Hello and welcome to the Autumn episode of this year’s bloggings (a new word for this episode!).Before I start on the full spectrum of this season, I thought I should note that today is the second anniversary of my residence here in Kyoto. Does it feel like two years? Not sure how to answer that – time is a relative thing and certainly the more you experience of it the faster it seems to pass. I know a lot has happened since I moved here, although I had thought it would all happen faster than it has (in the real-time sense). All I can say is that it definitely has been worth it, because we are meeting such lovely people (well, 99% of them) and we get to go to and see such beautiful places and things. We are also living in a really nice home in a good area.

The other thing about time is that it is very easy to fill up when there are guests here and so a period of, say, three weeks may pass before there is time to sit down at the keyboard and write one’s episodic postings. What it does mean is that I have many (many) photos to upload (mostly of trees and gardens, as is my wont in Autumn), so I will be splitting this episode into two parts.

First, to the weather, which is being brought to us all by the letters W T & F (ok, I borrowed that from a meme, but it seems very relevant for us all). Here, we are getting some very cold weather, with overnight lows under 10C at the moment. Last night the minimum was 5C. The days are cool with some overcast and grey, and then, like today, lovely and sunny. When the sun goes behind the clouds however, you can really feel the temperature drop. The only thing we are not getting is rain, which is unusual.

We did have a short spurt of low 20s for a few days a couple of weeks ago but as I said last time, since the heat of summer has passed it has cooled down quite suddenly. For the people of Australia, well, who knows what’s going on. Prepare for anything and you most probably will be right.

This month we have had a reasonable number of guests come through, including a very good friend from Australia. Knowing that she was going to be coming here at this time of year, I developed an itinerary that included many locations which would afford plenty of Autumnal colour, as well as the usual temples, shrines and other historic places. I had pre-warned her to make sure she was ready for quite a bit of walking, because I would be dragging her (and her friend) to all parts of Kyoto. And, so it was…

On the first day they arrived, we took them to see Tofukuji, which is close to home and has some wonderful garden areas, including the gully, which has many deciduous trees. The colour at this stage had begun, but was still building. This meant that there weren’t as many people there as there can be in Autumn, which was a blessing.

Someone has created terrariums of some of the gardens at Tofukuji!

The next day we went on a long hike down past the Kiyomizudera area (thereby avoiding the madding crush) to the Yasaka Pagoda, that iconic view that is quintessentially Kyoto. Continuing on we went into the Maruyama Park to see more trees and then down through Yasaka-jinja to the Gion area. My friend’s friend (names are not used, to protect the innocent!!!) was collecting the stamps and calligraphy at temples and shrines along the way. Unfortunately, because Autumn can be so busy, some of these places were not doing them on the spot, but rather selling pre-written pieces of paper, which is just not the same.

 Cafe Muck???

After the Gion we walked down my favourite street, Kiyamachi dori, which had much less colour than I expected. The colour here this year has been quite patchy, with some trees having changed colour then losing their leaves quickly, while other trees are only really getting to full colour now. We have also seen a few, random cherry trees in blossom. This has likely been caused by the cyclones/typhoon and the hot summer. Apparently there are hormones in the leaves which stop the buds from flowering until the usual time, so, if the leaves are damaged, the hormones are gone and the flowers open. This also means that these trees will not flower next spring.

 Side by side

On our next outing we went to the Arashiyama area, to visit Daikakuji, walk the bamboo path and go into the Tenryuji garden. Again, we saw some colour, but still not how it was last year. None-the-less these are beautiful places and worth the journey to see. We also went into the Randen line railway station, to look at the kimono material poles, which are always fabulous to look at. Having done all of this before lunch, we decided to go to the Iwatayama monkey park after our repast. A nice way to walk off our lunch and we got to see the babies now running around on their own 😊.

The final outing I will cover in this post was a visit back to Tanukidani-fudoin, up the 250 stairs. This also gave Craig and I the opportunity to visit the house, Shisendo, that we missed last time we went up that way. What a lovely home and glorious garden, which was created by Jozan Ishikawa in 1641. He was a samurai before he retired and moved to Kyoto, a scholar of Chinese classics, a master calligrapher and a landscape architect. Following his death, the ownership of his home was passed to Buddhists, as it remains.

Following our sojourn there, we continued up via the Hachidai-jinja and then climbed to the temple area. I was again able to go into the nave to see the statue of Fudo-myo., with those glowing gold eyes that follow you in the dark. This really is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I felt very privileged to see twice.

To be continued…

Cheers!

Last Halloween photo for this year – I promise!

 Is she cold? I am just looking at her!

It’s not a Tonka toy…

No comment 

Hi all, here I am again, in front of the keyboard and thinking about the last couple of weeks. My first thought is that it has been quite cool. I mentioned last time that it had suddenly become cooler and this has not changed since. Some days have had a maximum below 20C and we have had a few sub 10C nights. This has come with consequences; the Autumn colour has started early – very early. For those amongst you who are planning to visit Japan in the next few weeks (and I know at least one member of the reading audience is 😊), DON’T PANIC! It should be at peak colour in about two weeks.

This is nearly one month earlier than last year, which is strange, considering summer was long and HOT. Perhaps there is a set amount of heat available here and we used up most of it for summer, so we have gone straight to cooler weather…OK, just kidding, but it certainly feels like that.

During this period we had another couple staying with us, a young couple from the UK, who were really lovely. After they had left we found two origami butterflies (one large and one small) in their room with a wonderful thankyou note. It’s people like these that really do make it worthwhile. Somewhat different to the previous guests, who we haven’t heard from since (thankfully – although, as I said last time, the woman was a very nice person).

Early last week we met up with the buyer of our flat, again, and received the second instalment of the purchase price. We were also told that she had now sold her flat in Tokyo and so would be able to pay us the final instalment early December. As a result, we are today awaiting the delivery of a washing machine for our minshuku laundry (which we will now be able to call a laundry, not just “this will be a laundry room one day”) and two more light fittings, which will complete all the rooms, in terms of lighting. We still have to get the rest of the bedding and other items needed to complete the final two rooms.

Before I get onto the main outing we have had this fortnight, one thing I didn’t mention in my last post was a visit to the Kyoto local crafts museum, which was well worth the visit and very difficult to come out of empty handed. This building is around the corner from the MOMAK and for some reason we had never been inside. So, we took the opportunity to visit when we went to the MOMAK to buy two Higashiyama Kaii prints, which are now hanging proudly in our upstairs hallway.

