Hello and Happy New Year! Welcome to the Year of the Dog. Apparently this year is expected to bring prosperity, particularly to those who, like the dog, are proactive, work hard and communicate well. As the dog is full of energy, 2018 is supposed to offer plentiful opportunities for business and being sociable. Chart readers have warned that with these opportunities comes the risk of time-related pressures, stress, exhaustion and other health problems. They have also warned that this is particularly so for those born in the Year of the Dog, which Craig is, so, while I am hoping that these predictions come to fruition, I am also aware that we must keep a check on ourselves to make sure we take some time for R&R.

The Chinese zodiac cycle is very big here, having been adopted very early in the history of Japan when they adopted many Chinese practices and beliefs – Confucianism being another. When Buddhism arrived in Japan in the mid-6th century CE, the Japanese eagerly imported both the Buddhist teachings and the Zodiac calendar. The Zodiac calendar was officially adopted in 604 CE. The lunar calendar, however, was abandoned in 1872 in favour of the solar (Gregorian) calendar. So, while the Chinese still celebrate the new year based on the lunar calendar, the Japanese celebrate new year on 1^st January. Despite this many temples and shrines continue to use the lunar calendar for other important festivals and events.

What did we do on new year’s eve??? We had a nice dinner and a reasonable Prosecco (it is very hard to find much here in the way of Prosecco). We had decided to visit our local shrine (Toyokuni jinja) and the associated Buddhist temple (Hoko ji) to see in the new year and watch the bell being rung, so went up there at about 11:30. We watched tv before going up there, and again this year there was a show with five men who had to try not to laugh, while many and various people, situations and things were put before them trying to make them laugh. If they did laugh, they were called out and were whacked across their derrieres with a foam truncheon by men dressed in camouflage gear…!!?? It was hilarious again, if somewhat inappropriate at times.

 From last year

At 11:20 we went up to the shrine/temple complex, fully rugged up and prepared for a cold night. Luckily it was a clear night, no wind, so while cold it was not wet or blisteringly cold. I had hoped this year we would be able to take a turn at ringing the bell. It is a very large bell and more often than not, groups of four ring it together. Having Craig here, I thought it would be nice to literally ring in the new year. I had assumed that if we were there half an hour beforehand there would be a queue, but that it wouldn’t be too long. Wrong. When we arrived there were literally hundreds already queued, so we gave up on that idea and just watched the events.

The shrine lit up & me

During the day and near midnight

At around 11:50 the head monk came out to perform a ritual in front of the bell and then ring it once, after which the masses could have their turn. There was a slight hitch with the first attempt by the monk to ring the bell, ie it didn’t work. It seems the tree trunk which is used to hit the bell, which hangs by large chains from the belfry (think Japanese belfry), hadn’t been fully released from the bindings which hold it so that no-one can just go and ring it any time. A somewhat embarrassed looking assist fixed this hurriedly and then bell ringing proceedings began.

The monk starts proceedings

At midnight, as with last year, someone called out and everyone applauded. The sound of the bell and this quiet applause really is very peaceful and is a nice way to begin a new year. We stayed a little longer watching the many having their turn – some trying their hardest to hit the bell out of the belfry (or so it seemed), most getting it just right and some struggling to hit it hard enough to be heard – then we went over and joined the queue to pay our respects to kami at the shrine. There was a small group of fairly ‘lively’ young men in the queue ahead of us, and I did wonder at them coming to the shrine  in their ‘lively’ state (beers in hand), but they were just a bit noisy and otherwise didn’t bother anyone.

On to The House (soon to be The Minshuku Residence), the builders had a week off this week so not overly much has advanced. I was asked this week about my statement that the upstairs rooms had been wallpapered, yet the walls looked very mono-colour in the photos. Well, yes, that is absolutely true, the wallpaper we selected is a standard style of wallpaper in Japan, which is not patterned in the way wallpapers are in Australia. Rather, they are textured, appearing somewhat like material on the walls. Variations  are around the colour (many creams and whites and some other colours) and the type of texture pattern.

Wall (L) & tokonoma (R)

This is very traditional and we chose wallpaper for the guest rooms as it is fairly standard for traditional style rooms. We did ask about painting the rooms in our area, but we were told that painting here is very expensive and they considered that wallpaper made the walls stronger. We noticed that they do not do the flushing of the plasterboards, so perhaps that’s part of what adds to the cost of painting. All of the walls in our flat (apart from the wet room, of course) are wallpapered.

During the week we went for a walk to get out of the flat for a while and stretch our legs. I thought it would be nice to go to Yasaka shrine to see what post new year activities were happening and walk through some of the lovely Gion streets. We went via the small back streets near Kiyomizudera, which are lined with old shops. It’s a lovely walk unless the crowds are at their peak. That day it was a bit crowded, but not too bad. Mostly it seemed it was Japanese people enjoying the new year’s holidays. When we got to Maruyama park there were many stalls set up near the entrance to Yasaka jinja, which continued into the shrine area itself. They were mainly selling food and omikuji – telling your fortune for the coming year. Many of the fortune telling paper strips are folded up inside small ceramic animals – mostly the zodiac animals. This year, of course, the majority are dogs.

My last year’s omikuji (I’m a boar/pig and Year of Rooster)

Yesterday was a big day for us, we went to pick up our new car! Our salesman was excited to see us and as always was the nicest car salesman I have ever encountered. We are particularly difficult for him, having limited Japanese but, as ever, he did his best to communicate with us. I have noticed an increasing trend, particularly in the younger people we have encountered, to use Google translate to assist in the process. Now, I have to say that while Google translate may be fairly accurate in some languages, it is not that good at translating Japanese to English (and vice versa). None-the-less, we can mostly work out what they are trying to say via this method.

