muryoju-do. This building is covered in what appears to be large pebbles. We went inside briefly to see what the inside structure was – it is actually a concrete building, without any lining on the walls. It really is spectacular and the kind of architecture I like most. This building is where ash remains are kept.

(Light fitting inside)

On the Saturday night after Craig arrived, we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, which serves pizza and pasta. The man who makes the pizzas is, in fact, an Italian who I think actually owns the restaurant. This restaurant is one of the many that line Kiyamachi dori and during the warm months they have a balcony built overlooking the Kamogawa. In anticipation of Craig’s arrival I had booked a table on the balcony for this night, three weeks ahead of time to make sure I got one.

It was lovely out there in the early evening, in time for sunset. I think it was a bit of a surprise we were there, because you do have to book ahead and so not many tourists get the opportunity to have dinner outside. One of the highlights for me were the bats! As sunset approached, they gradually started appearing in the sky around us, flipping around trying to catch insects. It really was delightful and a most pleasant way to spend an evening.

After we left the restaurant, we walked down Kiyamachi dori for a while then went across to a hip bar called Len and had a couple of drinks before returning home for the night.

Tonight, we are going to watch a fire festival here called Gozan no Okuribi, or more commonly known as Daimonji – more about that next time!!!!!

Cheers for now

It had been a week of delays, as if the weather itself was slowing everything down. One week became two and then those in the cold land started pressing for action…

Yes, indeed, there have been delays, and mostly centred around real property. The first delay occurred around the construction of our new abode/minshuku (I should think up a new word for that – minabode? homshuku? domshuku? minitat? Ok, ok). The meeting that was supposed to occur with the neighbours was delayed, then rescheduled, then abandoned altogether. This meant the construction was delayed, then rescheduled, then finally commenced TODAY!!!!! (Tues, 8/8)

Our builder ended up going around to all the near neighbours giving them a present and telling them what’s happening. The agreement with the community leader was that we offer a private viewing when it is finished. There was one other delay, which was caused by a weather event yesterday – a typhoon. Yes, a typhoon came ashore in the Osaka region yesterday (Monday, 7/8), and made its way towards Kyoto (and other areas further north). It actually was still a typhoon, with an eye and spinning slowly. We all got a lot of rain and some wind, although the wind had lessened by the time it got to us.

What it has done is cool the temperature down a little, which is nice. Yesterday was under 30! (29) today it started cooler, with some remaining cloud cover and a bit more rain, but as soon as that cleared off the temperature started moving up to the expected max. of 35. Amazing how fast it heated up and, of course, it was still very humid. Nearly all the tv stations were covering the typhoon non-stop last night and posting all the warnings – mainly flooding. I had a look at the Kamogawa a little earlier today and it is at the highest level I have ever seen.

The other main delay referred to above is one that definitely shouldn’t have happened, along with the flow-on consequences. Today was supposed to be settlement day for our house (Tuesday, 8/8). I say supposed to be because it isn’t now going to happen until next Tuesday (15/8). This is despite a ‘no conditions’ contract which had settlement as 8/8, the date chosen by the purchaser. It seems that there is some financing happening and the bank couldn’t get it put through before the 15^th. There are penalties in the contract which will be imposed.

As you can imagine, Craig had gone ahead and organised everything with the 8^th as the final day, including booking flights for the Thursday (10^th) and other necessary processes. Our conveyancer and bank had everything organised for the 8^th, but it wasn’t to be. Interestingly, the buyer’s conveyancer had omitted to tell anyone about the delay, including our conveyancer and the real estate agent! It was all up in the air as of Thursday and Friday (3^rd and 4^th) as to when the settlement would actually occur. It wasn’t until the Saturday that we knew definitely that it would be delayed and the new date would be the 15th. Suffice it to say there were some tense words exchanged amongst the respective parties…

Of course, the third delay was this post, as I was waiting to see what was going to happen with everything before I sat down to put hands to keyboard. To say I was slightly put out by all of this might be a tiny bit of an understatement. Poor Craig has had to deal with it all ‘at the coalface’, as it were. He has battled on through and is nearly finished everything that needs to be done. He has decided to leave this week none-the-less, thanks to the assistance of a very good friend – Steven. Big thankyou to Steven for his help.

Digressing to a completely different topic, I did undertake one outing this week that didn’t involve a supermarket, shop or builder. I realised I hadn’t been to one of my favourite temples for a while and since it was in up in a mountainous area I hoped it would be somewhat cooler. I have been visiting Mt Kurama and the temple and shrine there since we first came to Kyoto. The walk up to the temple from Kurama station is a little strenuous, but it mainly involves stairs and the mountain is very lush, with lots of wildlife – including land crabs, which we discovered on one very wet day some years ago.

You may recall I talked about a much more strenuous climb up a track to a temple some time ago, which was the climb to Kurama from Kibune village, one station earlier. That track does not have much in the way of built stairs, but is still lovely and lush – although It’s hard to notice too much when you are dragging in air and trying to keep moving.

So, I went up there and spent some time relaxing and meditating in that very calm place, listening to the monks intoning and the drum keeping rhythm. The multitude cicadas were quite loud there, which just added to the ambience. Though it wasn’t as cool as I’d hoped there, it was worth it. I felt very calm, which was lucky given the subsequent events. It seems my visit there was very timely.

In terms of events, there is a very large pottery and ceramics market happening over three days this week, which just happens to be set up along both sides of Gojo street between the Kamo river and the next main road, very near the flat. There are at least two hundred stalls lining the street on the footpaths, with some really amazing wares, as well as every day ceramics. I had no idea it was going to be on and just happened upon it on my way back from the ‘once was carpark’. It took some work, but I managed to control myself and only bought a few things.

It was hard getting a good shot of this, especially as Gojo street is three lanes wide each way. This shot only show a small part of one side of the road. The centre here is an overhead highway exit.

In the world of tv, there was a segment on one of my favourite programs which really grabbed my attention (and didn’t involve ducks…). It was about a young racing driver who is currently racing in the Formula 4 category. She is 11 yr old Juju, whose father is ex-F1 and ex-Indycar racer, Hideki Noda. They showed her driving at well over 200 km/h and apparently she is winning races, although she is too young to compete in official races. Interestingly, despite that, she already has a sponsor.

