Hello and welcome to October! Ok, I know it has been October now for nearly two weeks, but it is my first October posting since I haven’t posted for two weeks. Why? (warning, excuse follows) I decided to wait till I had some rather more interesting things to talk about, along with some photos.

We didn’t do anything overly out of the normal in the first week, apart from visiting a couple of vegan restaurants and handing out some of our cards. It was nice to meet some of the people in our fellow vegan businesses and they were quite excited at the prospect of a vegan minshuku opening in Kyoto, especially at Veg Out, which is very close to where our business is going to be. A number of the staff there had visited Australia and seemed pleased we were from Australia.

The other main outing we had was to meet with our builder and architect, to start the selections process. This was slightly difficult since we didn’t have overly much in the way of samples – it is hard to chose colours from photos on a device or in a book. The architect did have large samples of the exterior cladding, which enabled us to see the colour we previously thought was ok was, in fact, slightly pink. So we changed that! Other than that, we chose the tiles for our area, the wallpaper, the door styles and wood, the bathrooms styles, etc. At the end, we arranged to go to a Panasonic showroom to chose our kitchen colours and layout. (Yes, Panasonic)

During the meeting, our builder received a phone call from his friend who runs the taiko group I previously referred to. He had apparently contacted his friend to arrange for us to visit them and his friend was ringing to confirm the time and place. We found out that they generally practice twice a week, Tuesday and Friday nights from 7-9pm. We organised to go on the Friday night. As it turns out, it was a very wet day, so it was somewhat harder to find where they were once we reached the shrine, thanks to the rain and the mud!!! Luckily someone arrived as we were wandering around, lost, and let us in. The friend we were supposed to meet didn’t arrive until after 8:00pm.

Slight hiccup aside, we went in to find a very large carpeted space, on which they had put down a large tarp and were then placing plywood sheets, which had markings on them. These turned out to be place markers for their drums and positions they would take on stage. There were four people there when we arrived and by the end there were around 20. The drums varied from shime, through to one huge ohira daiko (large with a short body). This can be put upright on a stand, or on a flat stand. When on the flat stand it can be played with the normal, but very large, drum sticks (bachi) or a single stick which looks rather like a baseball bat in shape.

We watched the whole practice, which was entirely taken up going through around five pieces and making sure that each part was as best they could make it – it turns out they have three concert performances happening during October, so are preparing for them. They were very good and the pieces were great. At least one of them we recognised as one of the pieces Kodo plays. I was trying to work out where we could fit in, if in fact they did consider us, because it really was quite slick.

At the end, two of the members talked to us to see what we thought. Our builder had told his friend we were looking for a group to join and they asked us if we were still interested, particularly in light of the fact that we have relatively limited Japanese and they spend time at the end of each class discussing how it went and any problem areas. One of the women said she was worried it would be a problem and we indicated we thought it might be difficult us joining given they have a set of pieces they play regularly and have all the parts worked out, etc. We gave them our card and they said they would contact us via email.

On Sunday, we received an email asking us if we would like to join them! We assume they had discussed this amongst themselves and decided in the end to invite us. We, of course, are very happy with this, if a little apprehensive. We will have to pick up the pieces they play very fast…

On Monday we went to the Panasonic showroom to do our selection. It is interesting the differences between what we are used to in Australia in terms of a standard home kitchen and what they have. First big difference is the sink – when I say sink, I mean they have a single, very large sink as standard (no draining board), where in Australia, we generally have a double sink, which is much smaller, and a draining board on one or both sides. Another very obvious difference is the lack of an oven. They have a cook top, which mostly has three hobs and a griller underneath, but rarely an oven. They showed us an oven when we asked, but it was quite small. It also was a microwave!!! It was also quite expensive. So, we are going to stick with the micro/oven combo we have currently – much cheaper.

Yesterday, we went on an outing to the next prefecture to Kyoto prefecture, Hyougo. Our destination there was a walking trail along a disused railway track, the Fukuchiyama line, which passes through the Mukogawa gorge. Known as the Takedao Hike, it is around 5-6kms long and has six old railway tunnels along its length. We had seen it on tv a while ago, during a segment we regularly watch where two men walk between onsens within a prefecture and show various sights along the way. I particularly wanted to go on this walk as they had seen some bats in one of the tunnels.

We had to catch three trains to get there, which took just under an hour and a half, then walk around 1km from Namaze station to the beginning of the trail, but it was worth it. The weather was a balmy 29C and sunny, so perfect for a hike/walk. At the beginning of the trail there was a laminated sign which warned of a bear sighting on the tail in June this year, but we figured it was now October, so it probably had moved on (maybe). Anyway, there were other walkers, so it was more likely that it would be scared off. It was a lovely walk, very scenic and not too hard – the rails had been removed just leaving the sleepers and stone base.

We took torches with us for the tunnels, which was absolutely necessary in all the tunnels, even the shorter ones through which you could see the other end. The longest tunnel is apparently around 450 metres, and it curves, so you cannot see the other end. It is pitch black inside. Unfortunately, the hoped for multitude of bats didn’t materialise, although we did find one sleeping in one of the refuge holes (I think that’s what they are…). Overall, it was definitely worth the effort and I would recommend it as a relatively easy and very pleasant hike/walk (having said that, we were somewhat tired at the end, which we put down to the uneven surface of the sleepers and stones).

Forgot to mention The Nearly House (an upgrade…) before. The windows are now all in and the electricals are close to being fully installed. Upstairs (up the ladder…), most of the walls are now in place. We asked the expected completion timetable at our meeting with the builder and were told they are about a month ahead of schedule!!!! We should be able to move in during January :-).

Before I sign off, just had to buy the packet of “Herbs for Halloween” pictured below. What were they you ask???? Salad leaves…

Cheers for now.

Hello and welcome to Week 43! Yes, it’s me again, bringing you the latest from the far north (north from Australia, that is). This time I have managed to find some free time at the computer earlier, so that it is only one week since my last posting!!

After the flurry of bureaucratic encounters and putting together our internet presence, it has been quite a calm week – and the weather has been lovely. The extreme humidity has definitely passed now, and even though most of the days have been in the low 30s it is quite comfortable to go outside. It is also really nice to have the windows open most of the time. The kids have also been much more lively – when they’re awake…

This week we continued trying to increase the exposure of our minshuku, through finding as many relevant websites as possible to list ourselves on and we have created a business card to hand around here. We plan to visit all the vegan and vegetarian restaurants we can and hand out these cards. Also, it is just the done thing here to swap business cards.

So, to The Frame – until all the doors are on, I can’t really call it The House. We decided to visit on Sunday, with the hope that no workers would be there so that we could go inside and climb up to the second floor (Australian translation: first floor). Until the stairs are built, the only access to the floor is via a ladder and I don’t think the workers would take it too well if we just decided to take over their ladder and get in their way (though, I’d guarantee they wouldn’t say so).

The first thing we noticed is that the front entrance area has had the final concrete pour to bring the level up to the floor level. This is the area just inside the front door where you enter with shoes and then take them off to walk around inside the rest of the house. We also have an area like that at the entrance to our area from the outside. In our area, there is what appears to be space for a shoe cupboard just inside the door, too.