With Masaki-san, he is keen to learn, so we did a further translation for him so he could learn some of the correct English terms related to cars. It took a while to go through everything, but he wanted to make sure we understood everything, despite the fact that, in terms of the car, we already knew most of the things inside the car, such as the lights and windscreen wipers. Importantly, he was very helpful in setting up the GPS and went through how the audio worked and the tv…we had to have the tv option so we would have a screen for the reversing cameras. He insisted he take photos for us, and also wanted some for his records too. Also, we again got gift items as we were leaving, this time many more. Once more they were very practical things, such as laundry detergents and ziplock bags. We also got an engimono – a lucky charm generally made of ceramic, this one in the shape of this year’s animal, ie dog.

Craig drove us back to The House, where we are parking it, with little incident, despite the somewhat notorious Japanese habits of speeding (speed is rarely policed here, so if it says 50km/h, you can expect you will be the slowest car on the road if you drive at 50) and running red lights (they seem to be treated as recommendations rather than absolutes – never start driving or walking as soon as the light goes green unless the road is clear), amongst other things. At The House we had a quick look, since it was their first day back at work, and found them installing the air-cons in the guest rooms. Our area had also had some further work done.

Our bedroom (top) & kitchen awaiting installation with in-floor storage now installed

Well, so that’s our start to this very big year for us, a lot is still ahead, particularly in the next two months, getting everything set in place. We are REALLY looking forward to moving onto our new home!!!

More to come…

Cheers

Me with friends…

Greetings dear readers, tis me here on possibly the coldest day so far this season – expected maximum of 5C – and it has been snowing; not snow-rain, just snow. It is currently (2:30pm) 4C (note: this was written yesterday, but took a while to load up). We actually had to go out today, so experienced it close up, as it were. Despite the cold, the flurries of snow were quite pleasant – it sort of softens the world when it snows. We have had a couple of days here where, if you look out the window you might think it is warm. Clear skies and plenty of sun, so much so that it was a bit warmer than it has been and we didn’t need to wear any gloves when we went outside!!!!

This episode covers the xmas period, which of course is not a public holiday here so everything is pretty much as normal for a Monday. So, what did we do? On xmas eve we went out to do some shopping because we had to collect our xmas cake and have some supplies for the next few days. In the evening we did something very traditional for us at xmas, we watched Love Actually. This movie is our guilty secret and pleasure. We know it isn’t exactly the best movie ever made, but it makes us smile every time.

On xmas day, we decided to go up to look at The House, with the hope that the metal decoration and the timbers had been added to the façade – sort of a xmas present for us. It was a warmer day than we had been having (above 10 rather than below), so was pleasant walking up there. Lo, and behold, as we came around the bend there they were. Although the scaffolding was still up, none-the-less it was wonderful to see and this too made us smile. Inside, when we went upstairs, we discovered the rooms had been wallpapered and the bases had been put in the tokonoma in each room. It looked great, and was an unexpected surprise.

In the evening we had some very delicious mushroom pasta and watched another of our traditional favourites – The Nightmare Before Christmas. Now, for me, this is the best xmas movie ever made, despite it being a cartoon. I am a fan of most of Tim Burton’s work and this, in particular, seems as if it was made with me in mind; a xmas movie with halloween themes and a musical to boot! We also had some of our matcha cake – which was very enjoyable. All in all, a very nice day had by all.

Prior to xmas we contacted a real estate agent to start the process of selling our flat (we really need the money!!). He is one of the real estate agents we had used to help us find a suitable piece of land here to build our minshuku. While it was another agent who ultimately found the right piece of land for us, we actually liked this agent to deal with and were disappointed when we didn’t buy through him, because he put in so much effort for us and we got along so well with him. So when we told him we had found the block we also indicated to him we would contract him to sell our flat. In fact he also helped us find the builder we are using for The House.

After our initial meeting with him, he went away to consider how much we might be able to get for this place (a little less than we had hoped for, but more than enough for our needs) and when he emailed back with this he suggested to meet up at The House, so he could see it. So, today, on this very cold and snowy day, we met him up there to look around and sign a contract with him for the sale of the flat. I think he was very pleased with what he saw and it turns out he knows the site supervisor, who turned up while we were there. He told us that after completing our house, our builders were going to be working on the new office for the company he works for!! We also got to see the façade of The House without the scaff, so that was good too.

The other major outing we had during this period was to sign up for the insurance cover for our car. We had to go to Fushimi-Inari to do this because our builder’s wife is an insurance agent (as it happens) and she arranged for another of the agents who specialises in car insurance to organise this for us. One of the issues we had was that we were going to have real trouble getting insurance unless we could fully understand the insurance policy and they won’t sell you a policy unless you know what it says. Given that my brain wants to shut down reading a policy in English, doing so in Japanese would have been monumentally tedious since we would have had to spend quite some time translating it. Hence, we got assistance from the woman who is acting as translator in our meetings with the builder. Interestingly, when we got there, the agent told us that the monthly premium had been reduced from the original quote, by around $AUS10, and we wouldn’t have to make the first payment until 27 February, even though we will be covered from 6 January!!

After the meeting, we decided to take a walk up to Fushimi Inari Taisha jinja (the one with all the vermillion torii gates). We thought (naively) that there wouldn’t be so many people there at this time of the year and so would be a nice quiet walk. When we were here in 2014, buying the flat, we went up there on xmas day and there were very few people – it seems this is not the case any more. Anyway, while we have taken a number of people there to see the gates this year, we have only taken them to the ‘halfway’ point and we wanted to do the entire 4km climb around the mountain. I say ‘halfway’ because I am not sure it is…

This is what we thought

This is more the reality

I don’t know how many stairs you climb going up and down again, but I do know that it is medium level exercise getting up to the ‘halfway’ point, unless you are quite fit, and consequently many people stop there, not continuing up to the top which is actually harder. So, what happens is that gradually, as you continue up, there are fewer and fewer people, which means it is quite peaceful along the upper parts of the trail. We noted that the number of torii continues to grow, with a number of new gates dated for this year (the gates have the name of the company/people who buy them and the date they are installed written on them).

