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!

Hello and welcome to Kyoto in the slightly rainy season. Yes, we have had a little rain, but not overly much. The forecast 200+ ml last week turned out to be only 105 ml. I realise that that is still quite a lot of rain in one day, but it doesn’t make up for the ran that hasn’t fallen. The last few days have been quite humid – Sunday was in the high 80s to low 90s all day. The first really humid day since I moved here and I can tell you I am not very good at humidity. My skin felt sticky and itchy most of the day. It’s still better than cold for me, however…

The kids have been lying full length on the floor and have enjoyed the fan at night, since the humidity started. On Humid Sunday (a new type of Sunday) I put the fan on during the day and they all found positions to take advantage of the breeze, along with me! I recently saw a segment on tv showing all the different types of umbrellas currently available (given that this is supposed to be the rainy season…). There was one that had a fan above the central rib joint area, which was presumably powered either by solar means or batteries. I now wish I had one of those when I’m out walking!!!! Quite expensive, though (over ¥60,000).

This week I decided to visit Kodai-ji temple. This was in part to provide some hopefully interesting photos and because I had seen a website that said this was the author’s favourite temple and garden to visit. Along with this, I had seen another website which said that the first machiya-style Starbucks in Japan was being prepared for trade near the Hokanji pagoda (the very famous Kyoto pagoda that you see many photos of), which is near Kodai-ji. This is the area between Kiyomizu-dera and Yasaka Shrine, in the Higashiyama foothills (near our flat). So, I just had to see that as well.

So, off I trekked, camera in hand, anticipation in mind. I went to find the Starbucks first, which involved going up past the pagoda. I took some lead up shots because it is a very impressive sight (the pagoda) no matter how many times you see it. Also, it was unbelievably quiet up there – normally there’d be hundreds of people going up and down that street, taking photos, wearing kimono, etc. I even got to one section of the road that was empty and I just had to take a photo of that too.

Anyway, I found the building, with a very traditional looking sign in it – not the usual Starbucks sticker on the window. It is actually an old machiya building which they are renovating for purpose. What is a machiya, you say???? Machiya are traditional wooden townhouses (the literal translation of machiya) found throughout Japan, and which are very much a feature of Kyoto. The typical Kyoto machiya is a long wooden home with a fairly narrow street frontage, with little or no space at the back of the block. They comprise earthen walls and baked tile roofs and  often contain one or more small courtyard gardens. Generally, they are one, one and a half or two storeys high. In Kyoto they are sometimes called kyomachiya and have defined the architectural style of downtown Kyoto for centuries.

After finding this, I headed for Kodai-ji., through the amazingly traditional backstreets in that area (lots of machiya). Just prior to Kodai-ji is the Ryozen Kannon temple, which I had passed a number of times before but never been into. So, I decided it was time. The temple with the Kannon on top was built in 1955 to commemorate all the Japanese people who had died in WWII. In 1958 a monument was added to the temple complex to commemorate the 48,000 unknown soldiers from around the world who had died on Japanese, and Japanese controlled, territory during WWII.

I’m glad I went in – it was a lovely place and certainly felt very peaceful. There was also a very large stone with the Buddha’s footprints engraved on it and a wishing stone (although I didn’t know at the time that was what it was – I certainly would have made a big wish there…). You can also go inside the Kannon, which is called the womb of the Kannon, and houses the principal images associated with the Asian zodiac – essentially all various statues of Bodhisattva, from what I could see in the darkness of the ‘womb’.

After that interlude, I went into the Kodai-ji temple complex. I can see why it is a favourite, it really was beautiful. The temple was established in 1605 by Kita-no-Mandokoro (aka Nene) in memory of her late husband – Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a fairly important person in the history of Japan. You may recall that my local shrine is a Toyokuni shrine, established to commemorate Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

I could go on and on about this temple and garden, but I will let the photos speak for themselves. One thing that did happen there, which was a bit difficult, I broke my vegetarian diet…a fly flew into my mouth and was gone before I had a chance to react. It wasn’t my choice to ingest a fly – it was an unfortunate, and uncomfortable, accident.

In the world of tv this week, I saw another hilarious show (as so many are here), mainly involving a series of skits, some of which were loosely joined by a theme of a samurai household and the goings on therein. The main character had his faced painted white, in kabuki style, so I’m not sure who it was, but he was a very good taiko player as well as comedian and actor.

There was a guest at the beginning of the show – a guy Craig and I have seen before here during our various visits, who is an impersonator, mostly of male singers. He is extremely good at what he does and very funny, as well as obviously having a good voice. While I don’t know most of the singers he is impersonating, I have seen some of them and his caricature of them is incredibly good.