As with most young drivers, she started in go-karts (at 3 yrs of age!) and worked her way up. She does physical training to make sure she has the strength to pilot the vehicles and to cope with the substantial g-forces experienced when driving and braking hard. Just recently she set a lap record for under 17 yr olds in F4 at the Okayama International Circuit. She hopes to race at F1 level, and win, one day.

She seems to be gaining a lot of attention in international media, including this article:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2017/06/30/could-this-11-year-old-become-the-worlds-first-woman-f1-winner/#75f015b97a93

I’ll be barracking for her!! Actually, I’m somewhat jealous – I’d love to have raced cars!!!

Cheers for now

Post script: Tengu has fully recovered from his nose breakage incident:

Here’s another of my favourite trees. This one is at Kurama and is over 800 yrs old:

Hi all, me again, slaving over a hot and humid keyboard!!! It’s time to review week 34, to see what I have and haven’t been getting up to here in mushimushi Kyoto. I like that term – which means hot and humid – it seems very descriptive to me; it’s just how I feel when I’m outside in this weather. I have to admit that because it has been so mushimushi, I haven’t done that much this week. The aircon has been my friend! None-the-less I do have to go out occasionally, not just so that I can eat and drink, but also because I do need to maintain some contact with the outside world here.

This week I decided to go out and see what was happening with the matsuri floats on the Sunday afternoon before the second procession, which I didn’t mention last time involves only the smaller yama floats. I actually wanted to buy a new chimaki, for the coming year. A chimaki is a good luck charm made from bamboo leaves which is placed at the entrance of houses and looks rather like a bundle of straw. People in Kyoto hang it at the entrance of their house to ward off evil throughout the year.

The chimaki are sold at Yasaka shrine and at stalls for the yama and hoko during the Gion matsuri. On the three nights before each of the processions some of the streets where the floats are parked are closed to traffic and the area is filled with food and drink stalls and other stalls with various items for sale, such as yukata, obi, hair decorations, etc and chimaki. The evenings leading up to the first procession are known as Yoiyama (July 16), Yoiyoiyama (July 15) and Yoiyoiyoiyama (July 14). On these days you can also go inside some of the hoko. The chimaki sold during this time are hand made by volunteers from the areas related to each of the floats and are all decorated slightly differently.

(photos from last year)

So, I went for the fairly long walk to the precinct where the floats would be and had a look around. Unfortunately, either I was a little too early, or the number of stalls before the second procession is fewer. Whichever it is, I didn’t find any selling chimaki. Feeling a little annoyed with myself for not having made the effort to go to one of the yoiyama nights, I set off back home. I had nearly walked all the way down Shijo dori to the street I was going to go down to get home when I saw a stall selling some chimaki! It was, in fact, a stall selling chimaki from the Yasaka shrine, so I was very happy with that outcome. It is now hanging outside next to my front door.

While I haven’t watched any more tv than usual this week there have been some noteworthy shows to watch, and which I had a very close interest in. The first was a show about a duck family – mother, father and six ducklings. Yes, ducks! It happened that these ducks were the ones we had seen in a pond in a temple that we had wandered into when Steven was here, while I was looking for something else. It wasn’t a very large temple complex, but it had a smallish pond in it with a curved concrete bridge over it.

Under the bridge there was a platform on the water with some food (leaves) on it and a pet box which had been set up with a little ramp into it for the ducklings to sleep in and as a safe place. Obviously the people in the temple – monks and helpers – had taken it upon themselves to look after this little family. There were only a few other people there when we went in; it wasn’t one of those temples that had many visitors other than locals. I seem to recall there was a tripod set up near the pond, but I didn’t really think about it at the time.

The program followed these ducklings as they grew up and also showed there were people there looking after them 24/7, making sure nothing untoward happened to them and filming them day and night (with infra-red). I assume these people had talked to the local police at some point, too, to seek assistance for the day the mother would take her ducklings down to the Kamo river, when they were sufficiently grown.

Moves toward that time came one day when the mother flew off towards the Kamo – the first time she had left the ducklings since laying the eggs. A reconnaissance flight was the presumption. She returned after a short while and later made the same journey again, not sure if it was that day, or the next day. You can never be too careful when it comes to looking after the brood!

On this signal of intent, while she was away, the monks and helpers moved the platform from under the bridge and set it up as a ramp on one side of the pond. The sides were too steep for the ducklings to easily get out without flying. As soon as the mother came back and saw the ramp she went over to it and tested it out. She obviously was happy with it, because she then climbed up it and headed outside of the pond enclosure. There was an open gutter outside the pond enclosure that they would have to cross to get out of the temple area, not very wide but quite deep, so she also tested this out by jumping over it.

When she was happy with everything, and it was the right time, she stood outside the pond enclosure just past the gutter and started quacking. This must have been duck language for “come out here to me – use the ramp”, because the ducklings all immediately swam over to the ramp. They hesitated there for a little while until the bold one of the group jumped up onto the ramp and started walking up it. At this, the rest did the same and they all walked outside the enclosure, until they reached the gutter. Here they stopped, looked around briefly and eventually went back inside.

I think the mother must have been happy with this progress because she left it at that for the day. Next day, she went out again and again quacked. This time they went up the ramp, outside and straight to the gutter. She quacked again, and one by one they all jumped over the gutter. Then they were off on their long walk. It’s about 1km from the temple to the Kamo and there were two possible routes they could have taken, but she chose the shortest distance. The police were in place down the road, ready to direct traffic (was there a special code the temple helpers used when they called them?? Code: Big march? Kamo march? They’re moving?…).

The whole entourage, ducks, monks and helpers all walked together. Funnily enough, the ducks seemed completely unperturbed by all the people and cameras, I suppose they were used to them. I’m not sure how long it took, but they made it to the river, slipped down the bank (well, some did) and they were into the water. It really was lovely to watch and I felt very lucky to see the program, having seen the ducklings when they were very small.

Next night, when I turned on the tv, there kangaroos jumping across the screen – and I hadn’t been drinking! It was a program focussing on the kangaroos which live down the southern coast of NSW, near Eden, spend most of their time at the beach and actually go into the water when the conditions are right. It was an interesting show and talked about why they go into the water (not for fishing) and what they eat around the beach. They also mentioned another mob in far northern Qld that similarly go into the water.