For your continuing Kyoto education, I can tell you that the Inari shrine at Fushimi is not the only Inari shrine in Japan, but it is the head Inari shrine. It was established here in 711, and in 2011 they celebrated the 1300^th year of it having been there. The torii trail is not just a string of torii around the mountain, there are also many smaller shrines dotted along the way as well as the large shrine at the base. In terms of the torii, there are said to be around 10,000 lining the trail. The vermillion really stands out against the green of the trees along the trail. It is a lovely walk and a good place for some quiet contemplation (once you get past the crowded areas).

After our climb/walk, we went home for lunch and then went to buy a new year’s decoration for the door and I also wanted to get a small pot of the decorative kale that are everywhere at this time of the year, in front of houses and businesses. They are actually ornamental kale plants (Brassica oleracea) and they apparently love the cold weather. In fact, they don’t develop their full colours unless they get a good chill from a frost. I really like the look of the plants as well as the colours– quite cheerful at this time of the year.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll talk to you all again next year!

Cheers and have a very Happy New Year’s Eve.

Breaking news!!!!! We have had our first booking enquiry from a country other than Australia. Fingers crossed it goes ahead.

As I sit here, rubbing my hands together to warm them up so I can start typing, I am reflecting on what I have to cover in this post. We haven’t been doing overly much recently, in terms of touristy things, because it has been very cold and money is pretty tight at the moment. On that point, if anyone has some influence somewhere in relation to the exchange rate of the $AUD vs ¥JPY, then please activate it now!!!! We don’t have much to bring over but we need as much of it as possible…ok, I know, I know the likelihood of being able to change the minds of hardened gamblers is minimal!

It really has been very cold, so much so that there has been a lot of snow falling over the last week or so, and not just in Hokkaido. All along the coast of the Japan Sea there have been quite heavy falls and they even had some in Fukuoka!!! We have only had one fall of snow-rain, and it was more rain than snow. The TV stations have been talking about why it has been so cold so early in the season, too. Even with my gloves on outside, there have been a few days when my fingers were still cold while walking.

There were two queries following my last post which I thought I would talk about this time; what are crow-nets and do we celebrate xmas here? To the first query, you may or may not have seen my response, so I thought it might make it clearer if I added some photos. In terms of crow vital statistics, I found the following: Total length: 540-600mm Wing length: 316-400mm Tail length: 205-255mm. So, yes, they area big but, as I indicated in my reply to the query, they aren’t overly aggressive (luckily!). The first crow-net photo shows the rubbish outside our building, with net appropriately tucked in. The second shows what can happen if you don’t tuck the net under the rubbish properly. You can imagine what would happen without any net at all…

In terms of xmas, I should point out that I have never been an overly keen xmas celebrator – Craig and I don’t exchange gifts and we rarely have sent out cards, in the past. We have always made a point of catching up with family on, or around xmas day, and I do like tinsel, so I take the opportunity to decorate with lights and tinsel. We also have a black xmas tree, which is currently on it’s way to Japan (black looks good with purple, green and silver tinsel…). I’m not sure what we’ll do this year, we haven’t really made any specific plans, except to order a matcha cake which we will pick up on the 24^th. It looked really nice in the brochure, and I thought that a green cake seemed somehow suitable for xmas. I will, however, be celebrating Winter Solstice and New Year.

Last week we met up with Takako again, to help her complete the application form for her to attend the food sanitation course and we then took her to see The House. I thought it would be a good thing to show her how far along we are with preparations, so she would feel reassured that we are getting close to realisation of the minshuku. We also assumed she’d be interested to see where she would be working in the future. The staircase was fully completed, so we were able to take her upstairs to see all the rooms, which was nice.

  upstairs hallway

Other progress at The House includes the building of the front and side porches and the ramp to the front porch – not quite complete yet but it is now easier to get into the house, and our area is being lined. Out the back there was a bit of a drainage problem – we’re not sure if the water coming from the base of the stone wall is from a spring or a leak from somewhere – so they are putting a drain around the edge of the yard to re-route the water.

We also had a visit from the Toyota car salesman to get some more information from us and copies of some documents for an application to be submitted to the Kyoto Police to prove we have a carparking space for our car when we collect it. You are not allowed to buy a car in Japan unless you have a permanent parking space within 2kms of your residence. Luckily The House is 1.7kms from our flat, and the plans include a carport, so the salesman didn’t think we would have any problems. He had actually been to the site and taken some photos to attach to the application, along with a copy of the drawing of our house showing the carport which we gave him. Apparently the police will actually go to the site and check for themselves, anyway!!

We also tried to get our Japanese licences last week – I say tried, because we went all the way to the licence centre, which took around 1 ¼ hours by train and on foot, the latter being a ½ hour walk from the station. When we got there, we found out that we would have to ring to make an appointment, but you can only ring between 4 – 5pm. So, we had to turn around and retrace our steps back home.

It also turned out that no-one spoke English and the person on the phone wouldn’t just make an appointment for us, she insisted on going through the whole process and all the things we would have to bring with us. As you may be able to imagine this was a long call, with me trying to understand what she was saying and me trying to say we already had all the things prepared. In the end, she said we could have an appointment at 10am on 16 January!!! I have no idea why we have to wait so long, but it means that it is a good thing Craig got an international licence before he left Adelaide…

On a bright note, it was our wedding anniversary on the 15^th – 26 years since we exchanged vows and this year Craig was here with me, unlike last year on our 25^th anniversary. We are now very happy that in Australia, all people of legal age have finally been given the opportunity to do the same; the right to marry in Australia is no longer determined by sex or gender.

Hallelujah

Some very interesting gates we saw out walking

A tree with a long nose?

The colour lingers…

 “You know I’m gorgeous”

New year, new name!

Welcome to Year 2 – to open the minshuku and beyond…Ok, so that doesn’t work that well but it is a very new adventure for us, opening a business in which we have invested so much (and I don’t just mean money). We did have a small catering service business for a short while many years ago and I had a maths tutoring business for a few years while I was at uni. This, however, is on a very different scale. We have both been very service oriented all our working lives, so it was fairly natural for us to chose to have a business in the service industry. We also both love cooking for others and Kyoto – et voila!

