Hi all, it’s that time again, so here I am reflecting on the past month and just how accurate my weather predictions turn out to be. The answer to that is, well, rubbish. I have to say, though, that I did make a bit of a bet with our neighbour friend when she was complaining that there hadn’t been any snow and she really wanted some snow, that if I said that there wasn’t likely to be any snow, then almost certainly there would be. To take this further, if I said that there definitely wouldn’t be any significant snow, you had better prepare your snow shovels.

Et voila, we not only had quite a few days of snow, but there was a fairly heavy fall on the first night it started snowing. Thankyou very much Helen! The snow started falling on the 24^th of January and kept going most of the night, so that we had quite a build up by the morning (over 15cm). Usually by the end of the day most of the snow has melted and that is that, however, it was so cold that this did not occur (though there was a little melt) and on top of this it kept snowing on and off for the next few days.

The 24th

From my tablet (didn’t photograph too well…) early on the 25th showing the temperature outside

Early morning through the closed window on the 25th

The 25th

Our guest’s footprints from the night before on the 25th

Our street the night before and around lunchtime on the 25th

26th

27th

28th

As snow newbies, our experience of what it is like to have snow for a few days and the actual consequences of this was quite minimal. What actually happened over these days is that there would be a little bit of melt, then re-freezing, which meant that there was a gradual build up of ice in places, especially on the roofs. On the 27^th Craig and I were in the dining room, cleaning up after breakfast service when we suddenly heard a rumble and then a very loud noise, including a banging sound – some of the snow and ice from the front of our roof had fallen down and landed on the carport (as well as the ground). The carport shook quite a bit, and it scared the $#@% out of us.

After the first fall

After the third fall, near our entrance

At first we didn’t realise exactly what had happened, then it dawned on us, the snow on the roof. About 10 minutes later it happened again – the movement of the carport both times was very concerning, but it came through ok. At this point we thought we should try to assess how much was still up there and whether there was any risk of something bad happening. The good news was that it appeared most, if not all of the snow from the front of the roof had now fallen down (so no more hits to the carport). The not so good news was that there was a hell of a lot more up there on the west side of the roof, and none of the snow had yet left the roof on the east side.

The signs were around that it was gradually slipping off, but we just didn’t notice at first

Over the next few days it all gradually came down, although there was another reasonable size fall of snow on the night of the 27^th and it continued off and on through the 28^th. So, every now and then you would hear a whoomp and another pile of snow and ice would hit the ground (scared the hell out of the cats!). Essentially it meant we had to be very careful if we went outside, because it would not be a good thing to have that much snow and ice fall on you. The other issue was that our roof slightly overhangs the big shed next door to us, and it isn’t the strongest of structures, especially since the typhoon went through five years ago (they haven’t done any repairs…), so we just crossed our fingers about that, because there was nothing we could really do about it.

There were many pieces of ice like this (at least 5mm thick). It just kept coming down!

Tanuki was blinded and Pan in snow costume

We have had some more snow here recently, though not as much, and the weather has been seesawing between sub-zero and into the teens since the first fall. We even had one day of 17C recently – though when we went out on Thursday night it was cold, cold enough that even my ears felt it.

During January we had quite a few guests coming and going, which was a surprise given it’s winter, though most pleasant. While all of the snow was happening, we had a few guests staying with us, which was interesting for us and them. February has been very quiet guest-wise, with only one guest staying here, so far. This is giving us time to make necessary preparations for the upcoming spring peak period. At the moment we are basically full for at least three weeks starting on the 24^th of March. Hopefully we will continue to have guests coming through regularly, though I have to admit it’s nice to have the occasional small gaps 😊.

Moving on to other things that we have been doing; on the 25^th of January we again celebrated Burns Night. This time, rather than substituting haggis chips for the main menu item, I actually bit the bullet and made a vegan haggis. It turns out that the Scots are becoming quite flexible about this and at many of the festivities they are offering both the traditional (offal) version and a veg version (vegetarian or vegan). This being the case, it was easy to find recipes and I chose one from a website of a Scottish cook. He also provided a recipe for a whisky cream to go with the haggis and vegetables (no neeps here, though). It was all very tasty and I look forward to trying it again next year!!

