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: