Hi all, here I am again in the starting blocks, with many things going through my head – “what shall I talk about?”; “what photos do I have?”; “what have I actually done recently?”; “etc”. Well, there have been some interesting things happen, but they mostly relate to the business and our future here. As most often happens, however, I will begin with the weather – it always seems a good place to start.

We have had some hot weather in the last few weeks, with some records being broken, as seems to be happening in so many parts of the world recently. May was unusually hot, with quite a few days in the low to mid thirties here. Unbelievably, the hottest day of the month, and breaking all records, was in Hokkaido with a temperature in Saroma of 39.5C! This is the hottest temperature ever recorded anywhere in Japan in May, with the previous high being 37.2C. Temperatures have never previously reached 35C in Hokkaido in May or 38C at any time of the year. Despite this, I have been enjoying the hotter weather, as I always do, especially as it hasn’t been accompanied by the stifling humidity that is the case here in summer.

One thing I thought I might mention, which is also about just generally living here, is the earthquakes. I find it interesting that while I was living in the flat, for around 15 months, there was not one tremor, not even a tiny little rattle. Since June last year, when we had the larger earthquake (quite a shock for me 😉) and the series of aftershocks, we have been having some kind of shake fairly regularly; around one per month. It seems to be a fact of life here. Most are little rattlers, but we have also had a few which felt like something very large hit the front of our house and one that felt like small waves under a boat (I was sitting on the floor at the time).

I take comfort in the fact that this area was extensively surveyed before the tunnel for the shinkansen was put through nearby, which apparently found that it was geologically very stable. There is, of course, the fault running through these hills, which does mean we are more likely to feel little temblors than in the city centre. I still don’t feel comfortable when they happen, but I think I am becoming more used to them. There was that one time when I was on the toilet when one struck…

Another hazard which we have recently discovered here, is what is known in Japan as ‘yellow sand’ (kousa). This is also called Asian dust and is carried on high winds from Mongolia, northern China, and Kazakhstan to North and South Korea and on to Japan. High-speed surface winds and intense dust storms pick up the dense clouds of fine, dry soil particles which are then blown further east by winds and jet streams.

There are records of these storms many centuries ago, so it is not a new phenomenon. It has, however, become much more of a problem in the last few decades with the increase in industrial pollution in China and the fact that these dust storms pass over areas where they pick up the pollutants and carry them with the dust. There is also the increasing desertification of China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, increasing the likelihood of these storms.

Two weeks ago there was a jet stream passing directly over these areas and depositing the dust here, in Kyoto (and other areas). You could see a light dusting of yellow powder on the outside door handles. Unfortunately it seems that I am affected by this dust+ and for the first time since I left the rental house on Portrush Road in Adelaide I experienced asthma. Luckily I still had some Ventolin, so was able to use this help me deal with it, but I felt very drained for a week. It tends to mainly occur in Spring, although the season is apparently lengthening more recently. Anyway, fingers crossed it is over for this year.

Yellow dust – Osaka

In terms of our living here, we are once again in the process of renewing our visas, an expensive and slightly stressful undertaking. It would be wonderful if we could finally get a three year visa, instead of the 12 month renewal, but it is up to the government and there is some resistance to allowing foreigners to live here. We can only hope…

On the business front it has been very quiet, but we have had some positives. The first came via the ‘diethelper’, who contacted us and asked if a friend of hers from Tokyo could stay with us. She has been working with this friend and another person in updating a publication about vegan/vegetarian businesses in the Kansai area (which includes the prefectures of Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Wakayama and a few others). The publication is targeted at Taiwanese people, which is because around 13% of the population is vegetarian/vegan. They are going to include our humble abode in this latest version, which should be out later this year.

The previous book

A couple of weeks later, we received an email from a very well known and renowned publication, saying they were doing a new vegan travel series and they wanted to include us in this! They were asking for photos of our rooms, building and some shots of the food we serve. So, we bought a wide angle lens and set about trying to get the best shots we could (our previous photos weren’t that great). I have to say, though, that when I first read the email, which arrived late in the day, I thought it might be a hoax or someone playing a joke on us. We did do some checking before responding; it just shows how cynical I have become through observing the activities of those who like to spread sham information.

…and on the topic of ‘out of the blue’ contacts, last week a man who had been involved in the building and landscaping of our home turned up at our front door. He had come to look at how the plants were going out the front and to offer his services to maintain them once a year. Very enterprising! Anyway, while he was here, Craig asked him about our backyard, ie what plants we could use, given it’s aspect and the small size.

Long story short, today he is here starting the process of creating a Japanese style garden in the backyard 😊.Meanwhile, I have been creating a small garden area on the west side of the yard over the last few weeks, which has been fairly hard work, mainly because the ground was under asphalt for some time (the block was a carpark previously) and to compound this the builders had put road fill on the ground (which they called gravel and we thought they meant gravel as we know it – trap for new players) because they were worried the ground would become swamp-like in the rainy season without it.

My garden – a work in progress

A 100 yr old mochi bowl (water feature) and a mysterious rock ring!

The site for the mochi bowl and a before shot (with Zowie)

Today…

Planting a garden here is somewhat different to how it evolves in Adelaide, ie put in a smallish plant, wait up to a year or so for it to establish, hope it survives summer and start growing. Here it is; put in a smallish plant, wait a week or two for it to establish and watch it growing, literally, day by day. It’s really amazing and is a wonderful thing to watch. There are also so many plants that I would like to have, but there just isn’t enough room for them all, so I am having to strictly limit myself. One of the irises flowered for the first time today – wonderful.

We have only had one major sightseeing outing during this period, to Kuramayama. We were told by diethelper that there was a big full moon festival there on a recent Saturday night, and although I would have liked to go to this, it is a long way to get there and back so we decided to go the next day as we hadn’t been there since the typhoon went through. The temple there had been closed for some months after the typhoon because of the significant damage wreaked by the winds. On the news it was reported that over a thousand trees had come down or were severely damaged. It is one of my favourite places to go in Kyoto and I was feeling a little trepidatious about seeing the devastation. It turned out that it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it might be – there were areas where many trees were down, but there were other areas which were fine, and the very old and large trees were ok.

After we did the climb to the temple we had lunch at the vegan restaurant at the base of the temple area, which we always love to do. The food there is different to many places as it includes some mountain plants and the restaurant itself is very atmospheric, old Japan style. They also sell a few locally made items in the restaurant, and I couldn’t resist the little crocheted pig – very cute 😊.

On the ride home

Well, that’s it for now.

Cheers

A witches hat needs a hat?

Signs appearing around Kyoto – “Love Bicycle Tender”!!??

Ok, I don’t normally take shots inside women’s toilets, but it was so beautiful…the doors slide around rather than open in.

Hello and welcome to episode 7 (part 2), as previously promised. Last time, we had just been on the first of our three ‘big’ outings, interstate as it were (inter-prefecture???). Our next two ‘big’ outings also took us to places we had meant to go for some time but just hadn’t got around to it, for reasons of weather (ie too cold/snow on the roads, etc), time (all three of the journeys were day trips) and money…

Before I get onto them, I must mention how wonderful the weather has been since I last wrote. Barring a couple of days, the weather has been in the 20s and not particularly humid (I have all my fingers and toes crossed when I write this, which makes it difficult to write but I know the humidity is coming and I don’t want to hurry it along!). I’m hoping the weather will remain like this for a while longer, because we haven’t really had much spring weather since we have been here (or autumn weather for that matter). It seems as if summer and winter are just getting longer, subsuming the other two.

