First, they brought us The Earthquake (and the natural sequel: The Aftershocks). Then they brought us The Rain (with the follow-ups: The Floods and The Landslides). Now they bring us The Heatwave – the hottest epic of them all! Also the longest, as we are now coming up to two weeks of continuous heat with all days recording maxima in excess of 35C – and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight, with at least the next seven days showing expected maxima of 35C+.

Kyoto has been one of the hottest places in Japan, although we haven’t reached 40C, as some places in nearby Gifu prefecture have. The hottest day in Kyoto, to date, was last Thursday when the temperature reached 39.8C, which is the highest temperature ever recorded in Kyoto (there was one other day in the 90s, I think, which also had a recorded maximum of 39.8C). In fact, during this period, we had seven days in excess of 38C – yesterday was the first day under 38C, at 37.7C.

As you can imagine, there have been quite a few heatstroke related deaths, with mostly the young and elderly being affected. There have also been thousands of hospital admissions across the heat affected areas of Japan. There has been one group of people who have been particularly affected; men in their 80s. A number have been found unconscious in their fields, or gardens, who subsequently died. There are also those who have refused to use air conditioners and who have succumbed to the heat.

So, nature really has been throwing everything at us over the last two months. Western Japan has been particularly hard hit, with the clean up from the floods and landslides continuing, and during this extreme heat. The only thing that has made it slightly easier to bear is that it is not as humid as it would normally be this month. Ironically, after all the rain we had recently, we are now having to water our plants every day.

Despite the heat, we are still having to go out on occasion to purchase food, etc. Along with my parasol, we are both taking fans with us and Craig has now bought a hat! We also decided to have two outings which were mainly for interest, despite the heat (both days were during the period of heat over 38C). Call us crazy, and at times I did think that maybe we had been a little crazy to go out, but in the end it was worth it just to get out for a while and see the sights.

This month is Gion Matsuri month, during which various events are held, including two parades of the yama (the smaller floats) and the hoko (the big floats – up to 25 metres tall and up to 11 tonnes). During the three days preceding each of the the parades, the yama and hoko are displayed in the streets near the centre of town. While they are on display, some of the floats can be entered by tourists and stalls are set up in the areas nearby which have some interesting items. After 6pm the streets are closed off to traffic around the floats and the whole area becomes a huge outdoor food and drink fest.

Our first outing was to see some of the floats and to buy a new chimaki, a traditional good luck charm related to the Gion Matsuri. Chimaki are generally hung above the front door, and are considered to bring good luck, prosperity and a long, healthy life. I wanted to get one for our new abode, because they really are part of the local landscape and a little bit of good luck for our business won’t go astray!

We wandered around the floats for a short while, bought a chimaki and then went into a store which specialises in yukata, kimono and obi. I wanted to buy a pre-tied obi and thought this shop may be a good bet. There is a local matsuri coming up where it is traditional to wear yukata for the occasion, and the last time I wore a yukata it was very difficult tying the obi, so I thought I’d take the easy way 😊. Anyway, I found what I wanted and while we were there Craig took the opportunity to look at what they had for men. We found one yukata which had bats on it – so, we just had to get it!!!

Coincidentally, as it happens, a few days later the nice lady who lives in the flats next door and who can speak some English came to our front door with a gift for us. One of her friends had been in the parade – one of the musicians playing flute in the front hoko float, and he had given her some things from the festival. These included a couple of chimaki. So, she decided to give us one of these chimaki for our minshuku front door. So now we have one above our minshuku front door and one on our private entrance door (there wasn’t any way to put it above the door).

 Our door

While it was a fruitful outing, it was hot, so we decided not to go to the first of the parades, instead choosing to sit in the air conditioned comfort of our home and watch it live on tv. It was very interesting seeing the parade this way because you actually got to see more of the whole procession, along with the rituals, and up close. I took some photos from tv, although while they do show some detail you can’t see from one place in the crowd, they are not as clear as being there.

The other benefit of watching the parade on tv was getting some of the history of the event, including some photos from the early 1900s. The floats have not changed much over time, just the landscape around the parades. My favourite photo is the one where you can see some boys viewing the parade from the absolute safety of a power pole and the wires…

The other outing was to a craft market which is held on the 15th of every month at the Chionji temple. There are handmade arts, crafts and foods sold from over 150 stalls, with most of the stalls run by the people who make the wares. There was a wide variety of items, although some classes of items were more common, such as jewellery and pottery. It was one of those places where it would be very easy to spend quite a bit of money…but due to the heat, we didn’t linger overly long; we used this first visit as more of a reccy. I really do love markets and Kyoto has a few very good ones.