Finally, before I sign off, I just want to put in a plug for a friend who has recently opened a shop in Regent Arcade. It is called Hebe & Co, and sells skincare and beauty products which are cruelty free and vegan. I recently tried one of their nail polishes (yes, I know, surprise, surprise) and it was an excellent product. It went on smoothly and the finish was very good. Jenny is one of the subscribers to this blog, so go in and meet her and maybe buy some products!

http://rundlemall.com/business-directory/hebe-co/

Well, that’s it for now – hopefully I will have some positive news re the never ending house sale story in the next few weeks!!!

Cheers

Doesn’t time fly???

Hello! Welcome to week 29, a fairly quiet and very dry week. The weather stubbornly continued to remain rainless and from the stories on the news and the slightly extended weather forecasts, I think the authorities are beginning to get a little worried. Having said that, as I sit here in my official office, at my official desk, it is raining outside! Finally, after two weeks of no rain during the rainy season, the forward forecast went from “brief rain” for today, to “rain which briefly stops” as of Monday, to “rain” this morning. Of course that was easy to say, given it had been raining since before midnight.

The tv forecast last night indicated there would be 200 – 250 ml over the next 24 hrs for the Kyoto area. So, in an effort to make up for it’s misdemeanours, the weather decided to try to catch up with the missed rain. It is going to have to do a lot better, though, because that is not enough and the forward forecast again is looking very dry.

It seems that the gradual creep of climate change is having its effect here – the idea of a rainy season may well disappear and be replaced by single days of very heavy rainfall. This, of course, has flow on effects (…) including localised flooding and landslides. It also means that more of the water in storage will have got there as a result of heavy rainfall, which has lead to flooding and consequential erosion. This causes sedimentation of the water storage dams, resulting in reduced storage capacity. Also, sediments can carry chemicals and nutrients that affect the water quality.

The other effect that I have noticed here over the last few years is that the typhoon season is extending – and while Kyoto is not on the coast, so doesn’t take the direct brunt of the winds, etc, it very often receives the ‘tail’ weather, ie flooding rains.

Anyway, enough of climate change 101.

What else has happened? I had a visit from a nice police officer, which I assume was a follow-up from the visit of the Kyoto officials. She asked a lot of questions about a guest house and I did my best to answer them so she could understand. Funny, though, how when you are trying to work out what they want and where this is all leading the ‘other language’ capacity of the brain seems to diminish. In the end she seemed satisfied and left. I assume the police would have greater powers to search records and could find information held by other departments/authorities.

Finally, in an effort to actually provide some pictorial interest to this particular post (since there are no new flowers to report), I thought I would mention a Kabuki performance I saw the last 20 minutes of the other day. I wish I could have seen it all, as it was a comedy/parody of other Kabuki performances. At one point, one of the characters suddenly ripped of the hat he had on, was given some make-up and a mirror from an assistant who came out onto the stage (not in costume), changed his make-up, put on a long wig, ripped off the kimono he had on and revealed another underneath. It was very unexpected and very funny (unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of this).

At another point, the set started rolling away to each side while the curtains remained open and a second set moved up from behind – it was Mt Fuji. One of the characters then climbed up Mt Fuji and deposited the contents of a ceramic jar into the volcano, which then sent up a snake-like plume of smoke. I assume that the contents had been poisonous. It was a very colourful performance and wonderfully funny. The audience loved it. I recognised some of the performers, so I think it was a special event performance.

So, that’s it – quite a short posting for me! I hope those of you in Adelaide are coping well with winter. Today is the winter solstice for you, so I hope you all enjoy the day and keep in mind that the days will now start getting longer again. For me, it is summer solstice today. At the moment, it starts getting lighter at around 4:00am…

Cheers

(and cheers from kappa)

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

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

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

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

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

around the corner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers for now

ようこそ!

Hello and welcome to this milestone post – week 26 means I have been living here in Kyoto now for six months. Does it feel like six months? Hard to answer that question. I do feel quite settled and I’m not sure how I’d go if I had to return to Adelaide. I suppose I thought everything would be in place by now, or very close to it – I continue to learn patience. I am glad I had time at home by myself after leaving work before coming here, because I think it has helped me cope a bit better being by myself for so long.

I thought I might spend most of this post on a retrospective journey. What has been achieved, what is still to happen, my favourite times here, along with my favourite photos (which I am placing throughout the text).

Looking back, the hardest time was definitely the initial phase, when I really was alone, not knowing anyone here except our real estate agent and without the kids. The kids certainly have helped keep me occupied since their arrival, with cleaning, feeding and outings to obtain supplies. They also give me someone to talk to, apart from myself. Weather-wise I am definitely not a lover of cold weather, so that added to the initial toughness of living here.

I think once I settled into a routine it became much easier. Planning my week based around the weather and what needed to be done certainly helped. Also learning where everything was and which places were best for particular items. One thing I learned fairly early on is that the Fresco supermarkets aren’t all the same, both in size and particularly in what they stock. So, depending on what I need, I will go to the one that is most appropriate. I have a circuit of five I go to. I also learned that prices for specific items can vary markedly. Ironically, the best place for muesli and range of pasta is the large bottle shop nearby!

