Well, they say better late than never but I do have to apologise for my tardiness, it has just been a matter of timing. During late October and early November I was resting my foot as much as I could, so that I could do a lot more walking when our friends (Jenny & Paul) arrived later in November. It was difficult, especially when the weather was good, but necessary, really. I bought a good quality foot brace and wore it as much as possible, even at night sometimes if it was aching. Hence, there really wasn’t much to write about.

We did, however, go to a vegan fair on the 12^th of November because we thought it was important to be seen and see others at events like this. As it happened, this event was a bit larger than the one in October and there were more people there that we knew. We also made some new contacts, which we will follow-up in the near future. It was a lovely day weather-wise and there was a much better range of food there, so, all-in-all very worthwhile.

Speaking of the weather, there isn’t overly much to say except it has been mostly in the mid teens up to 20C recently, and this Thursday, yes the first day of December, the expected maximum is 10C!!! A sudden hit of cold, still it is that time of year so it has to happen sooner or later. We have had the under floor heating on recently and the kittens (Zara and Akashi) have learnt the joys of lying on a warm floor.

We also took one longer walk before Jenny and Paul arrived, to test out my foot and to see how the Autumn colour was going. We walked past Tofukuji, one of the better Autumn colour vistas and on to Fushimi-Inari. The colour was right on schedule (our schedule, that is 😊) and my foot did pretty well, so a good walk!

One other thing to mention – we have had a few guests through since my last post, which has been fantastic. We are getting back into to the swing of the whole process of having guests here, and I have re-commenced my Ikebana practice. While mum and the kittens were still in the dining room I couldn’t have anything in the room that was breakable or slightly edible, so flowers were out. Now, with guests here, we are keeping them out unless we are in there ourselves. They are curious about the guests, and are having small peeks at them, but they are yet to be brave enough to say hello – which Zowie always wants to do.

While Jenny and Paul were here we did a lot of sightseeing and eating out. On the first day we went in to see Sanjusangendo, which I hadn’t been into for years. As it happened, there was a ceremony taking place in the garden area of the temple involving a bonfire, which was an added bonus. That night we went for a walk around the Kiyomizu dera area for the Autumn light-up, when the back streets are lined with lanterns and both Kiyomizu dera and Kodaiji are lit up for the Autumn colour. The plan was to have a look at them, but it was so crowded that we decided not to go into Kiyomiz, and the queue to get into Kodaiji had many hundreds of people waiting in it! So, we went to get some food and ended up at Engine Ramen, which is always a good thing, even though there was a bit of queue when we got there.

The next day we ended up going to lunch first, then walking the Philosopher’s Path and culminating at Eikando, the best place to see Autumn colour in Kyoto (in my humble opinion). Towards the end of the Path, we came across a man in an interesting hat sketching the canal. He had some previous sketches on display for sale, and they were fantastic. We both bought a print which, interestingly, turned out to be the same one, though it was hard to choose because they were all very good. Eikando was beautiful, as usual, and worth every yen of the entry fee – I’ll let the photos do the talking here…

Along the Path

The photographer’s face is hidden to protect her identity…😂

This is the man who makes the little leaf and flower boat that you drop into the canal. It seems he is always there!

The artist was just sitting there…

Eikando

How to follow this up the next day? We went to Kameoka and took the Hozugawa river boats back to Arashiyama. I think this was our third time in the boats, and I have to say it seems to have changed a bit since our last voyage before the pandemic. Perhaps they had some spare time during this period, because it seemed the route had changed slightly and there were a few more ‘rapids’ to pass through. The river had been slightly ‘engineered’ initially for the rides, so it is not unreasonable to change it subsequently, though it was a bit more ‘bumpy’ in spots, ie we hit a few more rocks than previously. It may be that the river was lower as well. Anyway, it was still enjoyable! After this we walked around a bit in Arashiyama and then had a late-ish lunch.

This is the first time we have ever seen a monkey down near the river!

They suggested we turn our cameras backwards…

Knowing that Wednesday was going to be rainy, we decided to take the train to Osaka and visit the castle. Interestingly, the displays inside the castle had also been added to, with more information about the history of the castle and another model showing the castle area as it was during Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s time. When we arrived back at the subway station near our home, I noticed there was a thunderstorm advisory. I mentioned this and also said that these warnings rarely come to anything…Challenge accepted by the weather gods, and as we were about halfway home from the station, there was a flash. The next flash was a bolt accompanied by thunder, ie it was a direct hit just down the road from us. We started walking faster and the rain intensified. We were still a few hundred metres from home when it really started pelting down. By the time we got home, even having had umbrellas, my jeans were wet nearly all the way up, my shoes were squelchy, my glasses were covered in water and my backpack was quite wet. So we went inside, dried off, changed clothes and drank whisky!

Following that episode, the next day was sunny and dry – thank goodness. Taking advantage of this, we went to Heian Jingu to wander around the lovely garden there, then followed this up with a visit to the Kyoto Craft Museum (where there had also been significant changes made). After, we took a lovely stroll along the canal road back towards the Gion area, checked out some antique stores and ended up at Menkui Kinya for lunch. While we had to wait in a queue here too, it again was worth it.

How often we find a wedding photos scene here!

On their last full day here, our friends opted to go to the antiques market held once a month at the Kitano Tenmangu shrine. It was crowded and there were as many stalls as there were pre-pandemic, so there was a huge amount of items for sale to look at. We all came away with some finds and then ended up on a very over-crowded bus headed to lunch and, subsequently, Nijojo.

We walked a lot, ate a lot (well for me, anyway) and drank some fine single malts and gin. Truly lovely and wonderful to have friends here in the flesh (so to speak). I should note that it was my actual six year anniversary of arriving here on the 25^th. So I am now into my 7^th year here. How time flies, especially when the world is enveloped in a pandemic.

Just to finish up, I thought I would leave you with some photos of the twin terrorists when they are sleeping, and yet another truly weird tv show titled “The wonderful world of living things! Amazing plant sensation.”…

Cheers!!!

I wanted to get an aerial view, but Craig didn’t think it was a good idea…

Faburous Falafel?

At the division point Craig became the 1 in charge, and we were The Others…

So, alcohol-free beer is actually alcohol?

Not sure what this is, maybe an alien lurking around?

Lovely canal turkey, who started following us until I took this photo

Part of a huge art work

Is this like hanging out the Kendo washing?

Having fun