(all photos sourced from the internet, our phones died too quickly in the heat)

After we left the market, we decided to find somewhere to sit down, have a drink and cool down. As it happens there is a falafel café in that area, so we thought we would try it out. The food was very nice, although it took quite a while for it to get to us. We had ordered falafel with baba ganoush and wondered if they had to make that on the spot, given it is not a well known food here. Anyway, we needed quite a bit of time to get our core temperatures down, so it wasn’t an issue.

Well, that’s it for this episode.

Cheers!

one of the rituals – presenting the papers for the float to a Shinto priest. The rope had to be undone and done up using a folded fan. I wonder how long they have to practice???

dancing on bitumen in 35C heat…hhhmmmm

one of the puppets on the floats being manipulated

the front of a boat shaped float which is the last float of the parade

examples of decorations for a yama float

One of my hydrangeas which seems to be enjoying the heat!? It has doubled in size in the last two weeks and looks like flowering again…

So, I start talking about rain and also the final (we hoped) aftershocks, and in response it seems the environment takes it as a challenge…

Hi all, I am writing a post now even though there isn’t that much to cover, mainly because we have had a few people asking if we are ok because they have heard of the recent floods here. Firstly, yes, we are fine, although we are starting to wonder if we really are being tested to see how we cope with as many natural forces as can be thrown at us.

The rain started on Monday, but really hit it’s straps on Thursday, with 171mm recorded in Kyoto. Late that night, just before midnight, we received a WhatsApp message from our builder’s interpreter that an evacuation order had been sent out for our area. In fact, it had been sent out for a large part of Higashiyama and Fushimi on our side of the hills and on the other side of the hills, including where the interpreter lives, ie a large part of the areas along the foothills in the east. The problem was that the recent earthquakes could have loosened the soil along the hills, then adding the rain on top of that was causing a very high risk of landslide.

Hard to think about evacuating in the middle of the night! Anyway, we did a general reccy, including checking whether any of our neighbours had made any moves, and came to the conclusion we would stay put. Part of our reasoning included the fact that the evacuation centre is around 100 metres away from our house (which we assumed must be safe enough otherwise they wouldn’t send us there), also there are about six buildings between us and the undeveloped, natural parts of the hills, including a two storey concrete built block of flats next door.

The next day around 111 mm of rain fell, with the following day about 70mm. We did consider that the risk must be increasing as more heavy rain fell, so we checked with a nearby neighbour who speaks English about his thoughts re evacuating. He said he was a bit unsure too and would check with others. Later he replied indicating that one of the neighbours that had come to brunch with us had gone to the evacuation centre to check what was happening there and found that only 24 people had spent the night.

I have to say that if our home was right next to the natural areas, my decision making would have resulted in a different action. Ultimately, to date, nothing significant has happened here – we did find that part of the shrine at Tofukuji had collapsed, but that was quite minor. The story has been very different in other areas, particularly Hiroshima prefecture. Landslides seem to happen there every year, but it has been reported that this year has been the worst in decades. Overall, the death toll from landslides and flooding has reached over 100 people so far.

On Sunday we awoke to a lovely blue sky and felt much relieved. It also meant that we could finally go back to Tofukuji to see how the lotus pond was going. We decided not to walk the back way there, via the hills!! Interestingly, as soon as the rain stopped the hot and humid weather returned immediately. So, instead of walking and being drenched in rain (as we did one of the days because we had to get supplies, ie food and drink), we went back to walking puddles. On one of the wet days that we went out, we took a slight detour to see the Kamo river, because we had see it how t looked as it was very high on tv.

The shinkansen stationary on the bridge!

 From the internet

The water had risen so much it was over the walkways along the edge of the river, which are normally well above water level. One woman said that she had lived near the Kamo for over 30 years and had never seen it as high. The other river in Kyoto which had risen dramatically was the river that passes through the Arashiyama area. The footage on tv showed that the bridge there had been closed to both traffic and pedestrians, and in fact it had burst it’s banks within the popular tourist area.