Then, the next night, when I turned on the tv, there was footage of a street being shown, which looked very familiar to me. My first thought was that it could be a street in Adelaide and then the camera swung around to show the building on the other side of the street – it was the Central Market!!!! The first building on the other side of the street which looked so familiar was Her Maj! It was a program about Adelaide, but unfortunately I had missed most of it. They went inside the market, and filmed some of the stalls, with a particular focus on a butcher stall which specialised in kangaroo, believe it or not. I sort of winced at that, after the previous night’s show.

After the Central Market, they focussed Glenelg – the buildings and the beach. They also showed what appeared to be life savers practicing in a surf boat, probably preparing for competition. The boat had a Port Augusta sticker on the side. As you can imagine, I was very excited to see a show about Adelaide being shown in Japan. I wish I had seen the whole thing but I got the impression it was a very positive program and good promo for Adelaide. Not many people have heard of Adelaide here when we say that’s where we come from. They mainly know about Sydney and Cairns.

My final remarks are about a truly great champion – Hakuho!!!!!!! Not only did he win the basho (again) but he also achieved the most individual bout wins ever in sumo. He already has well surpassed the most basho championship wins. Fantastic achievement.

Well, that’s it for now – 2 weeks to settlement…

Cheers!

Post script: One thing I forgot to mention in my week 33 posting – the cicadas have finally started! It’s the sound of summer and we finally have it. They were few at first, but they are building. The cicada here in Kyoto, as far as I can work out, is the kuma-zemi or bear cicada, which is the largest in Japan (60 – 70 mm I believe). I find their sound quite pleasant, although I believe some of the other cicadas can be very loud and abrasive.

Week 33 and three weeks to go to settlement! Hello and welcome to my world – Kyoto – and a wrap of my 33^rd week here. Summertime, and the living is easy…actually, it’s hot and humid, which means that when I go out to attend to various tasks I have to recover on my return home. Some days, of course, are somewhat hotter than others, particularly when the sun is out (where is that umbrella with the fan in it????). Most of the recent days have been 34+ and high humidity, generally over 80%. We are also still getting the semi-regular thunderstorms and the kids still aren’t enjoying them, unlike me.

From the start here in Kyoto, my forays into the outside world have revolved around the weather since I have to walk to most places. This is even more so the case at the moment, however, when it is hot and humid every day, as it has been for the last few weeks, then it is a case of getting out and back as fast as possible. Sometimes it appears on the forecast that it will be slightly cooler/overcast, then when I do go out the cloud clears up, the sun beats down and I melt. I am just not good at coping with humidity (have I said that before?).

This week I decided to visit the other temple complex here that is in some ‘top 10’ lists but I had never been to. As with many of these places, the best times to visit are spring and autumn for the respective blossom and colours, however, I do think it is important to see what they are like when the proverbial icing is not on the cake. Also, this temple is fairly close to where our new home will be and I am making it my business to check all these places so that I can talk to our guests about them, as necessary.

Anyway, the weather looked like it would be reasonable, so my plan was to catch a train there and walk back so I could drop in at the supermarket for a few items. This, I reasoned, would mean I was fairly fresh when I got there and make it a little more pleasant for me looking around. By the time I reached the temple area, however, it was starting to clear up, the temperature was rising, and the humidity was gradually increasing, prior to an evening thunderstorm. I hoped it was going to be worth it!

Well, I can only say I can’t believe I had never been to Tofuku-ji temple before and that it isn’t one of the top destinations in Kyoto. It was a huge complex, with three separate garden areas, one rock garden slightly away from the main complex and another rock garden within the largest garden area. As you walk up to the temple from the train station, you pass a number of small, unassuming gate entrances. Me being the curious type just had to go in (if there is no barrier or sign saying no entry, then I go in). Within the first gated area was a small hall and a path leading to some other buildings, which were all closed. Inside the small hall, as it turned out, was a wooden carved seated Buddha which was over 3 metres high. It looked old, but there was nothing there to say how old it was, nor any other information, except no photos to be taken.

(one entrance that was blocked)

Some temples and shrines allow photos to be taken of the inside of the halls, and some do not. Disappointing sometimes because the statues and decorations in some of them are amazing and the only way to see them again is by returning to the temple/shrine (I don’t have the ability to visualise things in my brain, so no visual memory, unfortunately). The next stop was a small temple called Hosho-ji which enshrines a Senju Kannon-zo (a “thousand-handed” statue of the goddess of mercy). No photos of that, but I took some in the courtyard.

Next was Reiun-in, a sub-temple of Tofuku-ji, and which has the most beautiful rock garden I have seen in Japan. Others may disagree but for me it was mesmerising, even with the sound of trains in the background. Very few people actually went into any of these temples before entering Tofuku-ji, so apart from myself there were few people inside any of them, and the only other people at the rock garden was a group of three French tourists who were respectfully quiet, which made it even better just being there.

The Reiun-in temple was set up in 1390 but the garden was ruined some time ago and the current garden was re-created in 1970 from an old image. The centre piece is a stone called an Iai-seki, which symbolises Mt Shumisen, the holy mountain where Buddha lives. This stone was given to a famous Buddhist monk in the 1600s. I could have stayed there and just sat and contemplated life, the universe and everything but I had to move on to the main complex.

There’s so much in the main complex to look at I could keep writing, but luckily I have photos. A couple of highlights there; I was taking a photo of one of the halls from the garden below and two monks photo-bombed my shot (!) and a beautiful lizard which was about 15 cms nose to tail tip and was coloured like a rainbow, starting from a brown lime colour through green, to blue and then purple. The photo doesn’t show the colours as well as I would have liked, but I couldn’t get any closer without it moving. Suffice it to say that it was worth the half hour recovery period I had to have when I got home!

(guilty parties)

Some of you will be aware that July in Kyoto means it’s time for the Gion Matsuri. The festivities last most of July and there are two festival processions during this time; the main one on the 17th and the other on the 24^th. Two types of floats are used in the procession, 23 yama and 10 hoko. The hoko are the biggest floats, being up to 25 metres tall and weighing up to 11 tonnes, have huge wooden wheels and are pulled by between 20 and 30 men. These wheels make it interesting when they have to turn corners, which is a spectacle in itself. Last year, when we were here, we placed ourselves on a corner so we could watch this process. It really is amazing and very hard work for those involved, especially considering the heat and humidity.

