And here it is week 16 already – actually, I am now half-way into week 17! Hard to believe I have been here nearly four months. Looking back, we have achieved quite a lot and continue to move toward our ultimate goal – Addams Vegan B&B up and running. There is just one more major hurdle (plus some slightly less major approvals hurdles) to us fully relocating here to Kyoto. Craig left me at 6:00 this morning and, as I write this, is winging his way to Changi. His mission, which he chose to accept (ok, he didn’t have much choice really), is to find a buyer then clear out our house in Adelaide.

As for the previous week, we again visited our lawyer in Osaka twice. Luckily the cost of the train journey from Kyoto to Osaka is not overly much on the Keihan line local train. It takes around 45 minutes, so not too time consuming – although our appointment on Friday lasted around five minutes, just to pick up Craig’s passport. The result of these appointments is that we now have a registered company and our applications are in to have our visas extended; this time for 12 months, thankfully.

On Tuesday we went to one of the better supermarkets here, Global Kitchen, which is in the basement of the Yodobashi store. Yodobashi is a fantastic place where you can find nearly anything electrical and electronic and is where we have bought all of our electrical equipment to date. Our most recent purchases include a rice cooker (wonderful piece of equipment!!!!) and a printer. The only issue when buying there is the amount of choice you have for any item.

They also stock many other non-electrical items, so while we were there on Tuesday we decided to look at pushbikes – they have a large selection of different types of bikes, and some are motorised. I was looking at these…yes, I am considering buying a motorised push bike. The main reason for this is we live in the foothills at the moment and our carpark is higher up the hills, so some extra assistance on the inclines will be much appreciated. I am not now, nor will I ever be, a lycra clad biking enthusiast. The motorised bikes cost upwards of ¥100,000 (~$1,200), which I thought was quite reasonable.

Wednesday was a down day due to the weather, but on Thursday it was lovely and sunny, so we went exploring to find a café in the Gion area I had seen on TV which served a matcha toast dish I really wanted to try…and it was definitely worth it!! It was a lovely place, although a little tricky to find – determination wins out. The entrance was through the back of a shop, but it also backed onto a lovely small laneway, of which there are many in the Gion area. There were a lot of small craft shops along this lane and many specialised in glass and enamel. We also found an art gallery, which was having an exhibition of two artists’ work – one who did collage work one-handed and the other who made pottery and ceramic pieces.

Both were very good and in the end we bought a pair of clay masks which are based on the masks made traditionally in Okinawa and are made to scare off evil spirits and bring in good spirits. The artist is a very lovely Japanese woman named Emi and she actually went to Okinawa to study the making of these masks.

(I realised after taking this photo that I had them back to front – the open mouthed mask should be on the right…)

We also visited two shrines on the way to Teavenir (the café), which I had seen on one of my wanderings. The first shrine was dedicated to pigs (of which I am one in the Asian zodiac) and the other dedicated to a number of deities, including the cow. The cow deity is the one students visit to help them do well in their studies. As for the other shrine, I felt right at home amongst all those pigs, as you can see in the picture below! The Gion area is quite amazing for many reasons, one being that it has more shrines and temples per block than any other area I can think of anywhere in Japan.

Friday was our second visit to our lawyer, then on Saturday we had an appointment with the builder and architect to sign a contract. We thought we would be signing with both, but it turned out the first contract was with the architect. The first use of our company inkan. The contract with the builder will be made closer to the time of construction commencement – which is likely to be in July. For now, the architect will be seeking all the required approvals for our house/minshuku.

The other milestone this week building-wise, was the placing of the sign indicating our intention to build a minshuku on our carpark. This sign has our company name, my name and phone number and the company address, which also happens to be my address. One of the tasks the architect takes on is the fielding of any calls about our intentions and any complaints (thankfully – not something I could do easily).

Prior to our appointment with them we went to the home centre again to buy some more planters, soil and some edible plants for us. We bought lettuce seedlings and some seeds – herbs and some greens (Swiss chard and Asian greens). These are now all potted up and sitting on our windowsill next to the pots of grass, which are the edible plants for the kids. We are all watching them very closely in anticipation!!!!

Monday turned out to be a public holiday here, to celebrate the spring equinox. It was a lovely sunny day again and we took the opportunity to go for a wander around and visit our carpark to get photos of the sign. We were going to go to the bank to transfer the first payment instalment to the architect, but that was out of the question when we saw the shutters down. The next day was wet most of the day but we had to go to the bank to make the payment. This was transacted via an ATM, with significant help from one of the tellers at the bank. It was incredibly complicated and I was very grateful for the help

So, this brings me to now – alone again…just the kids and me. It was a little harder this time having to see Craig leave. I know it won’t be anywhere near as long this time, but still hard none the less.

