ようこそ!

Hello and welcome to this milestone post – week 26 means I have been living here in Kyoto now for six months. Does it feel like six months? Hard to answer that question. I do feel quite settled and I’m not sure how I’d go if I had to return to Adelaide. I suppose I thought everything would be in place by now, or very close to it – I continue to learn patience. I am glad I had time at home by myself after leaving work before coming here, because I think it has helped me cope a bit better being by myself for so long.

I thought I might spend most of this post on a retrospective journey. What has been achieved, what is still to happen, my favourite times here, along with my favourite photos (which I am placing throughout the text).

Looking back, the hardest time was definitely the initial phase, when I really was alone, not knowing anyone here except our real estate agent and without the kids. The kids certainly have helped keep me occupied since their arrival, with cleaning, feeding and outings to obtain supplies. They also give me someone to talk to, apart from myself. Weather-wise I am definitely not a lover of cold weather, so that added to the initial toughness of living here.

I think once I settled into a routine it became much easier. Planning my week based around the weather and what needed to be done certainly helped. Also learning where everything was and which places were best for particular items. One thing I learned fairly early on is that the Fresco supermarkets aren’t all the same, both in size and particularly in what they stock. So, depending on what I need, I will go to the one that is most appropriate. I have a circuit of five I go to. I also learned that prices for specific items can vary markedly. Ironically, the best place for muesli and range of pasta is the large bottle shop nearby!

I also found that email, Whatsapp and my posts really helped me stay sane and keep in contact. Apart from my constant contact with Craig (he checks up on me if he doesn’t hear from me regularly), I am very grateful to all of you who have added comments to my posts and sent me emails. The comments reassure me that people are actually reading my mostly verbose pieces! At this point I would particularly like to thank some wonderful friends who have made it their mission to keep talking to me – Triscia and Kim. Their emails have helped keep me sane and cheer me up at various times.

So, what have we achieved? We have bought a carpark (later to become a minshuku!), found an architect and builder who seem to really ‘get’ what we want (I particularly loved the addition of three cats in the backyard of all the house design versions), the approvals process has begun for said minshuku and we have now been approved for a further 12 month visa to stay here. Working with the architect and builder really has been great and they have really listened to what we have been asking for. At this point I should also say how lucky we were to find a builder who is related to an English language teacher. Her ability to translate what we are trying to say into Japanese has been invaluable.

What is still to happen? The elephant in the room…the one hurdle to get over…the fly in the ointment…finding someone to buy our house. It seems the people with the money don’t want a house with a large backyard and pool and the people who like/love our house don’t have the money. Craig can’t move here until the house is sold and settled, and we can’t actually start building our minshuku until we have the money. I keep hoping and praying.

My favourite times here? Well, there have been some lovely moments here related to my interactions with various locals and there are some very funny things on local tv at times. The best times, however, have been when I have had visitors. The first time that Craig came back here after ‘dropping me off’ here was a blessing. It had been around three months since I had last seen him, which was quite difficult considering we have always done most things together.

(wtf is that?)(and that?)

It was also wonderful to have guests here to do ‘touristy’ things together. When Kerry was here, it was wonderful to see all the places I had been to before through another set of eyes. I really enjoyed being a tour guide for those few days. Steven, on the other hand, has been here before, so I had to spend more time beforehand thinking about where he has been before and what he might like to do. One thing it highlighted for me is that wandering around in the back streets, which I enjoy doing a lot, was also enjoyable for both of them.

As to my favourite photos, I have selected some to just throw in randomly above and below, as a form of punctuation, rather than having a huge block of them.

Turning to this week – well, it has been a fairly routine week except for one thing…the sumo! Ok, it goes for 15 days, but this week was the ‘pointy end’ of the basho. I couldn’t have asked for a better result to celebrate my six months in Japan, than for Hakuho to win. In fact, not only did he win, but he did so in style by winning all 15 bouts he fought. The final fight, last night, had him up against Harumafuji, another favourite of mine. It was a fantastic bout, lasting just under 1½ minutes. Hakuho was like a rock; Harumafuji tried everything he could but Hakuho just stood firm and waited him out.