I decided to go down a bit later this year for a quick look and actually got there to see the last four of the hoko and the same number of yama passing down Shijo street. Interestingly, the floats were moving in the opposite direction to last year, so the turns they had to undertake were in the opposite direction this year. To keep them on their toes, or to even out the wear on the wooden wheels???

One thing I hadn’t noticed last year is that all the traffic lights, which are on a pole on the sides of Shijo street, hanging across the street, had been moved out of the way and we’re talking around ten sets of lights. As it turned out, the lights actually pivot on the poles they are on, so after the last floats went through there was a mad rush of cherry-picker trucks moving down the street and returning the lights to their normal positions. Japanese efficiency.

On my way back home, I was walking down Kiya-machi dori (previously talked about canal street) and was very near the Gojo street bridge corner, when I heard a didgeridoo being played! At first I thought it must be a recording, but when I reached the stairs that run down to the river’s edge, I saw a guy there playing a didge!!!! I had to go down and see who it was, so I went down and asked him if he was from Australia. He thought I was asking about the didge, at which he said yes, it was a proper didgeridoo from Australia. He was very proud of it. I am no expert in didges, but to me it did look authentic; made by a traditional custodian. It had a beautiful sound and he played it very well. Amazing what you find here…

This week there is nothing in particular to report from the tv, except the Nagoya Basho is on and it looks like there is a good chance that Hakuho (my favourite rikishi) will achieve the all time record of wins. Ganbatte Hakuho!!!

On a final note, yet another icon has passed this week – George Romero, the creator of the best Zombie movies, starting with Night of the Living Dead and also all the ‘rules’ about zombies. Vale George.

I wonder if he will come back…?

Cheers

It’s been two weeks???? Did I miss a week? Well, actually, I did – I just couldn’t bring myself to the keyboard last week due to a largish disappointment. We thought we had sold our house to a nice young couple – it was to be their first home (how do you afford that much money in your earlier 30s????). Anyway, bottom line is they got cold feet and cooled off, probably in part because of one of their fathers who came to look at the house on their third viewing and didn’t seem to like it.

There also wasn’t that much to talk about – there has been quite a lot of rain during the last two weeks (you may have heard of the flooding on Kyushu). It seems the weather was trying to catch up with the missed rain in a splurge. Other areas also got a lot of rain, but nothing like what was experienced on Kyushu – particularly in the Fukuoka prefecture. In Kyoto we had quite a lot of rain, well over 300 mls during this period, along with multiple thunderstorms. You may, or may not, know that I love thunderstorms, so it’s been good for me – but the kids…

So to week 31, when the highlight was a Kodo (taiko group) concert! Unfortunately I had to go by myself (my bag had a lovely view in the other seat) because of the delays in selling our house and Craig being stuck in Adelaide. I tried to find someone to fill the other seat but they all had things on, so it was me and my bag. I don’t want to go over the top with superlatives, but Kodo were GREAT!!!!!! It was two hours of energy, with mainly taiko drums, although there were other instruments such as various flutes, other percussion instruments and what appeared to be a Jamaican steelpan; it certainly sounded like it.

They played nearly every type of taiko drum there is, from shime through various sizes of nagadō-daiko and three hira-daiko. They also have a very large odaiko which sits on a stand on top of a large wooden float which can be moved around on the stage because it is on wheels (it takes a few people to do it, but it is easier than trying to pick up a drum that large, along with its stand!).

There were two significant highlights for me. One was a song which commenced with seven men on shime, playing a relatively simple beat but was made very difficult because they were playing it very quietly most of the time, with one at first and building up to the seven and some pattern changes by different individuals and changes in loudness, from very quiet to very loud and back, in the same beat. Technically difficult. They also added in some nagado daiko and other percussives, including a large gong. As I was listening to it I recognised it as rain and thunder – it was very similar to what I had envisioned as a song when we had to write our own song at our taiko class last year in Adelaide.

The other highlight was the odaiko on the float. It was used a few times, including an amazing solo piece. The stage was darkened and the float moved into position, with the head facing the audience. When the light came up there was a male drummer in front of it, back to audience, with only a mawashi type of belt on. He was very muscly (as you’d expect doing that type of drumming professionally) and with the rest of the stage darkened and a cream coloured mawashi on, he looked nearly naked (well, essentially he was).

What really caught my attention (and I tried really hard not to look…) was that his glutes were moving in time with the beat, so that when he hit with his right hand, his right glute flexed, and similarly with the left hand, his left glute flexed. That aside, it was an amazing piece, very physical and went on for some time – you could see at the end he was breathing very heavily.

As we were leaving the auditorium, it was raining, which I had expected – I had taken my sun parasol with me because it was sunny and hot when I left and I thought I could use it for the rain. It was raining pretty heavily when I went outside, so really I just kept my head dry (my parasol isn’t as big as a ‘normal’ umbrella). The other thing was the thunder and lightning that was happening as we got outside. Funny, it was sort of like a continuation of the performance! I had a ten minute walk to the railway station and about halfway there, there was a lightning bolt directly above me…very bright it was, and the thunder was like a massive gun going off concurrently. Amazing. There was another bolt directly above just after I reached the station platform. Good day all round!!!!!

My outing during week 32 was to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition in the Gion! Yes, thanks to Craig’s eagle eye and an article in the Kyoto journal, we found it. I mentioned last post I had searched the electronic oracle, and walked around in the Gion area in the hope I would see a poster referring to it, but had found nothing. So, as you can imagine, I was very excited to go and see it, and I wasn’t disappointed. I love her work and there were many paintings and prints she had produced I had never seen before. Also, there was one of her giant pumpkins outside the venue. It was fantastic, especially sitting in the very traditional Japanese surroundings it was in.

(Photos taken inside exhibition where we were allowed to)

The added bonus was a beautiful garden behind the museum space, and I found the theatre where many Geiko and Maiko performances are held. Another fantastic day seeing some of my favourite things. How can I top this??? One thing is the sale of our house, so that Craig can finally join me and we can experience these things together – and, as of today, our house is officially sold!! Settlement is on 8 August, so Craig should be here in around a month. Finally. To top it off, I may have found a taiko group to join.

On Monday this week, I met with the builder and architect, to sign off some more paperwork and get an update of where everything is up to. It seems everything is progressing and the builder expects to commence construction work on 28 July; yes, this month! While at this meeting, I was talking about the Kodo performance, in part because Hisayo (the interpreter) was one of the people I invited to see Kodo, and I was saying how much I missed playing and wanted to find a group to join. She had previously told me her father had donated some taiko drums to a local shrine so they could set up a group and she and her brother, the builder, could see them play.