The building itself is also interesting

As it happened, on the day we went there, there was a world gem stone fair happening in a huge auditorium on the ground floor, as well as an exhibition put on by the Kyoto City Dohda Senior High School of Art. I managed to get out of the fair with just a small purchase, but was sorely tempted by some of the beautiful amethysts…

The art exhibition was absolutely stunning and appeared to be an annual display of the students’ major works. Some of the exhibits, which included the eight majors of art and design studied at the school, had awards on them, so we assumed there was some judging of the pieces within the eight areas at some point. The school is a specialist art high school which was founded in 1880 in the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Over the years the name has changed slightly and the venue, but it has existed since that time. What a fantastic way to nurture future artists!

Last week, on Halloween, we decided to visit the shrine which is dedicated to Oda Nobunaga (his body was never found), a daimyo who was responsible for the start of the process of unifying Japan. The daimyo were powerful Japanese feudal lords who basically disappeared in the early Meiji period (the late 1800s). Nobunaga is also known for his brutal suppression of determined opponents, including the thousands of monks and civilians living on Mt Hiei, so it seemed somehow appropriate to visit this shrine for Halloween.

(Before I go on, I would like to point out that the photos I took on this day were taken with a new phone I bought (due to my other phone gradually becoming unusable) and it was the first time I had used to phone for this purpose. As a result, the quality of some of the photos is a little less than desirable. Another learning experience.)

The shrine is located on top of a hill known as Mt Funaoka, although it isn’t overly high. It was a pleasant walk up to the shrine, as it is still wooded and there were very few people around. The hill itself is long and fairly narrow and is oriented in an east/west direction. It is said it was used as a reference point when Kyoto was laid out as the new capital in 794.

It has also been strategically important over the years, being used as the site for the military base of the west army during the Onin Wars and another important battle was fought there decades later. Years later the land was donated to Daitoku-ji temple and in 1931 was opened as Funaokayama Park, used for recreational purposes.

Following our exploration of Funaokayama, we went to visit nearby Imamiya shrine and Daitokui-ji temple. Imamiya shrine was originally established in 994 for people to pray for safety from an epidemic of the times and has subsequently evolved into a shrine where people can pray for general good health. It too is located within a forest and is a really picturesque shrine – a nice place to stay away from epidemics…

Craig and I had been to Daitoku-ji before, but the day we visited was quite wet, so we thought it would be nice to see it sans umbrellas. We also had by-passed one of the garden areas, so we took this opportunity to look inside. Daitoku-ji is a very large Zen Budhhist complex, covering 23 hectares, and is laid out with many wooded areas. It is a very peaceful place to be, despite being in the middle of an urban area. The inner garden we went into was worth the price to get in but, unfortunately, you are not allowed to take photos inside, which we were reminded of many times (despite having put away our photographic devices)!

Before I sign-off, I thought I might mention the amount of damage that we, and our guests, are seeing at various sights across Kyoto, inflicted by Typhoon 21. We have seen many roofs with damage, especially roofs of temples and shrines which are missing tiles, and we are seeing very significant damage to trees, the majority of which are large trees. Some are completely blown over, others missing limbs and yet others literally snapped in half. Work is ongoing to remove the damage, but there is so much it is taking a long time to cut down and store the remains these trees. Everywhere we are seeing huge piles of wood.

A roof without a base – not sure what happened to it

The other night we saw a program on tv which showed the damage wreaked at Kurama-dera, on Mt Kurama. This is one of my favourite temples and one of my favourite walks climbing up to the temple, near the top of the mountain. They said that around 500 trees had been significantly damaged or brought down. We only knew it had been closed to the public when a guest (who I had directed there) returned and said the train didn’t go all the way to the Kurama station, stopping at the station before and the temple was closed. The show said that the cable car at the temple had that day been re-opened to take people up to the main part of the complex, but they didn’t expect to re-open the walk-way until early next year.

On that sad note, I bid you adieu.

Cheers

Halloween costumes for your pets

and that’s it for Halloween – this year

Close up details

A stray cat at Funaokayama that looked a lot like Zowie

H&C immortalised on Google Street View!!! (with blurry faces)

Well, what an interesting two weeks it has been since we last spoke! On the weather front, there haven’t been any more cyclones/typhoon and the weather has very suddenly cooled somewhat. We are now experiencing days of low 20s and cool nights – cool enough to require quilts. It has been so long since we needed any bed covers that it is a little strange adjusting. Craig has even worn long pants a few times!!!!!!

So, we signed the contract for our flat, and now just have to wait till late December for settlement. We received a deposit, of which we have distributed the majority to a few vendors (yes, a new vacuum, a new, grown up fridge for us 😊 and new teeth/crown for me). What a wonderful thing it is having a vacuum that actually picks up all the bits and pieces, including cat fur.

Since my last post, we have had a few guests staying with us, again some lovely people – all except for the last guests, who we had to ask to leave…They were a Swiss couple in their early 70s, who had booked for seven nights and who had assured us that they were fit and able to get around easily, which indeed they were. What we didn’t know is that there were other issues – in particular, some mental health issues. The first night was ok, although I didn’t really take to the husband; he was somewhat gruff and sour looking. They came in late, so we didn’t do the credit card transaction for our fee, leaving it until the next day.

Unfortunately, because both they and the other guests we had staying had a late breakfast and then talked for a while, we didn’t get a chance to charge them next day, as we had to go to my dental appointment and then had other things to do. In the early evening we had to take the young couple to the station to catch the train to the airport, mainly because the female was a bit unwell, with a bad cold. So, again we didn’t catch up with the older couple for the payment transaction.

That night, they came in later and went upstairs to go to bed. After a while, I started hearing some noises and some slightly raised voices, etc, but thought maybe they were just loud people – until, the yelling started. We were already in bed, but got up and rushed upstairs in our PJs. We had no idea what was going to happen. The husband was ranting, mostly in English, for our benefit, although he did swap back to Swiss German when he didn’t really want us to understand (which, as it happens I did a bit, having learnt some German at school, and the two languages are fairly similar).

