I’m baaack! It’s been a while (again), but this year has been very full on, so far, and is about to be so again from tomorrow. This week, however, we have had a ‘no guests’ week, which we really needed for our mental health after nearly four months with no time off. Yes, it has been groundhog day since I last sent out a post, and from time to time it felt like we were prisoners in our own home, with lots of wardens passing through.

What was most surprising during this time, is how many people came here through summer – and it was a long, hot summer. Apparently we had over 100 consecutive days over 34C, which is a record. Even now, in mid-October, most days are still in the high 20s. The building water usage has been through the roof, with our water bills so high the meter reader had to call the first large amount in to get approval to give it to us –  our guests have been showering and bathing morning and night to cool down.

Which brings me to the long staying guest I mentioned last time. He and his wife were here for nine nights, initially, and on the last full day they were meant to be here they came in early, as his wife was not feeling well. We assumed she had heat stroke, as she was being sick and was very red in the face, she also said she had stomach cramps. Turns out the stomach cramps were actually severe pain and later that night Scott took her to a hospital – luckily – because she was taken in for emergency surgery within the hour for a perforated intestine. She ended up having one metre of her small intestine removed, the result of damage from Crohn’s disease. If they had flown out the next day (which they were due to do) and it happened during the flight, it may not have turned out so well. Scott ended up staying here with us for most of our two week holiday, while his wife recovered in hospital.

While we did a lot of catch-up work during our holiday in June, we did manage to get out a few times – I took Craig to the ‘secret’ bamboo forest, we went to the local fire festival at Chishakuin and we took Takako up to Kurama-dera, had lunch at Yoshuji (yum) and then went to Kamigamo shrine.

The day of the fire festival was hot and windy, not the best conditions for starting a large bonfire and it did get very hot when the fire was fully alight, so much so that I put my mask on to try to keep my face from feeling like it was going to melt. It was actually cooler with the mask on. The head monk of the sect was there, and I was sure he had to be at least 150yrs old – they carried him on a palanquin in the beginning, then helped him walk from the hall to the fire area. We were well and truly immersed in the sacred smoke during the ceremony, had our bags blessed by the monks using the smoke and then I had an extra blessing from a monk who waved special paper over my head (also my face) which is used for cleansing away bad energy.

I closed my eyes and held my breath after this photo as we were fully engulfed…

I stopped taking photos after this point because I was worried the heat might affect my phone!

Takako was very keen to go to Kurama-dera and also try the restaurant there, so we took her with us, and I also thought it would be good to go to Kamigamo shrine as we had never been there and Takako knows a bit about it. It was a lovely place, one of the oldest shrines in Kyoto, having existed here prior to Heian (now Kyoto) becoming the capital. It was founded in 698CE, is in fact one of the oldest shrines in Japan and is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in Kyoto. Near the inner entrance to the shrine a large straw ring, known as an o-harae, was set up as part of a twice yearly purification ritual. The idea is to walk through the circle in a particular way and it will cleanse the mind and body of impurities. We, of course, all walked the path as per the diagram.

Kurama-dera

After all this cleansing, I must be really pure! 😊

July is Gion Matsuri month and during this time we ritually go into town to buy a new chimaki for both of our entrance doors. This year we made sure we went in during the afternoon, so as not to get caught in the massive crowds of people at night like we did last year. As we were walking around to see if there were any stalls selling chopsticks, we came across one of the giant floats being pulled along by a huge number of people who were just there to look at the floats. Once that float was in place, the one behind it was then prepared for the same thing, ie onlookers pulling it into position. I said to Craig I would so love to do that, but there were already many people lining up, so gave up on that idea. There were people spread out along the rope lines organising the process and giving instructions to those participating. Anyway, they started moving forward and then one of the organisers beckoned to me to join in – I hesitated for a millisecond and then jumped in! Then he also called Craig over and there we were, helping to pull the float along!!! Once we were in place he asked for Craig’s phone and took some (ok multiple) photos of us. Unfortunately he didn’t include the actual float in the pictures, but it was one of the smaller floats that happened to be in the shape of the larger floats, just a little smaller. Yes, I was very excited about this – for days 😊.

The first float pulled into place and us looking very excited (though not the man behind us, it seems!!). Our float was a bit bigger than the first one.

One other outing during summer took us to see the irises at Heian Jingu. We had a day without check-ins at the time and took the opportunity. I do love irises. As it happened, it turned out it was the one day of the year when entry to the gardens is free, which was an extra, unexpected bonus. Yes, it was beautiful.

Earlier this month, as a treat for my birthday, we took advantage of another check-in free day to go to an exhibition held for the 140^th anniversary of the birth of the artist Ishizaki Koyo. I hadn’t heard of him before, but he was particularly known for his bird and flower paintings. I very much liked his flower paintings, though I prefer Jakuchu Ito’s bird paintings. There was, however, one painting of flying ducks which was from the perspective of being up there with them, which was amazing. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take a photo of that one.

After the exhibition we went to a bar for a drink and then to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. We hadn’t been there before, but it was very good, and we will definitely be going again!

Two other notable events during this period were saying goodbye to our friend Nacho, who was returning to Spain. We made a special paella for him as a parting feast. The other is that we finally had our stalag inspired barbed-wire fence renovated. The reward for all our hard work!

The barbed wire comes down…

et voila!

The one thing we have had to make sure we are able to do when busy is go shopping, though there have been some weeks where it has been very tricky getting away from here. Sometimes the Aeon Mall near the station where we shop has special events in the open area next to the supermarket, including some performances. During August they had an exhibition of Japanese performance calligraphy, which usually has a team combining some dance and painting calligraphy on giant sheets, all set to music. We have seen shows about the school competitions of this performance art, so it was fun watching it live. Interestingly, the song the team I watched had chosen was a modern American song, in English and compete with swearing! Nobody but me flinched at the lyrics (not offended but wondering what the elderly Japanese would think of it), so presumably no-one knew…

On a final note, while this week has been spent mostly playing catch-up, I did make sure we took one day to get outside and take a walk in nature. We decided to climb part of the Kyoto trail up behind Kiyomizu-dera and walked along the trail to the area where Heian Jingu is. After a matcha latte and cake (there was nothing savoury to eat), we returned home via my favourite canal system. Having not done much walking or hiking for a while, the fairly long uphill climb to the top of the mountain was hard work, but worth it. A very nice 12km round trip!

We came down from the mountain trail just in time to be stopped at an intersection by what appeared to be a festival procession for Tengu, complete with very long swords and pikes.

Cheers for now!

We managed to get out for one kakigori and one of these amazing (and fairly expensive) ice-cream experiences – but look at my face…

Some of my creations

including the smallest ever Ikebana

Water views

Straw & bamboo dragon

We decided against this option!

A cicada landed on our window – I have never had a chance to photograph a live cicada up close before

What is this vortex in the sky? Reminds me of biblical paintings at the Light exhibition. I think there was a dragon in there – not sure, though.

Sunset

This butterfly flew from plant to plant as I photographed them (it followed me). I felt truly blessed.

Not sure what this was for – some kind of trial

Also not sure

Had to add something for Halloween!!!