 (Vegan Japanese curry with udon)

So, to The House. On our way up to see where things were up to, we were wondering how soon the scaffolding and curtain would be coming down, Craig even suggested we should contact our builder so we could be there for the unveiling (as it were). When we rounded the curve of our road, there it was, The House in all its unveiled glory!! While we had missed the moment, we were still very excited to see it fully for the first time. It really did reveal just how big it is, and even though it is still a worksite, we could start to get a real feel for how it will look when it is finished.

Inside the staircase was underway, which was also very exciting, especially as it will enable me to actually go upstairs (not upladder) to see how it looks without relying on photos that Craig has taken. Why haven’t I made the journey upladder more than once???? Two reasons; one is that the ladder was somewhat bouncy when climbing up that high, and secondly, I thought that two of us up there would be one too many in the way of the workers. They have been very accommodating of our visits but I felt that Craig could get the necessary photos and then we could get out of their hair.

Back to the staircase – it is being built out of beautiful timber and will definitely enhance the atrium area. Underneath we are going to have a small garden; there is a small window on the bottom righthand side of the frontage of the building to let in light for the garden. The other end of the atrium has the reception and office area, with its little pitched roof. Totemo kawaii (very cute)!

Craig tells me that the upstairs area is nearly completely lined, ceilings and walls. So the rooms are starting to look like, well, rooms. Knowing the colours and textures that are going to go in there, I am very excited to see them finished. I think they will look very simple and elegant. I hope the guests will think that too!!!!

In terms of gaining the requisite approvals and, in particular, the licence to be able to cook and serve meals to our guests, as you may recall we were having some issues around having to find someone to fill the Food Hygiene Sanitation Manager role – someone who is fluent in Japanese and can speak some English and who is happy to work part-time. Tough call, but we think we found just the right person!!! She is an outgoing Japanese woman who has lived in New Zealand in the past, and she has an interest in cooking, nutrition and tourism. The perfect fit. The relief is palpable…

The weather here remains very cold, with night time temperatures being in the mid to low single digit range, but still above zero – not for long. As I suspected, it appears that we may get some early snow, as early as next week. The forecast is for snow-rain (my name for it) next Tuesday. Going out in the cold, even in snow-rain, isn’t too bad as long as you are fully puffed up 😊 and as long as it isn’t windy. The wind can cut right through you…brrrrrrrr.

On the manshon front, this month we are the official crownet monitors, which involves us bringing in the net once the garbos have been and collected our rubbish. Not a very prestigious appointment but they obviously consider it a very important duty, so much so that a roster has been created – one month for each flat, on a rotating basis – and a special sign made which is now hanging on our front door so everyone knows who to blame if it is not done.

The kids are definitely enjoying the cooler weather, with the two boys playing chasey either with each other or with one of the small toys we have bought for them. Zowie has also discovered the magnets on the fridge, which provide a lot of amusement for him, sliding them around on the fridge. Serena, meanwhile, just looks on with disdain at all their antics.

The autumnal colour continues to hold, but not for much longer, and unfortunately I have been unwell for the last few days (yes, a second viral infection in quick succession – hopefully, this is it for the year…) and so haven’t been able to get out and find more places to photograph in their technicolour overlay. The first photo here is the hillside just behind where The House is. The last photo shows a view north up the Kamogawa to the hills, with the sun highlighting a beautifully coloured strip of the hills. The photo unfortunately doesn’t quite capture fully the splendour of the scene.

On a final note, in the theme of interesting facts about Japan and Kyoto, specifically, apparently there is a ‘cursing industry’ in Kyoto. It seems the people in Kyoto have always regarded unfortunate events like natural disasters or epidemics or defeat in political power games as something of a curse and hence the need for practitioners who are able to remove said curses, or place them elsewhere, as necessary.

I think I mentioned that the Kitano Tenmangu shrine was founded to assuage the curse of Sugawara no Michizane (845-903), the scholar-politician who fell out of favour with the emperor and died in exile. The nobles back then treasured yin-yang practitioners who used ‘jujutsu’, or the art of cursing, and obviously made use of their services.

There are many advertisements online here offering to put a curse on someone, including the Nippon Jujutsu (Japan Cursing Association), which has its headquarters in Kyoto. A local paper has written an article on the practice and noted that one of the practitioners of this organisation said that the nature of requested curses was changing. “Around 20 years ago, most of the requests came from women who wanted to get back at their husbands’ lovers. But now, they’re more and more becoming men who hate their boss.”!!!!! (Wouldn’t you want a curse on the recalcitrant husband???). Times change…

Well, that’s it for now.

Cheers

 (Ginko leaves line a path)

(xmas rabbits, squirrels and…ferrets …??)

Hi all and welcome to this special anniversary edition!!! Yes, as of yesterday, I have been here in Kyoto for one year. It’s funny that it feels perfectly natural being here, despite the weather being very different to what I’m used to and living day to day in a very small space. Not that our house in Adelaide was that big, but it was a lot bigger than this two bedroom flat where our bedroom doubles as our lounge area and the second bedroom as our official office! I am covering two weeks in this post, having got slightly behind due to certain circumstances (being a little unwell for a while and having some visitors stay with us)

I am definitely looking forward to having more space, even though most of our new home will be for the use of guests. Turning to The Very Nearly House – or as I am calling it now, The House. Yes, it has been upgraded because it now has a front door. The scaffolding is still up (or was a few days ago), but there is a door there, covered as it is for protection. The main focus of the work at the moment still seems to be ‘upladder’ and the outside, eg there are now dividers and a handrail on the balcony.

 (prep’d for shoji)  (covered door)

On Friday we had a meeting with our builder and architect, to make some final selections re colours and finishes. The architect brought with him a little model of our new abode, which was very cute and included the carport with a car in it! He took pleasure in showing the inside levels – the roof came off and the second floor lifted out. The roof even had the large pendant light fittings that are going to be in the atrium area attached to the underneath 😊.