We tried to calm things down but he was not going to be easily calmed, so we moved the wife into another room hoping that this would at least calm things for the night. We went back to bed and he went out for a walk. After he returned he went up to his room. Then around twenty minutes later, loud moaning then banging starts (on the floor, we presume). By the time we get up there, he is storming down the hallway and yelling at his wife to come out and talk (mostly in English, for our benefit). She is ignoring him and not opening the door. He is trying to persuade us to open the door (“I don’t know if she has gone out”. “she could be dead in there”, etc). We refuse.

He starts banging on the door, getting louder, we ask him to quiet down. After a while we talk him into going back to bed. Around 15 minutes later, banging and yelling. Again he is storming down the hallway. I beg him to stop – we need sleep, etc – he says he is suffering, I say that we are suffering also and so are the cats. I am trying desperately to remember all the psychology I have read. On the third time this happens, at around 2am, I finally find something that catches his attention – the circuit breaker we need. So, at 2:30am we finally get back to bed for the night.

The next morning, he acts as if nothing happened! “Good morning…”. He took an early morning walk before breakfast, which gave us a chance to talk to his wife. I told her they would have to go. I also ask a few questions about his state of mind and whether he had ever been physically violent. She said he had pushed her and he threw things, but had not gone beyond that. I had suspected the night before that he would have a go at Craig, if Craig got too close, but he would not touch me (for a number of reasons).

When he got back, they had breakfast and talked (in Swiss German), and things seemed relatively calm until she told him we had said they had to go and that she wanted to stay in Japan as planned, but separately from him. He started up, banging the table and picking up the bench and banging it on the floor. At this point I got really angry at him, and told him what I thought (including finger pointing…). He seemed shocked and the wife seemed bemused. After that, he packed, we charged them for the two nights they were here and he walked off.

We spent some time then talking to the woman and told her she could stay if she wanted to, but she felt it was too risky as he might come back looking for her and cause us more problems. We checked that she had her passport and a credit card, which she did, although her husband didn’t know she had one hidden away and had walked off with the other card!! So, she left to spend some time alone and we haven’t seen or heard anything since. We half expected to see something in the media the next day about an incident between two foreigners.

What an experience – we have learnt a lot from this about ourselves and that no matter how late it is, or what we are doing, we must take the money as soon as guests arrive!!! I now have the police emergency number programmed in my phone – even though in this case we didn’t need it, you just never know.

We have now cleaned the minshuku area top to bottom, in a symbolic clearing of the negative energy he spread around. We have also had two excursions out after this, to relax and renew (as it were). It’s funny, but as it was happening, a random thought went through my head that I would prefer to go through another earthquake to experiencing that situation. Strange the sort of things that can pop into your head at times – or is that just me?????

So, to the outings. The first one was to the National Museum to see the current exhibition – ‘Swords of Kyoto’. The exhibition features 120 blades forged in Kyoto. Kyoto has been home to some of Japan’s most talented swordsmiths, over time, who produced many famous blades. Swords made in various nearby regions are associated with “Yamashiro” (the former name of the province around Kyoto), however, apparently those actually made in the capital have always had the highest status, prized by both nobility and samurai. During the Edo period (1615–1868), swords were frequently exchanged among daimyo lords, and a sword from Kyoto was considered the ultimate gift.

 Crowd director

While we are by no means experts in Japanese swords, we thought it would be interesting to see and it was. I had thought they may show some of the accoutrements that went with these swords, but unfortunately it was not so. It is obviously a very popular exhibition with locals – it opened on 29 Sept and as of Tuesday this week, we had to wait over 30 minutes in a queue to get in.

Our other outing was to visit another temple somewhat off the beaten tourist track – Daikaku-ji. It was originally built in the early 800s as the detached palace of Emperor Saga. After the emperor’s death, the palace was converted into a temple and has since been one of the highest ranked temples of Shingon Buddhism. This temple has been the scene of many important events in Kyoto’s history, with a succession of retired emperors essentially continuing their reign from there (despite being retired), and in the 12th century the temple hosted peace talks that reunited the Northern and Southern Imperial Courts after 50 years of civil war. It is also featured in the Tale of Genji.

Daikaku-ji is made up of several buildings connected by covered, elevated wooden walkways, which squeak as you walk over them, like the “nightingale floors” of Nijojo. One of the most important treasures kept there is a copy of the Heart Sutra which was handwritten by Emperor Saga at the instruction of Kobo Daishi (Kukai). The sutra supposedly ended a mysterious plague that was sweeping the country during the Heian Period and it is now kept in the octagonal Heart Sutra Hall.

Before you enter this hall, you pass by a monk who places a small amount of powdered incense in your palm, which you are then supposed to rub onto both palms and repeat a sutra. The incense had the most beautiful scent, like a mix of cardamom, cinnamon and some other spices. He didn’t get us to repeat the sutra, perhaps because we were foreigners. I tried to find this incense in the temple shops, but alas, it is not sold to the public.

(you aren’t allowed to take shots inside, or of any monks or buddhas, so it prevented any shots of the sutra hall. This shot was a naughty sneaky shot of some of the fusuma in one room, because they were just so stunning)

As with many temples, there is also a large garden area in the temple grounds, dominated by a huge pond. It is the oldest surviving artificial pond in Japan and was created by Emperor Saga, who used to throw elaborate parties there and also used it for recreational activities such as boating, fishing and moon viewing. We were told years ago, on one of our visits to Japan, that there are three ways to view the full moon; up in the sky, reflected in water, such as this pond, and reflected in your cup of sake – my favourite way!! 😊

Reflections. I started having Higashiyama Kaii moments!

Another wonderful temple to visit, with a lot of history and not crowded with people, so you can enjoy the beauty of the buildings and their surrounds, and the tranquillity and relaxation of the temple. The pond has over 3,000 lotus plants in it, which I plan to return to see next year.

That’s all for now – what’s in store next???

Cheers!

Inside the arts and crafts museum

 A special euphonium car! Just for Steven…

So, if you don’t have a card you don’t have a noodle?

Halloween goes on

Xmas is coming – order now for your pet’s cake!

Beautiful sunshine

…and once again I find myself in front of a blank screen, thinking about what to include in this new episode. Actually, it is, of course, only new on paper (as it were), because it is already writ in time, I just have to remember where and what I was up to!

