Dear all, I apologise for my tardiness – I have no excuse except for the fact that we haven’t been doing overly much in the outside world; which brings me to the weather! It has been totemo mushi atsui (very hot and humid) since my last post, with most days being over 34C, and very humid. There also continues to be a lot of rain – in fact most days have been overcast, often with rain, and sometimes thunder and lightning though, interestingly, you don’t always get both. Many times you can hear the thunder but not see the lightning.

Interestingly, one night there was a lot of lightning, and it was quite bright because I was able to see the flashes through the curtains (it was well after midnight), but I didn’t hear any thunder. It also happened to be the final night of the Obon celebrations, when the daimonji fires are lit on the mountainsides around Kyoto to send off the spirits of the deceased who have come to visit their families during Obon. This year was the first year since 2019 that the event has not been either scaled down (where the fires were kept low) or cancelled due to The Virus.

We had planned to go to a local high school to view the fires from the roof of the school, which we have done previously, but it was raining that night and there was a thunderstorm forecast – although, as I have mentioned before, they often promise but it rarely eventuates. This night, however, there was indeed a thunderstorm (later), just not much in the way of thunder here. My theory is that it was the spirits saying thankyou for the fires, after the previous two years of little or none 😊. The following night we had another thunderstorm, including the full force of the thunder and some very heavy rain – between 1 and 2am we had over 36mm in a 20 minute period. It was very loud.

Despite us not having any ‘big’ outings, where we go somewhere just for interest and to take numerous photos, it has been an eventful period. Firstly, unexpectedly, we have had five bookings, with only one of those being made well in advance. We got one booking a week in advance, for the end of July to early August, which meant we were going to have to move mum and her kids out of the ‘feline nursery’ and into our area. We knew this was going to happen sooner, or later, so had made vague plans, but suddenly it was on!

We planned to fully move them out the night before (a Friday night), but then we got a booking on the Tuesday, for the next night…!!!! Action stations! It happened that this booking was for a couple who Craig knew from swimming in Adelaide, so it was a surprise in many ways. The woman is Japanese and she had finally been able to come to Japan to visit her parents, and while here they came to visit us for one night, which was nice.

Following the second booking (one guest, two nights), we got another booking for a couple (one night) a week later. After this we had the planned booking, which was for a woman who is going to be leading vegan tours in Japan (attached to a US company) who wanted to visit us and check our facility with the view of tour groups possibly staying here. It turned out she was originally from Melbourne and had been living in Japan for 19 years, another surprise. We had a good night chatting with her and hopefully something will come of it.

In the final surprise, we got a booking yesterday morning, one guest for two nights, starting last night! Again, action stations! So, all in all, it has been the best month we have had since March 2020. Now all we need is the borders being re-opened…please?

We know!

I mentioned we had to move our newest family members into our area – so now we have seven cats living with us! The kittens are nearly 20 weeks old now and are just as energetic as ever, though now they are quite a bit bigger and move around a lot faster…which means the potential for things we don’t want to happen has increased. We are closing them into the ‘spare room’ (or walk-in wardrobe/pantry/store room) at night, because we thought it would be the best way we could get sleep, and they are free to roam in our area during the day.

Initially I was tidying the room each day, and each morning I would open the door to this. Now I only tidy if clothes are pulled down, etc

As always Zara leads the way with exploring, and she has recently taken to climbing the curtains to get on top of cupboards. So, they are also learning about the word ‘no’ and, in the worst case scenario, about ‘The Enforcer’, which is a water spray bottle. Buchi is rather more a bulldozer than the others, so he has experienced The Enforcer a couple of times now, though he is still a little confused about where the water is coming from 😂. Speaking of Buchi, he recently went to have his ‘special operation’ and, though he was quieter than usual the day after the op, he has returned to full destructo force since. He is now the largest of the three kittens, just a little bigger than Zara and nearly as big as mum. The interesting thing is his paws are big, he looks rather like he has a pair of adult size boots on, so we expect that he may grow quite a bit larger than mum 🙄.

Cute when they’re sleeping…

I have mentioned previously that we have a few foreign friends here, most of whom are students here on limited duration visas. We have recently started to really learn what this means, ie unless they go onto further study, or find employment, here they will be leaving Japan. Earlier this month we held a farewell dinner for one of these people, Isi, a young woman from Scotland who was here for five years completing courses, and now she has moved on to The Netherlands, to further her studies. We were going to have a special vegan meet-up dinner before she left, but with the recent significant rise in the Covid numbers, we decided to do a mini version, for her closest friends.

