Welcome to a review of my time during Golden Week, or GW as it is often referred to here!!!! What is GW, you ask????? It is a period of a week in late April/early May which includes a number of public holidays. Many people take the other days off during this week and it is often the longest consecutive period people here have as leave during the year. A lot of companies simply close down for the week and give their staff the time off.

The result of all these people having time off together, as you can imagine, is that you need to book a long time ahead to get accommodation in many places (especially here, in Kyoto), also modes of travel, and all the tourist destinations are very crowded. This week I also had a visitor, a long time friend – Steven. Many of you will know him, but for others, we have been friends for around 36 years! Consequently, I tried to find places to go that wouldn’t be too overcrowded. This was also complicated by the fact that he has been here in Kyoto many times and has visited many places.

We also needed to work around the weather – a couple of days were wet. The first day he was here there was a lovely thunderstorm, so we headed to Teramachi, the part which has been made into a covered mall, to do a bit of shopping. Turns out many other people had the same idea – movement was slow.

The next day was sunny and warm, so it was time to show him the carpark. Not that there’s that much to see, bitumen, fence, etc, but it’s more to see the area it is in. After that, I took him to see the three-legged crow shrine, which I have mentioned before, and the lovely 900+ year old tree there. Then we walked back to the Kyoto National Museum. Currently there is a special exhibition of an artist who lived from 1533–1615, Kaiho Yusho. He was among the elite painters of his time. What is most interesting about him is that his fame came when he was in his 60s, during what they call his “early” period. Over the following two decades, he went from painting for priests to creating works for nobility, then for Japan-Korea diplomacy and then the Emperor.

His earlier works were mostly monochromatic, using ink and a simple style. Later works were created with some colours, although generally not too many in each painting – used more as highlights – and they were often quite intense colours. Strangely, while his people, animals and flora were rendered with great skill (particularly the birds), buildings and other created structures looked to me somewhat stilted and with flat perspective. In one work, which was painted across several screens, it almost looked as if someone else completed the fences on the last screen, someone who was rushing to get it done…(no photo of that one)

(one of my favourites)

After viewing the exhibition, we and every other person there went to the museum shop. I was considering some purchases, but the queue was so long I decided against it in the end. While prevaricating, I noticed some movement at the other end of the shop, near the entry. It was one of my favourite museum characters, who I have called grumpy cat because of the look on it’s face. This cat is taken from a painting that is a permanent exhibit at the museum, and is, in fact, meant to be a tiger. As with many animals that were not native to Japan, the renditions of these is somewhat different to the real thing. In this case, the tiger has a look on it’s face which I have likened to “why have you painted me like this??” Hence I named it grumpy cat – nothing to do with the cat on the internet.

Being a big fan of this cat (there’s just something about it), I made a bee-line to where it was and managed to get a couple of photos, which I now treasure! I had to push my way through the crowd, but it was worth it. I only wish I could have had a photo taken with it (and for me to say I want a photo of myself…). Funny the things that make you smile.

On Monday we wandered around the Gion area and up towards Kiyomizu-dera (we didn’t go all the way up there, it was just too crowded). Interesting how you can visit places many times but somehow miss certain things. In this case, because it was so crowded, we walked in closer to one side of the walkway and found a beautiful garden area out the back of the shops. I don’t know how I missed it before – I have even been into the shop next to it a number of times.

On Tuesday, we went to Uji, which is about a half hour train journey from Kyoto. I wanted to see the gardens at a Buddhist temple there, Byodo-in, because the wisteria is out at the moment and it has an area of wisteria on a large trellis. Yes, the continuing hanami saga. I wasn’t disappointed, it was as lovely as I thought it would be. It is a beautiful temple and the main hall is supposed to be equally beautiful inside, but we would have had to wait two hours before we could get in, such was the crowd. The other highlight at the moment is the presence of the large bees. They are called carpenter bees (or kumabachi in Japan, which means bear bee) and are around 2cm in length. They are quite loud but are relatively harmless with the male not having any sting and the female only stinging if severely provoked.

Next day we went to Momoyama-jo (the castle in Kyoto needing TLC that I have mentioned previously) and then to Fushimi Inari-taisha (also previously mentioned, with all the tori). I had been told there was a festival there during GW, and wasn’t disappointed. It was clear that a procession of the priests was going to happen so we stood near the back entrance to one of the big halls, where people were waiting inside for a ceremony. It was a bit of a wait, but we got an up close look at the priests (no photos allowed). Later we went around the front, just before they exited out of the shrine to multitude decorated trucks, cars and vans. We saw them drive off, took photos and waved.

Later that day, after we had returned home, we were sitting inside having tea, when I heard some drums start up. I ran downstairs and discovered some of the trucks and vans were heading down our street! So I stayed outside to watch (even though I was in my house clothes). As I stood there, I could see more and more of the trucks coming down the street. After the next wave went through I ran upstairs to grab my camera and tell Steven that it appeared the entire procession was coming down our street. This involved some large limousine cars, a dozen or so vans and at least 30 trucks. It was wonderful to have them all come past my home and be so close to the procession. In addition to the trucks we had seen earlier, some trucks had joined the procession which were carrying the special floats housing the kami from a number of shrines. Five in all.

In the evening we went out to dinner at my favourite Indian restaurant. On the way home, as we crossed the bridge over the Kamogawa, Steven noticed something in the water and pointed it out to me. It was an animal of some sort, so I just had to find out what it was, of course. We ran down the stairs and under the bridge and there it was, sitting on a bank out in the water. It then swam over towards us and actually came out on the side of the river! It was a large rodent looking creature, about 40 cms long. It wasn’t at all afraid of us and just went about it’s foraging. Meanwhile, an American woman had noticed us and what we were doing, and she joined us to watch this creature. She thought it looked a bit like a beaver, but with a narrow tail. Turns out it was a Nutria and is similar to a beaver, native to South America.

We did other bits and pieces during the week he was here, spent money, drank a fair bit of nihonshu and generally enjoyed ourselves. Steven had decided to collect nihonshu labels and had brought a blank book with him to do so. So we did spend time searching out, buying and then drinking said nihonshu. We also found a street in the Gion area where there were many antique shops – a very dangerous thing for me. I managed to buy only one item! Another lucky find, at the Heian Shrine, was an Indian man who runs a company supplying various spices and foods, including vegan items!!!!!!! So we now have at least one supplier lined up.

(a wedding party)

One thing to note in the photos of the amazing garden at the Heian Shrine is the resemblance of one part of the garden to a Monet painting, at this time of year. Monet is a very popular artist here, with many of his works housed in galleries around Japan, so it is entirely possible that he was inspirational for this garden.

On a slightly political note (which I am generally avoiding for this blog), I was very pleased this week that some common sense finally prevailed in the world of politics. Vive la France. Perhaps the tide of “populism” is turning…a little.

