Now, which week are we up to???? Ah yes, week 38, somewhat warm (read mushi mushi) with a slight undertone of fire…

As I mentioned at the end of last week’s post, we went to watch the Gozan no Okuribi, or Daimonji last Wednesday night. It is the conclusion of the Obon festival on August 16 in Kyoto, when five giant bonfires are lit on mountains surrounding the city. It signals the moment when the spirits of deceased family members, who are said to visit this world during Obon, are believed to be returning to the spirit world.

So, what is the Obon festival???? It is a festival built around the Japanese Buddhist custom to honour the spirits of your ancestors. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

I had seen one of the sites on the mountains where one of the fires was going to be a few weeks ago – the trees were cut back and it had been set up to burn in the shape of one of the kanji; the kanji for large (‘dai’). So, I was hoping we would find a place where we could see more than one of the fires, including that site, and had read that the best place was near the fork of the Kamo river. The fires are lit one by one from 8pm, so I thought it would be nice to go up there early and have a picnic dinner.

We got off the train two stations early, at around 5:45 and walked the last 2kms (approx.) along the river. It had been a hot day but it was a lovely walk along the bank of the river. There were a number of spots that had good views of the one fire site I had seen, but we kept going in the hope we would see at least one other. Unfortunately, by the time we reached the designated place there were already hundreds of people, so we couldn’t get to where we wanted to be. In the end we decided to sit close by where we could at least see the ‘dai’ kanji fire.

We had a nice picnic (some tempura, inari and onigiri, washed down with sake and beer!!!) and awaited the fires. During this time, the number of people around us grew quite dramatically, until it was very crowded. Luckily we had a seat, having arrived early. When it came time to leave it took a long time to travel the 500 metres to the closest train station, with the crowd numbering in the thousands.

We tried to take photos when the bonfire we could see was lit, but our cameras didn’t like the low light very much, so they are somewhat blurry. I have included a photo from the internet of the ‘dai’ kanji and what each of the five fires look like.

This week we also made the longish journey to one of the large home centres to buy some new foam mattresses to put under our futons. The ones we had were bought back in January 2015 to be used by guests in our flat, and were not in the best condition. We ended up buying the most expensive ones in the store, which are made with memory foam, but they were much cheaper than some we had seen in iSetan and Takashimaya, both high end department stores. They were delivered a couple of days later (eagerly awaited…) and they are much more comfortable than what we had, particularly for me as a ‘side-sleeper’.

Our other major outing this week (in the humidity and heat – it has been around 35 most days and I turn into a walking puddle) was a visit to The Block (aka ‘once was carpark’). This time there were no neighbours out and about, so we were just able to get some photos and then return home. There were some workers there, who were having lunch at the time we arrived. They were in the process of putting together the ‘reo’ for the full foundation. Interestingly, there had already been some concrete poured into the base of the foundation channels onto which they were installing the reo.

You may notice in the photo of the construction workers that they had brought with them an industrial fan, which they were using while they had their lunch break!!!! It was hot, so I thought it was quite sensible, if a little odd looking. Not something I have ever seen in Australia…

One  thing I haven’t mentioned is the very large number of dragonflies that are around here at the moment. There are a number of different ones, differing in size and in colour. On the way to The Block, we came in close proximity to two different ones and tried to get good photos of them. As with anything that  moves fast and is small, this was exceedingly difficult (especially with a mobile phone) but we managed to get a couple of photos that at least give an idea of how really beautiful these insects are.

In the world of tv, this week we watched a show about words and phrases in Japanese that are difficult to say – and we’re talking difficult for Japanese people! They went through the top 10, and the word at number 10 position just happened to be the same word used in a game show we saw some years ago here, where the contestants had to say it correctly three times:-

Atatakakatta

(meaning: past tense of warm (atatakai))

It was quite funny watching people stumbling over the pronunciations of all of these words and phrases! In some cases they just could not say it at all. The number 1 word was:

Shujutsuchuu

(meaning: shujutsu means surgical operation, so something to do with an operation (code for I’m not quite sure))

Photos of some of them for those who read/speak Japanese:

And so, like sand through the hourglass, this week comes to an end. All I can say is that it definitely was not atatakakatta!!

Cheers until next time…

Hello and welcome to week 37 and my new reality – having the family back together! (2 x 2-legged & 3 x 4-legged). Yes, we can finally settle into life in Kyoto together and start the serious planning for our new venture. One of our first priorities is to develop a website so that we can commence marketing and ultimately start taking bookings.

So, what have I been doing this week???? It is divided into two parts; pre and post Craig’s arrival. Pre-arrival, I spent a lot of time trying to work out how we would fit additional clothes and other paraphernalia into this small space. I moved things around and generally worked at making more space. Unfortunately, unlike the tardis, the flat stayed the same size no matter what I did.

Post-arrival, we have been doing things together! The flat is still the same size, but now has more in it. Also, there are now two human voices having discussions…So life is moving along now, not stuck in neutral as it seemed to be for such a long time. It is also really good having Craig here in time for the construction phase of the activities towards fulfillment of our dream.