My other favourite rikishi is Takayasu. I like him because he is so laid back in his personal style – he just sort of wanders in to the dohyou (ring), does a few ritual bits and pieces, wanders out, grabs some salt, chucks it in,…but, just before tachiai, his fighting face comes out, and he has been winning quite a few bouts recently. In fact they are saying he is certain to be promoted to the next division before the next basho. This also made me happy (and his mother, who was there to support him win the required number of bouts for promotion).

So, that about wraps it up. I thank you all for continuing to read my blog and hope I continue to keep it interesting enough that you will read on!

Kanpai!!!

…and now we will resume our normal programming…

Oh; hello! Yes, it’s me here, back on the keyboard. I know I have been a little absent recently but I am here to make up for it. I am going to cover the two weeks since my house guest in this post in an effort to catch up to where we are now.

The first week following Steven’s departure was fairly domestic, with the usual cleaning, shopping and cooking, except for one slight blip. A bureaucratic blip.

When I last recounted my encounters with bureaucracy here in the land of bureaucracy (and I don’t say that lightly), I talked about the mandate that we have an official office for our company in our flat, as this was the official registered address for our company. Our lawyer had visited and thought that we could set it up on our table in the dining/kitchen area. Just before Steven arrived he received notification from Immigration that this was not appropriate and that we needed a separate room in which to have our official office. The finger was pointed squarely at our spare room – the one with two beds, a clothes rack and shelving which is used as storage for many things we have nowhere else to put.

We weren’t told exactly why we needed an official, separate office, but apparently they considered it essential. It’s not like we will ever have any visitors for our company here…

Anyway, I pointed out to the lawyer that there was very little room to put the two beds and clothes rack elsewhere within the flat. Also, the beds would likely have to be dismantled to actually remove them from the room. He said it was not up for discussion (well, not quite like that, he was very polite given my obvious frustration). He said he would come here and help me do this, as well as move the dining table into the room for photos. I wondered if the bureaucrats realised that the plan was to move the beds and clothes rack out and the table in just temporarily and that it would be returned to the way it was after the photos. Seemed a little farcical…

I told the lawyer that Steven was going to be here and we really couldn’t do all of this while he was visiting. So, we made a time for him to come over after Steven had left. As I was discussing all of this with Steven an idea was born to pull apart the two beds and create a day bed out of one of them. Steven said he would be happy to help do this, and it would create more space in the spare room. For the most part, we didn’t need two beds there all the time. We went and bought some cheap cushions and material to throw over the mattress and then told Craig about our idea.

In amongst these subsequent discussions, we decided to also buy a desk, since we were going to need one when we actually had a real office in our minshuku. In the end we went to the large Nitori store which is quite some distance from the flat and is like a cross between Target and Ikea. I found a desk that was suitable for the purpose – not the most beautiful piece of furniture you’ve ever seen, but somewhat elegant in design. The very nice ones we saw in an antiques shop, which were original mid-century modern, were just a little too expensive (sigh).

Back home, we pulled apart the beds and re-created them into one day bed. We were able to put the extra mattress behind the slats of the other bed to make a back rest and all the rest of the bits fit under the ‘day bed’, as well as the five dozen Rockford Basket Press and other minor bits and pieces. It looked quite good in the end. The lawyer was somewhat bemused when I told him – he had never heard of a day bed – but he also seemed quite pleased with the end result when he saw it.

The day after Steven left, the desk was delivered…in pieces. My third furniture building project and by far the largest. I spent about half that day putting it together (with a slight hiccup – what are these washers, that are left over, for????). I actually think the Japanese instructions for putting these items together are easier to follow than Ikea instructions. The mistake was purely me not checking detail properly. Et voila, we have an official office!

Obviously the bureaucrats liked it, because we received news shortly after submitting the new photos that our 12 month visas had been approved. Thank goodness, and Steven for his help.

The following week (ie week 25) Craig came over so that he could re-submit his passport and resident card to have our new, 12 month cards created and given to us. This, of course, involved a couple of trips to Osaka, but was worth it. Now we don’t have to worry about getting new visas until next year. The next time Craig returns to Japan it will be a permanent move, once the house is sold and settled.