While there, I mentioned that we had seen a light fitting we liked which we would love to have over the breakfast counter. They had planned two downlights there as it turned out, but I really don’t like downlights (the glare), so I was glad I mentioned it. It turned out our builder knew the manager (or owner?) of the shop we saw the light fitting in, so he called him and said we would be there the next day to buy it. He also said his friend would give us a discount and that he (the builder) would pick it up for us! (service never ends here). So yesterday we went to the shop and bought the light fitting – it was already on special when we went in and then he reduced the price even further. Lucky, really, as our budget is getting very tight at the moment.

(similar to this)

Moving backwards in time, two weeks ago we went to visit Arashiyama, where the bamboo grove is, to see how the autumn colour was going there (no, we’re not obsessed – well, maybe a little bit). It was a lovely sunny day, so the blue of the sky offset the oranges, reds and yellows beautifully. We did our best with photographs, along with the hundreds of others doing the same…

   (artist at work)

In the second week we went to a market outside Heian shrine, tasted a lot of nihonshu, then continued up to the Philosopher’s Path (feeling a little warmer inside!). More autumn colour, although this day was less sunny and very, very cold – the wind-chill made it feel even colder. There were even more people there that day and it was very hard trying to get your own shots while trying to avoid photobombing others. Still it was a very nice and very long walk (also very few toilets, with very many people queueing ☹).

Following this excursion, we had a friend of Craig’s and a friend of hers come to stay with us for a night. This took up some time, both in preparing for their stay, including rearranging our official office to make room for two beds, then taking them to a few places and clearing up after. It was very nice to have someone here again. When they arrived they indicated a few places they wanted to go, and we were able to work out two itineraries to encompass their wishes.

Two of the places they wanted to see were Fushimi-Inari and Kiyomizu-dera. So, we took them to Tofukuji which is on the way to Fushimi-Inari, to see the autumn colours, then Fushimi-Inari and after we went to Kiyomizu-dera then out to dinner. They had travelled from Tokyo to Kyoto on the shinkansen in the morning, so we didn’t have much time to do all of this! At Tofukuji, there were hundreds of people there taking in the colour spectacle, so it was hard moving around, let alone take photos. Interestingly, most of them were Japanese, not foreign tourists. On the other hand, Fushimi-Inari was much quieter than normal, so they were able to get some shots with no people in them!!!

We returned home for a brief pit-stop, then went up to Kiyomizu-dera. By this time it was fairly dark so the lights were on around the area, which made for a very ethereal experience. Of course, there were many people there but not as many as during the day, so it made it easier to get around. As we hadn’t been there at night before it was a new experience for us too. After that we had an enjoyable, warming Indian dinner. Yum.

So, my first year here ends with lots of colour and very cold weather, along with some good company. I managed to catch a cold during this period, which was the first time I have actually caught anything viral here. I wasn’t too bad, but it did stop me visiting The House this week. The most difficult thing here has been finding our way through the bureaucratic maze in a foreign language. It still amazes me that in such an advanced country, as Japan is, that so little is accessible on-line, eg there is no company register on-line. It really is a paper-based society still, along with the fact it is also very much a cash-based economy. Many places still do not accept payment by credit card and there is definitely no mention of paywave here. I find it absolutely incredible that you have to buy certificates of company registration every six months to provide proof of the status of the company for many transactions and, on top of that, to pay for the certificate you have to go to a separate part of the Legal Affairs office to first purchase some stamps, which you then have to take to the counter to collect your certificate, where you have to lick the stamps and apply them to another form for payment!!

Anyway, it has certainly been a learning experience, with each day a new adventure. The surroundings are beautiful, on the whole, and it is rare not to find yet another hidden secret or amazing place as you wander around here. We often take slightly different routes to places we know, choosing the small back streets because you never know what you will find next.

One other thing I forgot to mention – yesterday, on the day of my anniversary here, Hakuho won the last sumo basho of the year, a day early! A very nice way to celebrate my year here (apart from the 2004 Bottle of Rockford Basket Press…)

Cheers for now

  (another artist at work…) (???)

Cold, cold, cold…It feels like winter is here, early, with the daytime temperatures now in the mid to low teens and the overnight temperatures under 10C. It is certainly colder now than it was when I arrived last year and when we were here the year before at this time. I am now wearing my puffy vest more often than not during the day, and my big puffy jacket if we go out after dark – which, by the way, is from about 5:30.

Luckily, we are getting the odd sunny days, which are much more pleasant and make for better photographs to highlight the colours. I am certainly looking forward to moving into our new house with the under floor heating in our living area! At least I have my room shoes here, which are warm and comfortable 😊.

Talking about The Very Nearly House, the outside cladding has now had the coating applied and so is looking even more like a home. When we went to look at it, it was just finished, with the tradie cleaning his tools and equipment. There were also some men there painting the barge-boards. Inside it seems the focus is mainly upladder, with some of the wooden flooring having been laid in the entrances to each of the rooms, and the door frames now in place. Door frames have also been installed on the bottom floor.

This week, in our pursuit of autumnal colour, we visited Tofukuji. Unfortunately the gorgeous rock garden that I had enjoyed so much last time I visited was closed, however, this time with Craig here, we visited the other gardens in the complex that I didn’t go into previously, many of which were rock gardens.

The main area was absolutely spectacular, despite it being partly overcast. As suspected, there were many people there, but it was still lovely and nowhere near as crowded as the other ‘main’ attractions around Kyoto. For my money (and it did cost to enter each of the three garden areas so was a bit pricey, but I imagine the upkeep there must be significant) Tofukuji is a better place to visit than some of the other, more popular sites.

The other two garden areas in Tofukuji included both rock gardens and ‘green’ gardens, a few of which had the checkerboard theme that was in the rock garden in the first main area. A feast for the eyes, on top of which the added colours of autumn was the proverbial icing on the cake. Definitely worth the money and a place I would visit any time of the year.

