Hi all, here I am again, in front of the keyboard and thinking about the last couple of weeks. My first thought is that it has been quite cool. I mentioned last time that it had suddenly become cooler and this has not changed since. Some days have had a maximum below 20C and we have had a few sub 10C nights. This has come with consequences; the Autumn colour has started early – very early. For those amongst you who are planning to visit Japan in the next few weeks (and I know at least one member of the reading audience is 😊), DON’T PANIC! It should be at peak colour in about two weeks.

This is nearly one month earlier than last year, which is strange, considering summer was long and HOT. Perhaps there is a set amount of heat available here and we used up most of it for summer, so we have gone straight to cooler weather…OK, just kidding, but it certainly feels like that.

During this period we had another couple staying with us, a young couple from the UK, who were really lovely. After they had left we found two origami butterflies (one large and one small) in their room with a wonderful thankyou note. It’s people like these that really do make it worthwhile. Somewhat different to the previous guests, who we haven’t heard from since (thankfully – although, as I said last time, the woman was a very nice person).

Early last week we met up with the buyer of our flat, again, and received the second instalment of the purchase price. We were also told that she had now sold her flat in Tokyo and so would be able to pay us the final instalment early December. As a result, we are today awaiting the delivery of a washing machine for our minshuku laundry (which we will now be able to call a laundry, not just “this will be a laundry room one day”) and two more light fittings, which will complete all the rooms, in terms of lighting. We still have to get the rest of the bedding and other items needed to complete the final two rooms.

Before I get onto the main outing we have had this fortnight, one thing I didn’t mention in my last post was a visit to the Kyoto local crafts museum, which was well worth the visit and very difficult to come out of empty handed. This building is around the corner from the MOMAK and for some reason we had never been inside. So, we took the opportunity to visit when we went to the MOMAK to buy two Higashiyama Kaii prints, which are now hanging proudly in our upstairs hallway.

The building itself is also interesting

As it happened, on the day we went there, there was a world gem stone fair happening in a huge auditorium on the ground floor, as well as an exhibition put on by the Kyoto City Dohda Senior High School of Art. I managed to get out of the fair with just a small purchase, but was sorely tempted by some of the beautiful amethysts…

The art exhibition was absolutely stunning and appeared to be an annual display of the students’ major works. Some of the exhibits, which included the eight majors of art and design studied at the school, had awards on them, so we assumed there was some judging of the pieces within the eight areas at some point. The school is a specialist art high school which was founded in 1880 in the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Over the years the name has changed slightly and the venue, but it has existed since that time. What a fantastic way to nurture future artists!

Last week, on Halloween, we decided to visit the shrine which is dedicated to Oda Nobunaga (his body was never found), a daimyo who was responsible for the start of the process of unifying Japan. The daimyo were powerful Japanese feudal lords who basically disappeared in the early Meiji period (the late 1800s). Nobunaga is also known for his brutal suppression of determined opponents, including the thousands of monks and civilians living on Mt Hiei, so it seemed somehow appropriate to visit this shrine for Halloween.

(Before I go on, I would like to point out that the photos I took on this day were taken with a new phone I bought (due to my other phone gradually becoming unusable) and it was the first time I had used to phone for this purpose. As a result, the quality of some of the photos is a little less than desirable. Another learning experience.)

The shrine is located on top of a hill known as Mt Funaoka, although it isn’t overly high. It was a pleasant walk up to the shrine, as it is still wooded and there were very few people around. The hill itself is long and fairly narrow and is oriented in an east/west direction. It is said it was used as a reference point when Kyoto was laid out as the new capital in 794.

It has also been strategically important over the years, being used as the site for the military base of the west army during the Onin Wars and another important battle was fought there decades later. Years later the land was donated to Daitoku-ji temple and in 1931 was opened as Funaokayama Park, used for recreational purposes.

Following our exploration of Funaokayama, we went to visit nearby Imamiya shrine and Daitokui-ji temple. Imamiya shrine was originally established in 994 for people to pray for safety from an epidemic of the times and has subsequently evolved into a shrine where people can pray for general good health. It too is located within a forest and is a really picturesque shrine – a nice place to stay away from epidemics…

Craig and I had been to Daitoku-ji before, but the day we visited was quite wet, so we thought it would be nice to see it sans umbrellas. We also had by-passed one of the garden areas, so we took this opportunity to look inside. Daitoku-ji is a very large Zen Budhhist complex, covering 23 hectares, and is laid out with many wooded areas. It is a very peaceful place to be, despite being in the middle of an urban area. The inner garden we went into was worth the price to get in but, unfortunately, you are not allowed to take photos inside, which we were reminded of many times (despite having put away our photographic devices)!

Before I sign-off, I thought I might mention the amount of damage that we, and our guests, are seeing at various sights across Kyoto, inflicted by Typhoon 21. We have seen many roofs with damage, especially roofs of temples and shrines which are missing tiles, and we are seeing very significant damage to trees, the majority of which are large trees. Some are completely blown over, others missing limbs and yet others literally snapped in half. Work is ongoing to remove the damage, but there is so much it is taking a long time to cut down and store the remains these trees. Everywhere we are seeing huge piles of wood.

A roof without a base – not sure what happened to it

The other night we saw a program on tv which showed the damage wreaked at Kurama-dera, on Mt Kurama. This is one of my favourite temples and one of my favourite walks climbing up to the temple, near the top of the mountain. They said that around 500 trees had been significantly damaged or brought down. We only knew it had been closed to the public when a guest (who I had directed there) returned and said the train didn’t go all the way to the Kurama station, stopping at the station before and the temple was closed. The show said that the cable car at the temple had that day been re-opened to take people up to the main part of the complex, but they didn’t expect to re-open the walk-way until early next year.

On that sad note, I bid you adieu.

Cheers

Halloween costumes for your pets

and that’s it for Halloween – this year

Close up details

A stray cat at Funaokayama that looked a lot like Zowie

H&C immortalised on Google Street View!!! (with blurry faces)