The next thing we noticed is that most of the windows and glass doors have now been installed – they are all double glazed, which I was very pleased to see. I had thought that this would be beyond our budget, so I really was thrilled when I saw them. Heating and cooling such a large space will be quite expensive, so any extra insulation is a very good thing. We also noted that the walls were having insulation put in them – another good thing.

I must say, it is feeling more and more like a home every time we go there. I look forward to the day our goods and chattels arrive and we can start decorating our space. Our part of the house, which is about 25% of the total area isn’t that huge, but I imagine that it will feel like a bigger space because of the rest of the house being so big.

(cool drinks fridges and payment box!)

After exploring the first floor (Australian translation: ground floor), Craig got the ladder and we climbed up to the second floor. I should note here that we had to climb over a fence to actually get into the building site, as it was closed up for the weekend. The climb into the site was a little difficult for a person who is vertically challenged (me), and the climb up the ladder was somewhat more precarious. The ladder was a foldout ladder and bounced a bit as I climbed it…

The upstairs area is where the guestrooms are located – all five of them. It was amazing walking around in them and getting a feel for how they will be. The balcony area had been coated with waterproofing material and looked like it might still be drying, so we didn’t venture out there. We also got to see the cupboards that have been created between the rooms, which are long and narrow, but which will provide us with some much needed storage space. This innovative solution was suggested by our builder when I said I was worried we wouldn’t have enough space to store larger items, such as our suitcases.

Next week, we are having a meeting with our builder and architect to look at the interior design – the part I really like! I am definitely looking forward to the selection process. We have already talked about the benchtop material for our kitchen and the colour of the tatami-style tiles, now we need to choose the colours of all the other surfaces. It’s a pity that the wood of the frame is going to be covered, because the colour of the wood is really beautiful.

On the way back from The Frame, we decided to explore what was behind the very large torii on the next road over from the road leading up to our building site. Torii mean there is a shrine somewhere behind them, but we had no idea what it was and how far up the hill it was, because it is a wooded area. So we headed through and climbed the stairs that lead up to a plateau, which had a path to the entrance of the shrine, but interestingly also had a large parking area, which was filled with buses. It was a parking lot for the bus company that runs around Kyoto and up to the Kyoto Women’s University, which is just the other side of the torii.

Ahead of us was the entrance to the shrine, but still no clue as to what was there. There was a small building up further, which is the place where you pay the entrance fee and can buy small amulets related to the shrine – most temples and shrines have such a place. We asked the man what the place was and he told us it was the mausoleum of Toyotomi Hideyoshi!! I had no idea that he had been interred in Kyoto, although I knew he died here.

So, we paid the entrance fee and as we were about to go in, the man in the booth said it was up some stairs and would take about half an hour…he wanted know if we could make it ok!!! So, being the cavalier people we are (???) we said we would be ok – Craig even said we were fit! I would suggest it’s more like “fitter than I used to be, but we’ll give it a go”; after all, we climbed up to Kurama dera via the back way – once.

So, we go through entrance gate and are faced with a set of stairs going straight up the side of the hill. They were broken up into five sections, with a short level area between each section. I’m not sure how many stairs were in each section, but I’m guessing somewhere between 60 and 70. Not to be immediately defeated, I put my head down and started up. I had to stop a few times, but overall I did a lot better than I initially thought I would.

 (yes, this is half way up)

At the top of the stairs was another plateau and another gate, which I hoped led through to the mausoleum. Just before the gate, leaning against a tree, was a broom. The brooms here look like classic witches brooms, so my immediate thought was that it would have been much easier flying up here…Craig agreed.

On through the gate and we are confronted by another staircase – not as long as the first, but still a long way up, this time without any plateaux. By this time my legs were feeling a little less solid, so it was a bit harder going up, with the burn starting about half way up. After several rests to catch my breath and try to beat the lactic acid out of my thighs, we made it to the top. There was a five stone pagoda which sat on top of the burial mound of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It was in a lovely setting on top of the hill, surrounded by trees.

We paid our respects and then rested for a while before starting the long descent. On the way out, I asked the man how many stairs there were up to the mausoleum. He said there were 489. Adding on the stairs up to the entrance, that was 522 in total (we counted them on the way out). My legs started stiffening up after we got home and I had had a cup of tea. I tried to get up to clean my cup and found that gravity had increased; or was it that my legs weren’t working as well as before??

Before I sign off, there is just one thing I haven’t mentioned in the last two posts, but which is a source of endless delight for me. Since the beginning of September, the signs of Halloween have been in evidence in nearly every shop you go into, with multitude decorations for sale, along with Halloween packaging on many standard food items and drinks and special Halloween food items for sale, especially cakes. It has been very difficult for me not to buy many, many items, although I have bought a few decorations for our flat, including one for the front door.

That’s all for now!!!!!

Cheers

It seems that I am finding it a little more difficult making the time to put together my posts recently, with time on the laptop being taken up doing marketing stuff…yes, stuff. It’s a technical term to cover pretty much anything we have been and are doing to try to get our name out ‘there’. We have been working hard to create a web site and Facebook page for our Minshuku and then trying to find avenues to push our business into the public realm. I suspect this will take a lot of time to achieve results.

We have also been grappling with bureaucracy here again and occasionally visiting our ever growing building site – once known as The Block. It is now more like The Frame and soon to be The Enclosure, or something. It keeps growing and now looks quite big. Somewhat comforting, given how much we’re spending on it!

So, to the website; we ‘went live’ just over a week ago, after a few issues with connecting to PayPal and Google. This is, in fact where the bureaucratic issues started. The lengths that you have to go to to prove who you are and that you are a legitimate business these days is quite cumbersome. This is exacerbated by the fact that these organisations are generally located in America and so have different terms and requirements to the Japanese, for some things. One issue we had to respond to was whether we were going to be trading in America and promising that we would pay our taxes in America if we did.

A lot of this, of course, has been brought about by the flow of monies between countries from criminal organisations, and for funding terrorism, as well as people trying to avoid paying tax in general. While none of this applies to us, of course, we still have to go through all the paperwork to prove our credentials. The end result is that we will be accepting payments via PayPal and we just received confirmation that we have been ‘indexed’ by Google. Being indexed means that people may now be able to find us through a Google search, if they use the right terms and if there aren’t many, many others competing to get their attention…

Trying to make yourself visible on Google is an art in itself. Having the right search ‘words’ (which can also mean phrases), being up to date, having things that people might be interested in seeing, and so on. There are many web sites dedicated to advising just how to do this, but, none-the-less, there are no guarantees. So, we have to wait, hope and continue trying to make links. Anyway, the address of our site is:

www.veganminshuku3neko.com

If you have any comments, or any suggestions, please email them to me.

Craig has also created a Facebook page to try to get our name out ‘there’. Updates of the building progress will be added to this page, along with other things such as food notes and links to relevant organisations. Other marketing stuff we have been doing includes gradually finding all the vegan and vegetarian travel oriented websites and listing ourselves on the most popular sites, such as HappyCow.