More photos of Kiya-machi Dori

A couple of gratuitous photos…

Hello and welcome to the week 22 wrap. Well, actually, it is week 22 plus the remainder of week 21. It has been unexpectedly busy this week, mainly due to bureaucracy – one of the perfected arts in Japan. I have also been preparing for a house guest, a human house guest!

So, to the bureaucracy…I was contacted by our lawyer during the week saying he had received a request for more information for our visa application and asking if he could come here, to see the flat. I immediately thought the worst and assumed he had some bad news and he thought it would be more personal delivering it here in my abode. He reassured me it was ok, but that he had to see the flat and healso wanted to do some sightseeing while here.

On the Sunday, at the allotted time, our lawyer arrived with his ‘assistant’ – his wife. She, unfortunately, doesn’t speak any English, so was somewhat left out. I did try to talk a little to her, but we were mostly consumed with the bureaucratic request. To provide some background to this, the immigration people had previously requested a list of ‘concrete’ things we would be doing in relation to being managers of our business during the period our house (where the business will actually be run) is being approved and constructed.

They are now saying that we need to have an office for our business at the current registered address of our company. I’m not exactly clear why we need an actual office, given we have an address which is our own property and where we will be able to stay until construction is complete (ie not a rental property which is essentially impermanent). Anyway, our lawyer said that he thought where we currently have the computer – at our dining table, in an alcove area – would be fine.

He asked that I go and get an official copy of the certificate showing our ownership, so that he could supply them with it. This document is obtained at the Legal Affairs Bureau, the closest office of which is 3km from the flat. Another longish walk, but it was a lovey day on the Monday, so it was quite enjoyable. I found the building easily, but the signage inside was something to be desired. As I was standing, looking confused (I’m sure), a man came in the front doors and smiled at me (I think he was surprised to see a foreigner in this setting.) I took this as an opening to ask him if he knew where I could obtain the requisite document (and, no, I don’t know the Japanese word for requisite…).

He lead me to the 2^nd floor, where he also happened to be going. He then went up to one of the multitude counters there (many counters, signs, staff, people,…) and I looked around to try to find where I needed to go. Turns out he had gone to the counter to ask where I should go to get what I needed. Another incidence of people here going out of their way to assist! I told the man behind the counter what I needed and was directed to blue counter number 3.

Luckily I had checked the website for the Legal Affairs Bureau before I went, had found the form I would need to complete, printed it and duly completed it. It was incredibly busy and somewhat noisy in this office. One thing about offices here, it is like walking into an office in Adelaide about 25 years ago, or more. Quite dull and not at all human friendly spaces. Significant use of grey and dull blue… Anyway, I got what I needed then had to pay. Hhhmmmm, I couldn’t pay in cash, I had to go to another counter to exchange my cash for stamps and then go back to the previous counter and hand over my stamps! This wasn’t mentioned when I submitted my form. I could have done it while I was waiting had I known.

Part 2 of the requested response involved getting signs made for the front door of the flat, the letterbox and to put on the wall next to the ‘office’ table – then taking photos of each of these and the flat showing the respective office and residence areas.  I also had to draw a diagram of the flat showing each of these areas. I tried to find a shop that I could have these signs made, but I couldn’t find one on the way back from the Legal Affairs Bureau.

In the end I remembered a shop I had seen on one of my ‘wanderings’ (where I decide to take a different route to where I am going just to see what’s there – my mother used to do this – she called it “getting lost”). I went to this place and they did have options for signs but after contacting five different manufacturers of these, it was clear that none would be able to make the signs I needed within one week. On top of this, this coming week is Golden Week, basically a week of public holidays, so in effect, it would take two weeks before I could expect to get my signs.

I reported all this back to the lawyer and he said I should make signs on paper to use. A short while later he sent another email indicating his wife had made me some signs, and that she could put them together and then could come here to put them up for me. Feeling a touch embarrassed about this, I accepted the signs she had created via email, printed them, bought some thick paper and glue and put them together myself. Even with my very limited craft-type skills, I managed this and took the necessary photos.

On the Wednesday I journeyed to Osaka to deliver the documents (the photos were sent via email). Forty five minutes there on the train, 10 minute walk from the station to the lawyer’s office, deliver documents, 10 minute walk back to station and another 45 minute train ride back to Kyoto! In amongst all of this administrivia, I had to do my usual shopping, including the big trip to Aeon mall to get the kid’s supplies.

OK, enough of that! On the hanami front, the blossom basically finished this week, however, it is now azalea time and there are still tulips around the place. I also noticed a tree on the streets – many on my favourite canal street, which by the way, is called Kiya-machi dori – coming into flower which I have never seen before. When they are open, the flowers are around 7cms in diameter, and are either white or orange and white. They are quite lovely, but I have no clue, at this stage, what they are. I have had one go at finding them via the electronic oracle but without success.

Turning to the tv, my highlight this week was a segment on one of the panel shows about the mermaid tail fashion, which has been occurring at the beach and pools around the world. These bathers, in the form of a large fish tail which includes the whole tail, have been around for a few years now, but it appears their popularity is rising. I am not sure I would want my legs bound in a tail in a pool, but some people (male and female) apparently love them. They had obtained one of these tails for the purposes of the segment – a bright pink tail – they chose, however, to put a slightly overweight man in it, with the added touch of a bikini top in the form of two shells.

I thought one of the panel members was going to wet herself with laughter! It was quite hilarious to see him kitted out and then they got him into the water to try it out… He was assisted by a younger, very fit looking, male who was an aficionado of single flipper swimming. The single flipper is very large and they essentially ‘dolphin’ swim. The look on this guy’s face was also priceless, especially in respect to the shell bikini top…

Finally, from the Yomiuri Shimbun (newspaper) comes a picture which is so kawai, at first I thought it was a painting or electronic drawing. It is, however, a real photo, taken in Hokkaido at a shrine in Urausu. The flowers there are known as “spring fairies” and, unsurprisingly, this spectacle attracts many photographers. Apparently, though, squirrel sightings depend on one’s luck, according to a town official!!!!!

Cheers for now

The weeks seem to come around quite quickly and before I know it, I am into the following week…if you know what I mean! And so it is that week 20 has passed and we are well into week 21. I have no excuses, perhaps it is the warming weather that has distracted me. Yes, finally it seems we have jumped into 20+ degree days and quite suddenly. I’m not complaining, of course, it is truly wonderful to not need to be rugged up all the time – and the bliss of having the windows open; who knew? The other day I wore a t-shirt for most of the day!!!!!

There isn’t overly much to report on the carpark/building front. The statutory minimum period for the sign to be displayed has passed and no complaints :-). So, onto the next phase, which involves multiple levels of government, or their contractors, and many parts of the government. Last Saturday I had an appointment with the architect and builder to sign off on multiple pages of various applications – and I mean multiple. The architect was also taking a sensible approach of getting me to sign two copies of each, so that when he has to take them back and re-do certain bits, he will have a second set already signed. This was basically how he put it – to save time.