So,our next ‘big’ outing took us to Hikone, in Shiga prefecture, specifically to see the castle there. Hikone is one of the towns lining the shores of Lake Biwa, which is the largest freshwater lake in Japan. Apparently it is one of the oldest lakes in the world, dating to at least 4 million years ago. Lots of interesting archaeology there, no doubt.

Anyway, we took a route that did not involve toll roads to get there which took us over a bridge spanning a narrow part of the lake near Otsu city. As we started over the bridge, I started hearing some music and wondered out loud where it was coming from. We quickly realised it was being made through the tyres of our car running over grooves on the bridge!! It lasted for the entire span of the bridge (1.4km) and was truly an amazing experience. I think the song is called Biwako Shuukou no Uta (literally: Lake Biwa circumnavigation song).

Hikone castle is one of only 12 castles in Japan with the original keep, and it is one of only five castles listed as a national treasure. It was opened for use in 1622, although the keep was originally built in 1575 as part of Otsu castle and later moved to its current position by the Ii clan, who also moved their original castle (Sawayama castle) to this site and added other parts from Nagahama castle. As an aside, it constantly amazes me how many complexes here, including castles, are amalgams of buildings and parts from other sites, some a long way away. Otsu is approximately 70 kms by road from Hikone, though they possibly could have taken it via barge on the lake, I suppose.

The castle complex comprises a museum as well as the castle itself. We went into the museum first as it was outside of the main entrance to the castle proper. There were some very interesting exhibits in there, along with a fully functioning Noh theatre, where performances are still held. This stage was originally part of the residence of the Ii clan at Hikone Castle and was subsequently moved to the castle Museum and reconstructed in its original layout. It is said that the Ii clan were great lovers of Noh.

After, we climbed to the main castle area, which includes the keep and surrounding gates and buildings. It was a bit of a climb up many stairs with no ramps, so was quite difficult for the oldest member of our group, who is 92. In the end she didn’t make it all the way up, but gave it a good try 😊. It is a beautiful castle and the views up there of the lake and surrounding hills is lovely. Inside the main keep, as is the case with so many around Japan, the stairs were incredibly steep. How anyone would manage to run up and down them during a battle is beyond me. After we left the castle, we stopped and had lunch on the lake shore, which was most pleasant.

Note the mascot in the foreground

Next day we headed off to Miho Museum, which is located near the town of Shigaraki in Shiga prefecture. The museum was the vision of Mihoko Koyama (after whom it is named), who is the founder of a religious organisation known as Shinji Shumeikai. She commissioned the building of the museum in the 1990s and it was officially opened in 1997. The museum houses Mihoko Koyama’s private collection of Asian and Western antiques bought on the world market. There are over 2,000 pieces in the permanent collection, of which around 250 are displayed at any one time.

The museum complex is s stunning design which fits in with the landscape, while being large enough to house the collections and having a Japanese ‘feel’. The complex comprises a reception building, a restaurant and shop and the main collection building, which you get to via a tunnel through part of the mountain. The architect who designed the museum was I. M. Pei who has also designed many other well known structures internationally, including the glass and steel pyramid at the Louvre. His design was effected in the hilly and forested terrain and he apparently came to call it Shangri-La. Approximately three-quarters of the 17,400 m² main building is located underground, carved out of the rocky mountain.

The bus stop for the electric bus

There was a special spring exhibition at the time we went, entitled Living in Zen and the Daitokuji Ryōkōin Heritage. This consisted of an overview of 400 years of the Ryōkō-in temple’s history and also featured the Tennōjiya family treasures, Abbot Kōgetsu’s belongings that reflect the aesthetics of the Kan’ei era, works associated with historic figures the abbot revered, and objects owned by successive abbots of the temple.

After we viewed the exhibition and the permanent collection pieces, we headed back to the restaurant for lunch, which they kindly served us despite it being just before closing time. They had a mainly vegetable menu, although none of it was fully vegetarian or vegan. Once we asked if they had any options, they said they could make us a couple of dishes without fish stock and later asked us if we would prefer noodles made without egg. It was a very nice meal and they really were very helpful and accommodating.

On the last day of Steven’s visit (his friends had left the day before), we went to a festival in Okazaki park, which Craig had found out about via Instagram. When we got there it was like a walk back in time to a hippy festival in the late 1960s. There were many vegan/vegetarian food stalls and other stalls with mostly locally made items, as well as a line-up of musicians playing throughout the day. As we got there, there was a woman playing a keyboard and singing – and I use that term in the sense that she was trying to do so, since I think I could have carried a tune better than her – so, at that point, I was a bit concerned about the music side of the festival.

Following that assault on our ears and a brief respite, a band started playing, and very loudly at that, but they were amazing!!! They looked and sounded like they had just stepped out of San Francisco circa 1967. They all had very long hair and were playing very psychedelic style music. I have to say, though, that it was so loud it was hard to buy things at the stalls which were close to the stage area. Despite this, they were so good we watched them until they finished up (each band/individual played for around 30 minutes).

What the?

Feeling hungry, because the food looked so good, we bought some vegan burgers and sat to have a very delicious lunch. Following this we continued around to the rest of the stalls and bought some more food items (they really were very nice – we had them for dinner later that day). As we were thinking about leaving, the next band started setting up and they were also dressed up, but this time much more Marc Bolan-esque; very glam. While they were still setting up, the lead guitarist was wandering around on stage playing bits and pieces of songs, some of which sounded rather like T-rex songs. He was very good and so we decided to hang around to see what they were like.

The lead guitarist turned out to be the lead singer and he was a brilliant showman (very funny too). Some of the songs weren’t as good as the warm-up promised, but they were very entertaining and very good musicians – two women (bass and keyboards) and two men (guitar and drums). Again, the music was very loud, but it didn’t seem to worry the varied crowd. They were enjoying the band a lot and were getting into the songs, singing along and even making appropriate hand/arm movements. Needless to say, we watched the whole set, which was fantastic fun.

After that – the beautiful weather, wonderful food and great entertainment (except that one “singer”) – we decided to walk back via one of the canals, which is a lovely way to pass time too. It was so pleasant, we stopped at a small café along the way, had a drink and watched the world go by for a while. What a wonderful way to spend a day. I so love spring 😊.

The duck just stood there (yes stood on the bottom) quacking at me…

Before I sign off, I thought I should mention that the new emperor is now ensconced in the palace. Interestingly, though, the official enthronement ceremony is being held later this year, at which international dignitaries will be present. As a result of the abdication and transition to the new emperor, we are now into the Reiwa era, which officially commenced on 1 May. So, for official forms, the year is now Reiwa year 1. Up until the end of April, we were in Heisei year 31. A somewhat complex system, where you need to know not only the world standard year, eg 1970, but you also have to know the Japanese era and year of the era, eg Showa year 45, for 1970. So, here we are in year 1…Happy New Era!