In terms of The Frame, ie our new home, it continues to grow, fast. On the Thursday after my last posting, we went to the bank to open a business account with the person who has been the translator at the meetings with our builder. We were supposed to go to the frame raising ceremony after this adventure, however, the day turned out to be quite wet and, as a result, building work was suspended for the day, which meant that the ceremony had to be delayed. So, on the Friday, we decided to go up to see how far along the building was. To say I was stunned as we rounded the corner is a massive understatement – I was literally lost for words (which, for me…). There was this massive wooden structure, with a roof on it! The workers were in the process of finishing the metal roof cladding as we arrived.

We have been up to have a look once more since then (they went ahead with the frame ceremony as soon as they finished, so didn’t have time to notify us) and there were only two workers on site, who were adding floors and commencing the walls. We were able to walk around the ground floor (or the first level, as it is here) and get a real feel for how it was going to be when enclosed. Today we’ll go back again to get another update – we don’t want to harass the carpenters too much!!

I mentioned above that we also had been grappling with bureaucracy again. This involved us trying to open a bank account, visiting a car dealer to enquire about buying a car and meeting with some insurance people to find out about insurance for our new home, as well as car insurance so that we now have the full costs of owning a vehicle and exactly what car insurance covers here.

(a Toyota Sienta – the car we are planning to buy)

At the bank we had to complete a form which was a pre-application – yes, we still have to complete an actual application form before we can open an account. The pre-application was to enable them to do checks on our company and see if there are any issues, particularly as we are foreigners. Anyway, they must have been happy with what they found (or didn’t find) because we have now received a letter telling us to come back to the bank to complete the application form. (it didn’t, by the way, say that we had been approved to open an account, just to come back). Later this week we will return to the bank armed with all our certificates, personal id and inkan, along with our interpreter, to open our account. It was proven to me that we needed to have the interpreter when even she had some difficulties knowing exactly what information they wanted when completing the pre-application form.

We also have to take updated company certificates for this visit, because the ones we had were over six months old – by two days. This meant a trip to the Legal Affairs Bureau yesterday, and a fee to pay to get the updated copies of the certificates. Luckily it was a nice day, so we decided to walk along the Kamogawa to get there; just under 3.5kms. A 7km round trip, low 30s temperature but not too humid so fairly comfortable, with dragonflies flitting around us and the various birds doing their thing. The Kamo was quite high because of recent rains brought by the typhoon that passed through here. Small fish were leaping up the few rapids. Very pleasant.

That brings me to the weather…we have had a couple of days that tried to resume the run of hot and humid (mushi mushi) weather, but most days are now in the low 30s or high 20s and not as humid as previously. Much more enjoyable. The only blip has been the typhoon which came through a couple of days ago, but as it happened we were spared the worst of it in the end. It was expected to go right over us – top winds of 160km/h and around 300mm of rain – however, it must have move further north than they expected, so we didn’t get too much of either.

Well, that’s it for now

Cheers

…and so I find myself in front of the keyboard again, wondering how to start…

Hi all, after yet another slight hiatus, here I am again bringing you all up to date with what has been happening this week in Kyoto – except it’s two weeks since my last transmission, so it should be these weeks in Kyoto. The main reason for the delay this time is that we only have one laptop on which to undertake larger tasks such as long emails, blogging and developing websites. During this period we have been putting together as much as we can for our minshuku website, hence the laptop has been fully occupied unless we are out.

In relation to our website, we are very close now to being able to ‘go live’, with a few minor edits to undertake and we have to open a bank account for our company before we can create a PayPal account to accept deposits for bookings. Hopefully we will have this completed by the end of this week. After we publish the site, we will also be creating a Facebook page to start our marketing effort. Then we start putting the word out and hoping for bookings.

On the other front, the construction of our house/minshuku is moving apace. In the last two weeks, the foundations have been finished. Quite a complicated process, involving three pours and lots of reo and formwork. As of my last post, the first pour into the base of the earthworks had occurred and the reo was being put on top of that. After it was completed some formwork was put around the reo to frame the edges. Then the second pour occurred.

I thought that would be it but when we went up to The Block a few days later some further formwork had been put on top of that to create bases for the walls of our structure and, in fact, the third pour had already occurred! Before work started at The Block, we had been told that the foundations would have to be inspected and approved by the authorities before anything further happened. So, I thought there would be a longish delay between them being finished and the framework starting…however, we received an email on the weekend indicating that the framework should be fully completed by the 7^th – ie this Thursday!!!!!!

Yesterday (Monday), we went up to see how far along they were and found around ten men working feverishly attaching the base beams to the foundations and building scaffolding around the entire base, which is over two storeys high. A screen will then be put around the whole scaffolding structure – in fact they were already starting to attach the screen when we got there. Having watched a new home being built across the road from our house in Adelaide, I am astounded at how fast this is all proceeding. We have been invited to visit the structure on Thursday, to have a look inside. Apparently you would normally have a framework raising ceremony at this time, but they indicated that it would be expensive, so said they weren’t planning one. It seems it is a Shinto ceremony, at which a Shinto priest officiates.

(our name printed on pre-formed beams!)

One thing I haven’t mentioned so far is the weather!!!! We had been having a run of days of 35 or more (and humid…) for the last few weeks and it was getting harder to go out knowing that it you would become a walking puddle almost immediately. The 30^th was yet again 35C and it seemed that it might just continue on for a while…then, on the 31^st, it was around 31C and it has been hovering around that temperature ever since! A very sudden change and it really does make it easier to face going out shopping, etc. Lovely. We have been able to open the windows at night to let fresh air in and we haven’t had the air cons on all night!!

(Serena thinks it’s hot)

We did undertake one ‘touristy’ outing during this period, despite the heat/humidity, and it was certainly worth it. We went to another shrine we had never been to, which involved a train ride, short walk and then a longer bus ride to get there (the reason we hadn’t been before). The shrine was built in 947CE by the then emperor in honour of a well known scholar and politician, Sugawara no Michizane. In 986CE, he was deified, with this being the first shrine in Japan to enshrine a person as a deity. Sugawara no Michizane was a prodigy child, able to read poetry at five years of age. He was writing poetry in Chinese at the age of 11. As a result, he is best known as the god of academics.

There are many cows in this shrine, as cows are believed to be messengers of the gods and it seems there may have been a connection between Sugawara no Michizane and cows. As a result, students who visit this shrine to pray to Tenjin (as the deified Sugawara no Michizane is known) for good results also seek out the cows to assist them. Generally, this takes the form of rubbing the head of the cow and then touching their own heads.

The shrine sits on a huge block of land and incorporates many buildings and a large garden. There are nearly 2,000 plum blossom trees (this being Tenjin’s favourite tree – apparently he wrote a haiku at the age of 5 about the plum blossom) along with around 300 maple trees. As a result, the shrine is one of the recommended places to visit during blossom time and in Autumn. One thing that drew my attention is the carvings around the base of the roof line on the rear and sides of the main hall. They are very intricate, highly coloured and are beautiful. They remind me of the carvings on one of the buildings in the temple and shrine complex at Nikko.

