Australia, Vegan Minshuku Sanbiki Neko here. The Addams’ furniture has landed…I repeat, the furniture has landed.

Hello and welcome to Episode #9. Yet another largish gap between episodes, and again I did intend to get to it earlier but we have had a lot of things sort of dropped on us at the last minute in the last two weeks. As you will realise from the message above, one of those things was the sudden release and delivery of our goods and chattels. We received an email last Tuesday (13/3) to say they expected Customs to release our items the next day, and assuming this to be the case, they wanted payment for the extra work on the Wednesday and the delivery would be on Thursday morning (15/3).

As you can imagine, we went into overdrive to respond, organise the money transfer and prepare things here for the delivery. We also had an appointment on the Wednesday afternoon, which we had to prepare for (more about that later). The other issue was that we had arranged to have our (very delayed) one month car service on the Thursday morning, and we also had to pick up some lights we had ordered on that day!

On the morning we were expecting the truck at about 9:30 and we were concerned that the truck may not fit down our street. We had asked Crown three times to check that the truck would fit, but had not had an answer – so when they rang us to let us know that the money transfer was going through, Craig asked the man if it would be ok and he said he had told the movers to check it. Anyway, 9:30 passed with no truck, then 10:00, then we got a call saying they were at our flat!!!! For some reason they had chosen our flat address as the delivery address. Craig indicated their mistake and we became more concerned…

I went down to the closest intersection to our house which has roads with names (have I mentioned we live on a road with no name – connected to a road with no name??? There’s a song in that…) and waited, and waited. Thinking they must have got lost, I went back to our house where Craig said they were now on their way; they had had to ring the main office to confirm the correct address. As I was about to go back to the corner, a young guy walked up the road – he was one of the removalists and he was checking where our house was. I walked back with him and he confirmed our fears that the truck wouldn’t be able to drive up our street.

So the truck pulled up on the adjoining street and then we again waited, wondering if the delivery would have to be aborted. After some time (20 mins?) the leader of the removal crew came up to us and said they would do the delivery from the where they were. Then it started – I had to check off the items as they arrived and direct the removalists to where they should be put (at this point there were five people – we assume they called in help), while Craig went off to run the other errands. Now, I knew we had a lot of stuff, but the reality of 101 items arriving in fairly quick succession and trying to work out where they would fit was somewhat daunting. The good news was that it was a lovely day – warm and sunny.

Since then, our time has been divided between going out to get supplies and unpacking. We are struggling to work out where to put everything, however, it is very nice to have a couch to sit on and have the potential to decorate, when we finish unpacking. The couch does take up a lot of room, but it is comfortable and the kids are very happy to have it back – they have all taken up their previous positions on it. A couple of slight issues have arisen: we haven’t found the legs for my beloved coffee table yet; the trunk has been broken (and dodgily repaired by someone) on the concrete elephant; and it appears one of the eggshell china cups has disappeared from a tea set my mother gave me many years ago.

Moving back in time, we had the meeting for our neighbours on Saturday, 10/3, which morphed from an explanatory meeting where we were going to tell them how we are going to manage our minshuku (mainly in relation to noise and rubbish), to reassure them that we won’t be ruining their peace and creating a lot of mess, to one where we met most of the neighbours and our builder showed them through the minshuku areas. This change in plans happened on the Wednesday prior to the meeting, when our builder, his office assistant and the translator came to visit us because there seemed to be a bit of misunderstanding about exactly what our role was in this whole process (not caused by us). So, all of the work we had done to prepare, including writing up a flyer and distributing it, went by the wayside.

On the day, around twenty people turned up and it seemed to go well. We got very positive feedback about the minshuku facilities, so much so that we had a few enquiries about whether it would be ok for family members to stay here when they come to visit!! Interestingly, a few builders turned up (we aren’t sure whether they had just seen the sign outside or they had heard about it because they are doing some work on some houses nearby) and, according to Takako (our employee), they were checking things and touching things and commenting about how they might use the same finishes in their work!!!

After the meeting, we sat with Takako to finalise our application for the restaurant licence. Takako has been fantastic in helping us with this – she is very proactive, and has taken it upon herself to actually go to the health management department to check about some things and to make sure we are on the right track in the way we have been completing the forms. She was keen to get the application in, so we arranged to meet her on the Monday morning to put the application in.

