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

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

 Puffing Billy

 Train near Arashiyama

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 one of the drawers…

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

The other chocolates:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(some 84 year olds having fun!)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers and keep eating!

OK, so it’s time we look at what happened in week 10.

I went to visit a new builder on Tuesday with the purpose of getting a new perspective on our potential new home and to get a second quote for the build. I had to take a train to get there and let me tell you was I grateful for that. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were all quite cold, but Tuesday in particular felt like the wind was blowing over an ice field. These days were mostly overcast, with a short exception on Thursday. It was the first time I actually felt cold outside, even with gloves on. Thankfully – and again I send my blessings to the people who design these things – the seats on the train are heated. So, I had time to thaw out before I reached my meeting.

At the meeting, there was a woman who acted as interpreter, because neither the builder nor the architect could speak English. She was very nice, and very helpful. After I explained what we are trying to do, ie vegan/vegetarian B&B, she told me that she knew some people who run a café, which just happens to have a vegan menu! Not only that, it is quite close to the flat. She has suggested we go there together and she can introduce me to the owners. It also happens that she attended university in Brisbane, so she understands Australian…. I am looking forward to meeting her and her friends at the café.

The other major event this week was Setsubun – the celebration of the official beginning of spring. Setsubun was on 3 February and the first day of spring (risshun) was on 4 February. This festival dates back to the days of the lunar calendar and, in fact, risshun used to be thought of as the start of the new year. So, the ritual that goes along with this festival is a cleansing ritual, to clean away any evil from the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year ahead. The actual ritual is called mamemaki – literally meaning bean scattering.

If you’re wondering, does this mean that it involves throwing around beans, then You’re Right!!!!! The relevant beans are soybeans and for this ritual, they are roasted. The beans are thrown around inside the home (I have to admit I didn’t do this) and they are also either thrown out the door or at someone who is dressed as a demon, or oni. While throwing the beans, you call out Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! (Demons out! Luck in!). I did undertake the latter, although being in a block of flats I decided to put a box outside the front door, so that the beans didn’t spread all over the floor and stairs with me then having to pick them all up. On the other hand, I did throw some out the balcony door, so as to get the full effect.

The really fun part of this ritual, is that families do it together, with one parent (generally the father) dressing up as oni and scaring the kids, while the other parent helps the kids throw beans at the oni to scare it away. Why didn’t we have fun things like that when I was a kid? I might have considered being a parent if I could have dressed up as oni to scare little children. They look like fun demons, don’t they?

Events are also held at local shrines and temples, where priests, monks and invited guests, such as celebrities and sumo stars, join in the festivities, which includes them throwing beans at the crowd. At the temple I went to geiko and maiko attended and the maiko performed some dances. Geiko is essentially the Kyoto term for geisha, while maiko are basically apprentice geiko. The shrine I went to was the Yasaka Shrine, which is located in the Gion area and, as a result, is the local shrine for the geiko and maiko of the Gion district, hence their attendance. It is a very large shrine and a lot of important events are held there.

I went at midday to see the ceremony with the Shinto priests. The robes they wore were beautiful and very colourful. They spoke to the crowd and then two women each performed a dance. These women were carrying swords, which I hadn’t seen women do before and the crowd applauded at the end of each of the dances. Following this, the priests and women threw beans in little packets at the crowd. The crowd were very keen to get one of these packets of beans, as it is considered good luck. It was vicious! I had a little old lady nearly knock me over trying to get some.

After this was over, I was looking at what the shrine shop was selling when one of the helpers told me I should buy some lucky beans and a ticket. They were ¥300. Then they told me I had to line up to exchange my ticket for something else – I wasn’t sure what it was at the time, but I thought hey why not??? Not like I’ve got to be anywhere… Turns out the queue was at least 100 people long – it took over 10 minutes to get to the end. While I was in the queue I realised the people were exchanging their ticket for another ticket, which had numbers on it. It appeared that some people then lined up again, while others walked away.

So, I get to the end and have to pick out a ticket from a barrel. The man then told me I had to go to the white tent. I did get a prize! A set of 2 chopping boards. I think there were some other, much better prizes. The numbers corresponded with what they gave you. Feeling pleased that I had won something, I went to Starbucks and had a caramel macchiato to wait for the next performance, which was due at 1:00. I hoped it would involved the geiko.

I walked up the street looking in the shops as I was returning to the shrine. There was a fantastic local crafts shop on the way (which for some reason I hadn’t noticed in the past) and I spent a bit long in there. So, by the time I got back to the shrine it was a little after 1:00. This time there were at least double the number of people and I couldn’t see that much, but I did see that there were 3 maiko dancing. I knew they were maiko because a nice lady next to me told me this and she also said that the senior geiko was sitting on the stage too. Showed me a picture of her.

After the dancing was finished, the priests came out again and again threw the beans at the crowd. It was even more pushy this time, so I backed away – fast!!! Interestingly, the priests had changed their clothing and were wearing indigo patterned robes this time.

I left after that, although there were more performances due at 2:00 and 3:00. I came home and ate my roasted soybeans for good luck. You eat 1 bean for every year of your life, plus 1 more for good luck for the coming year. They were actually very nice but I did stop at my required number. Though, given my year of birth has recently changed to 34, perhaps I could have eaten more!!! Yes, it is now 34/10/10 (Japanese write the date as year/month/day and the year is the year of the reign of the particular emperor – I think this year is 29).

That about wraps up my ramblings for this week, I do look forward to the warmer weather. Two final photos this week – the first is a photo of Ziggy who I caught trying to steal my room shoes…

The second is the photo of the week. Apparently Psycho Bunny is a menswear outlet which began in New York. It looks like a store is about to open in Terramachi (a fantastic shopping arcade in the centre of Kyoto). I was just surprised by the name and the logo!

Cheers for now, and here’s to spring! Kanpai…