I have nothing in particular to report from the land of tv this post, in part because we haven’t seen as much tv recently, being occupied with the website and other issues, such as finding an accounting package I can use for the minshuku. It seems these days that you can’t buy accounting software as a one off purchase. All products appear to now be online, with a monthly fee attached.

Well, that’s about it for this post – there’s just one final item, the name we have decided for our minshuku:

Vegan Minshuku Sanbiki Neko

Sanbiki Neko translates as 3 cats. We felt we had to include them somehow, especially since the architect included them in all the iterations of our building plans.

Cheers!

(here’s a photo of me! Well, my tiger striped feet, anyway)

Now, which week are we up to???? Ah yes, week 38, somewhat warm (read mushi mushi) with a slight undertone of fire…

As I mentioned at the end of last week’s post, we went to watch the Gozan no Okuribi, or Daimonji last Wednesday night. It is the conclusion of the Obon festival on August 16 in Kyoto, when five giant bonfires are lit on mountains surrounding the city. It signals the moment when the spirits of deceased family members, who are said to visit this world during Obon, are believed to be returning to the spirit world.

So, what is the Obon festival???? It is a festival built around the Japanese Buddhist custom to honour the spirits of your ancestors. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

I had seen one of the sites on the mountains where one of the fires was going to be a few weeks ago – the trees were cut back and it had been set up to burn in the shape of one of the kanji; the kanji for large (‘dai’). So, I was hoping we would find a place where we could see more than one of the fires, including that site, and had read that the best place was near the fork of the Kamo river. The fires are lit one by one from 8pm, so I thought it would be nice to go up there early and have a picnic dinner.

We got off the train two stations early, at around 5:45 and walked the last 2kms (approx.) along the river. It had been a hot day but it was a lovely walk along the bank of the river. There were a number of spots that had good views of the one fire site I had seen, but we kept going in the hope we would see at least one other. Unfortunately, by the time we reached the designated place there were already hundreds of people, so we couldn’t get to where we wanted to be. In the end we decided to sit close by where we could at least see the ‘dai’ kanji fire.

We had a nice picnic (some tempura, inari and onigiri, washed down with sake and beer!!!) and awaited the fires. During this time, the number of people around us grew quite dramatically, until it was very crowded. Luckily we had a seat, having arrived early. When it came time to leave it took a long time to travel the 500 metres to the closest train station, with the crowd numbering in the thousands.

We tried to take photos when the bonfire we could see was lit, but our cameras didn’t like the low light very much, so they are somewhat blurry. I have included a photo from the internet of the ‘dai’ kanji and what each of the five fires look like.

This week we also made the longish journey to one of the large home centres to buy some new foam mattresses to put under our futons. The ones we had were bought back in January 2015 to be used by guests in our flat, and were not in the best condition. We ended up buying the most expensive ones in the store, which are made with memory foam, but they were much cheaper than some we had seen in iSetan and Takashimaya, both high end department stores. They were delivered a couple of days later (eagerly awaited…) and they are much more comfortable than what we had, particularly for me as a ‘side-sleeper’.

Our other major outing this week (in the humidity and heat – it has been around 35 most days and I turn into a walking puddle) was a visit to The Block (aka ‘once was carpark’). This time there were no neighbours out and about, so we were just able to get some photos and then return home. There were some workers there, who were having lunch at the time we arrived. They were in the process of putting together the ‘reo’ for the full foundation. Interestingly, there had already been some concrete poured into the base of the foundation channels onto which they were installing the reo.

You may notice in the photo of the construction workers that they had brought with them an industrial fan, which they were using while they had their lunch break!!!! It was hot, so I thought it was quite sensible, if a little odd looking. Not something I have ever seen in Australia…

One  thing I haven’t mentioned is the very large number of dragonflies that are around here at the moment. There are a number of different ones, differing in size and in colour. On the way to The Block, we came in close proximity to two different ones and tried to get good photos of them. As with anything that  moves fast and is small, this was exceedingly difficult (especially with a mobile phone) but we managed to get a couple of photos that at least give an idea of how really beautiful these insects are.

In the world of tv, this week we watched a show about words and phrases in Japanese that are difficult to say – and we’re talking difficult for Japanese people! They went through the top 10, and the word at number 10 position just happened to be the same word used in a game show we saw some years ago here, where the contestants had to say it correctly three times:-

Atatakakatta

(meaning: past tense of warm (atatakai))

It was quite funny watching people stumbling over the pronunciations of all of these words and phrases! In some cases they just could not say it at all. The number 1 word was:

Shujutsuchuu

(meaning: shujutsu means surgical operation, so something to do with an operation (code for I’m not quite sure))

Photos of some of them for those who read/speak Japanese:

And so, like sand through the hourglass, this week comes to an end. All I can say is that it definitely was not atatakakatta!!

Cheers until next time…

Hello and welcome to week 37 and my new reality – having the family back together! (2 x 2-legged & 3 x 4-legged). Yes, we can finally settle into life in Kyoto together and start the serious planning for our new venture. One of our first priorities is to develop a website so that we can commence marketing and ultimately start taking bookings.

So, what have I been doing this week???? It is divided into two parts; pre and post Craig’s arrival. Pre-arrival, I spent a lot of time trying to work out how we would fit additional clothes and other paraphernalia into this small space. I moved things around and generally worked at making more space. Unfortunately, unlike the tardis, the flat stayed the same size no matter what I did.

Post-arrival, we have been doing things together! The flat is still the same size, but now has more in it. Also, there are now two human voices having discussions…So life is moving along now, not stuck in neutral as it seemed to be for such a long time. It is also really good having Craig here in time for the construction phase of the activities towards fulfillment of our dream.

Speaking of which, we visited the ‘once was carpark’ on Monday to see how things were going and, as you can see below, found that preparations have been made for the foundation pour. I’m not sure when this is going to happen but I assume it will be some time this week. We’ll have to take another walk up there later this week to have a look.

When we arrived up there, there was a man and a woman tending a vegetable garden which has been planted around a disused pottery factory across the road from our block. When the woman saw us, she rushed off and I suspected she was going to tell other neighbours we were there. The man, on the other hand, just looked at us without engaging at all, then walked off. As we got our cameras out, the woman returned with two other women, who you could see were keen to check us out.

We greeted them and at once they started talking/asking questions. Unfortunately, we couldn’t understand everything they were saying, however, one asked if we were from Australia and the other if this was our block. We then tried to explain that we would be living there once it was built, but I’m not sure how well they picked that up though, as one of the women asked us if we were moving in. They also asked if it was going to be a minpaku, which is essentially a private residence where you rent out individual rooms, unlike what we are going to be doing, which will be a licenced accommodation. I said it was going to be a minshuku and hoped that would allay their fears a bit.

They also talked about the area being a small area and the need for quiet. I tried to convey that we would be talking to our guests about being considerate of our neighbours and keeping noise levels down, however, I’m not sure how allayed their fears were because they did repeat the quiet part a few times. At this point I decided to divert the conversation to the vegetable garden that they were growing and this seemed to go well. I told the lady who was most conversational that we didn’t eat meat and fish, but only ate vegetables, so we were impressed with what they were growing. After talking about that for a while, we said our thankyous and left, hoping we had made a reasonably good impression.

