November | 2019 | Addams in Kyoto

And another month passes! This month was one of those milestone kinds of months, in that I passed another one…(and I won’t say which milestone it was, but it was a big one – sigh). October is always one of my favourite months, since it isn’t only my birthday but also the month of Halloween. I get to put out decorations which are black and purple and orange, and which are bats and witches and ghouls, etc. Being in Japan, I also get to see lots of other similar decorations around town. There was (and still is, as of today) a massive black spider and web outside a nearby shop, so large the tip of one of its legs is resting on the ground and the opposing leg tip is at roof height! Very impressive 😊.

No trick or treaters, so we got the treats!

Weatherwise, we are on the downward trend to winter, with nearly all days this month in the low to mid twenties. We also had some typhoons pass through, along with some very heavy rain. We didn’t get hit overly hard this year – we still got a lot of rain (and an evacuation order was put out for areas around the Kamo river), but nothing like there has been further north/east of us. It has been incredibly wet there, with record rainfall in many places and many deaths, mainly from flooding and landslides. There is now so much rubbish built up in some areas that they have run out of room to put it all. Huge numbers of big items such as ruined fridges, washing machines, tatami and furniture, along with other rubbish line the streets.

On a lighter note, one night, just prior to typhoon 19 which is the one that did the most damage, they were talking about the need for people to prepare themselves on the English translated news on NHK, as this storm looked like it was gong to be very big and damaging (as it was). On NHK they have a few translators, who take turns on different nights and for different items. Some are much better than others – as it happens, the best one is an expat Australian, Murray Johnson. Anyway, the translator undertaking this very important role this night happened to be the one who struggles most with fast translating, and at one point she said ”…there is no way Japan could escape it’s path…”. Well, we just collapsed with laughter, imaging the population pulling out poles and oars in a valiant effort to move Honshu…

Speaking of tv programs, I accidentally happened across a special sumo ceremony on tv this month. It was the retirement ceremony for Kisenosato, a sumo wrestler who was in the top rank at retirement. Virtually all wrestlers end their career with a dampatsu-shiki (hair-cutting ceremony), during which their topknot is cut off. As he was a yokozuna, it was held in the Tokyo sumo stadium and televised live. There are many parts to the ceremony, but the main event involves many people who have a connection to the rikishi one by one stepping up onto the ring behind the seated rikishi and cutting a single strand of his hair with gold-plated scissors (as best they can).

The final cut, which removes the topknot completely, is made by the relevant stablemaster. Once the retiree has bowed to everyone present, the rikishi then heads backstage for his first cut and style in years by an ordinary barber. Of course there were tears, especially as the final cut was made. It was very interesting to watch, particularly as I had wondered how long he could retain his topknot after retiring from wrestling. As happens with many top sports retirees, he is now commentating the sumo events fairly regularly – it’ll be interesting to see him with an ‘ordinary’ hair style.

The unkindest or kindest cut?

One creature I didn’t mention last time that we have been watching in our backyard since late spring is a lovely orb weaver who decided our back deck was a good spot to set up home. We actually had two living on the deck, a larger one up quite high (thankfully) and a smaller one down low, but near the far edge of the deck (ie, out of the way). We assumed the larger one was a female and the smaller a male, which turned out to be correct. They are called Joro gumo here, and are members of the golden orb weaver family. They are quite attractive spiders (I know some will say no spiders are attractive, but we think these are). I nicknamed her Spike.

After a couple of months we noticed the male spider was suddenly resident on Spike’s web – so they became Mr and Mrs Spike. All well and good, until one day they decided to move house…around the corner to the area where we hang out our clothes; right across the path. So, then Mr and Mrs Spike were relocated to a new home in the backyard between the fig tree and the deck. There they lived happily (and took in another male, it seems) until the other day, when I noticed both males were gone and Mrs Spike seems to be getting a lot bigger (side note; females can and do sometimes eat the males after they have served their purpose, if they don’t get away fast enough…). Apparently they can lay between 400 – 1,500 eggs. I expect we’ll have some Spike juniors next year!!!

We had one major outing this month, which just happened to be on my birthday 😊! We had never been to Kobe, so when Craig suggested it as I was trying to work out what I’d like to do, I thought it was an opportune time to go. It is only an hour by train to get there, so an easy hop from here. As it happened it was a lovely, sunny day and comfortably warm. Our first destination was the harbour, with the very famous tower, Maritime museum and the Oriental Hotel along the water front.

We then made our way along the harbour edge, and found many interesting buildings and features along the way. One thing I noticed about Kobe is the multitude street art installations dotted around various locations, from the small to the very large, which included a giant work called Fish Dance. It was designed by Frank O. Gehry and constructed with the oversight of Tadao Ando. It is an amazing work. Of course, there were some other installations that I wasn’t exactly sure what they were or who did them, but interesting additions to the landscape, none-the-less.

We also walked through an area with a number of beautiful Art Deco buildings and some other European designed structures – not overly surprising in a port area that there would be foreign influence. We didn’t get to the Earthquake museum, but found an installation along the side of a road which had some pieces of very damaged structures and associated photos (from the 1995 Kobe earthquake). After this, we headed to the Chinatown area, to find a particular supermarket (which turned out to be disappointing) and then on to lunch at a vegan restaurant, which was nice.

After lunch, we went to find something I was very keen to see – the Tetusjin-28 robot, standing at 18 metres tall. It was built to commemorate the resiliency and strength of the communities affected by the earthquake and to stand as a protective figure against further disaster. Tetsujin-28 is a manga character from the very popular 1956 manga “Tetsujin 28-go”. It was a little out of our way, but definitely worth it – absolutely amazing, especially as I didn’t know how big it really was before I got there!

Yes, that’s me down there -again tried to look tall!

Our final destination that day was the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art. There were three parts to the current exhibition: Form in Art ― Perceiving with the Hand (Hatta Yutaka); New Acquisitions and the Yamamura Collection (Gutai and the Japanese Avant-Garde 1950s – 1980s); Murakami Kagaku.

The first exhibition is part of an ongoing series of exhibits allowing visitors to touch and feel the art pieces. This was the 30th edition and featured the artist Hatta Yutaka’s (1930– ) Nagare (“flow”) series, which he began creating in the 1990s. Thee works feature shredded mulberry tree and other materials that he pasted onto flat surfaces using only his sense of touch. We actually decided not to go through touching the works, as it involved a number of rules, including taking off rings and I have a few which I can’t get off without significant effort (and possibly removing the finger ☹). Despite this impediment, we both really loved the works visually.

The Yamamura Collection was truly amazing, and it is wonderful that this gallery has the collection nearly in it’s entirety – he donated seven works by foreign artists, including Miro, to the National Museum of Western Art and continued collecting works from post war Japan.

As a post-script to our Kobe visit, that night on the news we learned that two yakuza were assassinated that afternoon, fairly near to where we were! According to the media report, the man who committed the crime is a member of a rival yakuza gang. Apparently he posed as a weekly magazine reporter when he was questioned by police shortly before the incident, after they became suspicious of him. While the officers were scuffling with him trying to check his belongings, the man pulled out a pump-action handgun and shot two men from close range as they emerged from their gang’s office. The police were stationed near the office to prevent any violence occurring…

Recently, when we went shopping at Aeon Mall, we were lucky enough to be there just as a Maiko was about to put on a dancing performance in the open atrium area of the mall next to the supermarket. It was a free performance, so of course we stayed to watch. She danced to two songs and it was very beautiful to watch, quite ethereal and gentle in movement. Unfortunately the photos don’t really do it justice, however, they give you some idea.