I was also told that this was the first part of the process; but I wasn’t told how many more parts there are. He also told me that he had decided to slightly change the front of the building so that the wooden slat cladding will be running vertically, not horizontally, as he had designed it. He had been advised by the relevant people in the government that assess these things, that the front did not look Japanese enough. He wasn’t overly happy about this, but it is a practical matter of being approved, or not.

So, we move forward, centimetre by centimetre. At least we are moving!

Now, I will return to the topic which proved to be very popular last time – hanami (blossom or flower viewing). Actually, it was the photos which were so popular. This even usurped the previous most popular topic – self-mummification! So, while the blossom is out there and people want to see it (I suppose that’s why there is a specific word for it), here are some more photos, including more geiko.

The interesting thing is how I am seeing more of them (geiko) at the moment. The spring weather and the blossom must draw them out into the open. You will also notice that there are some more photos of a geiko photo shoot. Same day, ie a Thursday (but one week later), same photographer and assistant, same place, just different geiko this time. I was wondering whether he was doing it for any particular purpose, such as advertising or a publication, or whether he was building up a portfolio of photos of geiko and blossom, or whether he just has a lot of money and he pays a geiko to do this once a week for his own enjoyment.

The other day, as I was walking down one of my other favourite streets, the one with the canal running down it which is lined with blossom trees (I have posted a number of photos of this street, including below), it was raining blossom petals and I was feeling very happy. Then I heard someone playing a harmonica. Turned out it was a middle aged man standing on his balcony, which was on the canal, playing with great enthusiasm and moving around as he played. It wasn’t that he was overly good that made it so wonderful, it was the passion with which he was executing it! I truly felt transported. Strangely, I felt like I was in France, yet I have never been there – I suspect it was reminiscent of stereotypical scenes from films that I was remembering. None-the-less, it was wonderful and made me feel even happier.

Onto a very different topic…14 April was the one year anniversary since the Kumamoto earthquake. Many of you may not have been aware of it, it certainly wasn’t of the scale of the Kobe earthquake or the Sendai/Fukushima area earthquake and tsunami, but it did cause significant damage and lives were lost. The two main shocks killed at least 50 people and injured about 3,000 others in total. There has been significant coverage of the aftermath in the media over the last week. While I had seen some footage of the damage at the time, it was a shock for me to see just how much destruction of housing and other buildings there was. There are now many, many empty blocks where once there were homes.

One of the buildings that was severely damaged, in fact the whole complex of buildings and walls, was the Kumamoto castle. We had been there a couple of times over the years – it was a beautiful castle complex. They showed photos of the work that has happened to date in the re-construction of the complex. Quite a bit has happened, but they are saying it could take up to 20 years to finish the work. I took some photos from the tv, but unfortunately my phone can take it’s time focusing, so it didn’t quite capture the full effect, hence, I have also borrowed a couple of photos which better capture what has happened – thank you Japan Times and Wikipedia.

Wikipediamy photomy photoJapan Times

Mainly, I was trying to show just how fastidious and orderly they have been in preparing for the re-construction. There are many long rows of rocks of all sizes and shapes, all grouped together in like sizes, shapes or where they came from, and all catalogued with an individual number on each rock. It looked like a giant, very intricate, jigsaw puzzle. The castle is a very significant drawcard for tourists to Kumamoto, which has a population of less than 750,000. I wonder how much it is affecting their economy, particularly those businesses which are based around the castle and which rely on tourists for most of their income.

I am going to leave you on that quite sombre note with a photo of a red tulip and some other flowers, just to show that there are, in fact, some other plants flowering at the moment, including lots of tulips.

Hi and welcome to week 19. Before I start covering the week that was for me in Kyoto, I want to acknowledge the passing of a very bright light and wit in Australia, whose intelligence and satire I enjoyed immensely over the years. Vale John Clarke.

Here, in Kyoto, things are certainly improving weather-wise. The forecasts into the future are all over 15, with most days being in the high teens or early 20s. Wonderful. Those of you who know me well know that I am not a lover of cold weather and I’ve just had the longest winter of my life. Over seven months of cool to bloody cold weather (to be frank, in an Australian kind of way). The last few days I have been able to have the windows and balcony door open during the day! No air-conditioner – well I am still putting it on at night, because I am soft, but only in the main area.

My plants are coming along; the seeds have sprouted except the sage and I have had a few leaves from my lettuces with my meals. The kids are enjoying their grass crop. Outside the birds are either beginning to nest or furiously building their new nesting homes. Then, there’s the blossom. It still hasn’t quite reached its peak yet, but getting very close. I was very worried over the last three days because it rained off and on for the duration (more on than off) and I was wondering how much blossom would end up on the ground.

Today, however, I had to go do a shopping run and I can report that the blossom looks wonderful. It really did make me realise my winter was over! Funny how the most mundane things, such as going shopping, can be elevated to the most delightful experiences when you are walking in beautiful surrounds. I could wax poetic about this, but after the exceptionally verbose post last week, I think I will let the photographs do the talking for me:

Last Thursday I had to do a cat food run to Fresco, my other supplier of tinned food, and took the opportunity to walk around in the closer areas I know there will be lots of blossom. These include the road and walkway along the Kamo river, a road one block back from the Kamogawa which has a canal running along it and in the Gion area. I got some shots of blossom (as you do this time of year)  and I was lucky enough to come across a photo shoot of a Geiko in the Gion, with blossom. Not an opportunity to be missed, so I got some lovely shots of her as well. As I was returning home along my favourite street in the Gion, I stopped to take a shot of a plant in a pot (research…) and another Geiko walked past me! So, I just had to get a shot of her too. Please enjoy…

Other than the turning of the seasons, there hasn’t been much of any real note here for me this week. The only ‘official’ outing I had was to meet the tax accountant and see if she would be a good fit for us. She was very nice, spoke some English and she had prepared some appropriate questions for our meeting, so I felt very comfortable. During the meeting it became clear that the woman from the International Community House had indeed had a hand in connecting us. For this, I am grateful.

I am going to leave you now with some photos of coffee art, which I took from the tv. They were reviewing a Kyoto based coffee company, which has a number of outlets and uses real coffee machines! One of their baristas recently won a competition for his coffee art, and it is easy to see why. If you’re wondering about how long it takes and if the coffee is cold when he finishes, I can tell you that I watched him creating the horse and it took less than 10 seconds to complete. Not sure about the cat decoration…

Cheers!!!!