Speaking of which, we visited the ‘once was carpark’ on Monday to see how things were going and, as you can see below, found that preparations have been made for the foundation pour. I’m not sure when this is going to happen but I assume it will be some time this week. We’ll have to take another walk up there later this week to have a look.

When we arrived up there, there was a man and a woman tending a vegetable garden which has been planted around a disused pottery factory across the road from our block. When the woman saw us, she rushed off and I suspected she was going to tell other neighbours we were there. The man, on the other hand, just looked at us without engaging at all, then walked off. As we got our cameras out, the woman returned with two other women, who you could see were keen to check us out.

We greeted them and at once they started talking/asking questions. Unfortunately, we couldn’t understand everything they were saying, however, one asked if we were from Australia and the other if this was our block. We then tried to explain that we would be living there once it was built, but I’m not sure how well they picked that up though, as one of the women asked us if we were moving in. They also asked if it was going to be a minpaku, which is essentially a private residence where you rent out individual rooms, unlike what we are going to be doing, which will be a licenced accommodation. I said it was going to be a minshuku and hoped that would allay their fears a bit.

They also talked about the area being a small area and the need for quiet. I tried to convey that we would be talking to our guests about being considerate of our neighbours and keeping noise levels down, however, I’m not sure how allayed their fears were because they did repeat the quiet part a few times. At this point I decided to divert the conversation to the vegetable garden that they were growing and this seemed to go well. I told the lady who was most conversational that we didn’t eat meat and fish, but only ate vegetables, so we were impressed with what they were growing. After talking about that for a while, we said our thankyous and left, hoping we had made a reasonably good impression.

In the area around our block, there are many temples and shrines, many of which I have now visited, however, there are three largish temples in very close proximity that I had never visited, which I thought we should drop into on our way back from the block. None of these is in any list of top places to visit in Kyoto, but I thought we should know our own area as thoroughly as we could. The closest of these temples is the Chisakuin Temple which was established in 1598. The main hall is relatively modern (1975) replacing older halls which was burnt down at least two times, the most recent fire destroying some priceless sliding screens.

Some of the screens which were part of the temple precinct still remain there and are now housed in a small, purpose built museum. These are considered national treasures and really are very beautiful, depicting natural landscapes. The other feature of this temple precinct is, as is so often the case in Buddhist temples, a garden. There is a small tatami hall facing onto the main part of this garden and is a lovely place to sit, relax and contemplate.

The next temple is Myohoinmonzeki, which had many structures, some older others modern, however, there didn’t appear to be anything open there. The website indicates that one of the buildings was ordered built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and has some amazing paintings inside, but this too was closed.

The last temple we went to is the Otani Mausoleum, which has a lovely entrance across a bridge over a pool with many lotus flowers. At the front there is a very traditional building which is the Buddhist temple, but behind is an amazing modernist style building, which was built in 1966, called the Muryoju-do. This building is covered in what appears to be large pebbles. We went inside briefly to see what the inside structure was – it is actually a concrete building, without any lining on the walls. It really is spectacular and the kind of architecture I like most. This building is where ash remains are kept.

(Light fitting inside)

On the Saturday night after Craig arrived, we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, which serves pizza and pasta. The man who makes the pizzas is, in fact, an Italian who I think actually owns the restaurant. This restaurant is one of the many that line Kiyamachi dori and during the warm months they have a balcony built overlooking the Kamogawa. In anticipation of Craig’s arrival I had booked a table on the balcony for this night, three weeks ahead of time to make sure I got one.

It was lovely out there in the early evening, in time for sunset. I think it was a bit of a surprise we were there, because you do have to book ahead and so not many tourists get the opportunity to have dinner outside. One of the highlights for me were the bats! As sunset approached, they gradually started appearing in the sky around us, flipping around trying to catch insects. It really was delightful and a most pleasant way to spend an evening.

After we left the restaurant, we walked down Kiyamachi dori for a while then went across to a hip bar called Len and had a couple of drinks before returning home for the night.

Tonight, we are going to watch a fire festival here called Gozan no Okuribi, or more commonly known as Daimonji – more about that next time!!!!!

Cheers for now

It had been a week of delays, as if the weather itself was slowing everything down. One week became two and then those in the cold land started pressing for action…

Yes, indeed, there have been delays, and mostly centred around real property. The first delay occurred around the construction of our new abode/minshuku (I should think up a new word for that – minabode? homshuku? domshuku? minitat? Ok, ok). The meeting that was supposed to occur with the neighbours was delayed, then rescheduled, then abandoned altogether. This meant the construction was delayed, then rescheduled, then finally commenced TODAY!!!!! (Tues, 8/8)

Our builder ended up going around to all the near neighbours giving them a present and telling them what’s happening. The agreement with the community leader was that we offer a private viewing when it is finished. There was one other delay, which was caused by a weather event yesterday – a typhoon. Yes, a typhoon came ashore in the Osaka region yesterday (Monday, 7/8), and made its way towards Kyoto (and other areas further north). It actually was still a typhoon, with an eye and spinning slowly. We all got a lot of rain and some wind, although the wind had lessened by the time it got to us.