In the area around our block, there are many temples and shrines, many of which I have now visited, however, there are three largish temples in very close proximity that I had never visited, which I thought we should drop into on our way back from the block. None of these is in any list of top places to visit in Kyoto, but I thought we should know our own area as thoroughly as we could. The closest of these temples is the Chisakuin Temple which was established in 1598. The main hall is relatively modern (1975) replacing older halls which was burnt down at least two times, the most recent fire destroying some priceless sliding screens.

Some of the screens which were part of the temple precinct still remain there and are now housed in a small, purpose built museum. These are considered national treasures and really are very beautiful, depicting natural landscapes. The other feature of this temple precinct is, as is so often the case in Buddhist temples, a garden. There is a small tatami hall facing onto the main part of this garden and is a lovely place to sit, relax and contemplate.

The next temple is Myohoinmonzeki, which had many structures, some older others modern, however, there didn’t appear to be anything open there. The website indicates that one of the buildings was ordered built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and has some amazing paintings inside, but this too was closed.

The last temple we went to is the Otani Mausoleum, which has a lovely entrance across a bridge over a pool with many lotus flowers. At the front there is a very traditional building which is the Buddhist temple, but behind is an amazing modernist style building, which was built in 1966, called the Muryoju-do. This building is covered in what appears to be large pebbles. We went inside briefly to see what the inside structure was – it is actually a concrete building, without any lining on the walls. It really is spectacular and the kind of architecture I like most. This building is where ash remains are kept.

(Light fitting inside)

On the Saturday night after Craig arrived, we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, which serves pizza and pasta. The man who makes the pizzas is, in fact, an Italian who I think actually owns the restaurant. This restaurant is one of the many that line Kiyamachi dori and during the warm months they have a balcony built overlooking the Kamogawa. In anticipation of Craig’s arrival I had booked a table on the balcony for this night, three weeks ahead of time to make sure I got one.

It was lovely out there in the early evening, in time for sunset. I think it was a bit of a surprise we were there, because you do have to book ahead and so not many tourists get the opportunity to have dinner outside. One of the highlights for me were the bats! As sunset approached, they gradually started appearing in the sky around us, flipping around trying to catch insects. It really was delightful and a most pleasant way to spend an evening.

After we left the restaurant, we walked down Kiyamachi dori for a while then went across to a hip bar called Len and had a couple of drinks before returning home for the night.

Tonight, we are going to watch a fire festival here called Gozan no Okuribi, or more commonly known as Daimonji – more about that next time!!!!!

Cheers for now

It had been a week of delays, as if the weather itself was slowing everything down. One week became two and then those in the cold land started pressing for action…

Yes, indeed, there have been delays, and mostly centred around real property. The first delay occurred around the construction of our new abode/minshuku (I should think up a new word for that – minabode? homshuku? domshuku? minitat? Ok, ok). The meeting that was supposed to occur with the neighbours was delayed, then rescheduled, then abandoned altogether. This meant the construction was delayed, then rescheduled, then finally commenced TODAY!!!!! (Tues, 8/8)

Our builder ended up going around to all the near neighbours giving them a present and telling them what’s happening. The agreement with the community leader was that we offer a private viewing when it is finished. There was one other delay, which was caused by a weather event yesterday – a typhoon. Yes, a typhoon came ashore in the Osaka region yesterday (Monday, 7/8), and made its way towards Kyoto (and other areas further north). It actually was still a typhoon, with an eye and spinning slowly. We all got a lot of rain and some wind, although the wind had lessened by the time it got to us.

What it has done is cool the temperature down a little, which is nice. Yesterday was under 30! (29) today it started cooler, with some remaining cloud cover and a bit more rain, but as soon as that cleared off the temperature started moving up to the expected max. of 35. Amazing how fast it heated up and, of course, it was still very humid. Nearly all the tv stations were covering the typhoon non-stop last night and posting all the warnings – mainly flooding. I had a look at the Kamogawa a little earlier today and it is at the highest level I have ever seen.

The other main delay referred to above is one that definitely shouldn’t have happened, along with the flow-on consequences. Today was supposed to be settlement day for our house (Tuesday, 8/8). I say supposed to be because it isn’t now going to happen until next Tuesday (15/8). This is despite a ‘no conditions’ contract which had settlement as 8/8, the date chosen by the purchaser. It seems that there is some financing happening and the bank couldn’t get it put through before the 15^th. There are penalties in the contract which will be imposed.

As you can imagine, Craig had gone ahead and organised everything with the 8^th as the final day, including booking flights for the Thursday (10^th) and other necessary processes. Our conveyancer and bank had everything organised for the 8^th, but it wasn’t to be. Interestingly, the buyer’s conveyancer had omitted to tell anyone about the delay, including our conveyancer and the real estate agent! It was all up in the air as of Thursday and Friday (3^rd and 4^th) as to when the settlement would actually occur. It wasn’t until the Saturday that we knew definitely that it would be delayed and the new date would be the 15th. Suffice it to say there were some tense words exchanged amongst the respective parties…

Of course, the third delay was this post, as I was waiting to see what was going to happen with everything before I sat down to put hands to keyboard. To say I was slightly put out by all of this might be a tiny bit of an understatement. Poor Craig has had to deal with it all ‘at the coalface’, as it were. He has battled on through and is nearly finished everything that needs to be done. He has decided to leave this week none-the-less, thanks to the assistance of a very good friend – Steven. Big thankyou to Steven for his help.

Digressing to a completely different topic, I did undertake one outing this week that didn’t involve a supermarket, shop or builder. I realised I hadn’t been to one of my favourite temples for a while and since it was in up in a mountainous area I hoped it would be somewhat cooler. I have been visiting Mt Kurama and the temple and shrine there since we first came to Kyoto. The walk up to the temple from Kurama station is a little strenuous, but it mainly involves stairs and the mountain is very lush, with lots of wildlife – including land crabs, which we discovered on one very wet day some years ago.

You may recall I talked about a much more strenuous climb up a track to a temple some time ago, which was the climb to Kurama from Kibune village, one station earlier. That track does not have much in the way of built stairs, but is still lovely and lush – although It’s hard to notice too much when you are dragging in air and trying to keep moving.

So, I went up there and spent some time relaxing and meditating in that very calm place, listening to the monks intoning and the drum keeping rhythm. The multitude cicadas were quite loud there, which just added to the ambience. Though it wasn’t as cool as I’d hoped there, it was worth it. I felt very calm, which was lucky given the subsequent events. It seems my visit there was very timely.

In terms of events, there is a very large pottery and ceramics market happening over three days this week, which just happens to be set up along both sides of Gojo street between the Kamo river and the next main road, very near the flat. There are at least two hundred stalls lining the street on the footpaths, with some really amazing wares, as well as every day ceramics. I had no idea it was going to be on and just happened upon it on my way back from the ‘once was carpark’. It took some work, but I managed to control myself and only bought a few things.

It was hard getting a good shot of this, especially as Gojo street is three lanes wide each way. This shot only show a small part of one side of the road. The centre here is an overhead highway exit.