Yes, it’s me again, bringing you the latest in the My Life in Kyoto series. Ok, so it’s not really called that, but that is what it’s all about. I’m now up to week 18, although I am going to include the latter half of week 17, of which the first two days were me being somewhat of a hermit after Craig left. Perhaps feeling a bit sorry for myself, also the weather wasn’t that great.

On the Saturday, the kids indicated to me that it would be best if I went out to get them their supplies – the kitty litter was running out…So, off to Aeon Mall I went, my mission very clear, get cat food and litter or they would make it difficult for me. It was a nice day and it did cheer me up to be out in the sun. Successful mission under my belt, I decided to do my grooming rituals (ie nails and hair) on the Sunday – the weather had turned grey and wet. Monday was nice and sunny again, so I went out to do my shopping for the week as I was expecting a visitor from Australia during the week and I likely wouldn’t get time later in the week for shopping.

On Tuesday, I set out on a fairly significant walk with two aims. Firstly, I had to find the Kyoto Shimbun (paper) office and secondly the International Community House. Unfortunately, they were on opposite sides of the CBD, but it was a good chance to test out my new shoes. Believe it or not, I had bought some lace up walking shoes!!!! The inner sole is made of memory foam, so they were immediately comfortable. All up I walked just under 11 kms and my feet were pretty good at the end, especially since I had only previously worn them to Aeon.

So, why the long walk, you ask? On Sunday I had happened to see an ad on tv for Kodo, a taiko group, and they are undertaking a summer tour around Japan, with one performance in Kyoto! As many of you will know, I am a lover of taiko so this was very exiting news. I immediately got onto the electronic oracle and found that tickets were available at the Kyoto Shimbun office. As it happens, there were only 10 seats left when I got there early on Tuesday. Lucky! I would have been devastated if they were all gone.

The second leg of my journey was to the International Community House, which is over near the Philosopher’s Walk. For those of you who know Kyoto, I had to walk from the Shimbun office (near the Imperial Palace) across the Kamogawa (river) and up past the Heian Shrine. This was the longest leg of my journey. My aim here was to get help with completing a form in a letter I had received from the Kyoto tax office. I also wanted to see if they could help me find an English speaking tax accountant. The people there were very helpful, although the girl at the reception desk could speak very little English, which I thought was a little strange given she would mostly be dealing with foreigners.

We worked out how I should complete the form, which was asking questions about Craig, however they said they don’t keep lists of professionals who can speak other languages. What they told me to do was put a notice up on the noticeboard which was used by foreigners to request many different types of assistance. I saw at least one which was seeking to find a new friend in Kyoto. Anyway, I wrote up a notice and gave it to them to put on the board. I assumed they were going to vet it to make sure nothing untoward was being put up there.

At around 6:00 that night I got an SMS from an accountant asking if she could help me! I suspect the person at the community house may have assisted this search…So, we exchanged a few SMSs and, as a result, I have an appointment with her next week. All aims satisfied; a very successful outing all in all, including testing my new shoes.

The next day I felt a little under the weather, so just stayed at home and did some housework. I wondered if I had had a little too much sun the day before – I am a bit sensitive to the sun, being so pale as I am. Or, is it just that I’m part vampire???? A vegetarian vampire…?! The next day I was due to meet up with an ex work colleague, whose job it was to provide me with the opportunity to indulge my love of Kyoto and being a tour guide!!!!!!

So, on Thursday morning I went to meet Kerry at her hotel and then my plan was to take her on a walk to Sanjuusangen-dou temple (previously mentioned as the venue for an archery competition in January). I had hoped the blossom would have started opening, so my route included a street (Kiya-machi Dori) which has a canal running along it lined with blossom trees, but unfortunately it hadn’t. At the temple, there was one blossom tree in flower, so we got some photos of blossom there.

The temple name literally means Hall with thirty three spaces between columns, which describes the architecture of the long main hall of the temple. The main deity of the temple is Sahasrabhuja-arya-avalokiteśvara or the Thousand Armed Kannon, of whom there is a large statue inside the main hall. The temple also contains 1,000 life-size statues of the Thousand Armed Kannon which stand on each side of the main statue in 10 rows and 50 columns. At the front of the Kannon statues there are 28 statues of guardian deities. It is an amazing sight.

After we left the temple, there was still plenty of time to fill before Kerry had to meet up with a ‘food tour group’, so I took her to the street which runs alongside a famous pagoda (Yasaka Pagoda), near Kiyomizu-dera. The idea being to avoid the massive crowds at Kiyomizu-dera. There were many young women dressed in (rental) kimono and we even saw a wedding party there (ironically just after I had told Kerry that I had seen quite a few wedding parties at the site, having their photos taken). We then walked through the beautiful, traditional back streets near there which are lined with shops, restaurants and cafes and ended up at Yasaka Shrine.

The next day I had planned to take Kerry to Fushimi-Inari (where thousands of torii gates line a walk around the mountain), however, the weather decided against this for us. Following the previous lovely warm and sunny day (I think it got to 20!!!!), Friday was wet and quite cold. I decided to go to Arashiyama instead and move our visit to Fushimi-Inari to the following day (we had three days to fill). Arashiyama is most famous for the bamboo grove, but there are many other attractions there and nearby, including Tenryū Shiseizen-ji a Zen Buddhist temple.

I took Kerry along the bamboo grove path and then back through the temple gardens, which are beautiful and would have been even better with the blossom out…The rain became heavier and heavier, so we went to a restaurant I had been to before and had a very nice lunch, with a view out to the river and the rain! After lunch we came back to the CBD and walked around the malls here for a while (out of the rain).

(note, this photo was taken in December 2014, hence no people)

Later that day we had dinner at Sherry Bar, one of my local bars which is an izakaya style bar with a large menu of small servings, including salads, sashimi, tempura and other deep fried items. The food is good, along with the service, and it is quite cheap. The only downside to the night was when I became trapped in the toilet for quite a while – the lock was stuck. Initially, I tried to force the lock for a couple of minutes, but then realised this was futile.

At this point I started knocking on the door and calling out “Sumimasen” (multiple meanings, in this case “excuse me”…). The knocking and calling out gradually got louder, to try to make myself heard over the noise of the bar. Eventually I was banging hard on the door and yelling out “tasukete” (“help”)!! Finally someone heard me and they tried to open the door…no luck. So they called up the guy from behind the bar and after much shaking and banging and attempting to open the lock, it ultimately did so. As the minutes ticked away while I was standing in the toilet, the door shaking, I was wondering if they would have to find some sort of power tool to either drill into the lock or cut it out. I was imagining a night spent in a toilet…

Next day, after recovering from the trauma of my incarceration, we went to Fushimi-Inari. The weather had improved – it was coolish but not raining. It was very crowded, unsurprisingly, especially in the food area. When we finally got to the shrine, there was a ceremony commencing in the outer hall (which has no walls). Turned out it was a wedding ceremony – in a very public place! There were many hundreds of people passing by during the ceremony.

