Hello and welcome to Year 3!!! My, doesn’t time fly…have I talked about that before? Oh well, time flies and takes some of your mind with it – or, is it getting to the point of being too full? I might have to do an archiving process 😊. So, here I am at the beginning of my third year here with the knowledge that this year is indeed going to be all about me, actually 2019 is the year of the pig and as I am a pig (or boar as the Japanese call it – if I call myself a pig they look at me blankly), it has to be a good year for me – right?

We have been quite busy recently, with many different things to do (bureaucracy), places to go and people to meet, along with the usual shopping outings. On one of our shopping outings, we took the opportunity to walk home via the Kiyomizu old shopping area where there is a lovely small garden in behind the shops. I have added photos of this garden in one of my previous posts, but this time we get the added bonus of autumnal colour.

We also took the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to go to the Ohara farmers market again while we had no guests staying here. Always a lovely place to go, with plenty of good produce and the bonus of being out in a mountainous area. Takako (our employee) wanted to go to the market to buy a brazier the same as one I had bought when we went there with our friends. Any excuse is good for us.

 Takako and daikon friend!

The night before we went to Ohara, we went to a vegan meet-up, organised by the Kyoto Vegan Meet-up Group, which we had discovered via Instagram. We had previously looked to see whether there was a Kyoto vegan group because we had found a Tokyo group and hoped to find one here that we could join, but without luck. Then fortuitously we found one while browsing through postings and our site.

The meet-up was held at Vegans Café, which is not normally open at night, with a cover charge of ¥3,000 each for all you could eat – and there was a lot of food. Before we went I had wondered if we would be amongst a group of Japanese people, with whom we would only be able to have brief conversations. It was not to be, however, as most of the people there were foreigners living in Japan. It turned out to be an even better networking opportunity than we thought, with the added bonus of a good meal!

The first round of food!

At the meet-up we met a woman living here who was in the process of setting up a website for vegan people living in Japan and visitors to Japan. A sort of practical guide to vegan life here. Anyway, she asked if she could do a story on us for her site, which of course we agreed to enthusiastically. In fact, we offered her 1 night’s free accommodation for both her and her friend who was coming to see her. We haven’t seen the story yet because she was returning to Germany shortly after for xmas and would not have time to work on it until later this month. Once it is posted I will add the address to my blog.

We also found another person via Instagram this month, who runs a vegan Japanese cooking class in Kyoto. I contacted her via her site to get some details for our guests and she offered to come to our place to meet us and deliver some flyers. Her name is Sakiko, she speaks fairly good English and she is a lovely person! She suggested that she could run a special class here, in our kitchen, if any guests were interested. We’re hoping she will have time to come here soon and run a class for us, so we can see how it goes.

Our brushes with bureaucracy involved both the Kyoto tax office and our immigration lawyer. Apparently all new buildings are visited by a tax official in the first year to check the building for valuation purposes to assess land and property tax. This must be a huge burden on the office, in terms of staff time, checking whether the building is as it is stated in the registration documents. He was a very nice man and he spent his time here checking the architectural plans and then going through the entire building checking what materials were used in the construction, etc. This kind of double checking would never happen in Australia, unless there was a really (really) good reason. The cost to government and, hence, taxpayers would be huge, for very little benefit.

In terms of our lawyer, we had to finalise the capitalisation of the company, which we were able to do once we received the final payment for our flat. We basically had to show we had credited the amount in the company bank account. Unfortunately it turned out to be a problem because we had deposited the cash via an ATM, with the dual purpose of counting the cash as it went in. The lawyer said we needed to show we had deposited the amount, personally, ie having our names against the transaction.

So, we had to go to the bank, withdraw the money, deposit it into our own accounts and then reverse the process, thereby having our names against the transactions. Hhhmmm. How to explain what we needed to do, and why, to the bank staff? Would they think we were crazy foreigners? Dodgy criminals? Just plain weird, or all of the above? Anyway, with the help of Takako we managed to get it done, and our lawyer was happy. It also cost us his fee and the capital input tax…yes, they tax money being put into a company here!

We have been able to do a few things since we received the money for our flat – Craig has bought a bike, I have joined a gym and we bought a new piece of furniture to house some of our ‘treasures’. As I sit here, I am well aware of my recent foray to the gym – to do a ballet class – thanks to the pain in my leg muscles! Yes, they have many different types of exercise classes, including a number of dance classes, such as hula, latin, hiphop, ‘freestyle’ and ballet. I was assuming the ballet class would be more like a barre class but, no, it was a full-on ballet class. It went for an hour and a half and I did many things I hadn’t done for many (many) years, including pirouettes (both en dehors and en dedans). Thankfully there was no grande jete or fouetté (apologies to those who don’t know what these are; basically the first is a leap and the second is turning on one leg with the other leg raised and ‘whipping’ around so that you turn. If you’ve ever seen Swan Lake, you’ll have seen many fouettes).