I also found that email, Whatsapp and my posts really helped me stay sane and keep in contact. Apart from my constant contact with Craig (he checks up on me if he doesn’t hear from me regularly), I am very grateful to all of you who have added comments to my posts and sent me emails. The comments reassure me that people are actually reading my mostly verbose pieces! At this point I would particularly like to thank some wonderful friends who have made it their mission to keep talking to me – Triscia and Kim. Their emails have helped keep me sane and cheer me up at various times.

So, what have we achieved? We have bought a carpark (later to become a minshuku!), found an architect and builder who seem to really ‘get’ what we want (I particularly loved the addition of three cats in the backyard of all the house design versions), the approvals process has begun for said minshuku and we have now been approved for a further 12 month visa to stay here. Working with the architect and builder really has been great and they have really listened to what we have been asking for. At this point I should also say how lucky we were to find a builder who is related to an English language teacher. Her ability to translate what we are trying to say into Japanese has been invaluable.

What is still to happen? The elephant in the room…the one hurdle to get over…the fly in the ointment…finding someone to buy our house. It seems the people with the money don’t want a house with a large backyard and pool and the people who like/love our house don’t have the money. Craig can’t move here until the house is sold and settled, and we can’t actually start building our minshuku until we have the money. I keep hoping and praying.

My favourite times here? Well, there have been some lovely moments here related to my interactions with various locals and there are some very funny things on local tv at times. The best times, however, have been when I have had visitors. The first time that Craig came back here after ‘dropping me off’ here was a blessing. It had been around three months since I had last seen him, which was quite difficult considering we have always done most things together.

(wtf is that?)(and that?)

It was also wonderful to have guests here to do ‘touristy’ things together. When Kerry was here, it was wonderful to see all the places I had been to before through another set of eyes. I really enjoyed being a tour guide for those few days. Steven, on the other hand, has been here before, so I had to spend more time beforehand thinking about where he has been before and what he might like to do. One thing it highlighted for me is that wandering around in the back streets, which I enjoy doing a lot, was also enjoyable for both of them.

As to my favourite photos, I have selected some to just throw in randomly above and below, as a form of punctuation, rather than having a huge block of them.

Turning to this week – well, it has been a fairly routine week except for one thing…the sumo! Ok, it goes for 15 days, but this week was the ‘pointy end’ of the basho. I couldn’t have asked for a better result to celebrate my six months in Japan, than for Hakuho to win. In fact, not only did he win, but he did so in style by winning all 15 bouts he fought. The final fight, last night, had him up against Harumafuji, another favourite of mine. It was a fantastic bout, lasting just under 1½ minutes. Hakuho was like a rock; Harumafuji tried everything he could but Hakuho just stood firm and waited him out.

My other favourite rikishi is Takayasu. I like him because he is so laid back in his personal style – he just sort of wanders in to the dohyou (ring), does a few ritual bits and pieces, wanders out, grabs some salt, chucks it in,…but, just before tachiai, his fighting face comes out, and he has been winning quite a few bouts recently. In fact they are saying he is certain to be promoted to the next division before the next basho. This also made me happy (and his mother, who was there to support him win the required number of bouts for promotion).

So, that about wraps it up. I thank you all for continuing to read my blog and hope I continue to keep it interesting enough that you will read on!

Kanpai!!!

…and now we will resume our normal programming…

Oh; hello! Yes, it’s me here, back on the keyboard. I know I have been a little absent recently but I am here to make up for it. I am going to cover the two weeks since my house guest in this post in an effort to catch up to where we are now.

The first week following Steven’s departure was fairly domestic, with the usual cleaning, shopping and cooking, except for one slight blip. A bureaucratic blip.

When I last recounted my encounters with bureaucracy here in the land of bureaucracy (and I don’t say that lightly), I talked about the mandate that we have an official office for our company in our flat, as this was the official registered address for our company. Our lawyer had visited and thought that we could set it up on our table in the dining/kitchen area. Just before Steven arrived he received notification from Immigration that this was not appropriate and that we needed a separate room in which to have our official office. The finger was pointed squarely at our spare room – the one with two beds, a clothes rack and shelving which is used as storage for many things we have nowhere else to put.

