First, they brought us The Earthquake (and the natural sequel: The Aftershocks). Then they brought us The Rain (with the follow-ups: The Floods and The Landslides). Now they bring us The Heatwave – the hottest epic of them all! Also the longest, as we are now coming up to two weeks of continuous heat with all days recording maxima in excess of 35C – and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight, with at least the next seven days showing expected maxima of 35C+.

Kyoto has been one of the hottest places in Japan, although we haven’t reached 40C, as some places in nearby Gifu prefecture have. The hottest day in Kyoto, to date, was last Thursday when the temperature reached 39.8C, which is the highest temperature ever recorded in Kyoto (there was one other day in the 90s, I think, which also had a recorded maximum of 39.8C). In fact, during this period, we had seven days in excess of 38C – yesterday was the first day under 38C, at 37.7C.

As you can imagine, there have been quite a few heatstroke related deaths, with mostly the young and elderly being affected. There have also been thousands of hospital admissions across the heat affected areas of Japan. There has been one group of people who have been particularly affected; men in their 80s. A number have been found unconscious in their fields, or gardens, who subsequently died. There are also those who have refused to use air conditioners and who have succumbed to the heat.

So, nature really has been throwing everything at us over the last two months. Western Japan has been particularly hard hit, with the clean up from the floods and landslides continuing, and during this extreme heat. The only thing that has made it slightly easier to bear is that it is not as humid as it would normally be this month. Ironically, after all the rain we had recently, we are now having to water our plants every day.

Despite the heat, we are still having to go out on occasion to purchase food, etc. Along with my parasol, we are both taking fans with us and Craig has now bought a hat! We also decided to have two outings which were mainly for interest, despite the heat (both days were during the period of heat over 38C). Call us crazy, and at times I did think that maybe we had been a little crazy to go out, but in the end it was worth it just to get out for a while and see the sights.

This month is Gion Matsuri month, during which various events are held, including two parades of the yama (the smaller floats) and the hoko (the big floats – up to 25 metres tall and up to 11 tonnes). During the three days preceding each of the the parades, the yama and hoko are displayed in the streets near the centre of town. While they are on display, some of the floats can be entered by tourists and stalls are set up in the areas nearby which have some interesting items. After 6pm the streets are closed off to traffic around the floats and the whole area becomes a huge outdoor food and drink fest.

Our first outing was to see some of the floats and to buy a new chimaki, a traditional good luck charm related to the Gion Matsuri. Chimaki are generally hung above the front door, and are considered to bring good luck, prosperity and a long, healthy life. I wanted to get one for our new abode, because they really are part of the local landscape and a little bit of good luck for our business won’t go astray!

We wandered around the floats for a short while, bought a chimaki and then went into a store which specialises in yukata, kimono and obi. I wanted to buy a pre-tied obi and thought this shop may be a good bet. There is a local matsuri coming up where it is traditional to wear yukata for the occasion, and the last time I wore a yukata it was very difficult tying the obi, so I thought I’d take the easy way 😊. Anyway, I found what I wanted and while we were there Craig took the opportunity to look at what they had for men. We found one yukata which had bats on it – so, we just had to get it!!!

Coincidentally, as it happens, a few days later the nice lady who lives in the flats next door and who can speak some English came to our front door with a gift for us. One of her friends had been in the parade – one of the musicians playing flute in the front hoko float, and he had given her some things from the festival. These included a couple of chimaki. So, she decided to give us one of these chimaki for our minshuku front door. So now we have one above our minshuku front door and one on our private entrance door (there wasn’t any way to put it above the door).

 Our door

While it was a fruitful outing, it was hot, so we decided not to go to the first of the parades, instead choosing to sit in the air conditioned comfort of our home and watch it live on tv. It was very interesting seeing the parade this way because you actually got to see more of the whole procession, along with the rituals, and up close. I took some photos from tv, although while they do show some detail you can’t see from one place in the crowd, they are not as clear as being there.

The other benefit of watching the parade on tv was getting some of the history of the event, including some photos from the early 1900s. The floats have not changed much over time, just the landscape around the parades. My favourite photo is the one where you can see some boys viewing the parade from the absolute safety of a power pole and the wires…

The other outing was to a craft market which is held on the 15th of every month at the Chionji temple. There are handmade arts, crafts and foods sold from over 150 stalls, with most of the stalls run by the people who make the wares. There was a wide variety of items, although some classes of items were more common, such as jewellery and pottery. It was one of those places where it would be very easy to spend quite a bit of money…but due to the heat, we didn’t linger overly long; we used this first visit as more of a reccy. I really do love markets and Kyoto has a few very good ones.

(all photos sourced from the internet, our phones died too quickly in the heat)

After we left the market, we decided to find somewhere to sit down, have a drink and cool down. As it happens there is a falafel café in that area, so we thought we would try it out. The food was very nice, although it took quite a while for it to get to us. We had ordered falafel with baba ganoush and wondered if they had to make that on the spot, given it is not a well known food here. Anyway, we needed quite a bit of time to get our core temperatures down, so it wasn’t an issue.

Well, that’s it for this episode.

Cheers!

one of the rituals – presenting the papers for the float to a Shinto priest. The rope had to be undone and done up using a folded fan. I wonder how long they have to practice???

dancing on bitumen in 35C heat…hhhmmmm

one of the puppets on the floats being manipulated

the front of a boat shaped float which is the last float of the parade

examples of decorations for a yama float

One of my hydrangeas which seems to be enjoying the heat!? It has doubled in size in the last two weeks and looks like flowering again…