When I said Craig and I wanted to join a group, she told me that Fukuda-san (the builder) actually knows the leader of the group his father donated the drums to and he might be able to introduce us! Fukuda-san showed some footage of them playing. The drums her father donated consisted of three odaiko, three shime and some nagado-daiko. They would have cost a lot of money. Anyway, the group seemed pretty good, so I look forward to meeting them. (As an aside, they were very surprised we had been playing taiko in Australia – they didn’t realise there was anything like this in Australia).

In the world of tv, I have two things of interest to mention. One was accidentally coming across Bondi Rescue on one of the stations as I flicked through – over-dubbed! My curiosity got the better of me, and the over-dubbing was funny seeing those very Australian guys speaking through the megaphone in Japanese, so I continued watching. It turns out this was part of a program which was showing segments of rescue shows from around the world. Amusing to see Bondi Rescue on Japanese tv.

The other item of interest was a performance which was in a Noh theatre and was very Noh-like, except it didn’t seem to be a play. It was more like showing the physical movements and music of a Noh performance. Having said that, I have never seen a Noh performance, so it might be I missed the subtlety of a Noh play in the performance. None-the-less, very interesting to watch and the movements were like a cross between dance and walking, with a gliding sort of movement, use of fans and the movement of their slightly exaggerated clothing.

Well, that’s it for now. Things are progressing and soon we’ll have the excitement of seeing our dreams starting to become realisation. I have to meet with the new neighbours in a couple of weeks, which should be interesting. They are worried about an accommodation place being built there and any potential fallout in terms of amenity for them. Apparently there are a lot of foreigners building accommodation but not living there and some guests have caused issues for the locals.

Cheers!

Hello and welcome to Kyoto in the slightly rainy season. Yes, we have had a little rain, but not overly much. The forecast 200+ ml last week turned out to be only 105 ml. I realise that that is still quite a lot of rain in one day, but it doesn’t make up for the ran that hasn’t fallen. The last few days have been quite humid – Sunday was in the high 80s to low 90s all day. The first really humid day since I moved here and I can tell you I am not very good at humidity. My skin felt sticky and itchy most of the day. It’s still better than cold for me, however…

The kids have been lying full length on the floor and have enjoyed the fan at night, since the humidity started. On Humid Sunday (a new type of Sunday) I put the fan on during the day and they all found positions to take advantage of the breeze, along with me! I recently saw a segment on tv showing all the different types of umbrellas currently available (given that this is supposed to be the rainy season…). There was one that had a fan above the central rib joint area, which was presumably powered either by solar means or batteries. I now wish I had one of those when I’m out walking!!!! Quite expensive, though (over ¥60,000).

This week I decided to visit Kodai-ji temple. This was in part to provide some hopefully interesting photos and because I had seen a website that said this was the author’s favourite temple and garden to visit. Along with this, I had seen another website which said that the first machiya-style Starbucks in Japan was being prepared for trade near the Hokanji pagoda (the very famous Kyoto pagoda that you see many photos of), which is near Kodai-ji. This is the area between Kiyomizu-dera and Yasaka Shrine, in the Higashiyama foothills (near our flat). So, I just had to see that as well.

So, off I trekked, camera in hand, anticipation in mind. I went to find the Starbucks first, which involved going up past the pagoda. I took some lead up shots because it is a very impressive sight (the pagoda) no matter how many times you see it. Also, it was unbelievably quiet up there – normally there’d be hundreds of people going up and down that street, taking photos, wearing kimono, etc. I even got to one section of the road that was empty and I just had to take a photo of that too.

Anyway, I found the building, with a very traditional looking sign in it – not the usual Starbucks sticker on the window. It is actually an old machiya building which they are renovating for purpose. What is a machiya, you say???? Machiya are traditional wooden townhouses (the literal translation of machiya) found throughout Japan, and which are very much a feature of Kyoto. The typical Kyoto machiya is a long wooden home with a fairly narrow street frontage, with little or no space at the back of the block. They comprise earthen walls and baked tile roofs and  often contain one or more small courtyard gardens. Generally, they are one, one and a half or two storeys high. In Kyoto they are sometimes called kyomachiya and have defined the architectural style of downtown Kyoto for centuries.

After finding this, I headed for Kodai-ji., through the amazingly traditional backstreets in that area (lots of machiya). Just prior to Kodai-ji is the Ryozen Kannon temple, which I had passed a number of times before but never been into. So, I decided it was time. The temple with the Kannon on top was built in 1955 to commemorate all the Japanese people who had died in WWII. In 1958 a monument was added to the temple complex to commemorate the 48,000 unknown soldiers from around the world who had died on Japanese, and Japanese controlled, territory during WWII.

I’m glad I went in – it was a lovely place and certainly felt very peaceful. There was also a very large stone with the Buddha’s footprints engraved on it and a wishing stone (although I didn’t know at the time that was what it was – I certainly would have made a big wish there…). You can also go inside the Kannon, which is called the womb of the Kannon, and houses the principal images associated with the Asian zodiac – essentially all various statues of Bodhisattva, from what I could see in the darkness of the ‘womb’.

After that interlude, I went into the Kodai-ji temple complex. I can see why it is a favourite, it really was beautiful. The temple was established in 1605 by Kita-no-Mandokoro (aka Nene) in memory of her late husband – Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a fairly important person in the history of Japan. You may recall that my local shrine is a Toyokuni shrine, established to commemorate Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

I could go on and on about this temple and garden, but I will let the photos speak for themselves. One thing that did happen there, which was a bit difficult, I broke my vegetarian diet…a fly flew into my mouth and was gone before I had a chance to react. It wasn’t my choice to ingest a fly – it was an unfortunate, and uncomfortable, accident.

In the world of tv this week, I saw another hilarious show (as so many are here), mainly involving a series of skits, some of which were loosely joined by a theme of a samurai household and the goings on therein. The main character had his faced painted white, in kabuki style, so I’m not sure who it was, but he was a very good taiko player as well as comedian and actor.

There was a guest at the beginning of the show – a guy Craig and I have seen before here during our various visits, who is an impersonator, mostly of male singers. He is extremely good at what he does and very funny, as well as obviously having a good voice. While I don’t know most of the singers he is impersonating, I have seen some of them and his caricature of them is incredibly good.