We weren’t told exactly why we needed an official, separate office, but apparently they considered it essential. It’s not like we will ever have any visitors for our company here…

Anyway, I pointed out to the lawyer that there was very little room to put the two beds and clothes rack elsewhere within the flat. Also, the beds would likely have to be dismantled to actually remove them from the room. He said it was not up for discussion (well, not quite like that, he was very polite given my obvious frustration). He said he would come here and help me do this, as well as move the dining table into the room for photos. I wondered if the bureaucrats realised that the plan was to move the beds and clothes rack out and the table in just temporarily and that it would be returned to the way it was after the photos. Seemed a little farcical…

I told the lawyer that Steven was going to be here and we really couldn’t do all of this while he was visiting. So, we made a time for him to come over after Steven had left. As I was discussing all of this with Steven an idea was born to pull apart the two beds and create a day bed out of one of them. Steven said he would be happy to help do this, and it would create more space in the spare room. For the most part, we didn’t need two beds there all the time. We went and bought some cheap cushions and material to throw over the mattress and then told Craig about our idea.

In amongst these subsequent discussions, we decided to also buy a desk, since we were going to need one when we actually had a real office in our minshuku. In the end we went to the large Nitori store which is quite some distance from the flat and is like a cross between Target and Ikea. I found a desk that was suitable for the purpose – not the most beautiful piece of furniture you’ve ever seen, but somewhat elegant in design. The very nice ones we saw in an antiques shop, which were original mid-century modern, were just a little too expensive (sigh).

Back home, we pulled apart the beds and re-created them into one day bed. We were able to put the extra mattress behind the slats of the other bed to make a back rest and all the rest of the bits fit under the ‘day bed’, as well as the five dozen Rockford Basket Press and other minor bits and pieces. It looked quite good in the end. The lawyer was somewhat bemused when I told him – he had never heard of a day bed – but he also seemed quite pleased with the end result when he saw it.

The day after Steven left, the desk was delivered…in pieces. My third furniture building project and by far the largest. I spent about half that day putting it together (with a slight hiccup – what are these washers, that are left over, for????). I actually think the Japanese instructions for putting these items together are easier to follow than Ikea instructions. The mistake was purely me not checking detail properly. Et voila, we have an official office!

Obviously the bureaucrats liked it, because we received news shortly after submitting the new photos that our 12 month visas had been approved. Thank goodness, and Steven for his help.

The following week (ie week 25) Craig came over so that he could re-submit his passport and resident card to have our new, 12 month cards created and given to us. This, of course, involved a couple of trips to Osaka, but was worth it. Now we don’t have to worry about getting new visas until next year. The next time Craig returns to Japan it will be a permanent move, once the house is sold and settled.

While he was here we did have some time for a couple of outings. It was quite warm most of the time he was here – low 30s!!! We didn’t do anything too physically strenuous, just walking around. Less than 6kms on any one day (I think). I wanted to return to the Heian Shrine garden to see how it looked once more of the flowers, including the lotus, were open. I wasn’t disappointed – it is such a beautiful garden and there are plenty of shady spots when it’s hot.

The other main outing was to an art exhibition which looked at cats in Japanese art. The exhibition is called, “Yes, We Love Cats Anytime!” and includes many examples of ukiyo-e and maneki neko mostly from the 19th century. It focused on the “cat-mania” that occurred during this period, with over 200 exhibits. Many of the ukiyo-e were painted by very famous artists, including Utagawa Hiroshige  and Utagawa Kuniyoshi . Kuniyoshi, in particular, painted many ukiyo-e with cats as the main character and doing just about anything you can think of – including Kabuki!

  (Hiroshige (L) and Kuniyoshi (R))

I had already visited this exhibition with Steven, however, it was very crowded when we went. Also, I won two tickets in a competition run by the Japan Times (five winners only)! This time it was a lot less crowded and we got to have a good look at all the paintings.

Well that pretty much wraps it up for this post – we also tried to see if we could see the nutria again, but only saw many, many bats, which, of course, I love, so I wasn’t disappointed…

Cheers for now

(two photos just because I like them)

(a sign on a shop in a back street in the Gion area)

Welcome to a review of my time during Golden Week, or GW as it is often referred to here!!!! What is GW, you ask????? It is a period of a week in late April/early May which includes a number of public holidays. Many people take the other days off during this week and it is often the longest consecutive period people here have as leave during the year. A lot of companies simply close down for the week and give their staff the time off.

The result of all these people having time off together, as you can imagine, is that you need to book a long time ahead to get accommodation in many places (especially here, in Kyoto), also modes of travel, and all the tourist destinations are very crowded. This week I also had a visitor, a long time friend – Steven. Many of you will know him, but for others, we have been friends for around 36 years! Consequently, I tried to find places to go that wouldn’t be too overcrowded. This was also complicated by the fact that he has been here in Kyoto many times and has visited many places.

We also needed to work around the weather – a couple of days were wet. The first day he was here there was a lovely thunderstorm, so we headed to Teramachi, the part which has been made into a covered mall, to do a bit of shopping. Turns out many other people had the same idea – movement was slow.