On the Monday we went there and found the person who was in charge of our area was the same woman we had met previously and who was somewhat “difficult”. This time, however, she was really nice and very helpful. Takako told us afterward that she had called before going there to speak to her to let her know we were coming, because of what we had told her about our previous experience. The woman said she could come to check our kitchen facilities on the Wednesday (14/3), and we could give her one other document she needed at that time.

It was at this point we realised we would have to have a fridge in the kitchen for the inspection, which meant we had to go straight from that meeting to Yodobashi (a large electrical and other goods shop) to buy a fridge. We had the credit card we got through Toyota, so we were able to get it immediately. We were unsure at that stage what the repayments were for the card, but we really had no choice. As it turns out, the credit card only gives credit for two months, ie you have to pay the full amount in the second month after any purchases. Two hours later, we emerged with the items we needed bought along with a contract for connection to high speed optic fibre and internet connection!!? The service people took it upon themselves to see if would need it – which, of course, we do.

Interestingly, while many electrical appliances here are quite inexpensive, there are a few which are not and a fridge is one of them, being around 30% more than something fairly equivalent in Australia. We picked a Toshiba Vegeta fridge in part because it has a very large vegetable storage drawer and in part because it was at the lower end of the price scale. We also needed a water boiler and two lights, so got them all in the one place, although, as I mentioned earlier, we had to wait for the lights to come in. The fridge and boiler were delivered the next day, so we were able to have the inspection on the Wednesday, as planned.

On the Wednesday we made sure everything was clean and sparkling (of course) and the woman arrived (by bike) at the arranged time. Takako was running a bit late, so we showed her the kitchen, which she ticked off very fast and said it was very clean. She was the nicest person, it is hard to believe she was so “difficult” the first time we met. Having finished so fast, we asked her if she would like to see the rest of the facilities, which she was keen to do. She was very impressed and said it looked very nice. Interestingly, she bowed before one of the ukiyo-e (Japanese prints) we had in the large room. When Takako arrived she spoke with her for a little while and we were told we would receive confirmation of the approval of our restaurant licence next week!!! 😊

Another hurdle cleared, with two more major hurdles to go – the hotel licence and the sale of our flat (for those inclined, any positive thoughts in that direction would be most appreciated!!).

One thing I haven’t really mentioned in this post, or the last, is the weather. It is definitely feeling like spring now. We are having some days of low 20s, interspersed with some cooler and wet weather, but overall it is much better for me now. Walking in the warm sunshine (and interestingly, when I say warm now, even 15 feels warm to me) is such a pleasure. I look forward to the first day I can wear a t-shirt, which won’t be too long now. One other thing about the weather warming up like it has, the cherry blossom is very close to opening here, with the blossom season officially being called in Tokyo yesterday – it has warmed up there a bit faster than here.

(the one on the right is a magnolia)

Well, that’s it for now – cheers!

We allowed the kids to explore a bit after the difficult day of the delivery. Zowie got to the top of the stairs, then chickened out…

Is it time yet?

My new friend

…and the best laid plans…

I had planned to write this next post on the weekend, however, we had some unexpected work we had to attend to – making preparations for the community meeting we have to have as part of our hotel application, trying to decipher a form we have to complete parts of and preparing multitudinous attachment documents. Apparently the procedure to apply for a hotel licence has recently become more complex, mainly due to citizen complaints about minpaku(s).

You may remember that a minpaku is where private lodging space is rented out to tourists, generally through AirBnB. This may be in the form of a room or rooms in a family home, a whole flat or small building/house. The majority of difficulties have occurred where the minpaku does not have any owner/manager on-site, and I think this is reflected in other areas world wide. The renters can be loud, or dispose of rubbish inappropriately or cause other issues for neighbours.

So the new procedure includes neighbourhood consultation, even though we are applying to run a ‘supervised’ facility. It also includes consulting with all schools within 500 metres, because there will be strangers coming into the area. We had thought our builder would run the community meeting, however, it has been handed over to us. So we had to create and distribute flyers advertising the event on the weekend, and will have to take the details of attendees and run the meeting.

A recent complicating factor in the whole minpaku saga has been a case of an American staying in a minpaku in Osaka who met up with a young Japanese woman he had been corresponding with on social media. He then proceeded to murder her, dismember her and distribute her body parts around different areas, including in the ward (suburb) next to ours, in Kyoto prefecture. We knew something was up when five police helicopters started circling over the hills very near to our house about a week ago. They continued this for over an hour. Evidently her legs were found there.