(note, most of these photos were taken in December 2014, when there were very few people there, except the photos of the wedding and Kerry!)

We didn’t stay for the whole ceremony but continued up to the torii walk. The full walk up and around the mountain is just over 4kms and takes 2 hours or more to complete, depending on the number of people and how fit you are. There is a platform of sorts which is a reasonable way up and which gives good views of Kyoto. Many people only climb to this point, which takes about 30-45 minutes and is somewhat physically demanding. The rest of the trail does get harder and the majority of people don’t attempt it after climbing the first section.

The torii have been donated by businesses and individuals to bring good luck, many are donated by businesses. The torii range in price from the smaller ones at ¥175,000 up to the largest at ¥1,302,000. You will also see much smaller torii placed around the smaller shrines which dot the mountain. A much more affordable option for most people. At one point on the trail, there is a bifurcation of the smaller torii into two paths which run side by side. When we have been there before, you just picked the left path or the right path. Not now! There is a sign directing the ‘up’ traffic to the right. I assume this has come about because of the increased traffic there recently (as with everywhere in Kyoto).

This time, we decided not to go the full distance, Kerry wasn’t that keen! So we came back down and returned to the city. The final place I took her was the Shousei-en garden, an annex of the Higashi Honaganji Buddhist temple. Again I was hoping more of the blossom would be out, but alas…This garden has one of my favourite signs in it:

The first time we (Craig and I) saw it, we wondered if it was a very large bee that lived in the building behind the sign. What we later found was that the Japanese word for bee also means wasp and hornet. Definitely worthy of a beware warning, especially the giant hornet!

That’s all for now!!!

And here it is week 16 already – actually, I am now half-way into week 17! Hard to believe I have been here nearly four months. Looking back, we have achieved quite a lot and continue to move toward our ultimate goal – Addams Vegan B&B up and running. There is just one more major hurdle (plus some slightly less major approvals hurdles) to us fully relocating here to Kyoto. Craig left me at 6:00 this morning and, as I write this, is winging his way to Changi. His mission, which he chose to accept (ok, he didn’t have much choice really), is to find a buyer then clear out our house in Adelaide.

As for the previous week, we again visited our lawyer in Osaka twice. Luckily the cost of the train journey from Kyoto to Osaka is not overly much on the Keihan line local train. It takes around 45 minutes, so not too time consuming – although our appointment on Friday lasted around five minutes, just to pick up Craig’s passport. The result of these appointments is that we now have a registered company and our applications are in to have our visas extended; this time for 12 months, thankfully.

On Tuesday we went to one of the better supermarkets here, Global Kitchen, which is in the basement of the Yodobashi store. Yodobashi is a fantastic place where you can find nearly anything electrical and electronic and is where we have bought all of our electrical equipment to date. Our most recent purchases include a rice cooker (wonderful piece of equipment!!!!) and a printer. The only issue when buying there is the amount of choice you have for any item.

They also stock many other non-electrical items, so while we were there on Tuesday we decided to look at pushbikes – they have a large selection of different types of bikes, and some are motorised. I was looking at these…yes, I am considering buying a motorised push bike. The main reason for this is we live in the foothills at the moment and our carpark is higher up the hills, so some extra assistance on the inclines will be much appreciated. I am not now, nor will I ever be, a lycra clad biking enthusiast. The motorised bikes cost upwards of ¥100,000 (~$1,200), which I thought was quite reasonable.

Wednesday was a down day due to the weather, but on Thursday it was lovely and sunny, so we went exploring to find a café in the Gion area I had seen on TV which served a matcha toast dish I really wanted to try…and it was definitely worth it!! It was a lovely place, although a little tricky to find – determination wins out. The entrance was through the back of a shop, but it also backed onto a lovely small laneway, of which there are many in the Gion area. There were a lot of small craft shops along this lane and many specialised in glass and enamel. We also found an art gallery, which was having an exhibition of two artists’ work – one who did collage work one-handed and the other who made pottery and ceramic pieces.

Both were very good and in the end we bought a pair of clay masks which are based on the masks made traditionally in Okinawa and are made to scare off evil spirits and bring in good spirits. The artist is a very lovely Japanese woman named Emi and she actually went to Okinawa to study the making of these masks.

(I realised after taking this photo that I had them back to front – the open mouthed mask should be on the right…)

We also visited two shrines on the way to Teavenir (the café), which I had seen on one of my wanderings. The first shrine was dedicated to pigs (of which I am one in the Asian zodiac) and the other dedicated to a number of deities, including the cow. The cow deity is the one students visit to help them do well in their studies. As for the other shrine, I felt right at home amongst all those pigs, as you can see in the picture below! The Gion area is quite amazing for many reasons, one being that it has more shrines and temples per block than any other area I can think of anywhere in Japan.

Friday was our second visit to our lawyer, then on Saturday we had an appointment with the builder and architect to sign a contract. We thought we would be signing with both, but it turned out the first contract was with the architect. The first use of our company inkan. The contract with the builder will be made closer to the time of construction commencement – which is likely to be in July. For now, the architect will be seeking all the required approvals for our house/minshuku.

The other milestone this week building-wise, was the placing of the sign indicating our intention to build a minshuku on our carpark. This sign has our company name, my name and phone number and the company address, which also happens to be my address. One of the tasks the architect takes on is the fielding of any calls about our intentions and any complaints (thankfully – not something I could do easily).

Prior to our appointment with them we went to the home centre again to buy some more planters, soil and some edible plants for us. We bought lettuce seedlings and some seeds – herbs and some greens (Swiss chard and Asian greens). These are now all potted up and sitting on our windowsill next to the pots of grass, which are the edible plants for the kids. We are all watching them very closely in anticipation!!!!

Monday turned out to be a public holiday here, to celebrate the spring equinox. It was a lovely sunny day again and we took the opportunity to go for a wander around and visit our carpark to get photos of the sign. We were going to go to the bank to transfer the first payment instalment to the architect, but that was out of the question when we saw the shutters down. The next day was wet most of the day but we had to go to the bank to make the payment. This was transacted via an ATM, with significant help from one of the tellers at the bank. It was incredibly complicated and I was very grateful for the help

So, this brings me to now – alone again…just the kids and me. It was a little harder this time having to see Craig leave. I know it won’t be anywhere near as long this time, but still hard none the less.

Hello and welcome to week 15! This week has been rather less filled with building issues but still comprising a certain amount of bureaucracy. We have visited our lawyer in Osaka twice, having just returned from the second visit. Our company is now officially registered and the relevant taxation authorities have been notified. The company inkan has also been registered. So, we are ready to go – all we need is a place to ply our trade from…or something. We are now awaiting the official notice of intention to build sign to go up on the carpark.

After our visit to the lawyer last week, we decided to visit the Dotonbori area and, in particular, the Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shopping arcade. This arcade has many specialty cooking stores along it, which sell all kinds of cooking utensils and kitchen items. A wonderful place to look for your kitchen requirements – although it is more aimed at cooking professionals. We took the opportunity to really look at what was available there for our business and also to buy a steamer for vegetables. We ended up buying a two tiered bamboo steamer, which fits inside one of our pots.

The best thing was that we found two places that sell Kitchenaid mixers. The price here is slightly lower than in Australia, but not by much. Anyway, we were very happy to find these and various other items which we will want for our B&B. One of the items we were looking for is a shichirin (kanteki in the Kansai region, where Kyoto is), a portable earthenware table top grill which generally uses charcoal as the heat source. These are fairly versatile and we will be using them as part of our cooking repertoire.

Later in the week, we made a ‘pilgrimage’ to my favourite Buddhist temple – Kurama-dera on Kuramayama (Mt Kurama). We have visited this temple, which is high up the mountain, nearly every time we have visited Kyoto. It is a beautiful place and provides very good exercise climbing up to the temple! In the past we have taken the train all the way to Kurama station and then climbed up to the temple and sometimes beyond to an amazing cedar grove near the top of the mountain.

This time, however, we decided to approach the temple by climbing up a track from Kibune, a beautiful village one train stop back from Kurama. Luckily we didn’t have any idea quite how hard this would be. A website we looked at said it was an easy hike – we suspect this writer was a winning competitor in the Empire State Building stair climb. We made the climb last Friday and are still feeling the effects in our leg muscles today (Monday), particularly our calves. It really was a beautiful climb, which I noticed occasionally while dragging myself panting up the very rudimentary ‘stairs’. These stairs were very steep in places. (note that the photos of the stairs are not ours – the battery on my camera suddenly went flat as I tried to take the first photo)

One thing we did notice, through the veil of near exhaustion, was a number of huge trees which had literally broken near the base and fallen over, and a number of these looked like they had only recently snapped. I became a little more wary of any wood groaning noises after that…

After our pilgrimage was completed and my breathing had returned to normal, along with the colour of my face, we had lunch at a lovely vegan restaurant at the base of the temple complex site called Yoshuji. We found this place last time we visited Kurama-dera, yet it had been there all along. Shows how easy it is to miss things when there are so many other things to take your attention, especially since we had been searching for vegetarian places since we first came to visit Japan. The menu consists mainly of mountain vegetables, noodles and rice and other vegan foodstuffs, such as tofu and konyaku. It is all very nice and well priced.

On a sad note, the large statue of Tengu at the Kurama station was covered this time, due to a tragic breakage brought about by snow. The Tengu, which is an anthropomorphised version of a bird creature, has a very large nose. Unfortunately, during the recent heavy snow falls the weight of the snow brought down the nose and so Tengu currently has no nose. For a while he was uncovered but had a ‘bandaid’ to cover the ‘wound’, but the other day he was covered, perhaps for an urgently needed ‘operation’.

On Saturday, we visited a Home Centre, which we found after being told of its existence. This centre was Bunnings meets Chemist Warehouse meets Supercheap Auto meets Super Amart, with some groceries and a bicycle shop, all in one. We had a wonderful time looking around and found some lovely light fittings for our future home.

Our outing on Sunday involved a reconnaissance of our future local neighbourhood. We were particularly looking for any supa and konbini (supermarkets and convenience stores). We found a Fresco supa which is fairly close to our carpark and it was one of the largest we have been to here in Kyoto. There were many other shops but they were all closed. We were not sure if they were closed because it was Sunday or they were just not there any more. We will be going back there during the week to check this.

We also found a lovely shrine there (I know, most shrines are lovely…) which is devoted to a three legged crow deity and the performing arts, and is noted as the birthplace of Noh. The shrine is noteworthy for the huge camphor tree at the front of the shrine complex, which was transplanted there by then retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa himself in 1163. Go-Shirakawa had established the shrine in 1160. The tree is worshipped as the god of health and long life. There is also a collection of painted slabs of stone and timber in the grounds, depicting various images including some Noh scenes and various other scenes, which, if you look closely, have crows in them.

Finally, I have some kawai photos, for your viewing pleasure, all taken in Osaka at the Dotonbori.

Yes it’s been a while, so this posting will be bringing you the news and information from weeks 13 and 14!!!! Last time I was talking about a popular topic…chocolate. I also mentioned that I was going to have a visitor. Craig arrived on Thursday morning, 23 February, and ever since then we have been rather busy. We have had two meetings with the builder and architect refining our minshuku design, one meeting with our lawyer and three visits to the Higashiyama ward office, amongst other things.

Starting on Thursday, after Craig gathered himself together with coffee and a shower, we walked up to our carpark so he could view the glory of a bitumen covered piece of land. It’s funny how on second viewing it looked a bit smaller. When we arrived there we found a car actually parked on our piece of land! Anyway, Craig liked the area and I was much relieved considering I had actually already signed and paid for it.

On Friday we went up to the ward office to register both Craig and his inkan. I thought this would be relatively straight forward, since I had already undertaken these tasks without much issue, however, it turned out we had to prove we were married and then there was the issue of who was head of the household! So, we completed as much information as we could then had to come back home to get the proof of our nuptials. Now, I do have all our important documents here, so that wasn’t an issue. What really caused me to squirm is that there is a very large mistake on our marriage certificate, which indicates that we were married in a Christian Revival Crusade service. Clearly not true, it was a civil service, but this is now on our formal records here.

The certificate also has our “old” names on it, so we then had to show we both changed our names by deed poll. Which brings up the second mistake in our personal records, which is that instead of issuing me with a name change document, for some reason unknown to anyone except himself, the clerk in the registry office issued a new birth certificate for me. Try explaining that to Japanese officials. Luckily they accepted the documents without further ado – it could have been messy though!

The next day we met with the builder and architect. This meeting was to look at the changes the architect had made based on my discussion with them the last time we met, to find out the result of their measuring of the land and to get an official schedule of the build, which our lawyer wanted. It turns out that one of the walls along the side of the block is actually built on our land, including quite large footings. This has impacted how the side of the house towards the back is going to be, because the cost of removing the footings and re-building the wall would be prohibitive. So, the final result is that the deck area on that side will have to be shorter than planned.

Other than that we were very happy with the changes made. Also, some of the regulations we were worried would impact our design didn’t have the impact we were worried about – mainly the fire regulations. We were sent away with more homework to do – deciding how many power points we wanted and where. We had to complete this task by our next meeting, which was the following Saturday.