The next day was sunny and warm, so it was time to show him the carpark. Not that there’s that much to see, bitumen, fence, etc, but it’s more to see the area it is in. After that, I took him to see the three-legged crow shrine, which I have mentioned before, and the lovely 900+ year old tree there. Then we walked back to the Kyoto National Museum. Currently there is a special exhibition of an artist who lived from 1533–1615, Kaiho Yusho. He was among the elite painters of his time. What is most interesting about him is that his fame came when he was in his 60s, during what they call his “early” period. Over the following two decades, he went from painting for priests to creating works for nobility, then for Japan-Korea diplomacy and then the Emperor.

His earlier works were mostly monochromatic, using ink and a simple style. Later works were created with some colours, although generally not too many in each painting – used more as highlights – and they were often quite intense colours. Strangely, while his people, animals and flora were rendered with great skill (particularly the birds), buildings and other created structures looked to me somewhat stilted and with flat perspective. In one work, which was painted across several screens, it almost looked as if someone else completed the fences on the last screen, someone who was rushing to get it done…(no photo of that one)

(one of my favourites)

After viewing the exhibition, we and every other person there went to the museum shop. I was considering some purchases, but the queue was so long I decided against it in the end. While prevaricating, I noticed some movement at the other end of the shop, near the entry. It was one of my favourite museum characters, who I have called grumpy cat because of the look on it’s face. This cat is taken from a painting that is a permanent exhibit at the museum, and is, in fact, meant to be a tiger. As with many animals that were not native to Japan, the renditions of these is somewhat different to the real thing. In this case, the tiger has a look on it’s face which I have likened to “why have you painted me like this??” Hence I named it grumpy cat – nothing to do with the cat on the internet.

Being a big fan of this cat (there’s just something about it), I made a bee-line to where it was and managed to get a couple of photos, which I now treasure! I had to push my way through the crowd, but it was worth it. I only wish I could have had a photo taken with it (and for me to say I want a photo of myself…). Funny the things that make you smile.

On Monday we wandered around the Gion area and up towards Kiyomizu-dera (we didn’t go all the way up there, it was just too crowded). Interesting how you can visit places many times but somehow miss certain things. In this case, because it was so crowded, we walked in closer to one side of the walkway and found a beautiful garden area out the back of the shops. I don’t know how I missed it before – I have even been into the shop next to it a number of times.

On Tuesday, we went to Uji, which is about a half hour train journey from Kyoto. I wanted to see the gardens at a Buddhist temple there, Byodo-in, because the wisteria is out at the moment and it has an area of wisteria on a large trellis. Yes, the continuing hanami saga. I wasn’t disappointed, it was as lovely as I thought it would be. It is a beautiful temple and the main hall is supposed to be equally beautiful inside, but we would have had to wait two hours before we could get in, such was the crowd. The other highlight at the moment is the presence of the large bees. They are called carpenter bees (or kumabachi in Japan, which means bear bee) and are around 2cm in length. They are quite loud but are relatively harmless with the male not having any sting and the female only stinging if severely provoked.

Next day we went to Momoyama-jo (the castle in Kyoto needing TLC that I have mentioned previously) and then to Fushimi Inari-taisha (also previously mentioned, with all the tori). I had been told there was a festival there during GW, and wasn’t disappointed. It was clear that a procession of the priests was going to happen so we stood near the back entrance to one of the big halls, where people were waiting inside for a ceremony. It was a bit of a wait, but we got an up close look at the priests (no photos allowed). Later we went around the front, just before they exited out of the shrine to multitude decorated trucks, cars and vans. We saw them drive off, took photos and waved.

Later that day, after we had returned home, we were sitting inside having tea, when I heard some drums start up. I ran downstairs and discovered some of the trucks and vans were heading down our street! So I stayed outside to watch (even though I was in my house clothes). As I stood there, I could see more and more of the trucks coming down the street. After the next wave went through I ran upstairs to grab my camera and tell Steven that it appeared the entire procession was coming down our street. This involved some large limousine cars, a dozen or so vans and at least 30 trucks. It was wonderful to have them all come past my home and be so close to the procession. In addition to the trucks we had seen earlier, some trucks had joined the procession which were carrying the special floats housing the kami from a number of shrines. Five in all.

In the evening we went out to dinner at my favourite Indian restaurant. On the way home, as we crossed the bridge over the Kamogawa, Steven noticed something in the water and pointed it out to me. It was an animal of some sort, so I just had to find out what it was, of course. We ran down the stairs and under the bridge and there it was, sitting on a bank out in the water. It then swam over towards us and actually came out on the side of the river! It was a large rodent looking creature, about 40 cms long. It wasn’t at all afraid of us and just went about it’s foraging. Meanwhile, an American woman had noticed us and what we were doing, and she joined us to watch this creature. She thought it looked a bit like a beaver, but with a narrow tail. Turns out it was a Nutria and is similar to a beaver, native to South America.