Finally, before I sign off, I just want to put in a plug for a friend who has recently opened a shop in Regent Arcade. It is called Hebe & Co, and sells skincare and beauty products which are cruelty free and vegan. I recently tried one of their nail polishes (yes, I know, surprise, surprise) and it was an excellent product. It went on smoothly and the finish was very good. Jenny is one of the subscribers to this blog, so go in and meet her and maybe buy some products!

http://rundlemall.com/business-directory/hebe-co/

Well, that’s it for now – hopefully I will have some positive news re the never ending house sale story in the next few weeks!!!

Cheers

Doesn’t time fly???

Hello! Welcome to week 29, a fairly quiet and very dry week. The weather stubbornly continued to remain rainless and from the stories on the news and the slightly extended weather forecasts, I think the authorities are beginning to get a little worried. Having said that, as I sit here in my official office, at my official desk, it is raining outside! Finally, after two weeks of no rain during the rainy season, the forward forecast went from “brief rain” for today, to “rain which briefly stops” as of Monday, to “rain” this morning. Of course that was easy to say, given it had been raining since before midnight.

The tv forecast last night indicated there would be 200 – 250 ml over the next 24 hrs for the Kyoto area. So, in an effort to make up for it’s misdemeanours, the weather decided to try to catch up with the missed rain. It is going to have to do a lot better, though, because that is not enough and the forward forecast again is looking very dry.

It seems that the gradual creep of climate change is having its effect here – the idea of a rainy season may well disappear and be replaced by single days of very heavy rainfall. This, of course, has flow on effects (…) including localised flooding and landslides. It also means that more of the water in storage will have got there as a result of heavy rainfall, which has lead to flooding and consequential erosion. This causes sedimentation of the water storage dams, resulting in reduced storage capacity. Also, sediments can carry chemicals and nutrients that affect the water quality.

The other effect that I have noticed here over the last few years is that the typhoon season is extending – and while Kyoto is not on the coast, so doesn’t take the direct brunt of the winds, etc, it very often receives the ‘tail’ weather, ie flooding rains.

Anyway, enough of climate change 101.

What else has happened? I had a visit from a nice police officer, which I assume was a follow-up from the visit of the Kyoto officials. She asked a lot of questions about a guest house and I did my best to answer them so she could understand. Funny, though, how when you are trying to work out what they want and where this is all leading the ‘other language’ capacity of the brain seems to diminish. In the end she seemed satisfied and left. I assume the police would have greater powers to search records and could find information held by other departments/authorities.

Finally, in an effort to actually provide some pictorial interest to this particular post (since there are no new flowers to report), I thought I would mention a Kabuki performance I saw the last 20 minutes of the other day. I wish I could have seen it all, as it was a comedy/parody of other Kabuki performances. At one point, one of the characters suddenly ripped of the hat he had on, was given some make-up and a mirror from an assistant who came out onto the stage (not in costume), changed his make-up, put on a long wig, ripped off the kimono he had on and revealed another underneath. It was very unexpected and very funny (unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of this).

At another point, the set started rolling away to each side while the curtains remained open and a second set moved up from behind – it was Mt Fuji. One of the characters then climbed up Mt Fuji and deposited the contents of a ceramic jar into the volcano, which then sent up a snake-like plume of smoke. I assume that the contents had been poisonous. It was a very colourful performance and wonderfully funny. The audience loved it. I recognised some of the performers, so I think it was a special event performance.

So, that’s it – quite a short posting for me! I hope those of you in Adelaide are coping well with winter. Today is the winter solstice for you, so I hope you all enjoy the day and keep in mind that the days will now start getting longer again. For me, it is summer solstice today. At the moment, it starts getting lighter at around 4:00am…

Cheers

(and cheers from kappa)

Yes, yes, I know, I’ve been a bit slack – well, I consider week 27 to be a hiatus…and I am hoping the muse is now upon me again!

Hello, and welcome to week 28. Apparently we have now entered the rainy season here in Kyoto, but there doesn’t seem to be much of that going on. We did have two lovely thunderstorms during the hiatus week and there was one day during this week when it did rain continuously for over twelve hours, however, there doesn’t appear to be much in the forecast for at least the next seven days.

I took full advantage of the first thunderstorm, which commenced late in the afternoon, by going down to Kamogawa (the river) to watch the light effects and then returned up to the nearby park once it got dark and enjoyed the show from there – I even did a little “singing and dancing in the rain”, with associated light and sound effects!!! The second storm was much more spectacular, moving in around 11:00pm a couple of nights later. I was asleep and it was the precursor wind that woke me. Then it was on – essentially non-stop lightning and thunder for around an hour. The kids were not happy, especially when one bolt of lightning went off right above us!!!

It’s interesting because it is the quietest here tourist-wise that it has been since I arrived. I assume it is because it is supposed to be the rainy season. Anyway, it is nice not being quite so crowded around the Gion area. I went into the Starbucks in the Gion the other day and it was only around half full. Generally, it is nearly impossible to get a seat at a Starbucks, unless it is really early in the morning. Yes, I said Starbucks. Here, in Japan, they are much better than I have experienced elsewhere. They make a very nice matcha frappuccino, amongst other niceties.

The tourists are missing out – the weather is ideal for wandering around and the continuing flower show that is Kyoto is again lovely. We are now up to hydrangea time. Who knew that hydrangeas could be street plants?? I hadn’t really paid that much attention to the bushes lining Kawaramachi street and other places nearby my flat; there are so many plants and trees all around Kyoto that your focus is generally drawn to what is in flower, or colour (autumn), or coming into leaf and growing from the stumps along the streets, as the Ginkgo trees have been (they prune them very hard at the end of the season).

around the corner

Other than the ongoing floral spectacular, things have been fairly quiet here. I haven’t heard anything re the building approvals, so I’m assuming that is still moving along. I did have a visit from two Kyoto officials the other day asking if the flat was being operated as a guest house – apparently someone had said it was. They apologised and left fairly quickly once I said I owned the flat. Minpaku accommodation (ie private home accommodation) is still not legal across Japan, only in certain designated areas in Tokyo and Osaka. There are still many who oppose the idea but, to be honest, it fills a gap in the accommodation that is available in some areas; Kyoto being a good case in point.