In the world of tv, there was a segment on one of my favourite programs which really grabbed my attention (and didn’t involve ducks…). It was about a young racing driver who is currently racing in the Formula 4 category. She is 11 yr old Juju, whose father is ex-F1 and ex-Indycar racer, Hideki Noda. They showed her driving at well over 200 km/h and apparently she is winning races, although she is too young to compete in official races. Interestingly, despite that, she already has a sponsor.

As with most young drivers, she started in go-karts (at 3 yrs of age!) and worked her way up. She does physical training to make sure she has the strength to pilot the vehicles and to cope with the substantial g-forces experienced when driving and braking hard. Just recently she set a lap record for under 17 yr olds in F4 at the Okayama International Circuit. She hopes to race at F1 level, and win, one day.

She seems to be gaining a lot of attention in international media, including this article:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2017/06/30/could-this-11-year-old-become-the-worlds-first-woman-f1-winner/#75f015b97a93

I’ll be barracking for her!! Actually, I’m somewhat jealous – I’d love to have raced cars!!!

Cheers for now

Post script: Tengu has fully recovered from his nose breakage incident:

Here’s another of my favourite trees. This one is at Kurama and is over 800 yrs old:

Hi all, me again, slaving over a hot and humid keyboard!!! It’s time to review week 34, to see what I have and haven’t been getting up to here in mushimushi Kyoto. I like that term – which means hot and humid – it seems very descriptive to me; it’s just how I feel when I’m outside in this weather. I have to admit that because it has been so mushimushi, I haven’t done that much this week. The aircon has been my friend! None-the-less I do have to go out occasionally, not just so that I can eat and drink, but also because I do need to maintain some contact with the outside world here.

This week I decided to go out and see what was happening with the matsuri floats on the Sunday afternoon before the second procession, which I didn’t mention last time involves only the smaller yama floats. I actually wanted to buy a new chimaki, for the coming year. A chimaki is a good luck charm made from bamboo leaves which is placed at the entrance of houses and looks rather like a bundle of straw. People in Kyoto hang it at the entrance of their house to ward off evil throughout the year.

The chimaki are sold at Yasaka shrine and at stalls for the yama and hoko during the Gion matsuri. On the three nights before each of the processions some of the streets where the floats are parked are closed to traffic and the area is filled with food and drink stalls and other stalls with various items for sale, such as yukata, obi, hair decorations, etc and chimaki. The evenings leading up to the first procession are known as Yoiyama (July 16), Yoiyoiyama (July 15) and Yoiyoiyoiyama (July 14). On these days you can also go inside some of the hoko. The chimaki sold during this time are hand made by volunteers from the areas related to each of the floats and are all decorated slightly differently.

(photos from last year)

So, I went for the fairly long walk to the precinct where the floats would be and had a look around. Unfortunately, either I was a little too early, or the number of stalls before the second procession is fewer. Whichever it is, I didn’t find any selling chimaki. Feeling a little annoyed with myself for not having made the effort to go to one of the yoiyama nights, I set off back home. I had nearly walked all the way down Shijo dori to the street I was going to go down to get home when I saw a stall selling some chimaki! It was, in fact, a stall selling chimaki from the Yasaka shrine, so I was very happy with that outcome. It is now hanging outside next to my front door.

While I haven’t watched any more tv than usual this week there have been some noteworthy shows to watch, and which I had a very close interest in. The first was a show about a duck family – mother, father and six ducklings. Yes, ducks! It happened that these ducks were the ones we had seen in a pond in a temple that we had wandered into when Steven was here, while I was looking for something else. It wasn’t a very large temple complex, but it had a smallish pond in it with a curved concrete bridge over it.

Under the bridge there was a platform on the water with some food (leaves) on it and a pet box which had been set up with a little ramp into it for the ducklings to sleep in and as a safe place. Obviously the people in the temple – monks and helpers – had taken it upon themselves to look after this little family. There were only a few other people there when we went in; it wasn’t one of those temples that had many visitors other than locals. I seem to recall there was a tripod set up near the pond, but I didn’t really think about it at the time.

The program followed these ducklings as they grew up and also showed there were people there looking after them 24/7, making sure nothing untoward happened to them and filming them day and night (with infra-red). I assume these people had talked to the local police at some point, too, to seek assistance for the day the mother would take her ducklings down to the Kamo river, when they were sufficiently grown.

Moves toward that time came one day when the mother flew off towards the Kamo – the first time she had left the ducklings since laying the eggs. A reconnaissance flight was the presumption. She returned after a short while and later made the same journey again, not sure if it was that day, or the next day. You can never be too careful when it comes to looking after the brood!

On this signal of intent, while she was away, the monks and helpers moved the platform from under the bridge and set it up as a ramp on one side of the pond. The sides were too steep for the ducklings to easily get out without flying. As soon as the mother came back and saw the ramp she went over to it and tested it out. She obviously was happy with it, because she then climbed up it and headed outside of the pond enclosure. There was an open gutter outside the pond enclosure that they would have to cross to get out of the temple area, not very wide but quite deep, so she also tested this out by jumping over it.

When she was happy with everything, and it was the right time, she stood outside the pond enclosure just past the gutter and started quacking. This must have been duck language for “come out here to me – use the ramp”, because the ducklings all immediately swam over to the ramp. They hesitated there for a little while until the bold one of the group jumped up onto the ramp and started walking up it. At this, the rest did the same and they all walked outside the enclosure, until they reached the gutter. Here they stopped, looked around briefly and eventually went back inside.

I think the mother must have been happy with this progress because she left it at that for the day. Next day, she went out again and again quacked. This time they went up the ramp, outside and straight to the gutter. She quacked again, and one by one they all jumped over the gutter. Then they were off on their long walk. It’s about 1km from the temple to the Kamo and there were two possible routes they could have taken, but she chose the shortest distance. The police were in place down the road, ready to direct traffic (was there a special code the temple helpers used when they called them?? Code: Big march? Kamo march? They’re moving?…).

The whole entourage, ducks, monks and helpers all walked together. Funnily enough, the ducks seemed completely unperturbed by all the people and cameras, I suppose they were used to them. I’m not sure how long it took, but they made it to the river, slipped down the bank (well, some did) and they were into the water. It really was lovely to watch and I felt very lucky to see the program, having seen the ducklings when they were very small.

Next night, when I turned on the tv, there kangaroos jumping across the screen – and I hadn’t been drinking! It was a program focussing on the kangaroos which live down the southern coast of NSW, near Eden, spend most of their time at the beach and actually go into the water when the conditions are right. It was an interesting show and talked about why they go into the water (not for fishing) and what they eat around the beach. They also mentioned another mob in far northern Qld that similarly go into the water.

Then, the next night, when I turned on the tv, there was footage of a street being shown, which looked very familiar to me. My first thought was that it could be a street in Adelaide and then the camera swung around to show the building on the other side of the street – it was the Central Market!!!! The first building on the other side of the street which looked so familiar was Her Maj! It was a program about Adelaide, but unfortunately I had missed most of it. They went inside the market, and filmed some of the stalls, with a particular focus on a butcher stall which specialised in kangaroo, believe it or not. I sort of winced at that, after the previous night’s show.