While he was here we did have some time for a couple of outings. It was quite warm most of the time he was here – low 30s!!! We didn’t do anything too physically strenuous, just walking around. Less than 6kms on any one day (I think). I wanted to return to the Heian Shrine garden to see how it looked once more of the flowers, including the lotus, were open. I wasn’t disappointed – it is such a beautiful garden and there are plenty of shady spots when it’s hot.

The other main outing was to an art exhibition which looked at cats in Japanese art. The exhibition is called, “Yes, We Love Cats Anytime!” and includes many examples of ukiyo-e and maneki neko mostly from the 19th century. It focused on the “cat-mania” that occurred during this period, with over 200 exhibits. Many of the ukiyo-e were painted by very famous artists, including Utagawa Hiroshige  and Utagawa Kuniyoshi . Kuniyoshi, in particular, painted many ukiyo-e with cats as the main character and doing just about anything you can think of – including Kabuki!

  (Hiroshige (L) and Kuniyoshi (R))

I had already visited this exhibition with Steven, however, it was very crowded when we went. Also, I won two tickets in a competition run by the Japan Times (five winners only)! This time it was a lot less crowded and we got to have a good look at all the paintings.

Well that pretty much wraps it up for this post – we also tried to see if we could see the nutria again, but only saw many, many bats, which, of course, I love, so I wasn’t disappointed…

Cheers for now

(two photos just because I like them)

(a sign on a shop in a back street in the Gion area)

Welcome to a review of my time during Golden Week, or GW as it is often referred to here!!!! What is GW, you ask????? It is a period of a week in late April/early May which includes a number of public holidays. Many people take the other days off during this week and it is often the longest consecutive period people here have as leave during the year. A lot of companies simply close down for the week and give their staff the time off.

The result of all these people having time off together, as you can imagine, is that you need to book a long time ahead to get accommodation in many places (especially here, in Kyoto), also modes of travel, and all the tourist destinations are very crowded. This week I also had a visitor, a long time friend – Steven. Many of you will know him, but for others, we have been friends for around 36 years! Consequently, I tried to find places to go that wouldn’t be too overcrowded. This was also complicated by the fact that he has been here in Kyoto many times and has visited many places.

We also needed to work around the weather – a couple of days were wet. The first day he was here there was a lovely thunderstorm, so we headed to Teramachi, the part which has been made into a covered mall, to do a bit of shopping. Turns out many other people had the same idea – movement was slow.

The next day was sunny and warm, so it was time to show him the carpark. Not that there’s that much to see, bitumen, fence, etc, but it’s more to see the area it is in. After that, I took him to see the three-legged crow shrine, which I have mentioned before, and the lovely 900+ year old tree there. Then we walked back to the Kyoto National Museum. Currently there is a special exhibition of an artist who lived from 1533–1615, Kaiho Yusho. He was among the elite painters of his time. What is most interesting about him is that his fame came when he was in his 60s, during what they call his “early” period. Over the following two decades, he went from painting for priests to creating works for nobility, then for Japan-Korea diplomacy and then the Emperor.

His earlier works were mostly monochromatic, using ink and a simple style. Later works were created with some colours, although generally not too many in each painting – used more as highlights – and they were often quite intense colours. Strangely, while his people, animals and flora were rendered with great skill (particularly the birds), buildings and other created structures looked to me somewhat stilted and with flat perspective. In one work, which was painted across several screens, it almost looked as if someone else completed the fences on the last screen, someone who was rushing to get it done…(no photo of that one)

(one of my favourites)

After viewing the exhibition, we and every other person there went to the museum shop. I was considering some purchases, but the queue was so long I decided against it in the end. While prevaricating, I noticed some movement at the other end of the shop, near the entry. It was one of my favourite museum characters, who I have called grumpy cat because of the look on it’s face. This cat is taken from a painting that is a permanent exhibit at the museum, and is, in fact, meant to be a tiger. As with many animals that were not native to Japan, the renditions of these is somewhat different to the real thing. In this case, the tiger has a look on it’s face which I have likened to “why have you painted me like this??” Hence I named it grumpy cat – nothing to do with the cat on the internet.