In the end, because it was Obon time, amongst other things, while we offered to cook for eight people, there were only four, including Isi. The theme we chose for the meet-up was Street Foods of the World, so we decided to go ahead with this anyway, and we still hope to do a full meet-up sometime soon – people have been asking us to do so, as soon as possible. We will miss having Isi here, but thanks to social media we can easily remain in contact.

I have also mentioned a young Israeli couple who we had become friends with, Lilia and Yuval, and who we have spent quite a bit of time with. Lilia recently completed her PhD and hence was looking for work. Unfortunately for them, and us, she was not able to find suitable work in Japan, and has decided to accept a position in Israel. So, next month they, too, will be leaving Japan.

Earlier this month, we went out for an afternoon catch-up to celebrate Lilia’s birthday, at a lovely café in Maruyama Park. It was a hot day, but not raining, so we walked there and decided to have kakigōri, which is a traditional Japanese summer sweet made of shaved ice covered with a flavouring syrup. The ice used is often taken from natural springs, then tempered to achieve the perfect quality for shaving. It is also often served with flavoured mochi balls and fruit jellies, which traditionally are made without gelatine, though these days we have to check when ordering. I had a lemon kakigōri and Craig had a coffee syrup serving. The lemon kakigōri was amazing, with lots of fresh lemon used in the syrup – it was both cooling and refreshing with a zing 😊.

The hanging sign indicates kakigōri served

Two days ago we caught up with Takako, who we haven’t seen much during The Virus time, and we enjoyed the kakigōri so much that we decided to meet her at that café. Unfortunately, they were closed for a ‘special day off after Obon’, so Takako suggested we go to another nearby café, as they serve kakigōri too. It was in a beautiful old building and, while they didn’t have a lemon version, they had a matcha version and a mango one. Not as spectacular as the lemon in flavour, but very nice nonetheless. The matcha version was served with matcha agar jellies, mochi balls and anko (sweet red bean paste made from adzuki beans).

The kakigōri machine

We have also recently taken advantage of the warm evenings (when it’s not raining) to go out and try a restaurant we had never been to and to visit my favourite ramen place, which has finally re-opened! In both cases we were told about them and, as you can imagine, I was very excited when I heard about Engine Ramen. The first restaurant is an udon and tempura bar, which has a small vegan section of the menu. Finding vegan tempura in Japan is difficult because so many use egg in the batter these days, so we decided to try the tempura set and it was very good. We’ll be going back soon to try their udon noodles, which they make onsite.

As to Engine Ramen, I wanted to go immediately I heard it had re-opened, but we had to wait for nearly two weeks because of weather, days closed and guests, and Lilia and Yuval said they wanted to go and try the ramen. They have re-opened in a much smaller venue, essentially a bar and one table, and the menu is smaller because the kitchen is smaller and they don’t have an area for frying, BUT the spicy ramen was as good as ever. In fact, he told us he had ‘tweaked’ it slightly to make it creamier, which it was. We will be going back again, and again, and…

(l) The plain vegan ramen, (r) The spicy vegan ramen

I forgot to take a photo before I started eating, I was so keen, so had to borrowed Lilia and Yuval’s bowls

One other slight incident to report before I sign off, Craig managed to throw himself over the handle bars of his bike onto the road on his way home from gym a few weeks ago. This resulted from sweaty hands, slightly slippery hand grips and him trying to grab the handle bar after slipping and accidentally grabbing the hand brake, which brought the bike to a very sudden halt. Luckily no other vehicles were involved. He came away very battered and bruised, though not much blood, and he still can’t straighten his left arm and his left hand isn’t working well either. He had x-rays on the day, but there were no broken bones. He will be wearing bike gloves in future, when he can actually ride again.

Cheers for now

The hills behind Maruyama Park – another overcast day

A crack in the sky, but no hand…

The eyes!!! They look angry

I call this the clouds of summer series

Another hole cover

That robot, again

A good luck statue. You have to touch it

Saw this in a car – do SAPOL have a mascot😂

These are made to help you teach your pets about the solar system — I think?

Display in the mall

The never ending tunnel…

Well it seemed that way

This is not a sheep

The man above was buying outfits for his dog. The stand with mirror is there so you can try them on and see both sides…

(They’re a bit blurry because I didn’t want to be too obvious)

The 900+ yr old Camphor tree

Flowers of summer 😁

Beautiful bowl and mini garden arrangement

More flowers

Our baby lotus plant

Craig in summer attire

Mum playing, then the kids steal her toy, with athletic spin by Akashi

Mum gets it back – briefly