Otherwise I haven’t done that much. The other day I found out from tv there was going to be a big market near the Heian Shrine, so I decided to go there for an outing. There were many stalls, but nothing that really grabbed me and made me loosen my purse strings. On the walk back from there (it’s about a 7km round trip), I decided to go up into the foothills to go through the temples and parks up there, to see if any of the gardens had hydrangea displays. As it turned out, there were a few bushes in Chion-in temple, but otherwise mostly just greenery. I went into one of the two gardens in the temple – the Yuuzen’en garden, which was very nice.

After that I walked through Maruyama park, where the lovely old weeping cherry tree is that we used on the business card for our flat (illegal minpaku…), when we were still renting it out, which we are not now. The tree is around 80 years old. While there, a lovely cat just wandered across the roadway in front of me from the cherry tree to a tree near the pond. There were quite a few people around, but it was not at all concerned. So, I went over to talk to it and pat it (as I have a wont to do with cats) and I took its photo:

I also recently caught the end of a story on tv which I’m sure said there was a small exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s art somewhere in the Gion area, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find any reference to it anywhere else; not even the electronic oracle. Yayoi Kusama is one of my favourite contemporary Japanese artists. Her work is quite avant-garde and she is a self described ‘obsessional artist’. The flowers below are a permanent installation at the Matsumoto City Museum of Art, which we have visited a couple of times to see her permanent exhibition there. She was born in Matsumoto. One of the town buses in Matsutmoto, called Town Sneakers, has been decorated by Yayoi.

Despite that disappointment, I can now report that I have discovered what and where the photo is that I labelled with wtf in my last post. I have been watching a regular segment on tv which is following two men walking from the top to the bottom of Hyogo Prefecture, visiting onsen (hot springs usually with accommodation houses attached), temples, shrines and various other places along the way. The other night, they visited a park and lo and behold, there was my creature!!! Unfortunately I was slightly distracted when it came on and missed where it was. So, to the electronic oracle and after a few hits and misses I found it!!!

At Tsujikawayama Park, in Fukusaki, they put the kappa in the pond (as per my previous photo) as a tourist drawcard. Kappa are mythical Japanese creatures which supposedly dwell in rivers and ponds. They are typically described as being humanoid with a beaked mouth, reptilian skin, webbed fingers, and a special “plate” on their heads which must always be filled with water while on land, or else they’ll lose their power. Kappa apparently also have an inexplicable yearning for cucumbers!? Anyway, it obviously worked as a local attraction, because they have since installed two others in the water and many other creatures in the park – some more kappa and some other creatures. The kappa in the water rise up out of the water once every half hour.

Needless to say, I am planning to visit this park – it looks like just my kind of place! Problem solved. Never let it be said that I’ll let go of something once my curiosity is piqued…

Just before I sign off, I have to say vale to an actor who played one of my favourite characters on tv – Adam West – who played Batman in the wonderful spoof (a point somehow missed by at least one journalist who wrote an article about him) which I watched religiously as a child, along with the Addams Family.

“Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb!”

Cheers for now

ようこそ!

Hello and welcome to this milestone post – week 26 means I have been living here in Kyoto now for six months. Does it feel like six months? Hard to answer that question. I do feel quite settled and I’m not sure how I’d go if I had to return to Adelaide. I suppose I thought everything would be in place by now, or very close to it – I continue to learn patience. I am glad I had time at home by myself after leaving work before coming here, because I think it has helped me cope a bit better being by myself for so long.

I thought I might spend most of this post on a retrospective journey. What has been achieved, what is still to happen, my favourite times here, along with my favourite photos (which I am placing throughout the text).

Looking back, the hardest time was definitely the initial phase, when I really was alone, not knowing anyone here except our real estate agent and without the kids. The kids certainly have helped keep me occupied since their arrival, with cleaning, feeding and outings to obtain supplies. They also give me someone to talk to, apart from myself. Weather-wise I am definitely not a lover of cold weather, so that added to the initial toughness of living here.

I think once I settled into a routine it became much easier. Planning my week based around the weather and what needed to be done certainly helped. Also learning where everything was and which places were best for particular items. One thing I learned fairly early on is that the Fresco supermarkets aren’t all the same, both in size and particularly in what they stock. So, depending on what I need, I will go to the one that is most appropriate. I have a circuit of five I go to. I also learned that prices for specific items can vary markedly. Ironically, the best place for muesli and range of pasta is the large bottle shop nearby!

I also found that email, Whatsapp and my posts really helped me stay sane and keep in contact. Apart from my constant contact with Craig (he checks up on me if he doesn’t hear from me regularly), I am very grateful to all of you who have added comments to my posts and sent me emails. The comments reassure me that people are actually reading my mostly verbose pieces! At this point I would particularly like to thank some wonderful friends who have made it their mission to keep talking to me – Triscia and Kim. Their emails have helped keep me sane and cheer me up at various times.

So, what have we achieved? We have bought a carpark (later to become a minshuku!), found an architect and builder who seem to really ‘get’ what we want (I particularly loved the addition of three cats in the backyard of all the house design versions), the approvals process has begun for said minshuku and we have now been approved for a further 12 month visa to stay here. Working with the architect and builder really has been great and they have really listened to what we have been asking for. At this point I should also say how lucky we were to find a builder who is related to an English language teacher. Her ability to translate what we are trying to say into Japanese has been invaluable.

What is still to happen? The elephant in the room…the one hurdle to get over…the fly in the ointment…finding someone to buy our house. It seems the people with the money don’t want a house with a large backyard and pool and the people who like/love our house don’t have the money. Craig can’t move here until the house is sold and settled, and we can’t actually start building our minshuku until we have the money. I keep hoping and praying.

My favourite times here? Well, there have been some lovely moments here related to my interactions with various locals and there are some very funny things on local tv at times. The best times, however, have been when I have had visitors. The first time that Craig came back here after ‘dropping me off’ here was a blessing. It had been around three months since I had last seen him, which was quite difficult considering we have always done most things together.

(wtf is that?)(and that?)

It was also wonderful to have guests here to do ‘touristy’ things together. When Kerry was here, it was wonderful to see all the places I had been to before through another set of eyes. I really enjoyed being a tour guide for those few days. Steven, on the other hand, has been here before, so I had to spend more time beforehand thinking about where he has been before and what he might like to do. One thing it highlighted for me is that wandering around in the back streets, which I enjoy doing a lot, was also enjoyable for both of them.