We did other bits and pieces during the week he was here, spent money, drank a fair bit of nihonshu and generally enjoyed ourselves. Steven had decided to collect nihonshu labels and had brought a blank book with him to do so. So we did spend time searching out, buying and then drinking said nihonshu. We also found a street in the Gion area where there were many antique shops – a very dangerous thing for me. I managed to buy only one item! Another lucky find, at the Heian Shrine, was an Indian man who runs a company supplying various spices and foods, including vegan items!!!!!!! So we now have at least one supplier lined up.

(a wedding party)

One thing to note in the photos of the amazing garden at the Heian Shrine is the resemblance of one part of the garden to a Monet painting, at this time of year. Monet is a very popular artist here, with many of his works housed in galleries around Japan, so it is entirely possible that he was inspirational for this garden.

On a slightly political note (which I am generally avoiding for this blog), I was very pleased this week that some common sense finally prevailed in the world of politics. Vive la France. Perhaps the tide of “populism” is turning…a little.

More photos of Kiya-machi Dori

A couple of gratuitous photos…

Hello and welcome to the week 22 wrap. Well, actually, it is week 22 plus the remainder of week 21. It has been unexpectedly busy this week, mainly due to bureaucracy – one of the perfected arts in Japan. I have also been preparing for a house guest, a human house guest!

So, to the bureaucracy…I was contacted by our lawyer during the week saying he had received a request for more information for our visa application and asking if he could come here, to see the flat. I immediately thought the worst and assumed he had some bad news and he thought it would be more personal delivering it here in my abode. He reassured me it was ok, but that he had to see the flat and healso wanted to do some sightseeing while here.

On the Sunday, at the allotted time, our lawyer arrived with his ‘assistant’ – his wife. She, unfortunately, doesn’t speak any English, so was somewhat left out. I did try to talk a little to her, but we were mostly consumed with the bureaucratic request. To provide some background to this, the immigration people had previously requested a list of ‘concrete’ things we would be doing in relation to being managers of our business during the period our house (where the business will actually be run) is being approved and constructed.

They are now saying that we need to have an office for our business at the current registered address of our company. I’m not exactly clear why we need an actual office, given we have an address which is our own property and where we will be able to stay until construction is complete (ie not a rental property which is essentially impermanent). Anyway, our lawyer said that he thought where we currently have the computer – at our dining table, in an alcove area – would be fine.

He asked that I go and get an official copy of the certificate showing our ownership, so that he could supply them with it. This document is obtained at the Legal Affairs Bureau, the closest office of which is 3km from the flat. Another longish walk, but it was a lovey day on the Monday, so it was quite enjoyable. I found the building easily, but the signage inside was something to be desired. As I was standing, looking confused (I’m sure), a man came in the front doors and smiled at me (I think he was surprised to see a foreigner in this setting.) I took this as an opening to ask him if he knew where I could obtain the requisite document (and, no, I don’t know the Japanese word for requisite…).

He lead me to the 2^nd floor, where he also happened to be going. He then went up to one of the multitude counters there (many counters, signs, staff, people,…) and I looked around to try to find where I needed to go. Turns out he had gone to the counter to ask where I should go to get what I needed. Another incidence of people here going out of their way to assist! I told the man behind the counter what I needed and was directed to blue counter number 3.

Luckily I had checked the website for the Legal Affairs Bureau before I went, had found the form I would need to complete, printed it and duly completed it. It was incredibly busy and somewhat noisy in this office. One thing about offices here, it is like walking into an office in Adelaide about 25 years ago, or more. Quite dull and not at all human friendly spaces. Significant use of grey and dull blue… Anyway, I got what I needed then had to pay. Hhhmmmm, I couldn’t pay in cash, I had to go to another counter to exchange my cash for stamps and then go back to the previous counter and hand over my stamps! This wasn’t mentioned when I submitted my form. I could have done it while I was waiting had I known.

Part 2 of the requested response involved getting signs made for the front door of the flat, the letterbox and to put on the wall next to the ‘office’ table – then taking photos of each of these and the flat showing the respective office and residence areas.  I also had to draw a diagram of the flat showing each of these areas. I tried to find a shop that I could have these signs made, but I couldn’t find one on the way back from the Legal Affairs Bureau.

In the end I remembered a shop I had seen on one of my ‘wanderings’ (where I decide to take a different route to where I am going just to see what’s there – my mother used to do this – she called it “getting lost”). I went to this place and they did have options for signs but after contacting five different manufacturers of these, it was clear that none would be able to make the signs I needed within one week. On top of this, this coming week is Golden Week, basically a week of public holidays, so in effect, it would take two weeks before I could expect to get my signs.

I reported all this back to the lawyer and he said I should make signs on paper to use. A short while later he sent another email indicating his wife had made me some signs, and that she could put them together and then could come here to put them up for me. Feeling a touch embarrassed about this, I accepted the signs she had created via email, printed them, bought some thick paper and glue and put them together myself. Even with my very limited craft-type skills, I managed this and took the necessary photos.