On Tuesday we went to Teramachi to collect our company inkan and on Wednesday off to Osaka to meet with our lawyer. At this meeting we handed over the proof of our purchase of the carpark, the latest design for our minshuku and the schedule. The lawyer also dropped the bombshell that he would have to hand over our passports and residence cards to extend our visas and this would need to happen closer to the expiry date of our current visas – 25 March. Putting 2 and 2 together, the outcome is that Craig has to stay here until the 21^st of March, which of course delays the sale of our house, but, it does give us more time to actually do things other than preparing for and having meetings.

The lawyer also gave us homework, which was to get an official copy of the registration of our personal inkan, to get some new photos for our cards and (and this is the kicker) to go to the bank and take out the money we have there to put into the company and then to re-deposit it – on the same day. This is apparently to prove we can do this…????? So, on Friday we completed our assigned tasks, including the highly embarrassing withdrawal and deposit of the money. I’m sure the staff there thought I was a mad gaijin (foreigner). The good news in all of this is that the lawyer is going to apply to extend our visas for 12 months, so no more renewals for the time being, saving a lot of money!!!

On Thursday, however, we did a touristy thing and visited Fushimimomoyama- jou (castle). In all the times we have visited Kyoto, we had never been to this castle, so it was fun to go to a new place here. The castle is a little run down, and doesn’t seem to be a popular tourist venue, but it is very nice none-the-less. It was amazing to go to a place here in Kyoto and not have many people around.

Yesterday (Saturday) we again met with the builder and architect, to go through our homework (I think we passed!) and to bed as much down as possible for a final quote for the build, the architect and all approvals. We have selected many things, including floor coverings, lights and window dressings, and most importantly the heated toilets. The sign for the intention to build will have to go up on the carpark prior to the build with our details on it, so we also have to get that all bedded down, which includes the registration of our company.

Today (Sunday) we took time out to go to the antiques market at Touji temple, which occurs on the first Sunday of every month. I was looking to buy a vase so I can have some flowers in the flat, given it is now essentially spring here. I ended up buying two…There were many things I would have liked to buy, but I managed to control myself, given we will have to spend a lot to get this minshuku up and running. As an aside, the construction of this temple was overseen by Kukai, previously mentioned in Week 9 as the monk who pioneered the self-mummification ritual.

Tomorrow, we are off to Osaka see the lawyer again and present our homework (ie certificates, photos and proof of the money in the bank). It is also Craig’s birthday, so we will be going out to dinner somewhere – Craig is hoping to go to an Italian restaurant which is near our carpark. Wood oven pizza!!!!!!

This week I have decided to add some photos of our local area, which is the Gion area. There are many small and very traditional roads nearby and you often see either Geiko or Maiko walking around there.

…and, if you are wondering who is now the official head of the household…? After much consideration, we decided to take the traditional Japanese route and Craig is now officially installed as Head of the Household! His crown will be arriving soon.

Hello and welcome to the week 12 wrap! During this week, yours truly undertook a significant assignment just so that I could keep you fully informed, in a chocolatey kind of way – but more about that arduous task later.

First up I have an update to a very early post where I was talking about the unusual noises I could here from the flat, one of which sounded like a steam train whistle reminiscent of Puffing Billy. While watching tv the other night what should come on but an ad. for a steam train…in Kyoto! So onto Google (my electronic oracle) and sure enough not only is there one, but there are actually two steam trains running in Kyoto. One runs from near Arashiyama (a beautiful area famous for a huge bamboo grove there) which is a fair way from here and out of the question that I could hear that.

 Puffing Billy

 Train near Arashiyama

The second steam train runs around on a 1km track at the Kyoto Railway Museum, which is near the Kyoto station (near here). Now, whether that is what I can hear, or there is still some other unknown steam whistling device out there, I don’t know but I still hear the whistle multiple times every day. Never let it be said that I give up easily…

Now, onto the more serious side of why I am here, ie the vegan minshuku. I had another meeting with the builder and architect this week and received the first draft of the design they are creating. To say I was very happy is an understatement. It had pretty much everything I wanted in our future home and livelihood, including room for the kids out the back (which, BTW, the architect had drawn into the plan, ie three cats in the back yard – lovely). All the guest rooms are en suite, with one room being slightly bigger than the others; we’ll be able to charge more for that. All guest rooms had a balcony too. Our living area is a reasonable size and we have a deck out the back to sit outside and enjoy the backyard.

I asked for a few minor adjustments to the plan, but all in all, I was very happy. There is a downside, though – we won’t be moving into our house any time soon. All of the required approvals will take a long time. Japan is a fairly bureaucratic country and I know all about bureaucracy, as you will be aware, with my being a public servant for 29 years. What is adding to the time required to pass through all the gates is that currently there are many people seeking approval to run an accommodation facility. Kyoto is very, very popular with tourists at the moment. I have been astounded at just how busy it has been here, right through the coldest time of year. The sheer number of buses pouring into the Kiyomizu-dera area is phenomenal (Kiyomizu-dera is a very famous and important Buddhist temple near our flat).

After our meeting I went to the vegan café with the woman who is the English translator I mentioned previously. The café is run by friends of hers. It was very nice and I had a lovely meal with good company. It is, of course, also good to find these places we can refer our guests to. The style of the café was somewhat bohemian, which I have noticed quite a bit here.

So, things are moving along in the planning stage of our minshuku – which will be rather longer than I had anticipated. I also went to order our company representative seal (inkan) this week, at the request of our lawyer, who will be creating our company soon. It is not a cheap thing to do, with the inkan I ordered coming in at over ¥34,000 (around $350AUD). This was a cheaper, machine carved version. If I had ordered a hand carved version, it would have cost over $600AUD.

Now, onto that part of this post which I know some of you are very keen to hear about: Barentaindee and chocolate – or just chocolate. You may recall in my last post (does that sound wrong somehow???) I said I had seen an item on tv with a reporter going to a hall where there were lots of chocolate stalls and I knew it was near Kyoto station? Well, a little research, using the electronic oracle, and I found out that it was in iSetan, which is one of the upmarket department stores in Kyoto. The event was called the “Salon du Chocolat 2017”! It was in a promotional hall in iSetan, which is actually located in the Kyoto station building.

I was feeling a little trepidation as I walked there, imagining a large, rampaging crowd of women, trying to get their last minute chocolates – it was Monday, 13 February. To my surprise, however, while it was a little crowded, it wasn’t too bad; quite civilised really. I suspect if I had gone there the day before – Sunday – it might have been a somewhat different story. On reflection, I think I was the only westerner there. I know there were some Chinese tourists there, but they were only a few, it was mostly Japanese women buying their chocolate gifts

According to the list of stalls I got there were 99 stalls!!! The list includes French, Belgian, Swiss and Japanese chocolatiers. It was a tough ask but I made my way around all of them and even had a few tastings. I ended up buying some Japanese and Belgian chocolates, just for the sake of research, which Craig and I will enjoy together when he is here…this coming week!!

 one of the drawers…

I bought the first chocolates from a Japanese stall which had the most beautiful chocolates I had ever seen. They were like works of art – I think it would be difficult to actually eat them. In the end I bought a mixed box of matcha and ordinary chocolates. Still beautiful but I love matcha and the box they came in is lovely. In fact, it turns out when you take the plastic off (which I did to take a photo to show you all), that it is designed as a set of 2 drawers. I will be keeping it for jewellery or some such thing. The other chocolates were all chosen based on flavour and price – the French chocolates were VERY expensive.