In relation to the Customs hold-up of our personal effects, we are still waiting to hear the final outcome. We received a seven and a half page list of the offending items, which included an estimated value assigned by the people from Crown. So, we didn’t have to do it ourselves, although we had to go through it to see if we agreed with their estimated values. I’m not sure on what basis they did this, but for the most part the values were reasonable. So we did agree and asked them to proceed. This was a week ago, so when we hadn’t heard anything as of Monday we sent an email to enquire about the outcome – and they told us that Customs have now sent our effects to be checked by quarantine…When will it end and why didn’t they start that earlier?

On a lighter note, we actually took some time out during this period to participate in a guided tour around the Nishijin district, which is the famous textiles area in Kyoto. A series of ten tours had been organised by the Kyoto government as trial to see if they were popular enough to continue on an ongoing basis, and for a fee. A friend of ours here, Sara, was one of the tour guides and she contacted us to see if we would be interested.

  Sara

Nishijin weaving originated in the Heian period, over 1,200 years ago, and the district is where the very spectacular textiles for kimono and obi have traditionally been created. The tour included a factory with old hand operated looms where they still make many Noh costumes and a museum named the Orinasu-kan which has displays of some restored Noh costumes, some wedding kimono and other examples of the traditional textiles. We also walked around the district looking at the machiya and the temples and shrines built by the people of the Nishijin district. It was a very nice distraction, especially as I love textiles, particularly Japanese textiles. I bought an antique obi many (many) years ago and still have it (well, Customs currently has it; not that I’m fixated) and I hope to have it displayed here eventually.

One thing we noticed as we walked around, is that the plum blossom is opening everywhere now – mainly the very intense pink and dark pink/purple varieties. So, it won’t be too long until the cherry blossom starts. They have said it is going to be early this year, so will be in bloom by the end of this month. Definitely something to look forward to.

(The last two photos are of a Buddhist temple where you go to get rid of pain or suffering, hence the symbolism of the pliers for removing things)

We continue to enjoy living in our new home, with different things really standing out. The heated floor is a particular favourite, both with us and the kids. It is set to come on a 4:30 at the moment, and the kids certainly are aware of this and take their positions to enjoy the warmth at around that time. Another thing that is very apparent is the difference the double glazing makes in keeping the inside space warmer.

(Ziggy also tried out the bathroom basin)

One other thing that has become apparent – there is a local ginger cat which seems to have this block as part of it’s territory. Initially, it just sat outside the back fence and looked in, but on about the third day of this behaviour we suddenly heard cat growling noises and found the ginger cat on our back deck, right outside our back sliding doors. Ziggy was not impressed. Serena has also had her turn at facing off, as it has been coming here every day, generally in the morning. Zowie hasn’t shown overly much interest. I think he is happy to not be involved in the kinds of spats he used to have when he was an outdoor cat in Adelaide.

On a final note, I came across an article in one of the Japanese papers we read about the love of mascots that pervades Japan. Mascots are known as yuru-kyara (“loose” or “relaxed” characters), and are ubiquitous in Japan. They are used to promote everything from soap, food and train lines, to regions of Japan and even prisons. They come in every conceivable shape and size, including some very bizarre creations, such as Jimmy Hattori, a ninja with a large pink condom on his head…

In some areas there are perhaps too many, so much so that in Osaka they have proposed a cull of some of the local yuru-kyara. This has spurred a public outcry and intense debate over which mascots should have their lives spared. Competition between yuru-kyara is fierce. While some mascots may be approved and promoted, their livelihoods depends on their popularity. It’s a challenge to win the public’s heart by finding the perfect balance between cute and memorable.

 Funassyi – a pear…

 Katakkuri chan – a prison mascot

This is why some yuru-kyara creators have started making characters kimo-kawaii (gross-cute). The strategy seems to work, as both media and tourists alike can’t get enough of these gross-cute characters, such as Meron-kuma a bear with a melon head:

One mascot, however, became very well known for all the wrong reasons:

For my money, a ninja with a condom on his head beats them all!!!

Cheers for now 😊

Photo for our website of the large guest room

Attached to the outside wall of a house nearby