Cheers

Hikonyan and Craig / the ‘royal swan’ / Hikonyan and me / me as Hikonyan (sort of)

A plane inside Aeon Mall…

Ah, Spring

Hello all – I have returned to the keyboard and it’s only been three weeks! It has, however, been quite a busy time with many ‘big’ outings and we had three visitors from Australia for the last two of those weeks. It took me half of Monday just going through the photographs (read: you’re in for a lot of photos). In fact, I have decided to split this episode into two parts, so that I can get the first one out faster and you won’t turn into fossilised beings while reading the full account of this period.

As is my wont, I will firstly mention the weather – there, that’s over…Actually, it has been quite variable, from cloudy to cloud free, with some rain, and from mid teens to mid twenties. Just when I thought I could pack away my winter puffs and thermals, I had to pull them out again. I did get to wear a t-shirt on a couple of days, though 😊.

Prior to the arrival of the Oz crew, we finally got to go to an exhibition I had been wanting to see – Kyoto Textiles: From the 1960s to the Present – which was held at the National Museum of Modern Art. The backstory to this is that I had met a woman at my gym who is Japanese but speaks very good English. On her first day there she came up to me and asked some questions about the ballet class. She wanted to do the class but was a little reticent, so I encouraged her and helped her through the class. Not sure why she picked me, but she was really nice and we ended up doing a few classes together.

After one of the classes she asked if I was interested in art, to which I of course said yes, then she offered me two free tickets to the afore mentioned exhibition. It turned out her husband is a famous ceramic artist, who comes from a very famous artistic family – his father was an avant garde ceramic artist whose works are exhibited in museums around the world (Yagi Kazuo) and his mother was a famous textile artist (Takagi Toshiko). So, we arrive at the connection – one of her works was in the exhibition. It was a very eclectic mix of styles, colours and textures and a wonderful visual experience.

A piece by Yagi Kazuo (L) and some by Yagi Akira (R)

The first exhibit is by Tagaki Tosjiko (it was huge, hung from the ceiling). The second was one of the many I liked and could find a photo of (!) (also very large)

A few days later the local kiln matsuri was held, which, sadly, we have been told was the last time it is to be held. There appear to be a few reasons for this, one of which is the ageing population amongst the local potters. We went around and visited them and bought a few items while we still could. It is unclear whether many will be closing down, but it seems there won’t be many opportunities to buy directly, and at discount, in the future.

Us at one of the potteries where we bought a couple of pieces

Two of our guests from Australia arrived during the following week; a friend of Steven (see previous post) and her mother, who is in her early 90s. They employed the services of our employee as a tour guide (which she is qualified to do) for the majority of the time they were here and we joined them for drinks, nibbles and dinner when they returned home each day. A few days in, Steven arrived back from his taiko sojourn and this time we were able to spend more time with him.

Our first outing was to an antique market held monthly at Toji temple. Steven’s friend and mother decided to join us in our visit to the market. I have to say that, over time, it seems there are more and more stalls selling items other than antiques at this market. Anyway, they decided to split up, as they were looking for different things, and we arranged to meet up after an hour (which ended up being more like and hour and twenty minutes…). Steven had three items he was looking for and it took so long to get around the market checking for these items that we were late getting back to the meeting spot. Steven did, however, continue trying as we were heading to the meeting spot.

We then had a look around the garden at the temple, which was lovely, with some blossom still open, some peonies and azaleas coming on. We also found a turtle pile on a rock in the middle of the lake in the garden, which was interesting 😊. While I was taking some photos on a rock crossing in the water, I was stalked by a bright orange koi, somewhat like a shark circling trying to lure me in!

The first of our ‘big’ outings took Craig, Steven and myself to Nara prefecture, to visit a temple complex we had seen on tv, Chogosonshi-ji, which is distinguished by the fact it has a very large bobbing head tiger statue in the grounds. This tiger is known as Fukutor, and is the world’s largest papier-mâché tiger. Information about the temple says that the tiger image used extensively in the complex comes from a story regarding Prince Shotoku, who was at war with the Mononobe clan in the 6th century. The story says that he went to the site of the current temple to pray to Bishamonten (protector of warriors and guardian of Buddhism) for victory, praying in the year of the tiger, on the day and the hour of the tiger, and his troops were subsequently victorious. The temple is said to have been built on the orders of the prince, in gratitude for this defeat.

The grounds of the complex are extensive with many buildings and statues of tigers, covering a huge area on Mt Shigi. There is also a brightly painted tiger tunnel, called Santora No Fuku Tainai Meguri, which supposedly makes you strong and brave if you walk through it, and also brings you luck. The entrance and exit of the tunnel is decorated to look like a tiger’s mouth (rather comic book style). We, of course, just had to walked through it.

There is also a trail that takes you up to the top of the mountain where there are supposed to be ruins of a castle – although we weren’t exactly sure where they were, in the end. None the less, it was a good climb up and the views from up there were lovely, if a little hazy. On the way up, I noticed some paw prints in the concrete stairs (two sets, in fact), which were quite large and very cat like. We speculated as to what it might be and, on the way back, asked a groundsman who spoke pretty good English what he thought. He said there were large cats (feral, I presume) on the mountain. They must be big…

Part of the ruins? (R)

Yes, I know, I should have put something in for scale…

There are photo opportunities at every turn at this temple, it is a beautiful and peaceful place, thanks to there being very few tourists there. We spent at least two hours there and I enjoyed every second. Despite it being a bit of a hike from our home, and having to pay some fairly hefty tolls to get there in around an hour and a half, I would definitely take another opportunity to visit.

Cages for statues?

Before I sign off, I should mention that today (30/4/2019), is the last day of the current emperor’s reign. He is officially resigning in a few minutes. Tomorrow is the first day of the Reiwa era. I hope they get a chance to really enjoy their retirement.

Cheers

Post Script: We ended up watching the official abdication ceremony, which was late yesterday afternoon. It was quite solemn, with many (important) people in attendance. The PM made a speech, then the Emperor made a speech; his official abdication speech. He looked like he was trying very hard to subdue emotions. It was over in around 20 minutes – the analysing of the whole ceremony went on for hours…

Saw this sign near my gym – what is it? Apparently Bump of Chicken (yes, it is meant to have an i) is a band…and they have a new album coming out soon.

Other random items at the gallery

At the entrance to the car park

It was cold????

…and another month rolls by. This time we have been very busy, while at the same time I have been somewhat unwell. On the business side, we have had some interesting guests, some taking up quite a lot of our time, and we finally had a full house! All five of our rooms were occupied for a few days, and otherwise we have had most occupied, Along with this, we have had a friend from Australia staying in our spare room. While all this was happening, I was carrying a cold which lasted around three weeks. Poor Craig had to carry the full load for a few days, thankfully however, Takako was able to came in and help us on a few days, despite having had a run in with a bike.

Weatherwise it has been rather up and down again. Some fairly cool days under 10C max, and then we have had some glorious days over 20C. The blossom is now very close to the peak and there are many, many people out enjoying hanami (literally flower viewing). Luckily, we have been able to take the opportunity to go out and do some viewing ourselves.

During this time we have been up to Ohara twice, taking two of our guests up there during early March and then our friends (we had another friend drop in for one night to meet up with Steven and then accompany him to Fukui for the taiko workshop the following day) there on Sunday. The first time we went it was quite cool and wet, however, on Sunday it was warmish and sunny. Regardless of the differences in weather, it was quiet both times. We suspect that many people had been very early on Sunday and then gone on for a hanami outing, because many of the stalls in both markets had very little left for sale. We also went on to Sanzen-in after visiting the markets both times.

Having been sick, I missed going to my dance classes for two weeks, which was disappointing since I was feeling a lot stronger in ballet prior to that. Last week I decided to try returning just to the ballet classes as I still wasn’t 100%. Steven joined me for a trip into town, did some looking around while I was in class and then we did some shopping after. Following the first class I went back to, I took Steven to a building near my gym which is very upmarket and has some quite alternative shops to have a look at. While walking around we happened to find a new Starbucks in there – I needed some coffee after my class!

The Starbucks certainly lived up to the style of the building and was like no other Starbucks I have ever seen. The fit-out is amazing and has some very interesting artworks and sculptures. They have also made a feature of the exposed air-conditioning ducts by making them look like a large silver intestinal tract! I always enjoy looking around in the BAL building and now there is even more reason to go there 😊.

Later that week, we decided to go to Kameoka, a city within Kyoto prefecture, which is a twenty minute train ride from Kyoto station. We had found out there is a 1km walk there through blossom trees and thought it might be worthwhile, especially since not overly many tourists go there. We tried to follow the directions to get to the walk, but couldn’t find where the bus stop was at Kameoka station, so didn’t ever get to the walk. We did, however, find many buses to a boat ride on the Hozugawa (Hozu river).

After a quick check of the electronic oracle, we decided this might be a good thing to try out, since we had caught glimpses of lovely gorges as we passed through the mountains between Kameoka and Kyoto. The ride is 16 kms long and takes around 2 hours, starting near Kameoka station and ending at Arashiyama. It follows the water route used for transporting wood before Kyoto existed. Later, when Kyoto was being built, many logs from the mountain range area were bound together into rafts and sent down the Hozugawa to Kyoto. In 1606 a wealthy merchant opened up the ravine further to allow for boats.

The boats used for the sightseeing rides are not motorised, but rather rely on three oarsman to propel and steer them. One man is on the oar, one uses a pole to both push on the bottom of the river in the shallower areas and push on and away from rocks and the final man steers at the back of the boat. During the trip they rotate through the positions, as the front two are quite physically demanding. As you may have guessed, they have to walk down the side of the boat to do this, which also provided some entertainment as one of them yelled “don’t push, don’t push” while he walked along there, then “push, push”, when it came time for the others to walk down the side.

They all were Japanese and spoke very little English but still managed to say some very funny things, other than this. Along the route, there are certain places where it is crucial to push the boat away from the rocks, mainly in the rapids. Over 400 years, the bamboo poles have gradually worn smooth holes into the rocks, so they used this too as part of the entertainment, seeing if they could accurately push the poles into the small holes, not always successfully.

It was a lovely sunny day, around 20C. The scenery was lovely, the river had beautifully clean water (tinged green with minerals) and the ride varied through some flat and calm areas and then through some rapids. The latter were not overly vigorous, we weren’t belted in and only had a small life belt on (just in case), although Steven did get a lapful of water at one stage. The most dangerous part of the trip was actually at Arashiyama, where many people were out in little row boats, and didn’t seem to understand that our boat was bigger than theirs and they may be knocked out if they collided with us. The oarsmen were nearly sent hoarse yelling out at them!

Some fallen trees courtesy Typhoon 21

One unexpected part of the journey happened towards the end of the trip, when a motorised boat came up beside us and the oarsmen attached our boat to it. It turned out to be a floating konbini (convenience store), which mainly sold food and drinks, including sake! The Oarsmen also got some rest at this point, letting the motor on the other boat propel us in a very smooth part of the river. The whole journey was a lot of fun, well worth the fare, and I would definitely do it again – probably in Autumn to see the colour.

We had two other sightseeing outings on the weekend, one was climbing part of the Kyoto trail which passes near our home, through the hills to Kiyomizudera, which was also lovely on another glorious day. The other was later that day, when we went out to dinner (through the massive crowds around the Kiyomizudera, Gion and city centre areas). After dinner, we went to Maruyama park, where the annual hanami festival was being held. There were many dozens of stalls lining the walkways of the park, most of them selling food, though not desserts or sweets which we were looking for. We did find a couple of stalls doing so in the end, one of which was selling toffee apples and other toffee treats. I had a stick with a strawberry and two grapes, which was quite good 😊.

Some fallen trees courtesy Typhoon 21

So, that brings us to today, not quite as warm but still sunny.

Cheers

Hhmmmm

Tiny garages

Look, I found Tomorrowland!

My favourite – Godzilla

A happy bear watering plants

Three trucks like this lined up at a motel-a touring band?

Not sure

Aaahhh

Sometimes the bus drivers sound like they’re on sedatives…perhaps they need them to cope with the huge crowds on the buses.

Hello all! I have finally returned to the keyboard again, to talk about life as I have experienced it since last we spoke. It has been a long time, I know, and I don’t have too many excuses, although I have not been idle. I have spent some time getting my bookkeeping house in order and am now up to date and ready for tax time, which is nigh. In fact, the company’s tax year ends at the end of Feb, mainly because it was created early in March…but, enough of that!

Last time, I recall I mentioned that I thought the snowfall we had (with photos) was likely the last of the season – all I can say is ‘famous last words’. While there hasn’t been a heavy(ish) fall since, it did snow on three days in the week following my assertion. Perhaps my statement was taken as a challenge by the weather gods 😊. Since that week, we haven’t had a day below 10C, which is very nice. I have even been out for a walk a few times recently without a puffy jacket on!!!

Spring is definitely in the air, and the weather people are suggesting that the cherry blossom will be early again this year, perhaps as early as the middle of March. Right now the plum blossom is out, which we have made an effort to view. Around the middle of February we went to Kitano Tenmangu jinja, which has about 300 plum blossom trees in its grounds, to check how far along they were but it really was early days then.

Prior to going there we went to a vegan restaurant which is nearby and which many of our guests had been to and said was very good, called Itadakizen. The menu was not overly large but they had daily specials, so we chose one dish from the daily specials and one from the menu. I won’t say I was disappointed, but it didn’t really live up to the hype for me. After lunch, we walked to the shrine through an area known as Youkai Street (literally monster street).

As legend has it, thousands of years ago, after a big seasonal cleanout, many old items were thrown out. After they were abandoned, the ‘antiques’ had a gathering (as old items do…). Apparently they were very angry and decided to turn into youkai (monsters) and hundreds of them then invaded what was the northern most area of the old Kyoto (which is known as Rakuchu). Many (many) years later, the owners of shops on this street started to construct monsters as a celebration of the legends. Some of them are based on Japanese folklore, while others are just a mishmash of things put together to look like a monster.

 ??? Not sure…

We had seen a story about this street on tv (as so often we find out about things and sites around Kyoto!) and thought we’d take the opportunity to see the street, since we were in the area. It is a fun area, though some of the monsters do look a little the worse for wear. Will that make them even more angry? Lucky we are on the other side of Rakuchu!