The essentials – plaid, whisky and haggis

We did go a bit heavy on the whisky cream!!!

The next major event of the year, after Burns Night, is Setsubun, which is the day before the beginning of spring in the old lunar Japanese calendar. This is the day a number of rituals are performed and traditions are upheld all aimed at driving away any bad fortunes and evil spirits from the previous year, to start afresh for the year to come. We have been performing some of the rituals each year, such as throwing soy beans out of the main doors and shouting Devils out! Fortune in! (in Japanese of course). The remainder of the roasted soy beans are divided between us based on our age +1, which we then eat. Soy beans traditionally were believed to have sacred power, hence throwing them outside to get rid of evil spirits and eating them for good health.

We also went to Heian Jingu to watch the festivities and after went to a Japanese style bar (izakaya) for dinner, which had been recommended by one of our guests. An izakaya is a relaxed place to go to drink and have some food, usually consisting of fried meat items. The place we went to is called Saishuan, which essentially is a mash up of Japanese words for vegetables (or food), alcohol and a retreat. It was a lovely place, very neat and clean and run by a woman who was a real character, and could speak some English. She had a section on the menu for vegan dishes and they were very good. We had a fun night, with good food, sake, beer and good company. The customers present ended up being pretty even in numbers Japanese and tourists – and us. I look forward to going there again!!!

The izakaya hidden down a lane!

Ready

One other ‘big’ outing we had was a visit to the Hosomi art gallery, which is a private gallery based around the extensive collection of a wealthy industrialist from Osaka, Hosomi Ryo (1901-1979). They hold regular exhibitions at the gallery, rather than having a permanent exhibition. It is a great place to visit to see traditional Japanese paintings and crafts, and I particularly like the fact there are many Jakuchu works in the collection – one of my favourite Japanese artists. This time they had one of his paintings of a rooster in the exhibition, so I was able to get a print in the form of a shikishi, which is currently holding pride of place in the entry area of our ryokan.

After we left the gallery, we dropped in to a restaurant called Zirael, run by a Russian woman and her Japanese/Taiwanese husband. We had met them last year at one of the vegan festivals and wanted to visit their establishment, not least because they have piroshki on the menu 😊. When we got there we discovered that Anna had given birth to their first child just two weeks before, so her husband was holding the fort until she is able to return to work (and he was only making one dish for sale each day – not piroshki…). Anyway, he was very, very excited to see us, in fact he was nearly doing a jig around the kitchen 😊. He kept looking at us every now and then as he was preparing our lunch and giggling (literally). We also discovered that they had found a new place to live, a bigger place, and it just happens to be in the same area we live in! So, we will be catching up with them in the nearish future.

We have also visited one other restaurant close to us, which serves vegan Korean style food, in an effort to make sure we have a fairly good knowledge of what is around so that we can tell our guests about them. Most guests ask us for recommendations, so we are trying to get to as many places as possible (money permitting), especially since the landscape has changed quite a bit since ‘the difficulties’ began. We are also keeping an eye on the plum blossom to make sure we know where it is up to – luckily the temple near us (Chishakuin) has a good collection of plum trees so we can just drop by fairly quickly to have a look – and take photos!

Before I sign off, I have some sad news; the homeless man we have been giving regular food packages to has disappeared. All of his worldly items are gone from the place he has always inhabited and there is no sign of him nearby. The last time I dropped off a package, his bike wasn’t there, but most of his bedding was, although it was very dishevelled, as though he had left it suddenly. This was just after the heavy snow, so we don’t know if something has happened to him, or he has just found somewhere else to sleep. We went back after leaving the package, to check on him, and that’s when we found everything was gone. We have been back twice since, but there has been no sign of him.

So, that’s where we’re up to. Lots to come!

Cheers

Vale Burt Bacharach – thankyou for leaving us with the legacy of your music.

More snow photos!

Interesting things you see when walking around

Interesting things you see when out shopping. Don’t all shopping malls have pipe organs???

Sign for a trunk room (ie storage space)

Re-jigged ikebana – saving bits for re-use, hence saving money!

When you bring your Hellebore inside for winter and it decides to flower!

Our Camelia flowered a while ago