April | 2019 | Addams in Kyoto

…and another month rolls by. This time we have been very busy, while at the same time I have been somewhat unwell. On the business side, we have had some interesting guests, some taking up quite a lot of our time, and we finally had a full house! All five of our rooms were occupied for a few days, and otherwise we have had most occupied, Along with this, we have had a friend from Australia staying in our spare room. While all this was happening, I was carrying a cold which lasted around three weeks. Poor Craig had to carry the full load for a few days, thankfully however, Takako was able to came in and help us on a few days, despite having had a run in with a bike.

Weatherwise it has been rather up and down again. Some fairly cool days under 10C max, and then we have had some glorious days over 20C. The blossom is now very close to the peak and there are many, many people out enjoying hanami (literally flower viewing). Luckily, we have been able to take the opportunity to go out and do some viewing ourselves.

During this time we have been up to Ohara twice, taking two of our guests up there during early March and then our friends (we had another friend drop in for one night to meet up with Steven and then accompany him to Fukui for the taiko workshop the following day) there on Sunday. The first time we went it was quite cool and wet, however, on Sunday it was warmish and sunny. Regardless of the differences in weather, it was quiet both times. We suspect that many people had been very early on Sunday and then gone on for a hanami outing, because many of the stalls in both markets had very little left for sale. We also went on to Sanzen-in after visiting the markets both times.

Having been sick, I missed going to my dance classes for two weeks, which was disappointing since I was feeling a lot stronger in ballet prior to that. Last week I decided to try returning just to the ballet classes as I still wasn’t 100%. Steven joined me for a trip into town, did some looking around while I was in class and then we did some shopping after. Following the first class I went back to, I took Steven to a building near my gym which is very upmarket and has some quite alternative shops to have a look at. While walking around we happened to find a new Starbucks in there – I needed some coffee after my class!

The Starbucks certainly lived up to the style of the building and was like no other Starbucks I have ever seen. The fit-out is amazing and has some very interesting artworks and sculptures. They have also made a feature of the exposed air-conditioning ducts by making them look like a large silver intestinal tract! I always enjoy looking around in the BAL building and now there is even more reason to go there 😊.

Later that week, we decided to go to Kameoka, a city within Kyoto prefecture, which is a twenty minute train ride from Kyoto station. We had found out there is a 1km walk there through blossom trees and thought it might be worthwhile, especially since not overly many tourists go there. We tried to follow the directions to get to the walk, but couldn’t find where the bus stop was at Kameoka station, so didn’t ever get to the walk. We did, however, find many buses to a boat ride on the Hozugawa (Hozu river).

After a quick check of the electronic oracle, we decided this might be a good thing to try out, since we had caught glimpses of lovely gorges as we passed through the mountains between Kameoka and Kyoto. The ride is 16 kms long and takes around 2 hours, starting near Kameoka station and ending at Arashiyama. It follows the water route used for transporting wood before Kyoto existed. Later, when Kyoto was being built, many logs from the mountain range area were bound together into rafts and sent down the Hozugawa to Kyoto. In 1606 a wealthy merchant opened up the ravine further to allow for boats.

The boats used for the sightseeing rides are not motorised, but rather rely on three oarsman to propel and steer them. One man is on the oar, one uses a pole to both push on the bottom of the river in the shallower areas and push on and away from rocks and the final man steers at the back of the boat. During the trip they rotate through the positions, as the front two are quite physically demanding. As you may have guessed, they have to walk down the side of the boat to do this, which also provided some entertainment as one of them yelled “don’t push, don’t push” while he walked along there, then “push, push”, when it came time for the others to walk down the side.

They all were Japanese and spoke very little English but still managed to say some very funny things, other than this. Along the route, there are certain places where it is crucial to push the boat away from the rocks, mainly in the rapids. Over 400 years, the bamboo poles have gradually worn smooth holes into the rocks, so they used this too as part of the entertainment, seeing if they could accurately push the poles into the small holes, not always successfully.

It was a lovely sunny day, around 20C. The scenery was lovely, the river had beautifully clean water (tinged green with minerals) and the ride varied through some flat and calm areas and then through some rapids. The latter were not overly vigorous, we weren’t belted in and only had a small life belt on (just in case), although Steven did get a lapful of water at one stage. The most dangerous part of the trip was actually at Arashiyama, where many people were out in little row boats, and didn’t seem to understand that our boat was bigger than theirs and they may be knocked out if they collided with us. The oarsmen were nearly sent hoarse yelling out at them!

Some fallen trees courtesy Typhoon 21

One unexpected part of the journey happened towards the end of the trip, when a motorised boat came up beside us and the oarsmen attached our boat to it. It turned out to be a floating konbini (convenience store), which mainly sold food and drinks, including sake! The Oarsmen also got some rest at this point, letting the motor on the other boat propel us in a very smooth part of the river. The whole journey was a lot of fun, well worth the fare, and I would definitely do it again – probably in Autumn to see the colour.

We had two other sightseeing outings on the weekend, one was climbing part of the Kyoto trail which passes near our home, through the hills to Kiyomizudera, which was also lovely on another glorious day. The other was later that day, when we went out to dinner (through the massive crowds around the Kiyomizudera, Gion and city centre areas). After dinner, we went to Maruyama park, where the annual hanami festival was being held. There were many dozens of stalls lining the walkways of the park, most of them selling food, though not desserts or sweets which we were looking for. We did find a couple of stalls doing so in the end, one of which was selling toffee apples and other toffee treats. I had a stick with a strawberry and two grapes, which was quite good 😊.