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!