The other ‘big’ outing we had this week was to the Toyota dealer that we had been to a couple of months ago. They had told us it would take at least a month to deliver a car, once it was ordered, and we thought it would probably take a couple of weeks before a decision was made about us getting a loan, so if we wanted a car in early January we had to carpe diem and give it a go.

We were concerned that we wouldn’t get a loan for the company, given we haven’t started trading and, as of now, have no assets in the company name. As a result, and given how bureaucratic transactions of this nature can be here, we took everything we could think of they might want for both the company and ourselves, as individuals, so that if the loan was denied for the company, as a fall-back position, we could apply in our own names. We figured we could complete applications for both, with our preference being the company first.

Our appointment was at 3:00pm on Sunday and we spent the first part looking through another Sienta and getting a feel for it, sitting in it, etc. They seemed to be very concerned that we really did want to have the Sienta and wouldn’t regret the purchase. Then we went inside and went through all the options and costs, etc again, to make sure we were happy with that too – we did change the colour we had chosen, having looked at numerous Sientas during the interim and deciding we preferred the silver. Important decisions!

(A model version – ours has black trim, not blue)

After that I then had to fill out many, many forms, in Japanese. By the end my hand was nearly cramping – I’m not very good at writing at the best of times but the added complication of writing kanji and making it legible is very hard for me. After numerous applications of our company hanko (stamp), they went off to talk to the finance company to make sure they had everything they needed. It turns out the finance company is a Toyota subsidiary, so around 40 minutes later, they came back and said it had been approved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just like that! All that worry…

This, of course, then meant I had to fill out even more forms to officially order our new car. None-the-less, I survived the whole form ordeal and in the first week of January we will pick up our new car. It certainly has been a period of firsts for us, this last nearly twelve months. First time to live overseas, first time to sell a house (not without issues, of course), first time to build a house (well, not ourselves) and now first time buying a brand new car.

One other thing they offered us, while we were there and had been approved for a loan, was a credit card for our company. This, too, we had thought we wouldn’t be able to get. It is very hard to get either a loan or a credit card in Japan, as a foreigner, and we managed it all in one afternoon. So, we walked out of the Toyota dealer at 7:30pm having bought a car and been approved for a credit card. Along with that, as we were leaving, the salesman asked us to wait while he went to get us a souvenir. After a while, he came back with two 12-packs of toilet paper and two 5-packs of tissues!!!! Apparently they had run out of the usual souvenirs they give customers. Eminently practical, as far as gift giving goes!

So, more milestones ticked off, with more to go – next on the list are Japanese driver’s licences and finding someone to employ as our Food Hygiene Sanitation Manager, because the person in charge of our area in the relevant department said she would only deal with a person fluent in Japanese…

On a final note, we had a lovely dinner out last night with a daughter of a friend and her partner. Always nice to catch up with people we know.

Cheers for now

Hi all and welcome to my week in Kyoto, it being number 49 and fast heading towards the twelve month mark! It seems amazing to me that I have been here so long. This time last year I was making all the final preparations before leaving, such as notifying the relevant organisations that I would be departing in the near future, trying to determine what to bring with me, particularly clothing, and how to fit everything into the cases. I was also trying to catch up with as many people as possible before D day.

So, what has happened here this week? Firstly, the weather has been much better, although remaining cool. Secondly, the much anticipated autumnal colour change is moving on and looking good. The Ginko trees have only just started turning yellow, which with the reds and oranges is what makes the autumn here so wonderful.

Turning to The Very Nearly House, visible progress is much less obvious now, although there have been a few changes which do make a difference. The bathrooms have all been installed upstairs (no stairs yet…should it be upladder??) and they look bigger than I thought they would. The good news is that we have been able to have Toto washlets (toilets) installed, which is a bonus for our future guests. The other very obvious change is the opening up of the atrium to reveal the full height of the entrance area. I only hope the light bulbs never need changing…

 The atrium

 ‘upladder’

Now that the colour has started, it was time to take Craig to a couple of places he hadn’t been to – Kodaiji and Tofukuji. This week I decided that we should visit Kodaiji, in part because I suspected that Tofukuji will be even more spectacular the more colour that is out. So, we picked the day we thought would be best in terms of sunlight and set off to one of the areas in Kyoto that is nearly always wall to wall people.

…and so it was, however, Kodaiji itself wasn’t very crowded at all, which was a huge relief. The interesting thing about the visit this time is that there were some rooms/parts of buildings that were open that weren’t when I went there earlier this year, which was fantastic. The other thing, of course, was the added beauty of the autumn colours, along with the fact that it wasn’t very hot and humid.

After we left there we went on to visit Maruyama Park, since it is fairly close to Kodaiji and also a lovely place to visit. We actually climbed further up the hill than we had been before, which was very nice and, surprisingly, found another temple! Following this, we went back down through the park and into Yasaka jinja. When we got there, there was a large crowd gathering, police directing where people could stand and tv cameras – so I just had to find out who or what was about to happen. We found a spot where we could see through the crowd and then a man came along and encouraged the crowd to make a lot of noise and take photos!!!! Most strange – it is usually the opposite when something happens at a temple or shrine. It turned out that some very famous Kabuki actors were visiting the shrine, although I’m not sure exactly what they were doing there.

Last post I mentioned I thought that with the end Halloween all the xmas decorations would go up – I was wrong. The end of that week , as it turned out, was Culture Day (a public holiday) and the decorations in place for that were mostly Japanese flags. As it happened, this caused us some issues because we had gone up to the Legal Affairs Bureau to get an updated copy of our company registration certificate (over 3kms from our flat) and it was closed. We must remember to check the calendar more often!!!! It’s the second time we have been caught out.

On the way back home, we noticed there were some xmas decorations in shops, but not out in the streets. So, we have for your enjoyment a photo of xmas Snoopy, as a foretaste for more to come 😊.