The blossom at Kitano Tenmagu was only in the very early stages of blooming, so we decided to make a return visit after a couple of guests left us, later in February. So, on 25 February we returned there, although we didn’t actually take any note of the date until we arrived at the shrine. Now, for those of you who have been here before, you may realise the significance of that date and venue – for those who don’t, a large market is held at this shrine on the 25^th of every month. You may recall we went there on xmas day last year.

As a result, while I thought there may be quite a few people there to see the blossom, there were, in fact, many people there both for the viewing and the market. Anyway, it turned out the blossom was still to fully develop, so there weren’t as many people as I initially feared walking through the garden area. It was an absolutely glorious day, one of those days I wasn’t clad in puffiness. The temperature was around 18C and the sky was a really intense blue, which worked particularly well with the pink of many of the plum blossom trees.

We also took advantage of the market to buy another shikishi, to complete our seasonal set (the frame is such that they are easily interchanged), and I bought another pair of the fabulously warm and comfortable fleecy lined Japanese style pants. I am now fully kitted out for cold weather 😊.

After we left there, we went to another vegan restaurant which we were told was very good; Vegetarian Ren a Taiwanese vegan restaurant (not sure why it’s called Vegetarian…). This time, the hype was true to word. The food was fantastic and on top of that it was also very reasonably priced. We liked it so much, we went back there yesterday for lunch with Takako. Yum!!!!

During this period, we have also had some local visitors to our humble abode, who we had invited here. The first was a woman who goes by the moniker ‘diethelper’ on Instagram. She lives in Kyoto and has made it her mission to go around to restaurants, cafes, bars and hotels to talk to them about vegetarianism and veganism and how they can make their establishments more veg ‘friendly’. She also highlights those establishments that are fully vegan/vegetarian. I found her on Instagram and added a comment to one of her posts, which she immediately responded to and said she’d like to meet us.

So, we invited her over for morning tea and showed here around. She took many (many) photos and some video and we also talked about how Kyoto is gradually becoming much more veg friendly. She was the one who put us on to Vegetarian Ren. After her visit, she put up two posts about our place, with many photos, plus video and a lot of description, which was wonderful. One other thing she told us is that the universities here (of which there are quite a few and well respected, at that) often have visiting academics and there are a number who are veg, which the universities aren’t quite sure how to deal with. She asked if we would mind if she gave them our details…😊.

Before I sign off, I thought I would talk about advertising on tv here. It is a different experience overall compared to watching ads in Australia (and probably many other countries). There are many times when we aren’t quite sure what the ads are about – but then that was the case in Australia, at times – but what I really like here are the characters or, perhaps, youkai that are used in advertisements. It’s sort of like the mascots which are used for a particular company, or city or anything else really, but on ads, they can be much more anthropomorphic, or people can morph into something else entirely.

I read an article about Japanese advertising written by an academic who studies advertising, and he said the difference is that, while ‘western’ ads try to sell a concept, Japanese ads try to sell the essence of the product. I’m not sure exactly what some of the essences are, but I do like watching their ads much more, on the whole, than the ads in Australia. One example is the ongoing series of ads for Aflac, which is a company that sells life insurance, and all of it’s ads involve a talking white duck. They are really good ads to watch with the duck doing many things, including yoga, but there is very little mention of life insurance. The duck even has it’s own Facebook page.

There are many much weirder creatures, and I managed to capture a couple:

 A drum playing plum…

I think this is about encouraging acceptance of credit cards

So, that’s all for now

Cheers!

 My kind of shop!

Me blending in with the trees

A local Shiba enjoying the sun

Illustrating the pine pollen measure…

Just more blossom shots

A very different kind of flower

That time again? What, it’s past that time? Three weeks????? What have I been doing?

The answer to the latter, is not that much, really. We have been quite hibernal, in the sense that we have been staying home more than we usually would, going out mainly for the essentials, including me going to gym (which is now an essential). Despite this, we have managed to do some marketing for our minshuku and I (finally) caught up with my book keeping (sigh).

Now, to the weather – frankly, it has mostly been quite wintry, with the occasional day above 10C. The temperature actually reached 14C the other day, seemed almost warm!!! We had another fall of snow late last month, this time a bit heavier; it snowed on and off all night. We, of course, got plenty of photos, especially since it is likely that was the last of the snow this season.

As it happens, the night it snowed, we had a booking at the restaurant that I mentioned in my last post. The owner had contacted us to market their wholesale food service (felafel, etc) and the restaurant, so we decided to visit the restaurant. We told them this in an email indicating we would be buying their product for our guests. They replied asking us if we wanted a reservation made for Saturday night!!! Nothing like direct action for positive outcomes!

We walked there, which took around 30 minutes. It wasn’t windy and the snow wasn’t too heavy, so it was quite a pleasant walk. The owner arrived after we were seated and once he found out we were there, came over and joined us for dinner 😊. The food was good and the surroundings were quite pleasant, with an eclectic mix of decorations and furniture, including some very large lounge furniture. Quite comfortable for a restaurant/bar, which it is.

 The owner (in grey)

On 3 February, we celebrated Setsubun, which is officially the day before the beginning of spring. It is complemented by a ritual called mamemaki, which is meant to cleanse all the ‘evil’ of the previous year and drive away disease-bringing ‘evil spirits’ for the new year (it was originally new year’s eve at this time here). I carried out the mamemaki this year, not traditional for a female but I am a pig and it is my year, so…

Anyway, I threw the roasted soybeans out each of the doors of our home, calling out ‘Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! – basically meaning ‘Demons out! Luck in!’. We also each ate our age plus one of the remaining soybeans. Along with this, it is customary in the Kansai region to eat uncut makizushi (rolled sushi) called ehō-maki (which literally means lucky direction roll) in silence on Setsubun while facing the year’s lucky compass direction, which is determined by the zodiac animal of the year. So, Craig made us some makizushi with cucumber and avocado for dinner which we ate while standing facing ENE.

During the day we walked over to Yasaka jinja, to see the Setsubun festivities there. I bought a bag of soybeans, for good luck, and then stood in line for around 20 minutes waiting to select a number which determined what prize you would win with the ticket they give you. I only bought one bag and hence received only one ticket. Many other people were buying multiples – a good money maker for the shrine! Unfortunately, this time I only won a bottle of soft drink.

 It’s a straw turtle

After that we went over to wait for the Shinto priests to come out for the celebratory activities, which includes throwing packets of soybeans (similar to the ones I bought) out to the gathered crowd. It is considered very lucky to catch one of these bags. We weren’t sure what time the formal festivities commenced, so we waited for around 15 minutes until Craig tired of this and went to find out what the start time was. It turned out it was another 30 minutes away and Craig wasn’t overly keen  to stand there that long. I decided that, as standing in a restive and growing crowd for 45 minutes in total was going to be increasingly uncomfortable, I might as well pay my respects to kami and leave.

On the way home we passed by Entokuin, a small temple associated with Kodaiji, which we had never visited. So we decided to take the opportunity to go in there when it was fairly quiet. Entokuin was built for Nene, the wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, by her nephew. According to the board out front, Nene had this temple built in 1605, 10 years after she had Kodaiji built post his death. She lived in Entokuin for 19 years and apparently visited Kodaiji every day to pray for her husband. A lovely place and very peaceful, with some beautiful fusuma-e (paintings on the sliding doors (fusuma)) painted by Hasegawa Tohaku in the 1500s. Many things were taken from Momoyama castle to Entokuin, presumably these fusuma were included in that.

The white dragon is Toyotomi and the cormorants his subordinates

Before I sign off, I thought I would mention my visits to the gym this week. I decided it was time to start going to two classes each time I visited there, since it takes around 30 minutes to travel there, rather than going more often. On Tuesday, there is a ballet class before Zumba, so that seemed opportune as I feel I am now getting back into the swing of ballet (or should that be spin?). This class is run by a different instructor and is a little harder than Friday’s class, but was good. The instructor can also speak some English, so she went out of her way to tell me things in English, which was mostly unnecessary, but she is trying to be helpful.

On Friday, after ballet class, there is a “theatre Jazz” class (actually written in Japanese style English “shiata-JAZZ). I wasn’t exactly sure what this would entail, but I have never done Jazz before and thought it might be fun. Turns out half the class was stretching and limbering up, then the other half hour was spent doing a dance to ‘Another Day of Sun’ from La La Land. Most of the people in the class already knew the routine, and I was flat out trying to learn it! It was quite fast and doing moves which I had no experience of. None-the-less, I did enjoy it and will go back next Friday to try to get it right 😊.

You can never have too many opportunities to dance.

Cheers!

Warm gloves are essential! The skulls optional…

A new shikishi

It snowed on the mountains while I was at gym

This was at Entokuin

Just because I love these buildings

A kawaii handbag!

Whip it good?

A stowaway? Should this be reported to the Pastafarians?

No remark/observation/annotation…

Hello there – tis me again, sitting at the keyboard fully rugged up on a rather dull day. It is very overcast today and quite dark inside. We even had a little rain this morning. This is in complete contrast to many of the recent days which have been glorious, clear and sunny though quite cold, being winter as it is. We haven’t had any more snow as yet but there may be some on the horizon.

I’m finding winter a lot easier to cope with this year, in part because our house is very well set up for winter, with the double glazing making a huge difference. In addition, the underfloor heating which we have on timer to start late in the afternoon and turn off when we go to bed, along with the air conditioner which we have on overnight (set at 17C), means the temperature inside stays fairly constant. The kids have told us they are quite satisfied with their new living conditions.

Now that we have some money I have also made some clothing purchases which are more suitable for this climate than what I had previously. Uniqlo has a range of items called Tech Warm which are extensive and aren’t overly expensive. I am living in the Ultra Warm tops and have one pair of their jeans I wear on really cold days when we go out. I also bought a new puffy jacket the other day just to wear at home. It was ¥2,500 down from ¥9,500!!! (I do love a bargain) On xmas day I also found a pair of locally made pants at the market we went to, composed of Japanese design material and which are fleecy lined. One other good recent purchase is a fleecy cover for the futon, which you sleep directly on – it is very warm and not cold when you first get into bed 😊. Of course, heated toilet seats are indispensable, so much so that it is a real shock when we are out and find one that is not heated (a rarity, thankfully!).

A picture of sartorial elegance I’m not – but warm!

I am now attending gym twice a week – three times a week would be better, but it is a bit of a hike to get there. At the moment I am doing about half an hour of stretching before each class, and do I need it having not done much since I’ve been here. I am going to a Zumba class and a ballet class, both 1 hour. The Zumba class is fantastic fun, with great music and lots of different styles of dancing. I knew it was going to be good when the very first song was September, by Earth, Wind and Fire, one of my favourites. The instructor is full of energy and really enjoys herself, and she changes between routines from the more funky to Latin, to Bollywood style to hip hop,…I love it.

I am going to a different ballet class from the first one I tried. This one is a little less intense and the teacher actually spends time telling people how to do the exercises, which is good for those who are new to ballet. Most of the class is barre work, with around 15 minutes of centre work. Much better for me trying to get back into the swing (as it were). I have bought a pair of shoes and may even go back to the other class down the track, but for now, this is good.

During this period we received an email from a new business which is targeting the growing vegan market by making bulk falafel, pita bread and hummus. Not sure how they got our email address, but I’m glad they did. We ordered a free product test kit, which was good and we are thinking of buying some to make available for our guests to buy as either lunch or dinner. They are also opening a restaurant fairly close to us, which will also give our guests another option for dinner.

There have been a lot of celebrations happening at temples and shrines for the new year in the last two weeks and we decided to go to one of them after Takako told us it would be a good one to go to. It was at the Kyoto Ebisu shrine, which is in the Gion area. We weren’t sure what it was going to involve, but when we got there we found the street outside the shrine lined with stalls of all sorts (more food than anything else).

Inside the shrine people were lined up to pray for good luck for the year and to buy branches of lucky bamboo grass, called Fuku-Zasa, which has been blessed in a special ritual by a shrine ‘maiden’. They then buy more lucky charms and talismans, which they attach to the bamboo branch. These charms come in all kinds of designs, but two of the most common we saw were treasure boats (for wealth) and red sea bream (for future success). We considered buying one, until we found out that the bamboo was ¥3,000 alone. So, we wandered around the stalls, bought a couple of things and then I prayed for good luck for the business at the shrine before we left.

The ‘maiden’ is dancing behind, with musicians at the back

Our purchases – a good luck charm of Ebisu and another shikishi (painted by a Buddhist monk)

Recently, we discovered there are some Costco stores here in Japan, with one in Kyoto prefecture. We decided it would be a good idea to join as a business to buy some of the necessaries in bulk, so went on an excursion to the store last week, with Takako in tow. The store is located about halfway between Kyoto and Osaka and took us about 30 minutes by car to get there. We thought we should go to see what they had the first time, but in future we can order and have items delivered for free.

I had never been to a Costco before and had no idea how huge it would be, luckily I wore my walking shoes because a full tour of the store was like a half marathon, but with a giant trolley. There weren’t as many things available as we had hoped for, nonetheless we managed to spend a large chunk of money and we are now well stocked up with toilet and kitchen paper, along with various other useful items. I also found a huge bag of frozen blueberries and a bag of frozen avocado…had never seen this before but, given how hard it is to get good avocados here, I’m hoping this is a good way to buy them!!

…and, speaking of avocados, we attended another vegan event yesterday, this time a special one-off vegan menu was being served at a mexican style restaurant which specialises in burritos. The place would normally hold up to 14 people, but over 20 people turned up for lunch, so some were standing inside, while others had to wait outside. Luckily it was one of those glorious sunny days, so it wasn’t too uncomfortable outside. We arrived just in time to get the last two seats, thank goodness. Most of the people there were foreigners, and most knew each other. It reinforced for us just how large the foreign vegan/vegetarian contingent is here. The food was good and while we had only met one person who was there before, it is good to get ourselves and our business name out there. We suggested to the people running the restaurant that it might be a good thing to continue with some vegan options on the menu in future. Fingers crossed!

Well, that’s all for now.

Cheers!!!

 Couldn’t resist this one!

Who knew Tanuki might need glasses? Must check ours!

 Sunbaking in winter…

There are 32 rows holding 1,200 dolls in this temple

 Just an interesting building

It was a coat? Which one? 

Apparently this mascot (supposedly an otter) was sacked for doing inappropriate things…

Happy New Year!!!!! Hello and welcome to 2019, the year of the pig, or inoshishi as it is called here (meaning wild boar). So, yes, I am a wild boar instead of a pig…and I’ll leave that as it is.

In terms of the weather here, well it’s winter and unsurprisingly it has been cold. Most of the days in the past two weeks have been sub 10C, with most nights hovering just above 0C. One unexpected event, this early in the season, was a fall of snow a few days after xmas. It wasn’t much here, just a dusting, but further north in our prefecture and those nearby had some heavy falls.

Last time I wrote, we had two lots of guests staying here – four people – who all left us on 24 December. It was certainly nice to have some guests late in December; a brother and sister meeting here before xmas (one from the UK and the other from Hong Kong) and an older Swiss couple (which, by the way, was a little spooky, initially, after our previous experience) one of whom works for the Swiss consulate in Tokyo. All lovely people.

The day after they all left, being xmas day, we went for our traditional Indian lunch at Ajanta restaurant. Delicious as always, and made even more enjoyable by the ever streaming Bollywood music videos. I am a bit of a sucker for Bollywood music and dance. After lunch, we went to the Kitano Tenmagu market to meet up with Takako, if only briefly, as she was not going to be there until 4:00pm, and we had to get home to feed the kids (it takes a long time to get from there back home). The market was going to continue into the evening, as a special event. This was the first time we had been to this market, having only been to the Toji and craft markets before.

Not tea, spicy carrot and tomato soup. Yum!!!

We had a bit over an hour to kill before she arrived and so we looked around the market. It was a huge market with new and secondhand stalls, along with many food stalls. Being a secondhand items addict, we spent most time at these stalls. I really wanted to find a shikishi, which are small to medium sized pieces of cardboard used for calligraphy, paintings, etc. I had previously bought a circular frame from the craft museum, which is designed to hold shikishi, so was keen to find something there. We looked through many in a number of stalls and in the end found one we both liked and thought appropriate for our minshuku.

Once home, we made toasties and watched Love Actually, another xmas tradition. I can never get enough of watching Bill Nighy playing an inappropriate and ageing rock star. Hugh Grant plays, as always, Hugh Grant 😊. I am also a fan of lobsters at the Nativity!

While we don’t exchange gifts for xmas, surprisingly we did receive a xmas present this year, as the prize for the Nature’s Charm competition arrived shortly after xmas – and what a gift! We didn’t know exactly what we would be getting, so when a largish box arrived we were surprised. Inside were ten items, all different and all vegan. We are still working out how to make best use of all the items, having started simply by eating strawberries dipped in the chocolate sauce.

On the Saturday after xmas, we attended a vegan cooking class we had been invited to by Sakiko to watch the class and eat some of the resultant foods. It was held in a 300 year old Samurai house fairly near Kyoto station, called Kyoto Concierge Salon. BentoYa rents space in this house every Saturday to run the classes. Other classes and experiences are also held in this venue, such as the tea ceremony, ikebana classes, kimono rental, and even a traditional dance class.

We had a fantastic time, meeting the owner of BentoYa, who was there from Tokyo for the year end class and the owner of the venue, Shinzo, and his fiancé Serena, watching the class, meeting a family of four from Sydney who were doing the class and getting to eat some ramen and gyoza produced in the class. Yum!

It seems that the BentoYa people are keen to partner with us and, as it happens, so is the owner of the venue, who invited both himself and his fiancé to our place to see the minshuku and try our breakfast! Highly unusual behaviour for a Japanese person, but we were delighted they did!!! They loved our minshuku and enjoyed the breakfast and made some good suggestions to help us with marketing. They also invited us to try some of their classes and experiences, as well as giving us two gifts (one as we left their venue and one on arrival at our home).

A beautiful handmade tissue box cover

A shamoji from a shrine they visited for new year

In a return to an old segment – the wonderful world of tv in Japan – I just had to mention a programme we saw the other night. I have to say we often see really interesting segments and programmes on tv, many of which lead us to interesting places and sometimes things or people. In this case, the programme was about a female Japanese artist named Toko Shinoda. She was born in 1913 and is currently still alive and fairly well – quite lucid, in fact, and says she still puts brush to paper every day.

  At work years ago

 Shinoda now

She began as a calligrapher and had her first solo exhibition in 1936. By 1945 she was producing more abstract forms, departing significantly from the strictness of calligraphy. In 1956 she moved to New York, after successfully exhibiting there. While living there she was exposed to abstract expressionism, including the work of Jackson Pollock, which had an impact on her work. She has been prolific over the years and her work can be found in galleries and private collections around the world. If I had the money…

…and on that note, here endeth my first blog for the year. I hope you all have a wonderful year, and let’s hope things move in a much more positive way this year.

Cheers!

Gambolling inoshishi

Found while out on a walk 

 Last vestiges of colour

 Then, on the ground

Haven’t had anything kawaii for a while!

Glorious sunny (if cold) days on the Kamogawa

A very small guest under our verandah (hard to get a good photo, was spooked easily)

Thank goodness for the under floor heating!

Hello and welcome to Year 3!!! My, doesn’t time fly…have I talked about that before? Oh well, time flies and takes some of your mind with it – or, is it getting to the point of being too full? I might have to do an archiving process 😊. So, here I am at the beginning of my third year here with the knowledge that this year is indeed going to be all about me, actually 2019 is the year of the pig and as I am a pig (or boar as the Japanese call it – if I call myself a pig they look at me blankly), it has to be a good year for me – right?

We have been quite busy recently, with many different things to do (bureaucracy), places to go and people to meet, along with the usual shopping outings. On one of our shopping outings, we took the opportunity to walk home via the Kiyomizu old shopping area where there is a lovely small garden in behind the shops. I have added photos of this garden in one of my previous posts, but this time we get the added bonus of autumnal colour.

We also took the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to go to the Ohara farmers market again while we had no guests staying here. Always a lovely place to go, with plenty of good produce and the bonus of being out in a mountainous area. Takako (our employee) wanted to go to the market to buy a brazier the same as one I had bought when we went there with our friends. Any excuse is good for us.

 Takako and daikon friend!

The night before we went to Ohara, we went to a vegan meet-up, organised by the Kyoto Vegan Meet-up Group, which we had discovered via Instagram. We had previously looked to see whether there was a Kyoto vegan group because we had found a Tokyo group and hoped to find one here that we could join, but without luck. Then fortuitously we found one while browsing through postings and our site.

The meet-up was held at Vegans Café, which is not normally open at night, with a cover charge of ¥3,000 each for all you could eat – and there was a lot of food. Before we went I had wondered if we would be amongst a group of Japanese people, with whom we would only be able to have brief conversations. It was not to be, however, as most of the people there were foreigners living in Japan. It turned out to be an even better networking opportunity than we thought, with the added bonus of a good meal!

The first round of food!

At the meet-up we met a woman living here who was in the process of setting up a website for vegan people living in Japan and visitors to Japan. A sort of practical guide to vegan life here. Anyway, she asked if she could do a story on us for her site, which of course we agreed to enthusiastically. In fact, we offered her 1 night’s free accommodation for both her and her friend who was coming to see her. We haven’t seen the story yet because she was returning to Germany shortly after for xmas and would not have time to work on it until later this month. Once it is posted I will add the address to my blog.

