Hello one and all and welcome to episode 22 of the recurring “Year 2 in Kyoto” series, avidly (ok, maybe slightly keenly) read by nearly 50 people! I find myself back in front of the keyboard after only 1 week, despite my somewhat impaired state. When I say that, I mean that it is surprising that I have anything to talk about, since we haven’t been doing overly much. I don’t have any more really exciting news (ie, that we have sold the flat, or we have suddenly had an influx of bookings), at this stage, but we remain hopeful of more movement on these in the near future.

The very hot weather really seems to have passed now. Having said that, the estimated max. today is 35C, however, this is the hottest day for a week now, and the seven day forecast is all low to mid 30s. We also have had a couple of good thunderstorms (finally) and some rain. The only slight issue with the rain is that it happened to be the day of the Diamonji bonfires, so we decided not to go and sit on a roof in the rain (also, my toe was hurting due to me doing a little too much the day before…).

We have had one ‘touristy’ outing this week – yesterday we went to see a teamLab installation at a shrine. What’s teamLab, you say? Well, according to their website they are “an art collective, interdisciplinary group of ultratechnologists whose collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, design and the natural world. Various specialists such as artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects form teamLab.” Hhhhmmm. From my perspective, they do amazing installations and create works of art using light. Very often the installations are interactive, so the viewer can have some input into how the light is used and acts and can sometimes add their own illustrations to the installations.

We saw an ad for this installation at Shimogamo jinja and took the opportunity to visit it, since they don’t have many installations in Kyoto. It is entitled “Resisting and Resonating Ovoids and Forest and Floating, Resonating Spheres – Shimogamo Shrine”. As the title indicates, there are many egg shaped and spherical objects of varying sizes made out of a material that is somewhat soft and rubbery, and these are placed around the shrine, along the road to the shrine through the forest and in the forest itself.

We decided to go to the shrine during the day, so we could see what it was like and get some daytime photos, for reference. The shrine is one of the oldest in Japan, having been founded in the 6^th century. It is situated in a forest named Tadasu no Mori, which encompasses approximately 12.4 hectares and is preserved as a national historical site. It is the last remnant of a primeval forest which is left to grow in its natural state. It is neither planted nor pruned, which is quite unusual in Japan.

What a lovely setting and it is a nice shrine to visit, not just for the teamLab installation. The area around the forest is a very pleasant suburban area too, consisting of especially nice homes and streets – some dishevelled looking places too, however mostly an area that would be nice to live in. We visited a café in the area so I could have a bit of a rest, off my feet (toe) and to wait for the evening to draw nigh. It was in a bookstore and had a somewhat dreamy, 1970s feel to it – different to Starbucks!

After this, we went to eat at a vegan ramen restaurant located nearby, known as Towzen (and Mamezen – not sure why it has two names). Some of our guests had been there previously and said it was very good, so we thought we would take the chance to try it while we were in the area. There are not overly many items on the menu but what we had was very nice and not too expensive. It is worth the travel to get there, just for the fact that vegan, or even vegetarian, ramen is a very unusual thing here.

 the entry to Towzen

 a local spy watching us eat…

We didn’t rush our meal, because we thought we would have time to get back to the shrine and then wander around comfortably in the warm evening. We didn’t expect overly many people there because it wasn’t the first night, it was a Monday night and just after the end of Obon. It was a nice night, with a very pleasant breeze. So we ambled back to the shrine, to find a massive queue with thousands of people waiting to get in…I have to admit, I was tempted to just turn around and go home, assuming we would be in the queue for at least an hour, but we stayed, and waited.

As it happened, the queue moved reasonably quickly and were in after around 30-40 minutes. Unfortunately, some of the installation was not working, with the first 200 metres, or so, in darkness. In the distance, though, you could see coloured lighting in the trees overhead. The race to get photos once we reached the lit area was fairly frenetic and we had to wait our turn to get any photos without multiple people in front of the giant eggs in the forest.

The changing colours and the egg shapes made the forest look somehow otherwordly, more like a place where very large creatures were putting their eggs for incubation and the music being played added to the effect. It would be wonderful to wander around there with fewer people – significantly fewer – but then large crowds are generally a fact of life here. I had to be very careful in the dark to make sure I didn’t end up with my toe being knocked or trodden on.

Once past the forest walk, through the tori into the shrine compound, the eggs which were all corralled during the day had been spread out. It really was ethereal, despite all the people and the shrine gates and buildings. The giant romon gate looked even more spectacular lit up and with giant, coloured eggs in front. Within the gated area there were many giant spherical shapes, which floated above the ground attached to weights on the ground. It was interesting watching people interacting with these shapes, like a playground for young and old. Some of the eggs and the spheres changed colour when they were bumped or hit, while all of the others changed colour in a more regular way.

It really was worth the queuing and the unexpected extra time I spent standing and walking (which meant I was in a fair amount of pain by the time we got home) and the ¥1,000 entrance fee. I’m glad we went and that I can rest today!!!!

That’s all for now – oh, just one thing I forgot, we received some flowers yesterday, just before we left for the shrine, from our lawyer wishing us the all best now that we have our licence. A thoughtful and considered surprise – most of the flowers and leaves in the arrangement are from Australia, including some gumnuts!

Cheers!!!!!

Not sure if this dog is famous

 ??? Not sure

  Reid????

 Before

 After – slightly different angle…

 Crepe Myrtle time