Hello and welcome to the week 12 wrap! During this week, yours truly undertook a significant assignment just so that I could keep you fully informed, in a chocolatey kind of way – but more about that arduous task later.

First up I have an update to a very early post where I was talking about the unusual noises I could here from the flat, one of which sounded like a steam train whistle reminiscent of Puffing Billy. While watching tv the other night what should come on but an ad. for a steam train…in Kyoto! So onto Google (my electronic oracle) and sure enough not only is there one, but there are actually two steam trains running in Kyoto. One runs from near Arashiyama (a beautiful area famous for a huge bamboo grove there) which is a fair way from here and out of the question that I could hear that.

 Puffing Billy

 Train near Arashiyama

The second steam train runs around on a 1km track at the Kyoto Railway Museum, which is near the Kyoto station (near here). Now, whether that is what I can hear, or there is still some other unknown steam whistling device out there, I don’t know but I still hear the whistle multiple times every day. Never let it be said that I give up easily…

Now, onto the more serious side of why I am here, ie the vegan minshuku. I had another meeting with the builder and architect this week and received the first draft of the design they are creating. To say I was very happy is an understatement. It had pretty much everything I wanted in our future home and livelihood, including room for the kids out the back (which, BTW, the architect had drawn into the plan, ie three cats in the back yard – lovely). All the guest rooms are en suite, with one room being slightly bigger than the others; we’ll be able to charge more for that. All guest rooms had a balcony too. Our living area is a reasonable size and we have a deck out the back to sit outside and enjoy the backyard.

I asked for a few minor adjustments to the plan, but all in all, I was very happy. There is a downside, though – we won’t be moving into our house any time soon. All of the required approvals will take a long time. Japan is a fairly bureaucratic country and I know all about bureaucracy, as you will be aware, with my being a public servant for 29 years. What is adding to the time required to pass through all the gates is that currently there are many people seeking approval to run an accommodation facility. Kyoto is very, very popular with tourists at the moment. I have been astounded at just how busy it has been here, right through the coldest time of year. The sheer number of buses pouring into the Kiyomizu-dera area is phenomenal (Kiyomizu-dera is a very famous and important Buddhist temple near our flat).

After our meeting I went to the vegan café with the woman who is the English translator I mentioned previously. The café is run by friends of hers. It was very nice and I had a lovely meal with good company. It is, of course, also good to find these places we can refer our guests to. The style of the café was somewhat bohemian, which I have noticed quite a bit here.

So, things are moving along in the planning stage of our minshuku – which will be rather longer than I had anticipated. I also went to order our company representative seal (inkan) this week, at the request of our lawyer, who will be creating our company soon. It is not a cheap thing to do, with the inkan I ordered coming in at over ¥34,000 (around $350AUD). This was a cheaper, machine carved version. If I had ordered a hand carved version, it would have cost over $600AUD.

Now, onto that part of this post which I know some of you are very keen to hear about: Barentaindee and chocolate – or just chocolate. You may recall in my last post (does that sound wrong somehow???) I said I had seen an item on tv with a reporter going to a hall where there were lots of chocolate stalls and I knew it was near Kyoto station? Well, a little research, using the electronic oracle, and I found out that it was in iSetan, which is one of the upmarket department stores in Kyoto. The event was called the “Salon du Chocolat 2017”! It was in a promotional hall in iSetan, which is actually located in the Kyoto station building.

I was feeling a little trepidation as I walked there, imagining a large, rampaging crowd of women, trying to get their last minute chocolates – it was Monday, 13 February. To my surprise, however, while it was a little crowded, it wasn’t too bad; quite civilised really. I suspect if I had gone there the day before – Sunday – it might have been a somewhat different story. On reflection, I think I was the only westerner there. I know there were some Chinese tourists there, but they were only a few, it was mostly Japanese women buying their chocolate gifts

According to the list of stalls I got there were 99 stalls!!! The list includes French, Belgian, Swiss and Japanese chocolatiers. It was a tough ask but I made my way around all of them and even had a few tastings. I ended up buying some Japanese and Belgian chocolates, just for the sake of research, which Craig and I will enjoy together when he is here…this coming week!!

 one of the drawers…

I bought the first chocolates from a Japanese stall which had the most beautiful chocolates I had ever seen. They were like works of art – I think it would be difficult to actually eat them. In the end I bought a mixed box of matcha and ordinary chocolates. Still beautiful but I love matcha and the box they came in is lovely. In fact, it turns out when you take the plastic off (which I did to take a photo to show you all), that it is designed as a set of 2 drawers. I will be keeping it for jewellery or some such thing. The other chocolates were all chosen based on flavour and price – the French chocolates were VERY expensive.

The other chocolates:

(note that the last photo is of the pamphlet for the chocolates, because I couldn’t open the container without destroying it. I bought the pack of 3, top LH side)

Along with the chocolates, there were stalls with chocolate drinks and chocolate ice cream and chocolate macarons and…If you are a chocoholic, you have to make the effort to come here for this event one year. It truly was chocolate heaven – it even just smelled like chocolate walking around there. The photo of the week comes from this event. I just couldn’t resist getting a photo of this – who knew this even existed??? I asked if I could take a photo for my friends in Australia – they said just one. Unfortunately I rushed it with all the people there, etc and it is a bit blurry, but you’ll get the idea. I present The Chocolate World of Zoology:

As mentioned above, Craig is coming over to visit this week, which I am very much looking forward to. He’ll be here for 2 weeks!! So much to do, so little time. Of course, given how long the build is going to take, we’ll have plenty of time once he is able to come here permanently. I just have to be patient…not my long suit…

Cheers to you all for now, and my advice if you are going to come over here; book your flights 6 months in advance. Kansai airport (Osaka), is very, very busy.