On the Wednesday I journeyed to Osaka to deliver the documents (the photos were sent via email). Forty five minutes there on the train, 10 minute walk from the station to the lawyer’s office, deliver documents, 10 minute walk back to station and another 45 minute train ride back to Kyoto! In amongst all of this administrivia, I had to do my usual shopping, including the big trip to Aeon mall to get the kid’s supplies.

OK, enough of that! On the hanami front, the blossom basically finished this week, however, it is now azalea time and there are still tulips around the place. I also noticed a tree on the streets – many on my favourite canal street, which by the way, is called Kiya-machi dori – coming into flower which I have never seen before. When they are open, the flowers are around 7cms in diameter, and are either white or orange and white. They are quite lovely, but I have no clue, at this stage, what they are. I have had one go at finding them via the electronic oracle but without success.

Turning to the tv, my highlight this week was a segment on one of the panel shows about the mermaid tail fashion, which has been occurring at the beach and pools around the world. These bathers, in the form of a large fish tail which includes the whole tail, have been around for a few years now, but it appears their popularity is rising. I am not sure I would want my legs bound in a tail in a pool, but some people (male and female) apparently love them. They had obtained one of these tails for the purposes of the segment – a bright pink tail – they chose, however, to put a slightly overweight man in it, with the added touch of a bikini top in the form of two shells.

I thought one of the panel members was going to wet herself with laughter! It was quite hilarious to see him kitted out and then they got him into the water to try it out… He was assisted by a younger, very fit looking, male who was an aficionado of single flipper swimming. The single flipper is very large and they essentially ‘dolphin’ swim. The look on this guy’s face was also priceless, especially in respect to the shell bikini top…

Finally, from the Yomiuri Shimbun (newspaper) comes a picture which is so kawai, at first I thought it was a painting or electronic drawing. It is, however, a real photo, taken in Hokkaido at a shrine in Urausu. The flowers there are known as “spring fairies” and, unsurprisingly, this spectacle attracts many photographers. Apparently, though, squirrel sightings depend on one’s luck, according to a town official!!!!!

Cheers for now

The weeks seem to come around quite quickly and before I know it, I am into the following week…if you know what I mean! And so it is that week 20 has passed and we are well into week 21. I have no excuses, perhaps it is the warming weather that has distracted me. Yes, finally it seems we have jumped into 20+ degree days and quite suddenly. I’m not complaining, of course, it is truly wonderful to not need to be rugged up all the time – and the bliss of having the windows open; who knew? The other day I wore a t-shirt for most of the day!!!!!

There isn’t overly much to report on the carpark/building front. The statutory minimum period for the sign to be displayed has passed and no complaints :-). So, onto the next phase, which involves multiple levels of government, or their contractors, and many parts of the government. Last Saturday I had an appointment with the architect and builder to sign off on multiple pages of various applications – and I mean multiple. The architect was also taking a sensible approach of getting me to sign two copies of each, so that when he has to take them back and re-do certain bits, he will have a second set already signed. This was basically how he put it – to save time.

I was also told that this was the first part of the process; but I wasn’t told how many more parts there are. He also told me that he had decided to slightly change the front of the building so that the wooden slat cladding will be running vertically, not horizontally, as he had designed it. He had been advised by the relevant people in the government that assess these things, that the front did not look Japanese enough. He wasn’t overly happy about this, but it is a practical matter of being approved, or not.

So, we move forward, centimetre by centimetre. At least we are moving!

Now, I will return to the topic which proved to be very popular last time – hanami (blossom or flower viewing). Actually, it was the photos which were so popular. This even usurped the previous most popular topic – self-mummification! So, while the blossom is out there and people want to see it (I suppose that’s why there is a specific word for it), here are some more photos, including more geiko.

The interesting thing is how I am seeing more of them (geiko) at the moment. The spring weather and the blossom must draw them out into the open. You will also notice that there are some more photos of a geiko photo shoot. Same day, ie a Thursday (but one week later), same photographer and assistant, same place, just different geiko this time. I was wondering whether he was doing it for any particular purpose, such as advertising or a publication, or whether he was building up a portfolio of photos of geiko and blossom, or whether he just has a lot of money and he pays a geiko to do this once a week for his own enjoyment.

The other day, as I was walking down one of my other favourite streets, the one with the canal running down it which is lined with blossom trees (I have posted a number of photos of this street, including below), it was raining blossom petals and I was feeling very happy. Then I heard someone playing a harmonica. Turned out it was a middle aged man standing on his balcony, which was on the canal, playing with great enthusiasm and moving around as he played. It wasn’t that he was overly good that made it so wonderful, it was the passion with which he was executing it! I truly felt transported. Strangely, I felt like I was in France, yet I have never been there – I suspect it was reminiscent of stereotypical scenes from films that I was remembering. None-the-less, it was wonderful and made me feel even happier.

