October | 2020 | Addams in Kyoto

Bonjour mes amis! No, I haven’t turned French, I just thought I’d find a way to start that I haven’t used before and since the Japanese are such Francophiles it seemed somehow appropriate (in my head, although now I think about it a bit more…).

Anyway, here we are again sitting around having a chat about how we have been passing the time (a rather one-way discussion) when day to day life has been so thoroughly upended. Starting with the weather…well, something else that is rather different this year. We have had a very sudden change from hot to much cooler, especially overnight temperatures. Abruptly we have quilts on our beds – from no covering and the fan on most nights to this! Also, the toilet seat heater is now definitely switched on. Of course it does make for much more pleasant walking weather, so we have been taking advantage of that.

We have been for a few walks too, at least one of which was to a place we have never been. One of the other walks was meant to be to a new destination, but it turned out that the path we took just led us back to a point we had been before – more about that later.

Firstly, despite yet again thinking there would be nothing to talk about, we have had some more ‘Close Encounters of the Animal Kind’. To be precise, all of them have been ‘…of the Insect Kind’. The first is the Red Helen butterfly, of which a few have been visiting our garden recently. It seems the geisha flowers and the lantana flowers are big drawcards for flying insects of all kinds – the gift that keeps on giving. I got some photos of one of the Helens and noticed when reviewing my photos that this one was missing part of one of its wings ☹.

The next encounter occurred as we were walking over to the station area, just past the Kamo bridge. In fact, I nearly trod on it – a huge green caterpillar which was heading towards the road. I had to rescue it, of course, otherwise it would never have survived to the adult stage of life. It had a spiky tail on one end, so I was being careful, just in case it had some toxic chemical in it. Anyway, after several attempts at picking it up (it was not happy about me touching it) I decided to try using a leaf, which was successful, and so it ended up in a safer place.

It was bright green, around 8cms in length and had some very interesting markings. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo, but on our return home I checked in with the electronic oracle and discovered that the caterpillar of the Oleander Hawk-moth fits this description. So, below are some photos of both the caterpillar and the rather beautiful moth.

The final encounter worth covering is the glorious Hummingbird Moth. We had one visit our garden last year, and again we have seen just one this year. It was slightly different to last year’s visitor, somewhat smaller and not as brightly coloured – its tail was darker – but still just as amazing. I did manage to get some photos…just. They move so fast I had to take around twenty shots just to actually capture it.

Nearly…

Now, to our discovery walks; the first involved a follow-up on a previous walk to Fushimi Inari. You may remember there was a mysterious set of stairs up a hill at the back of the shrine mountain which I just had to find out where they led. Yes, indeed, things like this sit in the back of my mind until I am able to resolve them, one way or another. The change of weather meant that it was time to explore. It was a lovely day for a walk, and walking through a forested area is one of my favourite things to do, which is lucky, because it turned out the stairs led to another of the trails around the mountain, one which we had walked before. Oh well, exercise, fresh air and natural beauty, what more could you want?

The second exploratory adventure came about via me looking at a map of Kyoto trying to find places we hadn’t been before. I noticed a very large green area some distance north of our home, called Takaragaike park. It actually involved a train ride to reach it, but the park itself is nearly 63 hectares, so plenty of room to walk around. The park surrounds Takaragaike Lake, which is a purpose-made, artificial lake dating from the 18th century. It was built mainly to provide a regular supply of water for the area’s rice fields.

Initially, it was only a small pond created by damming spring water, but it is believed to have reached its present size by the end of the Edo period. During World War II, a plan for the development of the park was developed, originally as a Bouku Ryokuchi, or evacuation area, for people to avoid air raids and to prevent fire from spreading into urban areas. In 1961 it was decided to build a conference centre at the park, and the Kyoto International Conference Centre was completed in 1966. The centre was designed by architect Sachio Otani with an unusual hexagonal framework, which resulted in few columns or vertical walls.

The centre was expanded in 1973 and, as it happens, they are now talking about expanding it further to accommodate double the number of conference delegates, which, by coincidence, was a news item on the night we visited the park. This centre is where the Kyoto Protocol was agreed and signed in 1997. The building is truly amazing to see – very scfi-fi like in design. It is huge and looks like the headquarters for a league of superheroes and giant robots (like Gundam).

‘Life-size’ statue of Gundam in Tokyo

As we walked around the lake, after dragging ourselves away from the conference centre, we were admiring the views and how really natural the lake looked, when we started hearing some music. I wasn’t sure if it was recorded or being played live for an audience. As it turned out, it was a man sitting on the shore of the lake practicing playing a shamisen, which also included him singing in some songs. He was very good and it was an absolute pleasure strolling along the forest path, next to the lake listening to his music.

Nice place for practice

The park has many built structures, such as wooden platforms and gazebos, for people to enjoy the views while picnicking. There is even a bird hide constructed near a small pond away from the lake, with some boards attached showing names and drawings of birds which inhabit the area. A very thoughtfully designed and constructed park, which has large forested areas and even has a horse stable area which was formerly the home for a racing stable exclusively for the use of the Heian cavalry. The area is now used by the Kyoto Prefectural Police Department to house the horses which are used for patrol work and traffic safety campaigns. We will be going back to enjoy a picnic there in the near future.

Before I sign off, I just thought I’d mention a gift we found at our front door on returning home from one of our outings. It was a paper bag with some sweet potatoes and other food items inside. On the front of the bag was a little drawing of a face, with the words “From Nezu…mother’s sweet potato”, one of our neighbours 😊.