July | 2020 | Addams in Kyoto

So, here we are in the second half of the year and no sign of the virus situation easing up… In fact, it seems young people (20 – 40 yrs), combined with the governments in some countries (including here) which are deciding that saving the economies of their respective countries is more important than any other consideration, are giving the ‘second waves’ a red hot go. The only slight problem with all of this is that it is likely to damage the respective economies a lot more in the long run by reopening too early than staying in lockdown mode for a bit longer – and I say this as a small business owner that is watching any prospect of our business reviving in the near term fly right out of the window (of opportunity).

Anyway, as there is very little I can do about it except try my best not to get the virus and if I indeed did happen to become infected, then spread it further either knowingly or in a ‘Typhoid Mary’ kind of way. As I can’t let all of this get to me I just keep taking one day at a time; and so, to the weather. At the moment we are experiencing what it is like to have a full rainy season in Kyoto. Over the last month at least half of the days have been rainy, some consisting of light but consistent showers and others where we have had fairly heavy rain – at least 20mm in an hour the other night. This, however, pales into insignificance when compared to the recent rain in Kumamoto (in Kyushu), where they had 116mm in one hour, and around 500mm over 24 hours.

On the night with the heavy rain, we could actually hear it, which is unusual, since we normally can’t hear the rain at all. I discovered then that Miro is afraid of heavy rain, and spent a few hours soothing her. Despite all the rain, it still hasn’t been overly humid, with yesterday feeling the most humid it has been so far this summer. We have only resorted to having the aircon on once to date, and that was for a short while on one higher temperature day after coming home from the gym. Otherwise, we are using the fan when necessary, which certainly helps to keep the bills down a bit.

Moving on to our month of activities, yet again we have mainly been out looking at flowers, and nature generally, although we did visit a museum recently, now that they are all reopening. We also participated in a BLM march held here in Kyoto, which was really fantastic. We found out about the march via Instagram, which the organisers used along with other social media to get the word out. They were very organised about it, insisting we all wear masks and asking us to download the Covid tracking app which has recently been released in Japan. They also made sure we marched three abreast, in lines, which most people did.

While it is a constitutional right of all Japanese people to participate in peaceful marches, they still have to be organised in conjunction with the police, and the police participate during the march in terms of directing the marchers and traffic to ensure no issues occur. The meet-up point was in Maruyama Park and we then proceeded to City Hall, which is just under 2km, with the route taking us along two main roads in the centre of the city. I wasn’t sure there would be many people participating, given we’re in Kyoto which is fairly conservative (despite the Communists being the most supported party here…they are very nationalistic). On the day there were at least 1,000 people marching, which was marvellous, and despite some bemused onlookers we also received a lot of support from the sides.

Our first botanically oriented visit this month took us to Ohara and the beautiful Sanzenin temple grounds, with the intention of seeing the huge hydrangea area there. We also invited a couple we know here to come with us, since they hadn’t been there before. It was a lovely warm, sunny day and there were very few people at the temple, which was a bonus, and consequently we had a lovely time wandering through the extensive garden at our own pace and in relative quiet, so we could hear all the birds and other creatures. Unfortunately it was a little too early to get the full glory of the hydrangeas, but it is such a wonderful place it didn’t really matter.

(yes, I know, shade into light…)

Speaking of creatures, in my last post I described our encounters with some large creatures. This time we encountered the other end of the scale, seeing many tiny frogs and some tiny crabs. This is interesting not only because they were so tiny, but also because we have been up to Ohara and Sanzenin many times and never seen any of the local wildlife. I assume that the significant reduction in the number of people visiting has meant the animals feel safer being more out in the open.

The first creatures we saw were actually in the carpark we usually park in. There is a very tall sheer wall at the back of the parking area, with a wide drain at the bottom which always has water in it. We had reversed into the park (as you always do here, no matter which carpark you are in) and I went to the back to get my parasol out. As I was about to step behind the car I noticed a sudden movement and luckily caught myself in time before treading on the grass there. It turned out to be a tiny brown frog, about 3cm in length. At that point I noticed a number of other frogs in and around the drain, along with some tiny crabs (Japanese fresh water crab), which were about 3cm in width across the brownish shell, while their legs were orange.