Well, that’s it for this week – hopefully the weather will continue to be kind so we can get out and find more of that glorious autumn colour (am I being repetitive???). More to come…

Cheers

Another week, another typhoon… Yes, we had number 22 pass through this week, with the associated greyness and rain. On the up side, we actually had some sunshine this week too!!! It was very, very nice to be able to go outside without an umbrella, and in some lighter clothes. So, welcome to week 48, sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy.

I have to say that typhoon 22 wasn’t as full-on as number 21, but then it didn’t actually make full landfall but rather passed to the southeast, giving us mainly the rain shadow. The question is:– was it the last for the season??? Only time will tell, of course, but it is nice having the current respite and consequential sunny days.

The sunny weather has also made it easier to visit The Very Nearly House to see what they are up to. Last time I said it appeared the electrical wiring and plumbing was fully installed. I think I also said I was a novice at building, and so it was no surprise to arrive and find eight vehicles at the site, with nearly all occupants beavering away at electrical and plumbing stuff (stuff – technical jargon). Some were installing the bathrooms upstairs, others downstairs installing the electrical distribution board and associated peripheries and some outside installing a satellite dish (!!!!), which we didn’t know we were getting.

There was also a couple of tradies (not sure what they would actually be called here – I’m not even sure exactly what their training system is here) finishing the woodwork under the eaves (the soffit?). The external cladding is still naked; I presume there are still things that have to be done outside before the final surfacing is done – but don’t quote me on this…

With the improving weather, we decided to try to find some of that elusive autumnal colour. Our thinking was that the mountain areas were likely to be further down the track in terms of autumn colour because it is cooler in the mountain areas than down here in the city, generally. So, we decided to head up to Kuramadera since it is reasonably easily accessible and it is a pleasant place to visit. Craig was keen to try the climb from the Kibune side again, to see if our fitness and strength had improved, however, one of my knees has been playing up a bit recently (so many stairs…), so I suggested we climb up from the Kurama side and, if my knee is ok, go over the top of the mountain and down to Kibune.

It was a glorious autumn day, sunny and low 20s, so perfect climbing weather. When we arrived at the entrance to Kuramadera, down the bottom of the walk/climb, we found a notice in English explaining that it was not possible to climb the trail over to Kibune as some trees had fallen across the path! Thank goodness for my knee being difficult, otherwise we would have got off the train at the Kibune station and walked the approximately 2kms to the start of the trail up to Kuramadera, only to find it was closed.

So we didn’t get a chance to try the climb again and, as it turned out, my knee behaved itself during the climb up to the temple and back. Unfortunately, the elusive autumnal colour remained somewhat elusive, as it really hadn’t begun in earnest up at Kuramayama. Anyway, it was a nice walk/climb and I did notice that it was much easier than last time, so my fitness is definitely improving.

After the foreshortened expedition we decided to walk up the main road of the township there, as we had never done so, to see where the famed Kurama onsen was. It is a lovely town surrounded as it is by the mountains, with most of the houses lining the road being old and very traditional. A scenic place to live, but I imagine it gets very cold in winter and Craig said he would be concerned about the possibility to landslides there. The risk of landslide here has really been highlighted to us during the last two typhoons when many landslides occurred, burying roads and houses and leaving some houses hanging over the edge of a newly created cliff.

One other outing we had was to the office of the Japan Automobile Federation to have our licences translated so that we can apply for Japanese licences. They said it would take around a week to do and they would post the finished product to us, which they did (in less than a week). We also need to prove that we had our licences for at least three months while we were in Australia, but unfortunately our licences don’t have the issue date on them, nor how long we have had them, so we have sent an email to the SA transport department asking for a statement of how long we have had them – no response yet…

So, time and the weather move on. Halloween has now passed and, though we haven’t looked yet, I would bet that the xmas decorations are already up in the shops – more on that next time (will there be upside-down trees this time??).

In parting, here’s a photo of the witch watching tv on Halloween and a photo of someone who looks like a Japanese Chopper Reid…well, we think he does anyway! Cheers.

Evening and welcome to Week 47 – a week of rain…for the most part. The grey skies did not clear up for the whole week. This was largely due to a very large typhoon (number 21, if you are interested), which started to our south and slowly moved north over the week. On the day it actually landed, we received around 120ml. Again the typhoon landed in the Osaka/Wakayama area and the rain was heaviest there. We got some wind here as well, but nothing like they experienced.

The day after we had to go out to do some shopping, despite the ongoing but somewhat lighter rain. I thought it would be interesting to go and have a look at the Kamogawa, so that we could see how high the river level was, and I also wanted to check the progress of the autumnal colour change. The Kamo was as high as I have ever seen it, so much so that the concrete x-shaped forms which are generally used for breakwater construction at the beach but which are in the Kamo just south of the Gojo street bridge and which are normally mostly exposed, were completely underwater.

These were fully submerged after the rain

Strewn around the roadsides and next to the river were quite a few ‘dead’ umbrellas. A sad sight, the poor broken and abandoned plastic umbrellas, dumped after the wind has caught them and tragically inverted them. Umbrellas are very cheap here and therefore are completely disposable. This is also exacerbated by the fact that there are no rubbish bins on streets and households do not have a rubbish bin in which to put their refuse – rubbish is disposed of by using pre-paid garbage bags (bought in convenience stores and supermarkets) and these aren’t overly large, so it is hard to get rid of larger items like umbrellas.

In relation to the aforementioned autumnal colour, it is just beginning to happen, but very slowly. We are on constant alert to spy the odd tree that has begun the process so we can capture the colour for posterity and for this blog (and Facebook and Instagram – it’s all about the marketing). Anticipation.

The lone tree

Now, turning to The Very Nearly House (yes, another name change) all windows and doors are now installed, except the front door, so until that happens it is not fully a house in my terms. The outside is now fully clad and awaiting the final coating and it appears that all the electrical wiring and plumbing is installed. The next steps will involve installing ceilings and flooring, I presume, me being a novice at house building and the order in which things are done.

