Yes, yes, I know, I’ve been a bit slack – well, I consider week 27 to be a hiatus…and I am hoping the muse is now upon me again!

Hello, and welcome to week 28. Apparently we have now entered the rainy season here in Kyoto, but there doesn’t seem to be much of that going on. We did have two lovely thunderstorms during the hiatus week and there was one day during this week when it did rain continuously for over twelve hours, however, there doesn’t appear to be much in the forecast for at least the next seven days.

I took full advantage of the first thunderstorm, which commenced late in the afternoon, by going down to Kamogawa (the river) to watch the light effects and then returned up to the nearby park once it got dark and enjoyed the show from there – I even did a little “singing and dancing in the rain”, with associated light and sound effects!!! The second storm was much more spectacular, moving in around 11:00pm a couple of nights later. I was asleep and it was the precursor wind that woke me. Then it was on – essentially non-stop lightning and thunder for around an hour. The kids were not happy, especially when one bolt of lightning went off right above us!!!

It’s interesting because it is the quietest here tourist-wise that it has been since I arrived. I assume it is because it is supposed to be the rainy season. Anyway, it is nice not being quite so crowded around the Gion area. I went into the Starbucks in the Gion the other day and it was only around half full. Generally, it is nearly impossible to get a seat at a Starbucks, unless it is really early in the morning. Yes, I said Starbucks. Here, in Japan, they are much better than I have experienced elsewhere. They make a very nice matcha frappuccino, amongst other niceties.

The tourists are missing out – the weather is ideal for wandering around and the continuing flower show that is Kyoto is again lovely. We are now up to hydrangea time. Who knew that hydrangeas could be street plants?? I hadn’t really paid that much attention to the bushes lining Kawaramachi street and other places nearby my flat; there are so many plants and trees all around Kyoto that your focus is generally drawn to what is in flower, or colour (autumn), or coming into leaf and growing from the stumps along the streets, as the Ginkgo trees have been (they prune them very hard at the end of the season).

around the corner

Other than the ongoing floral spectacular, things have been fairly quiet here. I haven’t heard anything re the building approvals, so I’m assuming that is still moving along. I did have a visit from two Kyoto officials the other day asking if the flat was being operated as a guest house – apparently someone had said it was. They apologised and left fairly quickly once I said I owned the flat. Minpaku accommodation (ie private home accommodation) is still not legal across Japan, only in certain designated areas in Tokyo and Osaka. There are still many who oppose the idea but, to be honest, it fills a gap in the accommodation that is available in some areas; Kyoto being a good case in point.

Otherwise I haven’t done that much. The other day I found out from tv there was going to be a big market near the Heian Shrine, so I decided to go there for an outing. There were many stalls, but nothing that really grabbed me and made me loosen my purse strings. On the walk back from there (it’s about a 7km round trip), I decided to go up into the foothills to go through the temples and parks up there, to see if any of the gardens had hydrangea displays. As it turned out, there were a few bushes in Chion-in temple, but otherwise mostly just greenery. I went into one of the two gardens in the temple – the Yuuzen’en garden, which was very nice.

After that I walked through Maruyama park, where the lovely old weeping cherry tree is that we used on the business card for our flat (illegal minpaku…), when we were still renting it out, which we are not now. The tree is around 80 years old. While there, a lovely cat just wandered across the roadway in front of me from the cherry tree to a tree near the pond. There were quite a few people around, but it was not at all concerned. So, I went over to talk to it and pat it (as I have a wont to do with cats) and I took its photo:

I also recently caught the end of a story on tv which I’m sure said there was a small exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s art somewhere in the Gion area, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find any reference to it anywhere else; not even the electronic oracle. Yayoi Kusama is one of my favourite contemporary Japanese artists. Her work is quite avant-garde and she is a self described ‘obsessional artist’. The flowers below are a permanent installation at the Matsumoto City Museum of Art, which we have visited a couple of times to see her permanent exhibition there. She was born in Matsumoto. One of the town buses in Matsutmoto, called Town Sneakers, has been decorated by Yayoi.

Despite that disappointment, I can now report that I have discovered what and where the photo is that I labelled with wtf in my last post. I have been watching a regular segment on tv which is following two men walking from the top to the bottom of Hyogo Prefecture, visiting onsen (hot springs usually with accommodation houses attached), temples, shrines and various other places along the way. The other night, they visited a park and lo and behold, there was my creature!!! Unfortunately I was slightly distracted when it came on and missed where it was. So, to the electronic oracle and after a few hits and misses I found it!!!

At Tsujikawayama Park, in Fukusaki, they put the kappa in the pond (as per my previous photo) as a tourist drawcard. Kappa are mythical Japanese creatures which supposedly dwell in rivers and ponds. They are typically described as being humanoid with a beaked mouth, reptilian skin, webbed fingers, and a special “plate” on their heads which must always be filled with water while on land, or else they’ll lose their power. Kappa apparently also have an inexplicable yearning for cucumbers!? Anyway, it obviously worked as a local attraction, because they have since installed two others in the water and many other creatures in the park – some more kappa and some other creatures. The kappa in the water rise up out of the water once every half hour.

Needless to say, I am planning to visit this park – it looks like just my kind of place! Problem solved. Never let it be said that I’ll let go of something once my curiosity is piqued…

Just before I sign off, I have to say vale to an actor who played one of my favourite characters on tv – Adam West – who played Batman in the wonderful spoof (a point somehow missed by at least one journalist who wrote an article about him) which I watched religiously as a child, along with the Addams Family.

“Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb!”

Cheers for now