Welcome to this, the 26^th episode of the second year of my life in Kyoto. It is drawing very close to the end of the second year here and we have only just been able to officially open our business. We have had our first official guests now – a family group of three and a single male from the UK. Lovely people and truly enjoyable to be able to start relaxing into the lifestyle – we just need to attract more! We do have another guest arriving today and a group of four arriving tomorrow.

In a first for us, we put on a cooking class for the man from the UK, after his partner contacted us and asked if we would and she would pay us to do so, as a special gift for him. We were a little unsure how it would go, but a typhoon was headed our way and it made sense for the guest to stay in and have dinner here. So, we went ahead making a main (nabe – a Japanese winter stew), a soup and some gyoza. As it turned out, we enjoyed doing it and we are now considering adding this as an option for our guests, if they are interested.

Speaking of cyclones/typhoon, number 24 went through on the weekend and we are now awaiting number 25. As it happened, number 24 had much less impact on Kyoto than they originally forecast, as the cyclone’s path was slightly more to the east then they expected. Yet again the eastern side of Kansai and Shikoku were hit fairly hard, as was Tokyo this time. It looks like number 25 will pass mostly to the west of us, but you never know exactly how they will track until they get here.

 Pre the arrival of no. 24

In between the cyclones, the weather has been beautiful, with warm, sunny days in the high 20s. Perfect weather for going outside and walking, which I am enjoying doing again. Yesterday we went on another outing we had been wanting to do for a while, but which wasn’t possible while I was incapacitated. We had seen a temple on a program on television which is two train rides from us, called (loosely) the Tanuki temple. Since we had been fascinated with tanuki since we first came to Japan, it was a place we were very keen to see.

It is actually the Tanukidani-san Fudō-in temple, which had its beginnings in 1718 and existed only as a cave with a statue until the actual temple complex was built in its present form in 1944. The Buddhism that is practiced there is the ascetic nature worship of Shugendō. This practice combines various Buddhist, Shinto, and Taoist beliefs, and Shugendō can be translated as “the way to spiritual power through discipline”. Generally, this involves acts of physical endurance as the path to enlightenment. Shugendō training can include isolation, fasting, meditation, performing magical spells, reciting sutras, and engaging in severe feats of endurance such as standing/sitting under cold mountain waterfalls or in snow.

The walk to the temple is all uphill, with the final part of the ascent involving the climbing of 250 stairs. On the way up, there are a few small temples and a shrine. It turns out there is also a large temple, the Shisendo temple, which we didn’t realise was there. The gate to this temple is very unassuming, although nice enough that we both took photos of it! Next time we will explore this temple, which apparently has some beautiful gardens.

 Shisendo temple gate

One name that we saw a few times, both in the shrine and in association with Tanukidani-san Fudō-in, is Miyamoto Musashi. He was a swordsman, philosopher, writer and rōnin and spent some time in Kyoto training and fighting a series of duels, including one very famous battle in this area. The shrine has a statue of Miyamoto Musashi and a piece of pine tree around which the aforementioned battle raged.

The climb up to Tanukidani-san Fudō-in is lovely, with the path and stairs passing through a forested area. At the base of the stairs is a very large collection of tanuki statues, which puts our three to shame!!! While the climb up to the main hall area is 250 stairs, it is a punctuated with plateaux and a few tanuki statues which indicate how many stairs you have already climbed. There is also a ‘treasure’ quest, where you have to find five small seated tanuki, placed in and along the pathway and temple (which, of course, I just had to do, set a challenge).

One of the seated tanuki hidden in view

The main hall built in 1944, was designed to front the cave chancel which houses the original statue of Fudo Myo-o, literally translated as the immovable wisdom king. The front of the building has a butai or stage area very reminiscent of Kiyomizudera (but without the crowds, as one description says!). Inside is the usual area where tourists and visitors to temples can stand to see the interior, with the nave area in front of that and then the chancel, which you may or may not be able to see into very well.

This area is where they perform fire walking

As we looked inside, we noticed a sign saying that as it was the 300 year anniversary of the foundation of the temple, people were allowed to go through the nave and into the chancel. This was an opportunity not to be missed and so we did just that. Inside the chancel I realised it literally was a cave, with the statue at the back. It was very low light, but the eyes of the statue glowed gold and it felt like it was watching you, as you stood in front. It was an amazing experience and I felt very lucky to have been there at the right time.

So, yet another fantastic place to visit that is definitely not on the tourist trail and is therefore wonderfully quiet (I think we saw about eight other people while we were there, apart from the monks and a few staff) and gives you the opportunity to really experience a place. The other benefit of going to visit Tanukidani-san Fudō-in is all the other temples and the shrine on the path from the train to the temple. Definitely worth the travel there.

On a final note, tonight we are going to visit a real estate office to sign a contract for the sale of our flat!!!! Unfortunately full settlement is not until late December, but we are getting a couple of deposit type payments in the near future, so we can start buying some of the things we really need for our minshuku – such as a good vacuum (yes, it might sound a bit sad, but I am really looking forward to it!).

Cheers for now

Another new friend and an Australian tree!!!

Our grasshopper family

Ah, Halloween!!!

I always wanted something Vivian Westwood

The mysterious flying tanuki guru

It’s been a long hot, sweaty summer; it seems like years since it’s been cool…

After three months of constant heat and sweaty clothes, we say goodbye…to a somewhat difficult time, including many significant events (of the natural kind). During this time, most days topped 35C (all days at least 32C), with most nights staying above 26C. The most recent of the events have been particularly hard and the after effects are still being dealt with. The train to Kansai has resumed as of this week, while international flights will not fully recommence until this Friday (21/9).

The issues up in Hokkaido are much worse, with the electricity generators which were knocked out (most of them) only now gradually coming back on line. Apparently there have been over 500,000 accommodation cancellations in Hokkaido, and it appears that cancellations have occurred in other areas around Japan, although not to the same extent. Certainly, there seem to be less tourists in Kyoto at the moment.

Since my last post, we have been out and about a lot more, both because it is somewhat cooler and, thankfully, my toe is now back to it’s old self, ie pain free. We have seen some of the damage that was done by the typhoon/cyclone and it is quite visible everywhere we go. A lot of old houses, mostly those that are unoccupied, have sustained significant damage, and many buildings with tiled roofs have incurred varying amounts of damage. In addition, many trees have literally snapped in half.