One other outing we had was to look for suitable things to photograph in black and white – Craig had been given a seven day challenge by a friend to post one black and white photo each day, that didn’t include any people – difficult in Japan! We started on Kiyamachi street and then walked back and across to the railway station, with stops at the Honganji temple and ending up at One of my favourite stores – Yodobashi.

Along the way we took the backstreets as much as possible, because you never know what you may find, and discovered a HUGE bottle shop (!!!!!!!) and a temple which was originally built in the 1100s by Emperor Go-Shirakawa. This temple has had a history of destruction by fire, as so many have, and has been moved once by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Unfortunately it is only open one day per year, on 13 April.

After finding these two gems, we went on to Honganji, a huge temple near the Kyoto station, which we have visited a few times since we started visiting Japan in 2007. For the first time since 2007 there is no renovation happening at the temple, so all buildings and gates are uncovered and fully visible. It really is very impressive and is one of the first places of historical interest that you see when you leave the station.

Well, that’s all we managed in this very wet week – we couldn’t even dry our washing, there was so much moisture in the air!

 !!!!!!

Cheers and here’s to sunny days.

My how the weather can change! Suddenly we’re wearing long sleeves and jackets and enclosed shoes – and we have had to resort to using quilts at night!! How long before the aircons are on to heat our little abode?

Hello, and welcome to week 46, which I am writing while clad in a fluffy hoodie and fleecy lined track pants – the height of elegance it is not, but it is assuredly warm and comfortable. It has been a bit of a shock going from short sleeves and sandals to rugging up in such a short space of time. I have even turned the toilet seat heating on, though only to 1. There have also been quite a few wet days, which makes you feel less inclined to go out lest you get wet and cold. You certainly experience the seasons here, and there are definitely more than four. We await the autumn colour with anticipation!

So, to the week’s activities. We went up to visit The Nearly House on Saturday this week, as we had an engagement on Sunday (more about that later). I suspected we’d find tradies busy at work on our future home, and so it was. The main focus of the work was the outside cladding of the building, which looked like they had just commenced it that day. Given the rate they are getting through the work, I imagine the house will be fully clad when we go up there next weekend. This will indeed make it The House in my mind!! Inside it appeared much of the plumbing was in place along with the electrical wiring.

This week we also received a selection of designs for a circular metal decoration to be attached to the front of our house from our architect. There was one that when we saw it we both just had to have it – again he has understood what we are looking for. I specifically asked for a round element on the front of the building because it is quite angular with square windows, etc. Also, I had noticed that quite a few traditional Japanese houses had a round window or metal decoration on the front. I actually asked for a round window, but the architect said it would be costly to add that into a two storey façade, in terms of engineering and the strength of the wall.

On Sunday, we went to see the Autumn tour sumo event in Kyoto. I was really looking forward to this and was hoping all of the yokozuna would be there, because during the last sumo basho three of the four yokozuna had not been able to participate due to injury, including Hakuho.

It took a train and a bus to get us to the Kyoto Prefectural Gymnasium where it was being held, and it was a rainy day, but we got there relatively dry and looking forward to the day’s programme. We had booked a box which was for two people and I thought it was going to be an actual box, except we would be sitting on the cushions on the floor. I took a cushion, just in case the seating wasn’t overly comfortable. We also took our own food because I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any vegetarian food available at the venue.

Turns out the “boxes” were rectangles marked out with tape on the floor of the gymnasium, and there were no cushions (thank goodness I took my own – poor Craig had to sit on the floor for the whole programme). While the ring is raised above ground level, it was at times hard to see thanks to some people who sat up on their feet – we were four or five rows back. Also, as so often happens, there were some people who kept getting up and down during the day (doing who knows what???).

Despite all the above, it was a good day overall and all the yokozuna were there, which was fantastic. Harumafuji didn’t fight (although he did come out during the warm up), but then he won the last basho, so perhaps they were giving him some rest time!!! The day started with over an hour of warm up time, during which we got to see the sorts of training they would normally do. Hakuho did some practice with another rikishi in the ring, which was great to watch, especially as it was half serious, half fun. He was having a good time. After this, they had some children go up against some of the rikishi, which was very funny, then a bout which was entirely put on and was hilarious. Following this two rikishi had their hair done in the ring to show how it is done.

 (photo bombing geiko)

Once all that was over, all of the rikishi came out in three separate groups, based on their ranking with the last group being the four yokozuna, all in their kesho mawashi (see photo – they look somewhat like a very elaborate apron) to do the ring entry ceremony. A number of the rikishi were carrying babies (not sure whose…) and included them in the ceremony. The final part of the programme involved the rikishi in matched bouts. Very enjoyable and I got to yell out best wishes to Hakuho before his bout. Interestingly, there was a small group of Hakuho fans around me – so we really put some effort into it!!

The other activity of note this week was our second visit to the taiko group practice. We weren’t sure what was going to happen, whether we would be thrown in the deep end, or just spend time watching another practice given they have two more performances this month. The person we had talked to last time wasn’t there when we got there and the other people didn’t seem to know what we were going to be doing, so they just said we should watch.

About an hour and a half into the practice, she turned up and shortly thereafter we were suddenly asked to follow her and one of the men in the group to another room. She said we were going to have a lesson with this man! So he started playing a rhythm and got us to follow him, then he indicated he wanted us to do some improvised playing…Having not played for  months, I was somewhat rusty and after playing the rhythm for a while, which was quite fast, my arms were feeling rather shaky. Still, we both managed to play some bars. Then he started teaching us two sections of one of the songs they perform. It was very enjoyable and certainly tested my recently unused skill of learning a new taiko piece…We were told they perform around 20 times per year. Food for thought, as it is unlikely we will be able to be involved in many performances once our business starts.

On the way home, when we came up out of the subway station on the main road near our flat, we noticed a pink beam of light coming from Kiyomizudera. Was it them sending messages to the kami or bodhisattva?

Well, that’s is for now from autumnal Kyoto – hopefully I’ll be able to bring you some lovely photos of autumn colour soon. In the meantime, here’s some more Halloween photos. Cheers!

PS – Craig has had a hair cut!!