June | 2023 | Addams in Kyoto

Visitors! Again!! How lucky have we been to be able to finally see so many of our friends from Australia? It really has been very nice to spend time with friends, not just messaging or video chatting (though, that is good too 😊).

Speaking of friends, we are lucky enough to meet some very nice people while they stay with us too, people that we stay in touch with after they leave, and that happened last month with two guests from Wales. They are currently on a long holiday exploring new places in the world, one having left their job and the other sold their business. They stayed with us for six nights, while they explored this part of the world, and they were a pleasure to have here.

Both enjoyed running, biking and walking, and they would get up early every morning and go for a long run, or do an exercise regime at a local park – most mornings it was a run. On their last night here they invited us out to have dinner with them, which was very nice. We went to Tanto, an okonomiyaki and teppanyaki restaurant with a separate vegan menu. We had a lovely time and shared some good food!

View out the window

Our Australian friends also stayed with us for six nights, arriving a few days after our Welsh friends left. Triscia was keen to see a traditional Japanese house while she was here and it happens that there is a house which belonged to a famous potter, Kanjiro Kawai, which has been kept as it was as a museum and which is very close to us. I had never been inside, though we had talked about going there, so it was also new to me.

It was really an amazing place, with most of the original furniture still in place, and the two kilns he used are still in situ, one a small item kiln and the other a huge, stepped kiln with eight chambers for larger pieces and firings. The large one was phenomenal, built on a slope at the back of the house, literally stepping up a small hill, called noborigama kiln (climbing kiln). Firings lasted up to 48 hours and consumed over 2,000 bundles of firewood, with the interior temperature reaching around 1,350C. His ceramics are very interesting, some being fairly ‘typical’ pieces, very utilitarian, the others being more artistic including some rather unusual pieces.

The following day we went to the Okazaki shrine, famous for all the effigies of rabbits. It is said that the Okazaki Shrine dates back to around 794CE and is one of four original shrines that were built in Heian-kyo (Kyoto), the new capital, to protect the emperor. It is not a large shrine but worth going to, to see all the rabbits 😊 – apparently there used to be a lot of rabbits living in the area, when it was first built.

After this we went to Heian Jingu to walk through the lovely garden there. Late May through to mid June is one of my favourite times of the year with my favourite plant, the iris, being in flower. It is also the time that water lilies come into flower, hence my naming of this time as the ‘Monet season’. While it was a little early for both, I wasn’t disappointed as some of the purple irises were in bloom and the water lily leaves were open, with some flowers dotted around amongst the leaves. Gorgeous.

Next day we visited Ryoan-ji, famous for the rock garden and then an art gallery I had been wanting to go to for a long time – ever since I saw the outside of the building. Another place that we just hadn’t got around to…

The garden area around Ryoan-ji is filled with cedar trees and other plantings and it has a large pond, which was filled with water lilies (Monet season 😊) and is a very relaxing, peaceful area for a stroll. Apart from the rock garden itself, the temple building has some fusuma (sliding doors) which have amazing dragons painted on them. It seems a literal translation of ryoan is peaceful dragon.

The art gallery we visited (which is just down the road from Ryoan-ji) is named Insho-Domoto Museum of Fine Arts. When I first saw the building, apart from my mouth falling open all I could say was “Wow”. I loved it. So, why it has taken so long for me to get there I don’t know, but I finally did and it lived up to my expectations, and more. The entire building, both exterior and interior was designed by the artist Insho Domoto to house his works and was built in 1966. After his death it was donated to Kyoto prefecture, in total. His artworks are based on his philosophy – “The true tradition is to break with tradition and create new art” – hence his paintings constantly covered new subject matter and used different styles, without staying in a specific style. I look forward to returning to see more of his works.

The weather, as expected for this time of year, has gradually been warming up and we have had a reasonable amount of rain. So far it hasn’t been too humid, but that too will come. The rainy days are a little difficult for our guests, of course, but June is generally known as the rainy season time. Interestingly, we have continued to get bookings for this time, although we did block out around a week’s worth of time off, for a little RNR. During this time we took the opportunity to go to another garden which we have been to before but it definitely has the Monet season beauty I love, with many irises and water lilies, along with many hydrangeas. The garden I am talking about is at Umenomiya-taisha shrine – quite a long bus ride away, but definitely worth it.

We walked through from the entrance to the exit, then walked back again (hence the huge number of photos – there are many more…), it truly is wonderful. Maybe that’s why the cranes return every year to nest there??? After soaking up all that floral beauty we walked over to the Arashiyama area and had lunch at Musubi café. The food is good and they have vegan desserts (which we always take away because the food fills us up!!!), what more could you want?

On the way home we walked through Chishakuin temple, just to soak up a bit more hydrangea beauty. Better to walk through there to get home than up a street 😊.