New year, new name!

Welcome to Year 2 – to open the minshuku and beyond…Ok, so that doesn’t work that well but it is a very new adventure for us, opening a business in which we have invested so much (and I don’t just mean money). We did have a small catering service business for a short while many years ago and I had a maths tutoring business for a few years while I was at uni. This, however, is on a very different scale. We have both been very service oriented all our working lives, so it was fairly natural for us to chose to have a business in the service industry. We also both love cooking for others and Kyoto – et voila!

 (Vegan Japanese curry with udon)

So, to The House. On our way up to see where things were up to, we were wondering how soon the scaffolding and curtain would be coming down, Craig even suggested we should contact our builder so we could be there for the unveiling (as it were). When we rounded the curve of our road, there it was, The House in all its unveiled glory!! While we had missed the moment, we were still very excited to see it fully for the first time. It really did reveal just how big it is, and even though it is still a worksite, we could start to get a real feel for how it will look when it is finished.

Inside the staircase was underway, which was also very exciting, especially as it will enable me to actually go upstairs (not upladder) to see how it looks without relying on photos that Craig has taken. Why haven’t I made the journey upladder more than once???? Two reasons; one is that the ladder was somewhat bouncy when climbing up that high, and secondly, I thought that two of us up there would be one too many in the way of the workers. They have been very accommodating of our visits but I felt that Craig could get the necessary photos and then we could get out of their hair.

Back to the staircase – it is being built out of beautiful timber and will definitely enhance the atrium area. Underneath we are going to have a small garden; there is a small window on the bottom righthand side of the frontage of the building to let in light for the garden. The other end of the atrium has the reception and office area, with its little pitched roof. Totemo kawaii (very cute)!

Craig tells me that the upstairs area is nearly completely lined, ceilings and walls. So the rooms are starting to look like, well, rooms. Knowing the colours and textures that are going to go in there, I am very excited to see them finished. I think they will look very simple and elegant. I hope the guests will think that too!!!!

In terms of gaining the requisite approvals and, in particular, the licence to be able to cook and serve meals to our guests, as you may recall we were having some issues around having to find someone to fill the Food Hygiene Sanitation Manager role – someone who is fluent in Japanese and can speak some English and who is happy to work part-time. Tough call, but we think we found just the right person!!! She is an outgoing Japanese woman who has lived in New Zealand in the past, and she has an interest in cooking, nutrition and tourism. The perfect fit. The relief is palpable…

The weather here remains very cold, with night time temperatures being in the mid to low single digit range, but still above zero – not for long. As I suspected, it appears that we may get some early snow, as early as next week. The forecast is for snow-rain (my name for it) next Tuesday. Going out in the cold, even in snow-rain, isn’t too bad as long as you are fully puffed up 😊 and as long as it isn’t windy. The wind can cut right through you…brrrrrrrr.

On the manshon front, this month we are the official crownet monitors, which involves us bringing in the net once the garbos have been and collected our rubbish. Not a very prestigious appointment but they obviously consider it a very important duty, so much so that a roster has been created – one month for each flat, on a rotating basis – and a special sign made which is now hanging on our front door so everyone knows who to blame if it is not done.

The kids are definitely enjoying the cooler weather, with the two boys playing chasey either with each other or with one of the small toys we have bought for them. Zowie has also discovered the magnets on the fridge, which provide a lot of amusement for him, sliding them around on the fridge. Serena, meanwhile, just looks on with disdain at all their antics.

The autumnal colour continues to hold, but not for much longer, and unfortunately I have been unwell for the last few days (yes, a second viral infection in quick succession – hopefully, this is it for the year…) and so haven’t been able to get out and find more places to photograph in their technicolour overlay. The first photo here is the hillside just behind where The House is. The last photo shows a view north up the Kamogawa to the hills, with the sun highlighting a beautifully coloured strip of the hills. The photo unfortunately doesn’t quite capture fully the splendour of the scene.

On a final note, in the theme of interesting facts about Japan and Kyoto, specifically, apparently there is a ‘cursing industry’ in Kyoto. It seems the people in Kyoto have always regarded unfortunate events like natural disasters or epidemics or defeat in political power games as something of a curse and hence the need for practitioners who are able to remove said curses, or place them elsewhere, as necessary.

I think I mentioned that the Kitano Tenmangu shrine was founded to assuage the curse of Sugawara no Michizane (845-903), the scholar-politician who fell out of favour with the emperor and died in exile. The nobles back then treasured yin-yang practitioners who used ‘jujutsu’, or the art of cursing, and obviously made use of their services.

There are many advertisements online here offering to put a curse on someone, including the Nippon Jujutsu (Japan Cursing Association), which has its headquarters in Kyoto. A local paper has written an article on the practice and noted that one of the practitioners of this organisation said that the nature of requested curses was changing. “Around 20 years ago, most of the requests came from women who wanted to get back at their husbands’ lovers. But now, they’re more and more becoming men who hate their boss.”!!!!! (Wouldn’t you want a curse on the recalcitrant husband???). Times change…

Well, that’s it for now.

Cheers

 (Ginko leaves line a path)

(xmas rabbits, squirrels and…ferrets …??)