We also found another person via Instagram this month, who runs a vegan Japanese cooking class in Kyoto. I contacted her via her site to get some details for our guests and she offered to come to our place to meet us and deliver some flyers. Her name is Sakiko, she speaks fairly good English and she is a lovely person! She suggested that she could run a special class here, in our kitchen, if any guests were interested. We’re hoping she will have time to come here soon and run a class for us, so we can see how it goes.

Our brushes with bureaucracy involved both the Kyoto tax office and our immigration lawyer. Apparently all new buildings are visited by a tax official in the first year to check the building for valuation purposes to assess land and property tax. This must be a huge burden on the office, in terms of staff time, checking whether the building is as it is stated in the registration documents. He was a very nice man and he spent his time here checking the architectural plans and then going through the entire building checking what materials were used in the construction, etc. This kind of double checking would never happen in Australia, unless there was a really (really) good reason. The cost to government and, hence, taxpayers would be huge, for very little benefit.

In terms of our lawyer, we had to finalise the capitalisation of the company, which we were able to do once we received the final payment for our flat. We basically had to show we had credited the amount in the company bank account. Unfortunately it turned out to be a problem because we had deposited the cash via an ATM, with the dual purpose of counting the cash as it went in. The lawyer said we needed to show we had deposited the amount, personally, ie having our names against the transaction.

So, we had to go to the bank, withdraw the money, deposit it into our own accounts and then reverse the process, thereby having our names against the transactions. Hhhmmm. How to explain what we needed to do, and why, to the bank staff? Would they think we were crazy foreigners? Dodgy criminals? Just plain weird, or all of the above? Anyway, with the help of Takako we managed to get it done, and our lawyer was happy. It also cost us his fee and the capital input tax…yes, they tax money being put into a company here!

We have been able to do a few things since we received the money for our flat – Craig has bought a bike, I have joined a gym and we bought a new piece of furniture to house some of our ‘treasures’. As I sit here, I am well aware of my recent foray to the gym – to do a ballet class – thanks to the pain in my leg muscles! Yes, they have many different types of exercise classes, including a number of dance classes, such as hula, latin, hiphop, ‘freestyle’ and ballet. I was assuming the ballet class would be more like a barre class but, no, it was a full-on ballet class. It went for an hour and a half and I did many things I hadn’t done for many (many) years, including pirouettes (both en dehors and en dedans). Thankfully there was no grande jete or fouetté (apologies to those who don’t know what these are; basically the first is a leap and the second is turning on one leg with the other leg raised and ‘whipping’ around so that you turn. If you’ve ever seen Swan Lake, you’ll have seen many fouettes).

The final, and most important, outing that I am going to mention happened on 15 December – yes, it was our anniversary; 29 years together and 27 years married!!! Have I mentioned the whole time flying thing previously? We went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant to celebrate, for something a little different. We hadn’t booked, so had to wait over half an hour to be seated and it was somewhat cold sitting outside, but we were together and that’s all that really matters.

It must be love…😊.

Cheers

Have a Merry Addams Festive Solstice Season!!!

We entered a competition to win some veg products from America – and won!

The fireys training outside with their tiny trucks

Kawaii or kowai (scary)?

 Yayoi skateboards?

Now, where was I up to…? Ah, yes, re-visiting Fudo-myo, and watching him watch me. The next day’s schedule began with a bus ride to the Heian jinja and museum area. We started by going into the shrine and the lovely garden behind the shrine. It was a gloriously sunny day and perfect for wandering in a garden/park. We ended up sitting on the covered bridge, soaking up the sun, warmth and view. What a wonderfully peaceful and relaxing thing to do.

Once we awakened from our reverie, we went through a touristy shopping complex and then on to the Kyoto craft museum, where I spent some time imagining I had more money to buy, and the room to store, quite a few items. It’s nice to dream occasionally but the truth is I don’t actually need any of these items – it’s still fun to dream, though 😊.

Given it was a nice day, I had decided to walk back to the Gion area via the canal , which is also a pleasant way to spend time. We stopped part-way along the canal and had a drink at small café, sitting on some chairs outside. While we sat there, an elderly lady came out of the café, said hello to us and walked off. Around five minutes later she returned, gave us a bag of coffee lollies and then walked off in the opposite direction! Another example of the generosity of spirit that exists here in so many people.

Next morning was Sunday and so it was time to take our guests to the Ohara famer’s markets. Ohara truly is a lovey place, surrounded, as it is, by beautifully forested mountains. We went to both the markets, and ended up sitting drinking coffee and soaking up the atmosphere at both. We also bought some foodstuffs and had fun scouring the secondhand stall at the smaller market, making some wise (and very cheap) investments. My friend also bought and armful, or two, of flowers and foliage – and so, later that day, our dining room ended up looking somewhat like a florist.

After the markets, we continued on to Sanzen-in, walking up the pathway lined with small shops. While the hydrangea garden at the temple looked a little bedraggled, the Autumnal colour more than made up for that. It was fairly crowded there, being a Sunday, but still a very nice place to visit and spend some time walking around in nature. Again it was a sunny day and a most pleasant time was had by all.

While we were wandering around the Gion, we had noticed a poster for the Yayoi Kusama exhibition, which I had been to many months prior. The poster indicated that the exhibition had been extended and was currently still showing, so we decided we would take the opportunity to go while they were here. I am always happy to see her work, being one of my favourite artists, and there were a number of paintings and prints there that I wanted to see again. As it happened, the exhibits had been changed, including the large pumpkin outside which was now a red version. So, it was an entirely different exhibition and even had a large walk-through installation. A fantastic surprise.

From there, we took a bus to Nijo-jo, which is another place I am always happy to return to. One thing that always strikes me when I am showing people these places is how I can experience a new perspective through their eyes. By the time we had finished looking through Nijo-jo it was mid afternoon, even so, I thought it was worth going on to Kitano Tenmangu. As it turned out we didn’t end up having enough time to go into the wooded area, particularly as six busloads of people, mostly students, arrived as we were there.

Our final full day involved a sumptuous collection of temple gardens and Autumn colour. The colour was finally reaching peak perfection (although, it is still darkening up, even now). We first visited Kodai-ji, where I discovered one of the buildings had disappeared…Not sure why it was gone, but it looks like the replacement is going to be virtually identical, which makes me wonder if it was badly damaged by Typhoon 21.

After this, we went on to Nanzen-ji and then Eikando, a place I had never been before. All of these were visually superb and probably would have been enough in one day, but we had enough time to continue on along the Philosopher’s Path ending up at Ginkaku-ji. Stunning, not much more to say really.

 A sneaky shot

I know that the majority of the photos I am posting in this and my previous missive involve trees, sometimes with buildings as backdrops, but this time of year brings on a kind of warm-colour palette madness, I think. Even now, when we are walking back towards our home, with the hills as background, I don’t get tired of looking at the Autumn colour as it continues developing. While I always love Spring; the renewal of life and the prospect of the warm seasons, I actually have many more photos of Autumn here than the blossom – and I just love to inflict them on you!!!

So, that’s the end of this post and my second year here, but definitely not the end of Autumn, yet.

Cheers for now

My friend…

 Illumination at Kyoto station

  Oops