Being a big fan of this cat (there’s just something about it), I made a bee-line to where it was and managed to get a couple of photos, which I now treasure! I had to push my way through the crowd, but it was worth it. I only wish I could have had a photo taken with it (and for me to say I want a photo of myself…). Funny the things that make you smile.

On Monday we wandered around the Gion area and up towards Kiyomizu-dera (we didn’t go all the way up there, it was just too crowded). Interesting how you can visit places many times but somehow miss certain things. In this case, because it was so crowded, we walked in closer to one side of the walkway and found a beautiful garden area out the back of the shops. I don’t know how I missed it before – I have even been into the shop next to it a number of times.

On Tuesday, we went to Uji, which is about a half hour train journey from Kyoto. I wanted to see the gardens at a Buddhist temple there, Byodo-in, because the wisteria is out at the moment and it has an area of wisteria on a large trellis. Yes, the continuing hanami saga. I wasn’t disappointed, it was as lovely as I thought it would be. It is a beautiful temple and the main hall is supposed to be equally beautiful inside, but we would have had to wait two hours before we could get in, such was the crowd. The other highlight at the moment is the presence of the large bees. They are called carpenter bees (or kumabachi in Japan, which means bear bee) and are around 2cm in length. They are quite loud but are relatively harmless with the male not having any sting and the female only stinging if severely provoked.

Next day we went to Momoyama-jo (the castle in Kyoto needing TLC that I have mentioned previously) and then to Fushimi Inari-taisha (also previously mentioned, with all the tori). I had been told there was a festival there during GW, and wasn’t disappointed. It was clear that a procession of the priests was going to happen so we stood near the back entrance to one of the big halls, where people were waiting inside for a ceremony. It was a bit of a wait, but we got an up close look at the priests (no photos allowed). Later we went around the front, just before they exited out of the shrine to multitude decorated trucks, cars and vans. We saw them drive off, took photos and waved.

Later that day, after we had returned home, we were sitting inside having tea, when I heard some drums start up. I ran downstairs and discovered some of the trucks and vans were heading down our street! So I stayed outside to watch (even though I was in my house clothes). As I stood there, I could see more and more of the trucks coming down the street. After the next wave went through I ran upstairs to grab my camera and tell Steven that it appeared the entire procession was coming down our street. This involved some large limousine cars, a dozen or so vans and at least 30 trucks. It was wonderful to have them all come past my home and be so close to the procession. In addition to the trucks we had seen earlier, some trucks had joined the procession which were carrying the special floats housing the kami from a number of shrines. Five in all.

In the evening we went out to dinner at my favourite Indian restaurant. On the way home, as we crossed the bridge over the Kamogawa, Steven noticed something in the water and pointed it out to me. It was an animal of some sort, so I just had to find out what it was, of course. We ran down the stairs and under the bridge and there it was, sitting on a bank out in the water. It then swam over towards us and actually came out on the side of the river! It was a large rodent looking creature, about 40 cms long. It wasn’t at all afraid of us and just went about it’s foraging. Meanwhile, an American woman had noticed us and what we were doing, and she joined us to watch this creature. She thought it looked a bit like a beaver, but with a narrow tail. Turns out it was a Nutria and is similar to a beaver, native to South America.

We did other bits and pieces during the week he was here, spent money, drank a fair bit of nihonshu and generally enjoyed ourselves. Steven had decided to collect nihonshu labels and had brought a blank book with him to do so. So we did spend time searching out, buying and then drinking said nihonshu. We also found a street in the Gion area where there were many antique shops – a very dangerous thing for me. I managed to buy only one item! Another lucky find, at the Heian Shrine, was an Indian man who runs a company supplying various spices and foods, including vegan items!!!!!!! So we now have at least one supplier lined up.

(a wedding party)

One thing to note in the photos of the amazing garden at the Heian Shrine is the resemblance of one part of the garden to a Monet painting, at this time of year. Monet is a very popular artist here, with many of his works housed in galleries around Japan, so it is entirely possible that he was inspirational for this garden.

On a slightly political note (which I am generally avoiding for this blog), I was very pleased this week that some common sense finally prevailed in the world of politics. Vive la France. Perhaps the tide of “populism” is turning…a little.

More photos of Kiya-machi Dori

A couple of gratuitous photos…