July | 2019 | Addams in Kyoto

Hello there – funny meeting you here, especially as I am at home sitting at the kitchen bench…It seems I am now returning to the keyboard about once a month. I suppose we are doing less at the moment, in terms of visiting places, not because we aren’t interested in seeing new things, just we are spreading things out a bit more and we have had different things happening that require attention.

Weather-wise, we are definitely having a rainy season this year. We haven’t had many days with very heavy rain, but we are having much more frequent rain. Looking at the Himawari satellite images, it appears a lot of cloud is streaming up through here from the tropics. A small typhoon developed a couple of weeks ago, but otherwise we haven’t had any big storms here. That has not been the case in other areas – Kyushu, in particular, has been hit hard. In a recent five day period they had over a metre of rain in the south Kyushu areas. Unsurprisingly, it is becoming more humid here now.

Our backyard is nearly finished, in terms of plantings and ground cover. It is wonderful to be able to sit out there and enjoy the scenery of our yard, including the wall (which, technically, belongs to our neighbours). As I mentioned previously, the plants are growing quite fast, which is lovely to watch. I had to move the elephant a bit recently, as she was getting overgrown by the hydrangeas! I have had a few iris flowers, which are beautiful, although I haven’t yet seen the third iris because the gardener (NiwaShin) accidentally broke the stem of the one flower that was growing on that plant. The flowers on one of the irises are really interesting looking and the petals are quite textured.

The growth of one month…oh and everything now planted…and Ziggy photo bombing

Anyway, the irises are gradually spreading, so I’m sure I’ll have plenty to look forward to next year. One of the hostas also flowered, which was a nice surprise. One thing this has done (apart from make me happy) is there are more butterflies coming into our yard, most of which are quite large, including a different type of swallowtail butterfly.

Around a month ago, we went to the nearby Four Seasons Hotel,at the invitation of one of the employees (Pin), to participate in a wellness activity. Pin had introduced herself to us as she lived in the area, had noticed our establishment and her and her partner are both vegans. She wanted to know if we served food to people who weren’t staying here. Long story short, we said we’d be happy to make a breakfast for them and they have since maintained some contact.

Pin is the manager of the Health and Wellbeing area of the hotel and she (along with other employees) were hosting some events over a weekend. We decided to join Pin in a ‘forest bathing’ experience. This involved walking from the Four Seasons up to part of the Kyoto trail and then ending up at the Toyotomi Hideyoshi mausoleum. At the mausoleum we put the yoga mats we had been carrying on the ground and lay down. It was very peaceful, especially after having walked at a reasonably brisk clip up the trail to the top of the hill.

Laying there, she encouraged us to listen to the forest around us and really relax. She then went around and gave everyone a short neck and shoulders massage, using an aromatherapy oil as part of involving all the senses. It was really very pleasant and I would recommend this to anyone who is able to do it.

Pin, if you are wondering, is from Thailand and has been living here for a while, working at the Four Seasons. She actually worked at the Four Seasons in Thailand, with the same General Manager, and I think she moved here at his request after he moved here to manage the new Kyoto establishment. In fact, the GM and his two daughters came on the walk with us, although we didn’t know who he was at the time and talked to him as if he was a tourist staying there 😊.

Pin has since contacted us to see if we would be interested in partnering with her to provide these kind of experiences for tourists, so that they stay with us for one night and Pin takes them on a longer forest walk here, then they go to Nara and stay in a farm house and do a vegan cooking class using the organic produce of the farm. We, of course, said yes. Unfortunately it means that Pin is leaving the Four Seasons to return to Thailand and work in a wellness type spa resort (at Ko Samui). Still, hopefully we’ll see her occasionally, if this business works out.

Returning to the Four Seasons, wow, what a place! It is amazing in many ways starting with the architecture. It houses nearly 200 hundred suites (can’t remember exactly how many) and also has a venue for weddings and conferences on site. The rooms start at around ¥100,000 per night! Inside they have a number of artworks, including paintings and ceramics. There is a set of three giant ceramic flowers, which are stunning, created by Yasuyoshi Sugiura, from Tokyo. I wonder how much they were???? Outside, there is a beautiful old garden on the property with two tea houses.

We have had one other outing which was just for enjoyment, to Chion-in temple. This temple has the set of stairs at the front which Tom Cruise runs up in The Last Samurai, if you’ve seen that (no, the stairs do not lead to the emperor’s palace). I thought it might be nice to go there while the weather was still comfortable (ie not really humid), because we hadn’t seen all of the temple. As it turns out, the second garden was closed so I didn’t get to see it, but we walked around and went to an area up the back of the grounds and also into the cemetery, although that was more to check if we could see the second garden from there.

The bell is supposed to be the largest temple bell in Japan, at 74 tons

While walking around the cemetery area I noticed a small man-made waterfall and went to look over the fence to see what it was like. As I was looking at the pond, I noticed something in the water, which looked like a lizard (I completely failed to notice the bright green frog very close to me, which jumped in the water to hide as I moved to get a better view of the ‘lizard’, ah wel)l. It wasn’t moving and I assumed it was a dead lizard, until I noticed quite a few more and some were moving around! In fact, they could move quite fast, in a sort of swimming motion. After much searching of the electronic oracle, I found out that they are in fact newts, called Akaharaimori, or the Japanese Fire Belly newt. They are endemic to Japan and are usually around 9 – 14cm in length, with the females being bigger than the males. In Kyoto they are listed on the Amphibian Red List, which means they are being monitored because they are nearly endangered, due to loss of habitat. An interesting discovery.

Another interesting discovery on that day, was that there is a nationalist group which drives around in black vans and buses that have slogans written all over them and many have the national flag and the military flag attached. They are called “gaisensha” (街宣車) or “propaganda trucks” in Japanese, and they blast right-wing slogans and songs through loud speakers. While Japan does have noise pollution laws, it also has free speech laws, so these vans are able to get the same licenses that allow political parties, and even religious groups, to drive around and broadcast their opinions. They are quite intimidating looking, and the men inside (we only saw men) were all wearing grey, military style uniforms.

The inscription says something about “defend to the end” and “loyalty to ruler”, also the Kuril Islands.

From what I have discovered via the electronic oracle, there are a number of right-wing groups, or uyoku dantai (右翼団体), and they have existed in Japan since the country opened itself to the West. Apparently some members are connected to the yakuza because it is difficult to arrest uyoku dantai members as freedom of ideology is protected by the Constitution of Japan. Hence some yakuza use them as camouflage.

I have to say, we were alerted to something going on while we were walking to Chion-in by the large number of police lining the roads and particularly on corners. As we approached Maruyama park there were many (many) police buses parked together, presumably to bring in extra police for the protection of the populace. They were wearing helmets and some had what appeared to be protective jackets on. While we were in the temple grounds we could hear very loud voices and music, not a very relaxing ambience, that’s for sure.

Finally, as a follow-up to the last post, we received an extension to our visa last week, for another year. We hope that next year they may consider giving us a three year extension…

Cheers for now