…and once again I find myself in front of a blank screen, thinking about what to include in this new episode. Actually, it is, of course, only new on paper (as it were), because it is already writ in time, I just have to remember where and what I was up to!

Welcome to this, the 26^th episode of the second year of my life in Kyoto. It is drawing very close to the end of the second year here and we have only just been able to officially open our business. We have had our first official guests now – a family group of three and a single male from the UK. Lovely people and truly enjoyable to be able to start relaxing into the lifestyle – we just need to attract more! We do have another guest arriving today and a group of four arriving tomorrow.

In a first for us, we put on a cooking class for the man from the UK, after his partner contacted us and asked if we would and she would pay us to do so, as a special gift for him. We were a little unsure how it would go, but a typhoon was headed our way and it made sense for the guest to stay in and have dinner here. So, we went ahead making a main (nabe – a Japanese winter stew), a soup and some gyoza. As it turned out, we enjoyed doing it and we are now considering adding this as an option for our guests, if they are interested.

Speaking of cyclones/typhoon, number 24 went through on the weekend and we are now awaiting number 25. As it happened, number 24 had much less impact on Kyoto than they originally forecast, as the cyclone’s path was slightly more to the east then they expected. Yet again the eastern side of Kansai and Shikoku were hit fairly hard, as was Tokyo this time. It looks like number 25 will pass mostly to the west of us, but you never know exactly how they will track until they get here.

 Pre the arrival of no. 24

In between the cyclones, the weather has been beautiful, with warm, sunny days in the high 20s. Perfect weather for going outside and walking, which I am enjoying doing again. Yesterday we went on another outing we had been wanting to do for a while, but which wasn’t possible while I was incapacitated. We had seen a temple on a program on television which is two train rides from us, called (loosely) the Tanuki temple. Since we had been fascinated with tanuki since we first came to Japan, it was a place we were very keen to see.

It is actually the Tanukidani-san Fudō-in temple, which had its beginnings in 1718 and existed only as a cave with a statue until the actual temple complex was built in its present form in 1944. The Buddhism that is practiced there is the ascetic nature worship of Shugendō. This practice combines various Buddhist, Shinto, and Taoist beliefs, and Shugendō can be translated as “the way to spiritual power through discipline”. Generally, this involves acts of physical endurance as the path to enlightenment. Shugendō training can include isolation, fasting, meditation, performing magical spells, reciting sutras, and engaging in severe feats of endurance such as standing/sitting under cold mountain waterfalls or in snow.

The walk to the temple is all uphill, with the final part of the ascent involving the climbing of 250 stairs. On the way up, there are a few small temples and a shrine. It turns out there is also a large temple, the Shisendo temple, which we didn’t realise was there. The gate to this temple is very unassuming, although nice enough that we both took photos of it! Next time we will explore this temple, which apparently has some beautiful gardens.

 Shisendo temple gate

One name that we saw a few times, both in the shrine and in association with Tanukidani-san Fudō-in, is Miyamoto Musashi. He was a swordsman, philosopher, writer and rōnin and spent some time in Kyoto training and fighting a series of duels, including one very famous battle in this area. The shrine has a statue of Miyamoto Musashi and a piece of pine tree around which the aforementioned battle raged.

The climb up to Tanukidani-san Fudō-in is lovely, with the path and stairs passing through a forested area. At the base of the stairs is a very large collection of tanuki statues, which puts our three to shame!!! While the climb up to the main hall area is 250 stairs, it is a punctuated with plateaux and a few tanuki statues which indicate how many stairs you have already climbed. There is also a ‘treasure’ quest, where you have to find five small seated tanuki, placed in and along the pathway and temple (which, of course, I just had to do, set a challenge).

One of the seated tanuki hidden in view

The main hall built in 1944, was designed to front the cave chancel which houses the original statue of Fudo Myo-o, literally translated as the immovable wisdom king. The front of the building has a butai or stage area very reminiscent of Kiyomizudera (but without the crowds, as one description says!). Inside is the usual area where tourists and visitors to temples can stand to see the interior, with the nave area in front of that and then the chancel, which you may or may not be able to see into very well.

This area is where they perform fire walking

As we looked inside, we noticed a sign saying that as it was the 300 year anniversary of the foundation of the temple, people were allowed to go through the nave and into the chancel. This was an opportunity not to be missed and so we did just that. Inside the chancel I realised it literally was a cave, with the statue at the back. It was very low light, but the eyes of the statue glowed gold and it felt like it was watching you, as you stood in front. It was an amazing experience and I felt very lucky to have been there at the right time.

So, yet another fantastic place to visit that is definitely not on the tourist trail and is therefore wonderfully quiet (I think we saw about eight other people while we were there, apart from the monks and a few staff) and gives you the opportunity to really experience a place. The other benefit of going to visit Tanukidani-san Fudō-in is all the other temples and the shrine on the path from the train to the temple. Definitely worth the travel there.

On a final note, tonight we are going to visit a real estate office to sign a contract for the sale of our flat!!!! Unfortunately full settlement is not until late December, but we are getting a couple of deposit type payments in the near future, so we can start buying some of the things we really need for our minshuku – such as a good vacuum (yes, it might sound a bit sad, but I am really looking forward to it!).

Cheers for now

Another new friend and an Australian tree!!!

Our grasshopper family

Ah, Halloween!!!

I always wanted something Vivian Westwood

The mysterious flying tanuki guru