Two buildings near our home, which had been slightly damaged by both the earthquake and the previous typhoon have partially collapsed, and should now be completely demolished. Who is going to do this is another question. We’re not sure if the house down the road was occupied, or not, but it is still full of personal items, such as clothing, with some of it spread down the slope at the back of the house. It looks rather like the house has vomited!

Our main outings during the period covered by this post were going to the craft market which we had been to before, as a follow up (in much cooler weather) and to see the macaque monkeys at Arashiyama.

The craft market is held on the 15^th of every month in all weather, according to the official website, which we checked before we left home because it was a rainy day. When we arrived at the temple, however, there was nothing except a lone Japanese man sitting at the entrance. As we stood there, slightly confused, we overheard him telling some Japanese people that it had been cancelled because of damage incurred during the typhoon. He didn’t attempt to talk to foreigners who arrived there (including us), so most were wandering around looking perplexed.

We decided to go inside to see what had happened to the temple complex and it turned out it had suffered the fate that so many tile roofed buildings had suffered, tiles had been blown off and broken. The main damage there was the dislodging of ridge cap tiles on most of the buildings. The day wasn’t a complete loss, though, as we found a really good plant nursery in the area, which we will be returning to in our car in the future to make some purchases for our backyard.

On Monday, of this week, we finally made the journey to the Iwatayama monkey park at Arashiyama, which we had put off until I was capable of climbing up to the top of the hill where the monkeys live. It was a lovely day, high 20s (which I like best) and a bit overcast, so the sun wasn’t biting too much. The walk up is a bit strenuous, but it is through wooded areas and there are some seats along the way for those who need to do it in stages. I was surprised how well I did, given the six weeks of minimal activity I had just been through.

The monkeys are a wild troop, just as they are at Yudanaka in Nagano prefecture, which we visited in 2011. There aren’t as many in the Arashiyama troop (around 170), but still enough that you get to see plenty of activity and different behaviours. When we arrived at the top section, there were two macaques engaging in one clearly recognisable behaviour, much to the amusement of onlookers. Interestingly, they were engaging in the behaviour at very short and regular intervals, following a loud screeching noise from the female (which we assumed meant “ok, again”). Both were visibly exhausted, but continued engaging in the behaviour the whole time we spent looking around the park. I don’t know if this is usual ‘engaging in the behaviour’ conduct for macaques, I couldn’t find any information readily available on the internet about it.

Unlike visiting the troop at Yudanaka, visitors can feed the monkeys at Arashiyama but they have to buy the appropriate feed and then they have to go into a cage and pass the food out to the monkeys. I found it quite appropriate seeing the people on the inside of the cage and the monkeys outside watching them!! It is definitely worth the walk up to see the monkeys and to experience the behaviours (all of them!) of a wild troop. It is important to remember that they are wild animals and you must observe the rules about interacting with them, even though they are acclimatised to humans being there. The other positive about going up to the top of the park is the view of Kyoto you get from there.

Returning to the typhoon commentary, we saw many trees which were snapped in half around the area and some light poles which were bent over. The human cage building had also sustained some damage to the roof, but luckily it came out relatively unscathed. Also damaged by the winds was the famous bridge over the Ooigawa/Katsuragawa (same river, the name changes after the bridge), where the railing on the Katsuragawa side is broken and collapsed.

One thing I thought you might be interested in, before I sign off, is our recent visits to the dentist here. It all started when I was testing some toffee that we were making as part of a birthday dessert for a guest, which turned out to be stickjaw toffee and I broke a tooth on it…☹. Luckily we were able to find a dental surgery where someone spoke some English, because neither of us had learnt any language about caries, fillings, dental care etc.

Anyway, we are both part of the national health scheme here, which is available to all those who live here, and standard dentistry is covered in this scheme. On the first visit, x-rays are taken of your teeth, along with photos, then you get a general check up and a clean. All of this for ¥4,280!!! Since that time, I have had a number of visits, as they found a few small caries and they are now working on getting my teeth in order and my gums as perfect as is possible.

The fillings cost ¥1,900 each and a clean is only marginally more than that. I am also going through the process of getting a crown to replace the missing tooth. I can have a metal one basically free as part of the scheme, or if I want one that looks like real teeth, then it is going to cost what I suspect it would cost in Australia. They are very gentle in everything they do, including the hygienist, which is good since I have a bit of a phobia about dentistry. Even the injection is more ‘friendly’ here, playing the tune to When You Wish Upon a Star, as the dentist is using it!!!

Well, that’s all for now – cheers😊.

Only now? Where are they normally?

Trains expand in the wash…

??? Is that Spiky behind? Is Spiky spicy?

There are even Halloween toys for animals!

Well, the waiting is over and Typhoon 21 did live up to the hype (I have seen coverage in other countries calling it Jebi, but names are rarely used here). Apparently it is the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in 25 years.

Hi all, just thought I’d post a very quick episode to let you all know that we are ok and came through the cyclone/typhoon unscathed. I have to say, I am extremely glad it came through during the day because the noises at night and not knowing what was happening would have been quite scary.

It lasted about five hours here, with maximum gusts up to around 150 kph. We also received about 100mm of rain during that time. Having not been out today, I’m not sure what has happened elsewhere, but up here I saw pieces of corrugated iron fly past, some antennae came down and I heard some glass breaking but I wasn’t sure where it came from. This morning Craig found some pieces of glass in our front yard, as he was cleaning up – we suspect that some of the windows broke in a turret atop the kiln over the road, along with being the source of some of the galv. that flew by.

While I was watching the storm upstairs, the house vibrated occasionally, but otherwise we came through with minimal impact other than some pot plants blowing over, a metal lizard blowing off our wall, one of the chimaki blowing off our door and some bins blowing over. Apart from the glass, a part of our neighbour’s roof ended up in our yard (which they collected this morning). Interestingly, at one point my ears popped from pressure and an emergency light flashed on and off in the room I was standing in.

As you may have seen, Osaka was hit hard, with Kansai airport flooded and the bridge to the airport now sporting a tanker decoration, amongst other damage.

 on tv

There is also some footage around of something smashing into the glass roof at Kyoto station, with both it and shattered glass falling into the middle of main area at the front.

I’m starting to wonder if all of these events are being sent to prove how well built our new house is!!

That’s all for now (I hope).