Onto a very different topic…14 April was the one year anniversary since the Kumamoto earthquake. Many of you may not have been aware of it, it certainly wasn’t of the scale of the Kobe earthquake or the Sendai/Fukushima area earthquake and tsunami, but it did cause significant damage and lives were lost. The two main shocks killed at least 50 people and injured about 3,000 others in total. There has been significant coverage of the aftermath in the media over the last week. While I had seen some footage of the damage at the time, it was a shock for me to see just how much destruction of housing and other buildings there was. There are now many, many empty blocks where once there were homes.

One of the buildings that was severely damaged, in fact the whole complex of buildings and walls, was the Kumamoto castle. We had been there a couple of times over the years – it was a beautiful castle complex. They showed photos of the work that has happened to date in the re-construction of the complex. Quite a bit has happened, but they are saying it could take up to 20 years to finish the work. I took some photos from the tv, but unfortunately my phone can take it’s time focusing, so it didn’t quite capture the full effect, hence, I have also borrowed a couple of photos which better capture what has happened – thank you Japan Times and Wikipedia.

Wikipediamy photomy photoJapan Times

Mainly, I was trying to show just how fastidious and orderly they have been in preparing for the re-construction. There are many long rows of rocks of all sizes and shapes, all grouped together in like sizes, shapes or where they came from, and all catalogued with an individual number on each rock. It looked like a giant, very intricate, jigsaw puzzle. The castle is a very significant drawcard for tourists to Kumamoto, which has a population of less than 750,000. I wonder how much it is affecting their economy, particularly those businesses which are based around the castle and which rely on tourists for most of their income.

I am going to leave you on that quite sombre note with a photo of a red tulip and some other flowers, just to show that there are, in fact, some other plants flowering at the moment, including lots of tulips.

Hi and welcome to week 19. Before I start covering the week that was for me in Kyoto, I want to acknowledge the passing of a very bright light and wit in Australia, whose intelligence and satire I enjoyed immensely over the years. Vale John Clarke.

Here, in Kyoto, things are certainly improving weather-wise. The forecasts into the future are all over 15, with most days being in the high teens or early 20s. Wonderful. Those of you who know me well know that I am not a lover of cold weather and I’ve just had the longest winter of my life. Over seven months of cool to bloody cold weather (to be frank, in an Australian kind of way). The last few days I have been able to have the windows and balcony door open during the day! No air-conditioner – well I am still putting it on at night, because I am soft, but only in the main area.

My plants are coming along; the seeds have sprouted except the sage and I have had a few leaves from my lettuces with my meals. The kids are enjoying their grass crop. Outside the birds are either beginning to nest or furiously building their new nesting homes. Then, there’s the blossom. It still hasn’t quite reached its peak yet, but getting very close. I was very worried over the last three days because it rained off and on for the duration (more on than off) and I was wondering how much blossom would end up on the ground.

Today, however, I had to go do a shopping run and I can report that the blossom looks wonderful. It really did make me realise my winter was over! Funny how the most mundane things, such as going shopping, can be elevated to the most delightful experiences when you are walking in beautiful surrounds. I could wax poetic about this, but after the exceptionally verbose post last week, I think I will let the photographs do the talking for me:

Last Thursday I had to do a cat food run to Fresco, my other supplier of tinned food, and took the opportunity to walk around in the closer areas I know there will be lots of blossom. These include the road and walkway along the Kamo river, a road one block back from the Kamogawa which has a canal running along it and in the Gion area. I got some shots of blossom (as you do this time of year)  and I was lucky enough to come across a photo shoot of a Geiko in the Gion, with blossom. Not an opportunity to be missed, so I got some lovely shots of her as well. As I was returning home along my favourite street in the Gion, I stopped to take a shot of a plant in a pot (research…) and another Geiko walked past me! So, I just had to get a shot of her too. Please enjoy…

Other than the turning of the seasons, there hasn’t been much of any real note here for me this week. The only ‘official’ outing I had was to meet the tax accountant and see if she would be a good fit for us. She was very nice, spoke some English and she had prepared some appropriate questions for our meeting, so I felt very comfortable. During the meeting it became clear that the woman from the International Community House had indeed had a hand in connecting us. For this, I am grateful.

I am going to leave you now with some photos of coffee art, which I took from the tv. They were reviewing a Kyoto based coffee company, which has a number of outlets and uses real coffee machines! One of their baristas recently won a competition for his coffee art, and it is easy to see why. If you’re wondering about how long it takes and if the coffee is cold when he finishes, I can tell you that I watched him creating the horse and it took less than 10 seconds to complete. Not sure about the cat decoration…

Cheers!!!!