The other chocolates:

(note that the last photo is of the pamphlet for the chocolates, because I couldn’t open the container without destroying it. I bought the pack of 3, top LH side)

Along with the chocolates, there were stalls with chocolate drinks and chocolate ice cream and chocolate macarons and…If you are a chocoholic, you have to make the effort to come here for this event one year. It truly was chocolate heaven – it even just smelled like chocolate walking around there. The photo of the week comes from this event. I just couldn’t resist getting a photo of this – who knew this even existed??? I asked if I could take a photo for my friends in Australia – they said just one. Unfortunately I rushed it with all the people there, etc and it is a bit blurry, but you’ll get the idea. I present The Chocolate World of Zoology:

As mentioned above, Craig is coming over to visit this week, which I am very much looking forward to. He’ll be here for 2 weeks!! So much to do, so little time. Of course, given how long the build is going to take, we’ll have plenty of time once he is able to come here permanently. I just have to be patient…not my long suit…

Cheers to you all for now, and my advice if you are going to come over here; book your flights 6 months in advance. Kansai airport (Osaka), is very, very busy.

…and we interrupt the Trump coverage to bring you…something –  anything else!

If you think I am a little tired of the sheer volume of media coverage on Trump, well, you are right.

Of course, the time when I tend to watch tv is between 4 and 7, so news and current affairs (and I don’t mean like the ‘current affairs’ programs in Australia – which are more about bashing people, like tenants etc) are the main viewing fodder. There are, however, some other shows, and quite often they involve food in some way. Whether it is cooking, showing techniques, roving around sampling food from different restaurants, take aways or cafes, or speaking to chefs about their restaurants, there is a big focus on food.

I am a big fan of cooking shows and seeing different foods, so this little oasis of tv viewing is wonderful to me. One thing I really notice here, is that often when talking to chefs they will focus on the produce they use. This then leads them to visit the people who grow or harvest the produce. They spend a lot of time with the farmers and often help them pick their crops, or prepare the produce for market. One show recently also showed a couple harvesting nori seaweed, which was fascinating (see photo below). All of it is hard physical work.

Which brings me to one thing I have really noticed – the vast majority of those who own and are working their farms or who harvest or prepare other produce, such as the seaweed, are not young…and when I say not young, many of them are 70 or over. I know this because they nearly always put a person’s age on the screen when they introduce them – even celebrities! There are a few younger people, in most cases helping on the farms with the older people, but not overly many. I watched the other day as the person who was there interviewing the farmers tried to pull a large daikon out of the ground, and they couldn’t even budge it. Yet, there was this older couple pulling them out relatively easily!

(the picture left above is of an 84 year old farmer helping to train some people from the Philippines in rice farming)

Like just about everywhere else in the world, Japan has an ageing population. They are also grappling with the movement to the big cities of the younger people. First they move to study, then stay to get work, because the truth is there isn’t much work out in the rural areas for them. The government knows there is a big problem – Tokyo is growing very rapidly, with most of these young people heading to Tokyo (and it’s already huge!) – but they don’t know what to do about it, They are throwing money at the local governments for them to use to help stop the drain, but short of building factories or enticing other employers out of the cities, they are struggling to find the answer.

(some 84 year olds having fun!)

Japan’s population was 127,094,745 when the most recent population census was taken on 1 October 2015. This was, in fact, a decrease of 0.8 % from the previous census five years earlier and is the first decrease since the survey began in 1920 (and it looks like continuing). People aged 65 or older made up 26.6% of the population – that’s 33,465,441 people (around 10,000,000 more people than are in Australia). Interestingly, of the total population, the number of non-Japanese residents totalled 1,752,368 (there’ll be at least 2 more next time!!!!)

Looking at the ageing population even closer, last year the number of centenarians rose by 4,124 from the previous year to reach 65,692 in September. Women account for 87.6% of this population. They expect over 30,000 more people to enter this venerated group this year. There were only 153 centenarians in 1963! Japan’s oldest woman is Nabi Tajima, 116, born in August 1900. She is, in fact, currently the oldest person in Japan and the third oldest in the world – all women.

So, where is this all going? The population is decreasing overall, while the number of older people is increasing – significantly. Well, as I sit there and marvel at these amazingly fit and healthy older people, and admire them for their zest for life, I wonder what is going to happen when they are no longer able to tend their farms. Who will continue growing the daikon and rice and climb down to the rocks to harvest the seaweed? Even more problematic, who will help look after this large elderly population as it grows?

What started all this analysis – apart from the fact that I studied statistics and one of my jobs previously was a population and labour economics researcher????? Actually, it was an article in the Yomiuri newspaper about a woman who is 93 and is still running a small restaurant in Tokyo, with the help of her son, who is 67. She and her husband opened it in 1960…As I was reading it, I hoped that Craig and I would be able to continue running our minshuku for many years into the future. One of the things I like about Japan is how they generally respect older people and their abilities. They don’t have the attitude that people are useless and unemployable after a certain age. It also reinforces to me that one of the keys to ageing well, is to keep active – and I mean both mind and body.

Ok, after that serious note (these wintery days, when you can’t do much outside, leaves too much time for retrospection!) this coming week is Barentaindee or Valentine’s Day, which is huge here in Japan. Basically here it is all about chocolate – so for those of you who are chocoholics, now is the time to be here. It is also somewhat different to Australia, in that the givers of the chocolate on Valentine’s are the women, and it is not just to be given to someone you fancy. Many give to co-workers, friends and others on this day. There is a reciprocal day, on 14 March, Howaitodee or White Day, when the men have to give gifts to all the women who gave them gifts. Generally chocolate again. All well and good, but if you are a popular guy…

As you can imagine, there have been many stories about chocolate on tv this last week or two. A lot of coverage is being given to French chocolatiers, and it seems there are many French chocolatiers visiting here at the moment – even here in Kyoto. Last night they showed a hall somewhere near the Kyoto railway station, which had many, many stalls of chocolate and at least three French chocolatiers actually present at this festival of chocolate! The young woman who had the onerous job of going around these stalls and interviewing these people, then had to taste quite a bit of chocolate, it seemed. She also got a box of chocolates from each of them, which they autographed for her! She was very excited by all of this.

Now, for the photos of the week…what else could I do but show you some of the creations for Valentine’s Day.

Cheers and keep eating!