Don’t drive on bridges in a typhoon

I didn’t touch it!

Where do I start?

A carpark

Cranes don’t like strong winds

I’m glad our shipping container wasn’t there…

Yes, yes, I know, it has been two weeks since I last blogged and I really am trying to maintain a regular weekly habit, but sometimes there just isn’t that much to talk about. As always, there is the weather and other events of that nature but right now, for me, it’s more of a waiting game: waiting for our flat to sell, waiting for our next guests, waiting for more bookings,… (waiting for Godot?).

This has also been a time of waiting for tropical cyclones. I say that, rather than typhoon, because the Japan Meteorological Agency uses the term “tropical cyclone” on their website, rather than typhoon. Not sure why. On the day that I wrote my last post, we were waiting not for one but two cyclones both heading in pretty much the same direction, nearly side by side. I don’t know how often this occurs, but it was interesting watching them move in sync, somewhat like a dance of the cyclone. The one further to the west was slightly ahead of the other and so kept it further east and moving very close to us – just west of a direct pass over us. Nonetheless, we received strong winds and some good rain although nothing like what the areas to the west of us received (again).

At the moment we are waiting for another, single cyclone, which is heading our way. This one is a lot stronger than the previous cyclones and the eye is forecast to pass very close to us. At this stage the rating of the cyclone is “violent”, but by the time it reaches us it will be “very strong”. This brings me to another term usage difference of the Japan Meteorological Agency – rather than use a numerical rating system for cyclones, such as category 1, etc, they use a naming system of “strong”, “very strong”, and “violent”. Violent equates roughly to a category 4+ in Australian terms (there is nothing higher here, while Australia has one higher category). Having checked on the electronic oracle, it turns out that the rating systems for storm strength vary from country to country, and depend on where the storm is.

In terms of temperature, the last two weeks have proven how wrong I can be – having said the hot weather had finally passed, it turned out that the seven day forecast was slightly optimistic and instead we returned to hot and humid weather.

One other natural occurrence during this period was another ‘rattler’, ie earthquake. Hard to call it an aftershock, given the first earthquake was in June, but it was more like an aftershock than a full tilt earthquake. It happened last Tuesday night and proved to me just how unnerved I have become about these things. I think it is just the issue of not knowing how strong and how long…(!!!)

This week we went to see a Bauhaus exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto (MOMAK), which we had seen advertised on a poster when we were out and about. I had never been to the MOMAK, so it seemed opportune that this poster caught my eye. On another nomenclature note, before moving on, most of the places I would call an art gallery are known as museums here – not sure why.

Anyway, the MOMAK is located in a precinct where there are three other museums related to arts and crafts, so is a good place to go to see a cross section of art works, both Japanese and international. Many exhibitions are held in these museums and they also have a very good selection of modern art in their collection, both Japanese and international. MOMAK has a particular emphasis on artists and arts from Kyoto and the wider Kansai area. There are also a number of other art museums dotted around Kyoto.

Looking out of the window at MOMAK to the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (under renovation)

When we arrived at the museum, it turned out there was another exhibition showing of a Japanese artist Higashiyama Kaii which took up most of the space in the museum. Not what we expected, but we thought it would be interesting to see everything on show. As it turns out, I absolutely loved this artist’s work and was very glad we saw the Bauhaus poster. He was born in 1908 and died in 1999 and was/is one of the most popular artists of post-war Japan. The exhibit comprised 68 paintings and 45 studies and sketches.

The majority of his works are landscapes, but he also painted some townscapes, particularly while he was in Europe. Many of his paintings are of significant proportions and, for me, some of them literally did take my breath away. The ones that I really felt an attachment to were quite soft and somewhat low light. It seemed he was trying to create an atmosphere as much as representing details or places. There were a number of paintings of dawn and evening and also at night, under the moon. Quite a few of the paintings comprised a landscape and its reflection in water.

There also was a full installation of some murals and fusuma (sliding doors) paintings which he completed for a hall at the Toshodaiji (temple), Nara. These were laid out as they would be in the hall, not just in a straight line, but rather as two or three walls together. The largest was a set of fusuma entitled “Sound of Waves” which literally rendered me speechless (or did I say “wow”?) as I entered the space. It is a 36-metre long ocean panorama painted on 12 panels which were set out in an L shape, as they are in situ. I stood there some time taking it all in, as did many others who walked while we were there. A number of us stood as far back as the space would allow, just leaning on the wall, letting it wash over us.

Part of Sound of Waves

Ok, enough superlatives! Unfortunately these fusuma are rarely available for public viewing, so it really is a once off viewing. The other fusuma, by the way, were painted in black and white and depicted mountainous scenery from China, as a tribute to the founder of the temple, who was from China. Also beautiful and awe inspiring. In total, the entire commission took ten years to paint.

Yesterday we left home (very) early, picked up Takako and went up to Ohara to visit the Sunday morning farmers markets (there are two, which are fairly close together. Ohara is such a lovely place, in amongst the mountains, and it was a lovely, sunny morning, so very pleasant overall (despite it being so early).

We bought some vegetables and locally made yuba and Takako bought some flowers (a bunch of yellow roses for ¥250) and then had a coffee in a café area made up for the morning market. While we were sitting there, a woman sat down next to us who happened to live very close to Takako, so they started chatting. The a family came along – a man, two women and two children – who also sat down around the table.

As soon as I heard the women speaking, I knew they were from Australia originally. The younger woman is married to a Japanese man and they have two children, and the older woman was her aunt. As you might have worked out from this description, we also struck up a conversation, with these people. The couple and their children live in Kyoto and attend the market recently, while the aunt was visiting from Hong Kong (her home now).

After speaking for a while, Craig and I started to suspect that the younger woman would know Takako’s daughter, because of the work she is involved in. She told us she had help established the annual Kyotographie exhibition and we know that Sara and her partner are involved in art and exhibitions here. Takako hadn’t been listening to our conversation, so when the opportunity came up we told her what we thought – and it turned out we were right! It seems that Kyoto is just like Adelaide, one degree of separation…and we had to travel to Ohara to find out. So, our circle of contacts grows 😊.

Cheers!!!

 Simplicity

 What is that thing in front of the wall for???