As to my favourite photos, I have selected some to just throw in randomly above and below, as a form of punctuation, rather than having a huge block of them.

Turning to this week – well, it has been a fairly routine week except for one thing…the sumo! Ok, it goes for 15 days, but this week was the ‘pointy end’ of the basho. I couldn’t have asked for a better result to celebrate my six months in Japan, than for Hakuho to win. In fact, not only did he win, but he did so in style by winning all 15 bouts he fought. The final fight, last night, had him up against Harumafuji, another favourite of mine. It was a fantastic bout, lasting just under 1½ minutes. Hakuho was like a rock; Harumafuji tried everything he could but Hakuho just stood firm and waited him out.

My other favourite rikishi is Takayasu. I like him because he is so laid back in his personal style – he just sort of wanders in to the dohyou (ring), does a few ritual bits and pieces, wanders out, grabs some salt, chucks it in,…but, just before tachiai, his fighting face comes out, and he has been winning quite a few bouts recently. In fact they are saying he is certain to be promoted to the next division before the next basho. This also made me happy (and his mother, who was there to support him win the required number of bouts for promotion).

So, that about wraps it up. I thank you all for continuing to read my blog and hope I continue to keep it interesting enough that you will read on!

Kanpai!!!

…and now we will resume our normal programming…

Oh; hello! Yes, it’s me here, back on the keyboard. I know I have been a little absent recently but I am here to make up for it. I am going to cover the two weeks since my house guest in this post in an effort to catch up to where we are now.

The first week following Steven’s departure was fairly domestic, with the usual cleaning, shopping and cooking, except for one slight blip. A bureaucratic blip.

When I last recounted my encounters with bureaucracy here in the land of bureaucracy (and I don’t say that lightly), I talked about the mandate that we have an official office for our company in our flat, as this was the official registered address for our company. Our lawyer had visited and thought that we could set it up on our table in the dining/kitchen area. Just before Steven arrived he received notification from Immigration that this was not appropriate and that we needed a separate room in which to have our official office. The finger was pointed squarely at our spare room – the one with two beds, a clothes rack and shelving which is used as storage for many things we have nowhere else to put.

We weren’t told exactly why we needed an official, separate office, but apparently they considered it essential. It’s not like we will ever have any visitors for our company here…

Anyway, I pointed out to the lawyer that there was very little room to put the two beds and clothes rack elsewhere within the flat. Also, the beds would likely have to be dismantled to actually remove them from the room. He said it was not up for discussion (well, not quite like that, he was very polite given my obvious frustration). He said he would come here and help me do this, as well as move the dining table into the room for photos. I wondered if the bureaucrats realised that the plan was to move the beds and clothes rack out and the table in just temporarily and that it would be returned to the way it was after the photos. Seemed a little farcical…

I told the lawyer that Steven was going to be here and we really couldn’t do all of this while he was visiting. So, we made a time for him to come over after Steven had left. As I was discussing all of this with Steven an idea was born to pull apart the two beds and create a day bed out of one of them. Steven said he would be happy to help do this, and it would create more space in the spare room. For the most part, we didn’t need two beds there all the time. We went and bought some cheap cushions and material to throw over the mattress and then told Craig about our idea.

In amongst these subsequent discussions, we decided to also buy a desk, since we were going to need one when we actually had a real office in our minshuku. In the end we went to the large Nitori store which is quite some distance from the flat and is like a cross between Target and Ikea. I found a desk that was suitable for the purpose – not the most beautiful piece of furniture you’ve ever seen, but somewhat elegant in design. The very nice ones we saw in an antiques shop, which were original mid-century modern, were just a little too expensive (sigh).

Back home, we pulled apart the beds and re-created them into one day bed. We were able to put the extra mattress behind the slats of the other bed to make a back rest and all the rest of the bits fit under the ‘day bed’, as well as the five dozen Rockford Basket Press and other minor bits and pieces. It looked quite good in the end. The lawyer was somewhat bemused when I told him – he had never heard of a day bed – but he also seemed quite pleased with the end result when he saw it.

The day after Steven left, the desk was delivered…in pieces. My third furniture building project and by far the largest. I spent about half that day putting it together (with a slight hiccup – what are these washers, that are left over, for????). I actually think the Japanese instructions for putting these items together are easier to follow than Ikea instructions. The mistake was purely me not checking detail properly. Et voila, we have an official office!

Obviously the bureaucrats liked it, because we received news shortly after submitting the new photos that our 12 month visas had been approved. Thank goodness, and Steven for his help.

The following week (ie week 25) Craig came over so that he could re-submit his passport and resident card to have our new, 12 month cards created and given to us. This, of course, involved a couple of trips to Osaka, but was worth it. Now we don’t have to worry about getting new visas until next year. The next time Craig returns to Japan it will be a permanent move, once the house is sold and settled.

While he was here we did have some time for a couple of outings. It was quite warm most of the time he was here – low 30s!!! We didn’t do anything too physically strenuous, just walking around. Less than 6kms on any one day (I think). I wanted to return to the Heian Shrine garden to see how it looked once more of the flowers, including the lotus, were open. I wasn’t disappointed – it is such a beautiful garden and there are plenty of shady spots when it’s hot.

The other main outing was to an art exhibition which looked at cats in Japanese art. The exhibition is called, “Yes, We Love Cats Anytime!” and includes many examples of ukiyo-e and maneki neko mostly from the 19th century. It focused on the “cat-mania” that occurred during this period, with over 200 exhibits. Many of the ukiyo-e were painted by very famous artists, including Utagawa Hiroshige  and Utagawa Kuniyoshi . Kuniyoshi, in particular, painted many ukiyo-e with cats as the main character and doing just about anything you can think of – including Kabuki!

  (Hiroshige (L) and Kuniyoshi (R))

I had already visited this exhibition with Steven, however, it was very crowded when we went. Also, I won two tickets in a competition run by the Japan Times (five winners only)! This time it was a lot less crowded and we got to have a good look at all the paintings.

Well that pretty much wraps it up for this post – we also tried to see if we could see the nutria again, but only saw many, many bats, which, of course, I love, so I wasn’t disappointed…

Cheers for now

(two photos just because I like them)

(a sign on a shop in a back street in the Gion area)