 From the internet

After we came home from Tofukuji we pottered around the house, eat lunch and planted the nandina we had bought (because we had been told that it is a plant that is considered as somewhat of a ‘good neighbour’ plant). It is considered a lucky plant and is generally planted in the south west corner of the house. As we were cleaning up, there was a sudden loud rattling and rumbling noise…Yes, another earth tremor, eleven days after the last one, and after me saying they seemed to be over, it happened again. I only hope it doesn’t add to the likelihood of landslide in the next few days.

In relation to our Tofukuji visit, there were some flowers open – some past their best, some about to open and many, many more coming on. So, not quite the spectacle I had hoped for, but then I was most worried the massive amount of rain may have done significant damage. While we were taking photos a small blue Kingfisher flew threw and I was able to get a few shots of it, even though it was tiny. I also captured a tortoise and a couple of the dragonflies, so not too bad overall.

Well, that’s been our week; another testing time, but not unsurprising in a country that is fairly frequently beset by natural disasters.

Cheers for now!!!

Tiny mushrooms in the moss – my camera struggled to get them!

Hello all, tis me back at the keyboard again – a lot less shaken, although maybe still a bit stirred. It has now been around five days since the last aftershock (touch wood!), of which we ended up having around 11. There were two bigger ones, both unfortunately during the middle of the night. The first one I mentioned in my last post and happened on the night of the initial earthquake. The second happened over a week later – it was a different kind of quake, being more of a big shunt with some upward movement, rather like something very big had run into the front of our home. All the others were more ‘rattlers’.

I should also say that even though what I wrote last time sounded like Craig was doing an “every man for himself’” run for the back door, he wasn’t, he was just looking around to see what was happening and making sure there was a clear egress. We have all now settled down more, with the kids mostly back to normal (no more big saucer eyes), although they are more affectionate than usual, seeking out comfort. As for myself, I find that I am still a bit oversensitive to rumbles, which we get a lot of here from the trains going through the nearby tunnels.

 Zowie relaxes

Moving on, firstly to the weather, we are now firmly into the summer ‘walking puddle’ heat and humidity. We have had a few thunderstorms in the last week (which makes me happy) and we are getting quite a lot of rain. On some days we are having more than the average rainfall for the whole month of June in Adelaide! The interesting thing is that we have already had a few days over 35, which is somewhat unusual here this early in summer. Other indicators of summer; the dragonflies are out and about and today we heard the first cicadas of the season.

 Dragonfly lands near me

One very positive aspect of the climate here is that plants grow very fast. We have managed to plant out quite a few vegetables and herbs, along with my fledgling hydrangea collection (two plants). Our first crop was sugar snap peas, which were lovely and we were able to use them to feed friends when they stayed earlier this year. Now we are cropping greens of various kinds, along with mint, thyme and shiso (perilla). The broken case that was left behind by one of our friends is working a treat as a veggie patch (thanks Jenny!!) and we have some large pots, some of which we brought from Adelaide (our pottery neighbours have been very interested in them – you don’t get many very large pots like them here). Last night Craig brought in some figs from the tree in the wall and this morning he brought in the first two cucumbers from our plant!

The other ‘hot’ topic is, of course, the #*$@&! Hotel licence. A few of you, dear readers, did ask what was happening about the licence, since I didn’t mention it last time. Well, I have to say it was somewhat deliberate, what with the seismic activities causing some tension, I didn’t want to raise my blood pressure even more by consciously thinking about it! Anyway (gritting teeth), previously we had had our not so BIG meeting with the neighbours and we had met with a commercial waste collector and we thought that we had fully satisfied everything we needed to for the final application. Not so.

We received an email on the Saturday night of the following week, saying we needed to have an actual contract signed with the waste collection company (even though we had been told providing the name of the company would be enough) and then we had to provide details of conversations with our near neighbours (within a 10 metre radius of our property, in all directions) and what their opinions of our business plans were (positive, complaints or no real opinion). As you can imagine, receiving this went down like a lead balloon, especially as we could do nothing to organise the preparation and signing of a contract until Monday morning, at the earliest. I think I went to around 200 over 150!!!!