Along the path up to the temple there is a creek and a fence dividing the two (perhaps to prevent cars driving in there?). On the top of one of the posts there was a tiny green frog – a Japanese tree frog – which was slightly smaller than the brown frogs, at about 2.5cm in length. Inside the temple grounds we noticed many other little frogs and could hear what sounded like some larger frogs making their presence known. We also saw a snake! It was on one of the small islands in one of the ponds in the grounds, had full length reddish stripes along it’s dark body and was about 2m in length. It turns out this is a Japanese Rat Snake, which is the largest snake in Japan, outside of Okinawa. It was really beautiful.

One final wildlife encounter I must mention, even though it was about 100m from where we were standing, was a Tanuki!!! I have been trying to see a tanuki in the wild since we first came to Japan, but to no avail. Recently we were at the Princessline bus stop, which is close to the base of the hill leading to Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s mausoleum, and it was around 6:00pm. I was looking towards the hill waiting for the bus (which comes from that direction) when I saw a smallish animal run across the end of the road. It looked about large cat size, but the head was different – bigger and squarer – and it had an unusual colouring, with a sandy coloured torso and black legs and head. It also didn’t move like a cat. I, of course got very excited because I guessed it may have been a tanuki, especially since we had been told by a neighbour that she had seen a tanuki close by recently. So, Craig found photos of tanukis via the electronic oracle and they were exactly the same. I wish I could have got a photo, but I’m now thinking of going on a tanuki hunting party in the near future! (Be vewy, vewy quiet…)

That night we were catching a bus into town to go to Engine Ramen, one of my favourite places to eat in Kyoto, although we had heard that it may have closed permanently… Well, the information was correct, unfortunately. I have now contacted the owner via Instagram and expressed my dismay, and he indicated there may be a chance it will re-open at a new location later this year – maybe. I’m crossing my fingers. In the meantime we went to Ain Soph for a burger and bought a takeaway “cheesecake” (because we were full but I really wanted to try it – verdict: yum).

Continuing with our restaurant visiting regime, we also went to Veg Out and Mumokuteki during the month, both of which are veg and very popular, so not at risk of closing down. After visiting VegOut we walked home through Chisakuin, which is the large temple close to our home, and which has a large hydrangea garden at the back. They were in full bloom, so it topped off a nice lunch very well 😊.

The view from VegOut

Prior to visiting Mumokuteki, we went to the Raku Museum, which is a private museum dedicated to pottery, mainly raku ware which was first developed by an ancestor of the owners, Chōjirō, who was a tile maker in the 16^th century and was commissioned to make some hand formed bowls for the developing tea ceremony. Raku ware (raku-yaki) is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally used in Japanese tea ceremonies, most often in the form of tea bowls. It is characterised by being hand-shaped rather than thrown and are fairly porous vessels, which result from low firing temperatures, using lead glazes and removing the pieces from the kiln while still glowing hot to cool in the open air. As I love the style of the raku ware bowls, and we hadn’t been to this museum before, I thought it would be an interesting first visit after all the closures. It was a lovely place, and while not cheap, it was amazing to think this family had been making pots continuously since the 1500s.

This bowl is called Nekowaride and was made by the current head of the family. It is called this because it was broken one day by a cat that his dog was chasing through his workshop. He loved this bowl and was very upset by it’s demise, so his wife took the pieces to be repaired. Apparently he loved the new form more than the original, so much so that he felt thankful to the cat for breaking it!

The final visit for this blog happened somewhat by accident, in that we went to Toji hoping the antiques market would be on (hoping to buy a replacement for the Buddha statue which was accidentally beheaded by Miro when she tried to climb it to reach a dragonfly and it fell backwards into the drain…), but regrettably it was not. Fortuitously, however, the lotus are just coming into flower now, and Toji has a lovely lotus pond, so we spent some time there admiring the flowers and watching the turtles, of which there were many.

It’s at times like all of these that I realise how wonderful it is to be able to visit so many gardens and see just how beautiful and fascinating nature can be, especially here in Kyoto.

Cheers!

A new shikishi