After the Central Market, they focussed Glenelg – the buildings and the beach. They also showed what appeared to be life savers practicing in a surf boat, probably preparing for competition. The boat had a Port Augusta sticker on the side. As you can imagine, I was very excited to see a show about Adelaide being shown in Japan. I wish I had seen the whole thing but I got the impression it was a very positive program and good promo for Adelaide. Not many people have heard of Adelaide here when we say that’s where we come from. They mainly know about Sydney and Cairns.

My final remarks are about a truly great champion – Hakuho!!!!!!! Not only did he win the basho (again) but he also achieved the most individual bout wins ever in sumo. He already has well surpassed the most basho championship wins. Fantastic achievement.

Well, that’s it for now – 2 weeks to settlement…

Cheers!

Post script: One thing I forgot to mention in my week 33 posting – the cicadas have finally started! It’s the sound of summer and we finally have it. They were few at first, but they are building. The cicada here in Kyoto, as far as I can work out, is the kuma-zemi or bear cicada, which is the largest in Japan (60 – 70 mm I believe). I find their sound quite pleasant, although I believe some of the other cicadas can be very loud and abrasive.

Week 33 and three weeks to go to settlement! Hello and welcome to my world – Kyoto – and a wrap of my 33^rd week here. Summertime, and the living is easy…actually, it’s hot and humid, which means that when I go out to attend to various tasks I have to recover on my return home. Some days, of course, are somewhat hotter than others, particularly when the sun is out (where is that umbrella with the fan in it????). Most of the recent days have been 34+ and high humidity, generally over 80%. We are also still getting the semi-regular thunderstorms and the kids still aren’t enjoying them, unlike me.

From the start here in Kyoto, my forays into the outside world have revolved around the weather since I have to walk to most places. This is even more so the case at the moment, however, when it is hot and humid every day, as it has been for the last few weeks, then it is a case of getting out and back as fast as possible. Sometimes it appears on the forecast that it will be slightly cooler/overcast, then when I do go out the cloud clears up, the sun beats down and I melt. I am just not good at coping with humidity (have I said that before?).

This week I decided to visit the other temple complex here that is in some ‘top 10’ lists but I had never been to. As with many of these places, the best times to visit are spring and autumn for the respective blossom and colours, however, I do think it is important to see what they are like when the proverbial icing is not on the cake. Also, this temple is fairly close to where our new home will be and I am making it my business to check all these places so that I can talk to our guests about them, as necessary.

Anyway, the weather looked like it would be reasonable, so my plan was to catch a train there and walk back so I could drop in at the supermarket for a few items. This, I reasoned, would mean I was fairly fresh when I got there and make it a little more pleasant for me looking around. By the time I reached the temple area, however, it was starting to clear up, the temperature was rising, and the humidity was gradually increasing, prior to an evening thunderstorm. I hoped it was going to be worth it!

Well, I can only say I can’t believe I had never been to Tofuku-ji temple before and that it isn’t one of the top destinations in Kyoto. It was a huge complex, with three separate garden areas, one rock garden slightly away from the main complex and another rock garden within the largest garden area. As you walk up to the temple from the train station, you pass a number of small, unassuming gate entrances. Me being the curious type just had to go in (if there is no barrier or sign saying no entry, then I go in). Within the first gated area was a small hall and a path leading to some other buildings, which were all closed. Inside the small hall, as it turned out, was a wooden carved seated Buddha which was over 3 metres high. It looked old, but there was nothing there to say how old it was, nor any other information, except no photos to be taken.

(one entrance that was blocked)

Some temples and shrines allow photos to be taken of the inside of the halls, and some do not. Disappointing sometimes because the statues and decorations in some of them are amazing and the only way to see them again is by returning to the temple/shrine (I don’t have the ability to visualise things in my brain, so no visual memory, unfortunately). The next stop was a small temple called Hosho-ji which enshrines a Senju Kannon-zo (a “thousand-handed” statue of the goddess of mercy). No photos of that, but I took some in the courtyard.

Next was Reiun-in, a sub-temple of Tofuku-ji, and which has the most beautiful rock garden I have seen in Japan. Others may disagree but for me it was mesmerising, even with the sound of trains in the background. Very few people actually went into any of these temples before entering Tofuku-ji, so apart from myself there were few people inside any of them, and the only other people at the rock garden was a group of three French tourists who were respectfully quiet, which made it even better just being there.

The Reiun-in temple was set up in 1390 but the garden was ruined some time ago and the current garden was re-created in 1970 from an old image. The centre piece is a stone called an Iai-seki, which symbolises Mt Shumisen, the holy mountain where Buddha lives. This stone was given to a famous Buddhist monk in the 1600s. I could have stayed there and just sat and contemplated life, the universe and everything but I had to move on to the main complex.

There’s so much in the main complex to look at I could keep writing, but luckily I have photos. A couple of highlights there; I was taking a photo of one of the halls from the garden below and two monks photo-bombed my shot (!) and a beautiful lizard which was about 15 cms nose to tail tip and was coloured like a rainbow, starting from a brown lime colour through green, to blue and then purple. The photo doesn’t show the colours as well as I would have liked, but I couldn’t get any closer without it moving. Suffice it to say that it was worth the half hour recovery period I had to have when I got home!

(guilty parties)

Some of you will be aware that July in Kyoto means it’s time for the Gion Matsuri. The festivities last most of July and there are two festival processions during this time; the main one on the 17th and the other on the 24^th. Two types of floats are used in the procession, 23 yama and 10 hoko. The hoko are the biggest floats, being up to 25 metres tall and weighing up to 11 tonnes, have huge wooden wheels and are pulled by between 20 and 30 men. These wheels make it interesting when they have to turn corners, which is a spectacle in itself. Last year, when we were here, we placed ourselves on a corner so we could watch this process. It really is amazing and very hard work for those involved, especially considering the heat and humidity.

I decided to go down a bit later this year for a quick look and actually got there to see the last four of the hoko and the same number of yama passing down Shijo street. Interestingly, the floats were moving in the opposite direction to last year, so the turns they had to undertake were in the opposite direction this year. To keep them on their toes, or to even out the wear on the wooden wheels???

One thing I hadn’t noticed last year is that all the traffic lights, which are on a pole on the sides of Shijo street, hanging across the street, had been moved out of the way and we’re talking around ten sets of lights. As it turned out, the lights actually pivot on the poles they are on, so after the last floats went through there was a mad rush of cherry-picker trucks moving down the street and returning the lights to their normal positions. Japanese efficiency.

On my way back home, I was walking down Kiya-machi dori (previously talked about canal street) and was very near the Gojo street bridge corner, when I heard a didgeridoo being played! At first I thought it must be a recording, but when I reached the stairs that run down to the river’s edge, I saw a guy there playing a didge!!!! I had to go down and see who it was, so I went down and asked him if he was from Australia. He thought I was asking about the didge, at which he said yes, it was a proper didgeridoo from Australia. He was very proud of it. I am no expert in didges, but to me it did look authentic; made by a traditional custodian. It had a beautiful sound and he played it very well. Amazing what you find here…

This week there is nothing in particular to report from the tv, except the Nagoya Basho is on and it looks like there is a good chance that Hakuho (my favourite rikishi) will achieve the all time record of wins. Ganbatte Hakuho!!!