On the Wednesday, we had the very nice woman and her small tip truck back here again, this time to formalise our agreement in a contract. Once that was completed, we walked around with Takako to try to talk to those close neighbours we hadn’t met or seen. The interesting thing was finding that someone actually did live in the house near our back yard, when we had never seen anyone go into or come out of the house. A youngish and very pallid man answered the door and didn’t really want to interact with us, however Takako managed to pique his interest enough, as he closed the door, that he came outside to see where our house was. Apparently he didn’t realise it was there, or what we were planning (which he didn’t really seem to care about). He appeared to me to be one of the increasing number of people, particularly young men here, who essentially cut themselves off from the world and remain a recluse in their own home – he wouldn’t give us his name. He really was very pale, with almost translucent white skin.

So, having done all this, we duly sent off an email with all the details needed and waited. And waited. We finally received an email some days later indicating the scrivener was going to submit the application as soon as possible, after he returned to Kyoto (from Tokyo). Late last week we finally received an email saying that the application had been submitted and that someone from the regulatory authority would be visiting our minshuku on the following Monday. Also, we had to put up a number of signs in each of the rooms and the ‘common’ area, which were written in English, Chinese and Korean, explaining how not to be a bad guest.

Obviously these signs had been created with Airbnb style accommodation in mind, because they referred to cooking and turning off gas stoves, not drying your clothes on heaters and appropriately disposing of your rubbish, etc. I’d be interested to see if the Four Seasons or the Hyatt have these signs up! Anyway, we did as we were told and yesterday a woman arrived on a pushbike (again – do all public servants have to use pushbikes to do their jobs???? especially in 35 degree heat with over 80% humidity!). She spent most of her time here measuring windows, doors, entryways etc in the rooms, other entryways and the size of our reception counter (there is a minimum size requirement…), to check the plans provided were accurate.

She then asked us if we knew any yakuza (!!!!) and we had to fill out a form with our names, DOB, and what position we held in the company (boss 😊), which Takako kindly did for us as I am very slow at writing kanji. We also had to provide two copies of our booking terms and conditions in English and two copies of instructions of how to get here from the railway station, in English. After all of this, she said we would get our approval in around 42 days…☹. The scrivener said this was fast and seemed pleased. I tried to look pleased.

We had two outings during this period, one was back to Tofukuji to see if the lotus flowers had opened yet and the other was to a temple at Ohara, which is about 45 minutes drive outside of the city, in the mountains. The lotus pond at Tofukuji is very large and occupies the area in front of the large Sanmon gate of the temple. We know that it is a fairly small window during which the lotus are open and I was very keen to see the pond when they were in full bloom. Alas, it was not to be – there was, in fact, one solitary lotus flower open, so I took a photo of that and we are now trying to decide when to return. Hopefully the rain will subside enough later this week, once typhoon number 7 has passed. I only hope that the very heavy rain (rain that periodically stops) due over the next three days won’t damage the flowers. There were a few lotus open on the plants in large pots placed around the temple site, so I did get a few shots of those.

Our other outing required a longish drive out along the river and into the mountainous area of Ohara. What a beautiful area it is; lush and green and rather idyllic, except it gets very cold in winter, with quite a bit of snow. The temple itself is located on the side of a hill and involves a reasonable amount of uphill and stair climbing, but it is definitely worth it. As with most Buddhist temples, there is an intricately designed contemplation garden, which is one of the best ‘green’ gardens I’ve seen and there is a very large wooded area, with part of it being a moss garden, with a pond and waterfall and the other part a huge hydrangea garden. Yes, another one.

This garden, however, is on a massive scale and having the hydrangeas in amongst the trees along with other plants is wonderful. It was another hot and humid day, even out there in the mountains, nonetheless, we absolutely loved it. There also were some quirky things there, like the stone carved heads appearing to pop out of the ground and small statues of monks and other people lining some of the pathways. In some of the areas I could just imagine the fey folk dwelling in amongst the trees and shrubs.

One of the roads leading to the temple was lined with small shops selling local wares and foodstuffs, which was a pleasure to walk along. Had I had some spare cash (something in short supply at the moment) there were many things that would have sorely tempted me. As it was we did buy a few small items, including a handkerchief sized piece of towelling, which is very useful during the mushi mushi months (walking puddle time). We are looking forward to returning to Sanzen-in and seeing it at other times of the year, particularly autumn.

Where are we going to go next? Who knows, but looks like we’ll have some time on our hands for a while!

Cheers

 Advanced Moss Studio?

 Oh, so we don’t float?

 Cairn building in Japan

 Tanuki family

 Golf playing Tanuki