The final, and most important, outing that I am going to mention happened on 15 December – yes, it was our anniversary; 29 years together and 27 years married!!! Have I mentioned the whole time flying thing previously? We went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant to celebrate, for something a little different. We hadn’t booked, so had to wait over half an hour to be seated and it was somewhat cold sitting outside, but we were together and that’s all that really matters.

It must be love…😊.

Cheers

Have a Merry Addams Festive Solstice Season!!!

We entered a competition to win some veg products from America – and won!

The fireys training outside with their tiny trucks

Kawaii or kowai (scary)?

 Yayoi skateboards?

Now, where was I up to…? Ah, yes, re-visiting Fudo-myo, and watching him watch me. The next day’s schedule began with a bus ride to the Heian jinja and museum area. We started by going into the shrine and the lovely garden behind the shrine. It was a gloriously sunny day and perfect for wandering in a garden/park. We ended up sitting on the covered bridge, soaking up the sun, warmth and view. What a wonderfully peaceful and relaxing thing to do.

Once we awakened from our reverie, we went through a touristy shopping complex and then on to the Kyoto craft museum, where I spent some time imagining I had more money to buy, and the room to store, quite a few items. It’s nice to dream occasionally but the truth is I don’t actually need any of these items – it’s still fun to dream, though 😊.

Given it was a nice day, I had decided to walk back to the Gion area via the canal , which is also a pleasant way to spend time. We stopped part-way along the canal and had a drink at small café, sitting on some chairs outside. While we sat there, an elderly lady came out of the café, said hello to us and walked off. Around five minutes later she returned, gave us a bag of coffee lollies and then walked off in the opposite direction! Another example of the generosity of spirit that exists here in so many people.

Next morning was Sunday and so it was time to take our guests to the Ohara famer’s markets. Ohara truly is a lovey place, surrounded, as it is, by beautifully forested mountains. We went to both the markets, and ended up sitting drinking coffee and soaking up the atmosphere at both. We also bought some foodstuffs and had fun scouring the secondhand stall at the smaller market, making some wise (and very cheap) investments. My friend also bought and armful, or two, of flowers and foliage – and so, later that day, our dining room ended up looking somewhat like a florist.

After the markets, we continued on to Sanzen-in, walking up the pathway lined with small shops. While the hydrangea garden at the temple looked a little bedraggled, the Autumnal colour more than made up for that. It was fairly crowded there, being a Sunday, but still a very nice place to visit and spend some time walking around in nature. Again it was a sunny day and a most pleasant time was had by all.

While we were wandering around the Gion, we had noticed a poster for the Yayoi Kusama exhibition, which I had been to many months prior. The poster indicated that the exhibition had been extended and was currently still showing, so we decided we would take the opportunity to go while they were here. I am always happy to see her work, being one of my favourite artists, and there were a number of paintings and prints there that I wanted to see again. As it happened, the exhibits had been changed, including the large pumpkin outside which was now a red version. So, it was an entirely different exhibition and even had a large walk-through installation. A fantastic surprise.

From there, we took a bus to Nijo-jo, which is another place I am always happy to return to. One thing that always strikes me when I am showing people these places is how I can experience a new perspective through their eyes. By the time we had finished looking through Nijo-jo it was mid afternoon, even so, I thought it was worth going on to Kitano Tenmangu. As it turned out we didn’t end up having enough time to go into the wooded area, particularly as six busloads of people, mostly students, arrived as we were there.

Our final full day involved a sumptuous collection of temple gardens and Autumn colour. The colour was finally reaching peak perfection (although, it is still darkening up, even now). We first visited Kodai-ji, where I discovered one of the buildings had disappeared…Not sure why it was gone, but it looks like the replacement is going to be virtually identical, which makes me wonder if it was badly damaged by Typhoon 21.

After this, we went on to Nanzen-ji and then Eikando, a place I had never been before. All of these were visually superb and probably would have been enough in one day, but we had enough time to continue on along the Philosopher’s Path ending up at Ginkaku-ji. Stunning, not much more to say really.

 A sneaky shot

I know that the majority of the photos I am posting in this and my previous missive involve trees, sometimes with buildings as backdrops, but this time of year brings on a kind of warm-colour palette madness, I think. Even now, when we are walking back towards our home, with the hills as background, I don’t get tired of looking at the Autumn colour as it continues developing. While I always love Spring; the renewal of life and the prospect of the warm seasons, I actually have many more photos of Autumn here than the blossom – and I just love to inflict them on you!!!

So, that’s the end of this post and my second year here, but definitely not the end of Autumn, yet.

Cheers for now

My friend…

 Illumination at Kyoto station

  Oops