On a final note, yet another icon has passed this week – George Romero, the creator of the best Zombie movies, starting with Night of the Living Dead and also all the ‘rules’ about zombies. Vale George.

I wonder if he will come back…?

Cheers

It’s been two weeks???? Did I miss a week? Well, actually, I did – I just couldn’t bring myself to the keyboard last week due to a largish disappointment. We thought we had sold our house to a nice young couple – it was to be their first home (how do you afford that much money in your earlier 30s????). Anyway, bottom line is they got cold feet and cooled off, probably in part because of one of their fathers who came to look at the house on their third viewing and didn’t seem to like it.

There also wasn’t that much to talk about – there has been quite a lot of rain during the last two weeks (you may have heard of the flooding on Kyushu). It seems the weather was trying to catch up with the missed rain in a splurge. Other areas also got a lot of rain, but nothing like what was experienced on Kyushu – particularly in the Fukuoka prefecture. In Kyoto we had quite a lot of rain, well over 300 mls during this period, along with multiple thunderstorms. You may, or may not, know that I love thunderstorms, so it’s been good for me – but the kids…

So to week 31, when the highlight was a Kodo (taiko group) concert! Unfortunately I had to go by myself (my bag had a lovely view in the other seat) because of the delays in selling our house and Craig being stuck in Adelaide. I tried to find someone to fill the other seat but they all had things on, so it was me and my bag. I don’t want to go over the top with superlatives, but Kodo were GREAT!!!!!! It was two hours of energy, with mainly taiko drums, although there were other instruments such as various flutes, other percussion instruments and what appeared to be a Jamaican steelpan; it certainly sounded like it.

They played nearly every type of taiko drum there is, from shime through various sizes of nagadō-daiko and three hira-daiko. They also have a very large odaiko which sits on a stand on top of a large wooden float which can be moved around on the stage because it is on wheels (it takes a few people to do it, but it is easier than trying to pick up a drum that large, along with its stand!).

There were two significant highlights for me. One was a song which commenced with seven men on shime, playing a relatively simple beat but was made very difficult because they were playing it very quietly most of the time, with one at first and building up to the seven and some pattern changes by different individuals and changes in loudness, from very quiet to very loud and back, in the same beat. Technically difficult. They also added in some nagado daiko and other percussives, including a large gong. As I was listening to it I recognised it as rain and thunder – it was very similar to what I had envisioned as a song when we had to write our own song at our taiko class last year in Adelaide.

The other highlight was the odaiko on the float. It was used a few times, including an amazing solo piece. The stage was darkened and the float moved into position, with the head facing the audience. When the light came up there was a male drummer in front of it, back to audience, with only a mawashi type of belt on. He was very muscly (as you’d expect doing that type of drumming professionally) and with the rest of the stage darkened and a cream coloured mawashi on, he looked nearly naked (well, essentially he was).

What really caught my attention (and I tried really hard not to look…) was that his glutes were moving in time with the beat, so that when he hit with his right hand, his right glute flexed, and similarly with the left hand, his left glute flexed. That aside, it was an amazing piece, very physical and went on for some time – you could see at the end he was breathing very heavily.

As we were leaving the auditorium, it was raining, which I had expected – I had taken my sun parasol with me because it was sunny and hot when I left and I thought I could use it for the rain. It was raining pretty heavily when I went outside, so really I just kept my head dry (my parasol isn’t as big as a ‘normal’ umbrella). The other thing was the thunder and lightning that was happening as we got outside. Funny, it was sort of like a continuation of the performance! I had a ten minute walk to the railway station and about halfway there, there was a lightning bolt directly above me…very bright it was, and the thunder was like a massive gun going off concurrently. Amazing. There was another bolt directly above just after I reached the station platform. Good day all round!!!!!

My outing during week 32 was to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition in the Gion! Yes, thanks to Craig’s eagle eye and an article in the Kyoto journal, we found it. I mentioned last post I had searched the electronic oracle, and walked around in the Gion area in the hope I would see a poster referring to it, but had found nothing. So, as you can imagine, I was very excited to go and see it, and I wasn’t disappointed. I love her work and there were many paintings and prints she had produced I had never seen before. Also, there was one of her giant pumpkins outside the venue. It was fantastic, especially sitting in the very traditional Japanese surroundings it was in.

(Photos taken inside exhibition where we were allowed to)

The added bonus was a beautiful garden behind the museum space, and I found the theatre where many Geiko and Maiko performances are held. Another fantastic day seeing some of my favourite things. How can I top this??? One thing is the sale of our house, so that Craig can finally join me and we can experience these things together – and, as of today, our house is officially sold!! Settlement is on 8 August, so Craig should be here in around a month. Finally. To top it off, I may have found a taiko group to join.

On Monday this week, I met with the builder and architect, to sign off some more paperwork and get an update of where everything is up to. It seems everything is progressing and the builder expects to commence construction work on 28 July; yes, this month! While at this meeting, I was talking about the Kodo performance, in part because Hisayo (the interpreter) was one of the people I invited to see Kodo, and I was saying how much I missed playing and wanted to find a group to join. She had previously told me her father had donated some taiko drums to a local shrine so they could set up a group and she and her brother, the builder, could see them play.

When I said Craig and I wanted to join a group, she told me that Fukuda-san (the builder) actually knows the leader of the group his father donated the drums to and he might be able to introduce us! Fukuda-san showed some footage of them playing. The drums her father donated consisted of three odaiko, three shime and some nagado-daiko. They would have cost a lot of money. Anyway, the group seemed pretty good, so I look forward to meeting them. (As an aside, they were very surprised we had been playing taiko in Australia – they didn’t realise there was anything like this in Australia).

In the world of tv, I have two things of interest to mention. One was accidentally coming across Bondi Rescue on one of the stations as I flicked through – over-dubbed! My curiosity got the better of me, and the over-dubbing was funny seeing those very Australian guys speaking through the megaphone in Japanese, so I continued watching. It turns out this was part of a program which was showing segments of rescue shows from around the world. Amusing to see Bondi Rescue on Japanese tv.

The other item of interest was a performance which was in a Noh theatre and was very Noh-like, except it didn’t seem to be a play. It was more like showing the physical movements and music of a Noh performance. Having said that, I have never seen a Noh performance, so it might be I missed the subtlety of a Noh play in the performance. None-the-less, very interesting to watch and the movements were like a cross between dance and walking, with a gliding sort of movement, use of fans and the movement of their slightly exaggerated clothing.

Well, that’s it for now. Things are progressing and soon we’ll have the excitement of seeing our dreams starting to become realisation. I have to meet with the new neighbours in a couple of weeks, which should be interesting. They are worried about an accommodation place being built there and any potential fallout in terms of amenity for them. Apparently there are a lot of foreigners building accommodation but not living there and some guests have caused issues for the locals.

Cheers!