August | 2020 | Addams in Kyoto

Hello everyone!!! Here I am again in front of a blank screen, gathering my thoughts. I often start by reviewing what I wrote in the previous post, which I have just done and I promise to start this post in a much more positive way 😊. No, things haven’t improved in any way (in fact, things seem to be getting worse…) but the sun is out now, and has been so for a few days, which has definitely lifted my mood.

Yes, the rainy season finally ended on the weekend, after two months, and it has been sunny and quite warm ever since. We are having days of mid-30s and higher every day, however, it still isn’t overly humid, thank goodness. The last month consisted of rainy days with about one day of sun per week. The rain was quite heavy at times – the heaviest we had here was a one hour period of over 33mm.

We also had a few thunderstorms, which made me happy but the kids hated. Poor Miro, she really found the heavy rain very scary and with the thunderstorms on top of this, well, she just hid as best she could. One interesting side-effect of the extended rainy season (and even the Japanese said it was unusually long) is that the sound of summer, courtesy of the cicadas, didn’t commence until the last few days of the rain – a few intrepid souls started then, with the majority joining the chorus after the rain completely stopped.

And on a nature and creatures note, in a new segment, which I am calling Close Encounters of the Animal Kind, I have to report that yet again during this month we have had some close encounters with local creatures, while at home! The first visitor to our garden was a Japanese Weasel – possibly a return visit, or this may have been a new weasel, hard to tell as both were seen from within our living area as they ran through.

The second visit was by a female Macaque and her juvenile, who appeared to be fully weaned and was moving around independently. Yes, it was a quite a shock when it occurred! We were in our living area (as so often we were during the wet time), when we heard a very loud bang outside, followed by a couple more. I said something along the lines of “WTF was that?” Craig, looking outside, said it was a monkey on our deck roof (which is see-through), at which I immediately raced to get the camera (as I do when something unusual like this happens 😂).

She walked across the deck roof and was checking the fig tree while I was trying to get photos through the door, which is double glazed with cross hatched wire in the outer glass (fire regulations here), so it was quite difficult but I knew I couldn’t make any noise and I was trying to stay out of line of view, because I knew she would be spooked. Well, she finally did see me and went back across the roof and climbed to the balcony. I ran upstairs (quietly) and went in to the first room to go to the balcony, just in time to see both her and another, smaller monkey climb onto a neighbour’s roof.

With the thought that they would be back for the figs, I put a couple of cucumbers outside, near the mochi bowl water feature – a good place for a photo 😊. Some time later they did return, this time via the roof of the kiln behind our house. They spent some time in the fig tree (breaking one of the branches), then the mother must have spotted the cucumbers, because she climbed down into our back yard, grabbed a cucumber, rinsed it and then started eating it. Photo opportunity achieved! I got one through the window, then tried to open it quietly…but failed. So, she joined her offspring on the kiln roof.

Later they climbed down to the ground, then onto the next door flat balcony balustrade and finally our roof. Not sure where they went after that. A few days later we awoke to find a gift left by one of them on our deck roof. We hadn’t heard them, which is surprising for me, since I awaken at the least noise. The last time we know they had been in our yard was a few days later, when we arrived home to find the remains of a couple of cucumbers behind our car and all of the ripe tomatoes on our bushes stripped. The cucumbers came from our neighbour, Mrs Takeuchi’s vegetable garden.

The final recent visitor to our yard, which we have never seen before, is a Damselfly. In fact, I have never seen one before anywhere here, that I can think of. It is as beautiful as a dragonfly and a similar size, at around 6cms. It has two pairs of black wings and a long deep green (borderline black) body. We have seen it over a number of days recently, hopefully filling up on the multitude mosquitoes around here. Yesterday we went to a hardware shop to buy a bowl, which are often used here for growing lotus, to try to create a breeding area for it…fingers crossed.

The four wings fold together then spread separately as it flies

Onto our major outings for the month, which were limited to two due to the inclement weather. We had seen a poster a while back for an exhibition of embroidery at a museum near Kiyomizudera, which looked really interesting. So, after some research to find out where it was, and waiting for a clear day to walk there, we went to the Sannenzaka Museum, which houses works of traditional Japanese crafts, including metalwork, cloisonné, makie lacquerwork and Kyoto Satsuma ware.

Wow! Stunningly beautiful works are housed there and I am a huge fan of cloisonné and Satsuma ware, in particular. Unfortunately, photographs are not allowed in the museum (and there are no books containing details of the permanent exhibits), so I have copied some of the few photos from their website for this. The special exhibition consisted of Meiji art embroidery and Yuzen-dyed cut velvet works (applying dye directly to the fabric by hand), both of which were very much Kyoto based techniques. Some amazing creations, but again no pictorial catalogue. One of the best things about this museum was that they had exhibits with step-by-step displays of how these crafts are created.

I would really like to have this one…

Amazing embroidery, took my breath away when I saw it. I would also like this…

The other outing involved a longish train journey to Hyogo prefecture, to visit a building/museum that we first saw on tv and have been waiting to go to for a while – Yodoko Guest House, architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I knew he had been in Japan early in the 1900s, because there are some of his works in Tokyo. What I didn’t know is that he had lived here for a while, and designed 14 buildings while here, including the US Embassy.

So, we waited for a rain-free day (which turned out to be gloriously sunny) when it was open to the public and set off for Hyogo. The place was as good as I expected, maybe even better. I had always wanted to see something of his, but thought we would have to travel to America, which I am not overly interested in doing otherwise. Anyway, fantastic to wander around inside and see some of his furniture designs along with the actual buildings themselves. The level of detail is phenomenal – truly a feast for the eyes. Interestingly, along the same road Yodoko House is situated on, there were many examples of really interesting design, as if the architects have been inspired by the location of the houses.

Speaking of design, a number of friends had mentioned they had recently watched a couple of programs by a gardening guru, Monty Don, which were about Japanese garden design. We tried to get them through ABC iView, but were blocked because of our location (we can only see some programs through there – something to do with regionality). Anyway, Craig finally found a way to see them, through a site with BBC programs on it, so we were able to watch them.

They were interesting, especially as at least three of the gardens are ones we visit regularly in Kyoto, two of which are close walking distance from us. We have also visited a number of the others he showed, though none of the gardens in Tokyo – we haven’t spent overly much time in Tokyo during our journeys here, preferring more regional areas. Thankyou to those who mentioned him – it is always fascinating seeing places you know well through other’s eyes.

On a final note, a short story that I meant to mention last time but forgot to. Before the ‘second wave’ hit, the Japanese Govt had been talking about connecting with other countries which had similarly low Covid numbers, to try to stimulate some movement between them, initially for business travel but ultimately to revive some tourism. Anyway, there were four countries they were initially concentrating on – Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand and Australia. This was being reported on the news over a few days, and, as the Japanese have a way of doing, they put up photos to illustrate the story – four photos each representing one country: Thailand, a Thai temple; Vietnam, a rice paddy (I think); Australia, the Opera House; and New Zealand…some sheep!!!!!! Well, we both nearly fell on the floor laughing when we saw this. Hilarious. I suppose they couldn’t think what else to show about New Zealand? Sorry New Zealand, but we just loved this and every time it came on it had the same affect.

!!!!!