 The local bus station at Ohara

 Crepe Myrtle time

Hello one and all and welcome to episode 22 of the recurring “Year 2 in Kyoto” series, avidly (ok, maybe slightly keenly) read by nearly 50 people! I find myself back in front of the keyboard after only 1 week, despite my somewhat impaired state. When I say that, I mean that it is surprising that I have anything to talk about, since we haven’t been doing overly much. I don’t have any more really exciting news (ie, that we have sold the flat, or we have suddenly had an influx of bookings), at this stage, but we remain hopeful of more movement on these in the near future.

The very hot weather really seems to have passed now. Having said that, the estimated max. today is 35C, however, this is the hottest day for a week now, and the seven day forecast is all low to mid 30s. We also have had a couple of good thunderstorms (finally) and some rain. The only slight issue with the rain is that it happened to be the day of the Diamonji bonfires, so we decided not to go and sit on a roof in the rain (also, my toe was hurting due to me doing a little too much the day before…).

We have had one ‘touristy’ outing this week – yesterday we went to see a teamLab installation at a shrine. What’s teamLab, you say? Well, according to their website they are “an art collective, interdisciplinary group of ultratechnologists whose collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, design and the natural world. Various specialists such as artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects form teamLab.” Hhhhmmm. From my perspective, they do amazing installations and create works of art using light. Very often the installations are interactive, so the viewer can have some input into how the light is used and acts and can sometimes add their own illustrations to the installations.

We saw an ad for this installation at Shimogamo jinja and took the opportunity to visit it, since they don’t have many installations in Kyoto. It is entitled “Resisting and Resonating Ovoids and Forest and Floating, Resonating Spheres – Shimogamo Shrine”. As the title indicates, there are many egg shaped and spherical objects of varying sizes made out of a material that is somewhat soft and rubbery, and these are placed around the shrine, along the road to the shrine through the forest and in the forest itself.

We decided to go to the shrine during the day, so we could see what it was like and get some daytime photos, for reference. The shrine is one of the oldest in Japan, having been founded in the 6^th century. It is situated in a forest named Tadasu no Mori, which encompasses approximately 12.4 hectares and is preserved as a national historical site. It is the last remnant of a primeval forest which is left to grow in its natural state. It is neither planted nor pruned, which is quite unusual in Japan.

What a lovely setting and it is a nice shrine to visit, not just for the teamLab installation. The area around the forest is a very pleasant suburban area too, consisting of especially nice homes and streets – some dishevelled looking places too, however mostly an area that would be nice to live in. We visited a café in the area so I could have a bit of a rest, off my feet (toe) and to wait for the evening to draw nigh. It was in a bookstore and had a somewhat dreamy, 1970s feel to it – different to Starbucks!

After this, we went to eat at a vegan ramen restaurant located nearby, known as Towzen (and Mamezen – not sure why it has two names). Some of our guests had been there previously and said it was very good, so we thought we would take the chance to try it while we were in the area. There are not overly many items on the menu but what we had was very nice and not too expensive. It is worth the travel to get there, just for the fact that vegan, or even vegetarian, ramen is a very unusual thing here.

 the entry to Towzen

 a local spy watching us eat…

We didn’t rush our meal, because we thought we would have time to get back to the shrine and then wander around comfortably in the warm evening. We didn’t expect overly many people there because it wasn’t the first night, it was a Monday night and just after the end of Obon. It was a nice night, with a very pleasant breeze. So we ambled back to the shrine, to find a massive queue with thousands of people waiting to get in…I have to admit, I was tempted to just turn around and go home, assuming we would be in the queue for at least an hour, but we stayed, and waited.

As it happened, the queue moved reasonably quickly and were in after around 30-40 minutes. Unfortunately, some of the installation was not working, with the first 200 metres, or so, in darkness. In the distance, though, you could see coloured lighting in the trees overhead. The race to get photos once we reached the lit area was fairly frenetic and we had to wait our turn to get any photos without multiple people in front of the giant eggs in the forest.

The changing colours and the egg shapes made the forest look somehow otherwordly, more like a place where very large creatures were putting their eggs for incubation and the music being played added to the effect. It would be wonderful to wander around there with fewer people – significantly fewer – but then large crowds are generally a fact of life here. I had to be very careful in the dark to make sure I didn’t end up with my toe being knocked or trodden on.

Once past the forest walk, through the tori into the shrine compound, the eggs which were all corralled during the day had been spread out. It really was ethereal, despite all the people and the shrine gates and buildings. The giant romon gate looked even more spectacular lit up and with giant, coloured eggs in front. Within the gated area there were many giant spherical shapes, which floated above the ground attached to weights on the ground. It was interesting watching people interacting with these shapes, like a playground for young and old. Some of the eggs and the spheres changed colour when they were bumped or hit, while all of the others changed colour in a more regular way.

It really was worth the queuing and the unexpected extra time I spent standing and walking (which meant I was in a fair amount of pain by the time we got home) and the ¥1,000 entrance fee. I’m glad we went and that I can rest today!!!!

That’s all for now – oh, just one thing I forgot, we received some flowers yesterday, just before we left for the shrine, from our lawyer wishing us the all best now that we have our licence. A thoughtful and considered surprise – most of the flowers and leaves in the arrangement are from Australia, including some gumnuts!

Cheers!!!!!

Not sure if this dog is famous

 ??? Not sure

  Reid????

 Before

 After – slightly different angle…

 Crepe Myrtle time

…and in breaking news, Vegan Minshuku Sanbiki Neko is now a fully licenced accommodation facility. Yes, in a record breaking 40 days, approval has been granted to the extremely grateful Addams Family to now run their minshuku as a fully fledged operation.

An email was received just before midnight on Friday night from the scrivener informing them of this momentous outcome – it was in Japanese, but they were able to ascertain the general gist. At around 5am on Saturday morning, a full English translation of the email was received, confirming this result.

Hello and welcome dear readers to possibly the shortest post yet! We have been doing even less than before, due to a certain phalanx injury, so I am mainly reporting on the above headline news.

It’s funny, though, as much as I want to be really excited about this news (just as I wanted to be really excited about finally selling our house in Adelaide) because it has taken so long and been quite fraught, what I am really feeling is relief. So, now there is one final hurdle to completing our plans and fully settling into our new lifestyle and that is the sale of our flat (so we can buy all the things we need to finish the fitout of the minshuku, and buy ourselves a full sized fridge 😊). We also now have to start really pushing ourselves out into the market. We already have three reviews on Google, which is a good start.