What it has done is cool the temperature down a little, which is nice. Yesterday was under 30! (29) today it started cooler, with some remaining cloud cover and a bit more rain, but as soon as that cleared off the temperature started moving up to the expected max. of 35. Amazing how fast it heated up and, of course, it was still very humid. Nearly all the tv stations were covering the typhoon non-stop last night and posting all the warnings – mainly flooding. I had a look at the Kamogawa a little earlier today and it is at the highest level I have ever seen.

The other main delay referred to above is one that definitely shouldn’t have happened, along with the flow-on consequences. Today was supposed to be settlement day for our house (Tuesday, 8/8). I say supposed to be because it isn’t now going to happen until next Tuesday (15/8). This is despite a ‘no conditions’ contract which had settlement as 8/8, the date chosen by the purchaser. It seems that there is some financing happening and the bank couldn’t get it put through before the 15^th. There are penalties in the contract which will be imposed.

As you can imagine, Craig had gone ahead and organised everything with the 8^th as the final day, including booking flights for the Thursday (10^th) and other necessary processes. Our conveyancer and bank had everything organised for the 8^th, but it wasn’t to be. Interestingly, the buyer’s conveyancer had omitted to tell anyone about the delay, including our conveyancer and the real estate agent! It was all up in the air as of Thursday and Friday (3^rd and 4^th) as to when the settlement would actually occur. It wasn’t until the Saturday that we knew definitely that it would be delayed and the new date would be the 15th. Suffice it to say there were some tense words exchanged amongst the respective parties…

Of course, the third delay was this post, as I was waiting to see what was going to happen with everything before I sat down to put hands to keyboard. To say I was slightly put out by all of this might be a tiny bit of an understatement. Poor Craig has had to deal with it all ‘at the coalface’, as it were. He has battled on through and is nearly finished everything that needs to be done. He has decided to leave this week none-the-less, thanks to the assistance of a very good friend – Steven. Big thankyou to Steven for his help.

Digressing to a completely different topic, I did undertake one outing this week that didn’t involve a supermarket, shop or builder. I realised I hadn’t been to one of my favourite temples for a while and since it was in up in a mountainous area I hoped it would be somewhat cooler. I have been visiting Mt Kurama and the temple and shrine there since we first came to Kyoto. The walk up to the temple from Kurama station is a little strenuous, but it mainly involves stairs and the mountain is very lush, with lots of wildlife – including land crabs, which we discovered on one very wet day some years ago.

You may recall I talked about a much more strenuous climb up a track to a temple some time ago, which was the climb to Kurama from Kibune village, one station earlier. That track does not have much in the way of built stairs, but is still lovely and lush – although It’s hard to notice too much when you are dragging in air and trying to keep moving.

So, I went up there and spent some time relaxing and meditating in that very calm place, listening to the monks intoning and the drum keeping rhythm. The multitude cicadas were quite loud there, which just added to the ambience. Though it wasn’t as cool as I’d hoped there, it was worth it. I felt very calm, which was lucky given the subsequent events. It seems my visit there was very timely.

In terms of events, there is a very large pottery and ceramics market happening over three days this week, which just happens to be set up along both sides of Gojo street between the Kamo river and the next main road, very near the flat. There are at least two hundred stalls lining the street on the footpaths, with some really amazing wares, as well as every day ceramics. I had no idea it was going to be on and just happened upon it on my way back from the ‘once was carpark’. It took some work, but I managed to control myself and only bought a few things.

It was hard getting a good shot of this, especially as Gojo street is three lanes wide each way. This shot only show a small part of one side of the road. The centre here is an overhead highway exit.

In the world of tv, there was a segment on one of my favourite programs which really grabbed my attention (and didn’t involve ducks…). It was about a young racing driver who is currently racing in the Formula 4 category. She is 11 yr old Juju, whose father is ex-F1 and ex-Indycar racer, Hideki Noda. They showed her driving at well over 200 km/h and apparently she is winning races, although she is too young to compete in official races. Interestingly, despite that, she already has a sponsor.

As with most young drivers, she started in go-karts (at 3 yrs of age!) and worked her way up. She does physical training to make sure she has the strength to pilot the vehicles and to cope with the substantial g-forces experienced when driving and braking hard. Just recently she set a lap record for under 17 yr olds in F4 at the Okayama International Circuit. She hopes to race at F1 level, and win, one day.

She seems to be gaining a lot of attention in international media, including this article:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2017/06/30/could-this-11-year-old-become-the-worlds-first-woman-f1-winner/#75f015b97a93

I’ll be barracking for her!! Actually, I’m somewhat jealous – I’d love to have raced cars!!!

Cheers for now

Post script: Tengu has fully recovered from his nose breakage incident:

Here’s another of my favourite trees. This one is at Kurama and is over 800 yrs old: