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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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