One question that springs to mind – why did the scrivener send us an email so late at night? Was he still working? I can’t imagine that he received the news himself just before he sent the email, but then maybe the public servants having been doing a lot of overtime to get through the work…hhhmmmm, hard to imagine them working that late, though. Funny we should receive approval on the day our newest friends left to go to Tokyo. Also, Saturday was the anniversary of Craig arriving here permanently.

Our last two groups of guests truly were lovely people and we are staying in touch with both of them. In fact, the family of four have invited us to stay with them in London if we ever go back to the UK. We are also now friends on FB with the couple (well, Craig is, as I have no presence there).

On the weather front (!), another typhoon passed through the other day and this time it turned north east, so we did not get any of the stormy weather here. It did, however, finally give us a little relief from the heatwave, and we are now experiencing some cooler days below 35C (although still above 32 so far). What has also changed is the humidity, ie it is now becoming more humid. In essence it is now becoming more like the summer of last year. Ironically, we are now hoping for some rain!!!

This week is O-Bon week, during which Japanese people honour the spirits of their ancestors. It is a Buddhist-Confucian custom which has evolved in Japan into a family reunion holiday, during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors’ graves. It is also believed the spirits of ancestors revisit household altars. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

(2 photos from the internet)

The culmination of the O-Bon festival, which is on 16 August, involves five giant bonfires being lit on the mountains surrounding Kyoto city, known as Diamonji. This signifies the moment when the visiting spirits, who are said to visit this world during O-Bon, are believed to be returning to the spirit world and the fires are lit to help guide them back. We will be going out to watch Diamonji on Thursday night – a local school allows locals in to sit on the rooftop to watch the fires, so it’s not too far for me to walk.

I leave you now with a photo of a mascot we ran across the other day, outside the supermarket.

 A duck-like ice cream??

Cheers!

The long, HOT summer…

Hi all, yes, it’s me again, after another longer than expected sabbatical. This heatwave is turning into the never ending story, or so it seems. Apart from two days which were below 35C (although, above 32C), it has now been four weeks since the heatwave started, with every day (barring those two) being over 35C.

One thing that hot days do bring are colourful sunsets and so I have indulged in a few photos of sunsets. It is quite nice having a balcony that faces west, even though we can’t see the horizon for the buildings near us, I can look out and enjoy a colourful sunset in the ever so slightly cooler evenings. Not quite like a good sunset photo at the beach, just a little bit of fun.

I also took some photos from the balcony of our courtyard area behind the carport – yes, we haven’t been doing much and I am itching to get out and take some more photos…maybe in the next week, or so, when the heat finally does moderate a bit.

Something I hadn’t mentioned in my last post, was that some people here were saying what we needed was a typhoon to come through and push away the intense high that was keeping the weather hot. Well, we did get that typhoon just over a week ago, on Saturday night. The only thing was that it crossed the east coast, and then passed directly over us, still as a strong typhoon. This is quite unusual here, so far inland.

When it hit, the winds were literally howling and the rain was being pushed sideways across the rooftops. While I like storms, I am not a big fan of strong winds, so this was a bit unsettling for me. The good news is that, again, the house took it quite well (better than me!). The not so good news is that, while the heat did reduce for those two days mentioned above, once it was gone, the heat returned as if nothing had happened.

As of today, there is another typhoon heading towards Japan, from the same direction. It appears as though it is again going to cross the coast as a typhoon – whether it continues our way, who knows? Will the intense heat finally move on, who knows? From what we’ve been seeing in the news, heatwaves are impacting large parts of the northern hemisphere, particularly in Europe and the UK.

From my perspective we have now had all of the four elements covered: earth (earthquake), air (typhoon), fire (heatwave) and water (flooding rains). What I haven’t had enough of this year is thunderstorms. Perhaps my writing about it will bring some on??!!

In terms of resultant damage from all of this onslaught, Kyoto has got off relatively lightly. We did notice at least one house nearby which had it’s roof covered by a blue tarpaulin (they’re called blue sheets here) following the earthquake, and a cement block wall on an old building down the road is now sitting at an angle (with witches hats in front to keep people some distance away). Following the typhoon, another of the older buildings nearby has had some cement sheets fall off, and looks rather like losing some more (with witches hats below to keep people some distance away).

On the minshuku front, we haven’t had any news either way yet, so we’re hoping no news is good news and that we’ll get our licence in the near future. Meanwhile, we have had some British guests staying with us over the last week – a lovely couple from Wednesday last week and a family of four arrived on Friday. The couple left us yesterday and the family is staying until the end of this week.

On the Friday morning (the day the family arrived), I had a slight mishap. After I feed the kids in the morning, I have been putting Ziggy outside for a while, until the heat really sets in for the day. As I was going out to bring Ziggy back in (at about 7:45), I managed to kick the leg of one the outdoor chairs and unfortunately broke my toe. Timing…when we have six guests staying, the largest group we’ve had here, my duck-footedness brings me undone. Now, you’d think that given I have walked like this for most of my life, I would take into account that my feet don’t point straight ahead. Apparently not enough.

So, I am now hobbling around, serving breakfasts and doing other jobs, with a grey/purple toe. On the positive side, it is the fourth toe, next to the little toe, so I can walk (hobble) without putting pressure on it. Also, because our minshuku is a ‘shoes off’ facility, I am able to walk around barefooted. On the Saturday, we had to go to Aeon Mall to get some supplies for the kids (so they won’t attack us for food!!! 😊) and some other supplies, so I had to put on some shoes. To try to protect my toe, I bound the toes each side to the affected toe and I wore a pair of Japanese style thongs. Nonetheless, it was a rather painful experience, so I am now keeping any outings to an absolute minimum.

On Saturday night there was a fireworks display broadcast live on tv, which provided a pleasant distraction. Again, feeling the need to take photos, I took to the camera and got some shots from the tv. The fireworks displays seem to be somewhat different here, with many short bursts of pyrotechnics and then fairly long gaps between. I’m not sure if there are different groups providing each of the individual bursts, or they just don’t set up all of the fireworks beforehand.

Cheers for now!!!

The sound of summer – with Ziggy slightly perturbed!

I got carried away…

My Purple Prince!

My Hydrangea in flower – again