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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers for now

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wikipediamy photomy photoJapan Times

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s all for now!!!