And here it is week 16 already – actually, I am now half-way into week 17! Hard to believe I have been here nearly four months. Looking back, we have achieved quite a lot and continue to move toward our ultimate goal – Addams Vegan B&B up and running. There is just one more major hurdle (plus some slightly less major approvals hurdles) to us fully relocating here to Kyoto. Craig left me at 6:00 this morning and, as I write this, is winging his way to Changi. His mission, which he chose to accept (ok, he didn’t have much choice really), is to find a buyer then clear out our house in Adelaide.

As for the previous week, we again visited our lawyer in Osaka twice. Luckily the cost of the train journey from Kyoto to Osaka is not overly much on the Keihan line local train. It takes around 45 minutes, so not too time consuming – although our appointment on Friday lasted around five minutes, just to pick up Craig’s passport. The result of these appointments is that we now have a registered company and our applications are in to have our visas extended; this time for 12 months, thankfully.

On Tuesday we went to one of the better supermarkets here, Global Kitchen, which is in the basement of the Yodobashi store. Yodobashi is a fantastic place where you can find nearly anything electrical and electronic and is where we have bought all of our electrical equipment to date. Our most recent purchases include a rice cooker (wonderful piece of equipment!!!!) and a printer. The only issue when buying there is the amount of choice you have for any item.

They also stock many other non-electrical items, so while we were there on Tuesday we decided to look at pushbikes – they have a large selection of different types of bikes, and some are motorised. I was looking at these…yes, I am considering buying a motorised push bike. The main reason for this is we live in the foothills at the moment and our carpark is higher up the hills, so some extra assistance on the inclines will be much appreciated. I am not now, nor will I ever be, a lycra clad biking enthusiast. The motorised bikes cost upwards of ¥100,000 (~$1,200), which I thought was quite reasonable.

Wednesday was a down day due to the weather, but on Thursday it was lovely and sunny, so we went exploring to find a café in the Gion area I had seen on TV which served a matcha toast dish I really wanted to try…and it was definitely worth it!! It was a lovely place, although a little tricky to find – determination wins out. The entrance was through the back of a shop, but it also backed onto a lovely small laneway, of which there are many in the Gion area. There were a lot of small craft shops along this lane and many specialised in glass and enamel. We also found an art gallery, which was having an exhibition of two artists’ work – one who did collage work one-handed and the other who made pottery and ceramic pieces.

Both were very good and in the end we bought a pair of clay masks which are based on the masks made traditionally in Okinawa and are made to scare off evil spirits and bring in good spirits. The artist is a very lovely Japanese woman named Emi and she actually went to Okinawa to study the making of these masks.

(I realised after taking this photo that I had them back to front – the open mouthed mask should be on the right…)

We also visited two shrines on the way to Teavenir (the café), which I had seen on one of my wanderings. The first shrine was dedicated to pigs (of which I am one in the Asian zodiac) and the other dedicated to a number of deities, including the cow. The cow deity is the one students visit to help them do well in their studies. As for the other shrine, I felt right at home amongst all those pigs, as you can see in the picture below! The Gion area is quite amazing for many reasons, one being that it has more shrines and temples per block than any other area I can think of anywhere in Japan.

Friday was our second visit to our lawyer, then on Saturday we had an appointment with the builder and architect to sign a contract. We thought we would be signing with both, but it turned out the first contract was with the architect. The first use of our company inkan. The contract with the builder will be made closer to the time of construction commencement – which is likely to be in July. For now, the architect will be seeking all the required approvals for our house/minshuku.

The other milestone this week building-wise, was the placing of the sign indicating our intention to build a minshuku on our carpark. This sign has our company name, my name and phone number and the company address, which also happens to be my address. One of the tasks the architect takes on is the fielding of any calls about our intentions and any complaints (thankfully – not something I could do easily).

Prior to our appointment with them we went to the home centre again to buy some more planters, soil and some edible plants for us. We bought lettuce seedlings and some seeds – herbs and some greens (Swiss chard and Asian greens). These are now all potted up and sitting on our windowsill next to the pots of grass, which are the edible plants for the kids. We are all watching them very closely in anticipation!!!!

Monday turned out to be a public holiday here, to celebrate the spring equinox. It was a lovely sunny day again and we took the opportunity to go for a wander around and visit our carpark to get photos of the sign. We were going to go to the bank to transfer the first payment instalment to the architect, but that was out of the question when we saw the shutters down. The next day was wet most of the day but we had to go to the bank to make the payment. This was transacted via an ATM, with significant help from one of the tellers at the bank. It was incredibly complicated and I was very grateful for the help

So, this brings me to now – alone again…just the kids and me. It was a little harder this time having to see Craig leave. I know it won’t be anywhere near as long this time, but still hard none the less.