Hello and welcome to week 15! This week has been rather less filled with building issues but still comprising a certain amount of bureaucracy. We have visited our lawyer in Osaka twice, having just returned from the second visit. Our company is now officially registered and the relevant taxation authorities have been notified. The company inkan has also been registered. So, we are ready to go – all we need is a place to ply our trade from…or something. We are now awaiting the official notice of intention to build sign to go up on the carpark.

After our visit to the lawyer last week, we decided to visit the Dotonbori area and, in particular, the Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shopping arcade. This arcade has many specialty cooking stores along it, which sell all kinds of cooking utensils and kitchen items. A wonderful place to look for your kitchen requirements – although it is more aimed at cooking professionals. We took the opportunity to really look at what was available there for our business and also to buy a steamer for vegetables. We ended up buying a two tiered bamboo steamer, which fits inside one of our pots.

The best thing was that we found two places that sell Kitchenaid mixers. The price here is slightly lower than in Australia, but not by much. Anyway, we were very happy to find these and various other items which we will want for our B&B. One of the items we were looking for is a shichirin (kanteki in the Kansai region, where Kyoto is), a portable earthenware table top grill which generally uses charcoal as the heat source. These are fairly versatile and we will be using them as part of our cooking repertoire.

Later in the week, we made a ‘pilgrimage’ to my favourite Buddhist temple – Kurama-dera on Kuramayama (Mt Kurama). We have visited this temple, which is high up the mountain, nearly every time we have visited Kyoto. It is a beautiful place and provides very good exercise climbing up to the temple! In the past we have taken the train all the way to Kurama station and then climbed up to the temple and sometimes beyond to an amazing cedar grove near the top of the mountain.

This time, however, we decided to approach the temple by climbing up a track from Kibune, a beautiful village one train stop back from Kurama. Luckily we didn’t have any idea quite how hard this would be. A website we looked at said it was an easy hike – we suspect this writer was a winning competitor in the Empire State Building stair climb. We made the climb last Friday and are still feeling the effects in our leg muscles today (Monday), particularly our calves. It really was a beautiful climb, which I noticed occasionally while dragging myself panting up the very rudimentary ‘stairs’. These stairs were very steep in places. (note that the photos of the stairs are not ours – the battery on my camera suddenly went flat as I tried to take the first photo)

One thing we did notice, through the veil of near exhaustion, was a number of huge trees which had literally broken near the base and fallen over, and a number of these looked like they had only recently snapped. I became a little more wary of any wood groaning noises after that…

After our pilgrimage was completed and my breathing had returned to normal, along with the colour of my face, we had lunch at a lovely vegan restaurant at the base of the temple complex site called Yoshuji. We found this place last time we visited Kurama-dera, yet it had been there all along. Shows how easy it is to miss things when there are so many other things to take your attention, especially since we had been searching for vegetarian places since we first came to visit Japan. The menu consists mainly of mountain vegetables, noodles and rice and other vegan foodstuffs, such as tofu and konyaku. It is all very nice and well priced.

On a sad note, the large statue of Tengu at the Kurama station was covered this time, due to a tragic breakage brought about by snow. The Tengu, which is an anthropomorphised version of a bird creature, has a very large nose. Unfortunately, during the recent heavy snow falls the weight of the snow brought down the nose and so Tengu currently has no nose. For a while he was uncovered but had a ‘bandaid’ to cover the ‘wound’, but the other day he was covered, perhaps for an urgently needed ‘operation’.

On Saturday, we visited a Home Centre, which we found after being told of its existence. This centre was Bunnings meets Chemist Warehouse meets Supercheap Auto meets Super Amart, with some groceries and a bicycle shop, all in one. We had a wonderful time looking around and found some lovely light fittings for our future home.

Our outing on Sunday involved a reconnaissance of our future local neighbourhood. We were particularly looking for any supa and konbini (supermarkets and convenience stores). We found a Fresco supa which is fairly close to our carpark and it was one of the largest we have been to here in Kyoto. There were many other shops but they were all closed. We were not sure if they were closed because it was Sunday or they were just not there any more. We will be going back there during the week to check this.

We also found a lovely shrine there (I know, most shrines are lovely…) which is devoted to a three legged crow deity and the performing arts, and is noted as the birthplace of Noh. The shrine is noteworthy for the huge camphor tree at the front of the shrine complex, which was transplanted there by then retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa himself in 1163. Go-Shirakawa had established the shrine in 1160. The tree is worshipped as the god of health and long life. There is also a collection of painted slabs of stone and timber in the grounds, depicting various images including some Noh scenes and various other scenes, which, if you look closely, have crows in them.

Finally, I have some kawai photos, for your viewing pleasure, all taken in Osaka at the Dotonbori.

Yes it’s been a while, so this posting will be bringing you the news and information from weeks 13 and 14!!!! Last time I was talking about a popular topic…chocolate. I also mentioned that I was going to have a visitor. Craig arrived on Thursday morning, 23 February, and ever since then we have been rather busy. We have had two meetings with the builder and architect refining our minshuku design, one meeting with our lawyer and three visits to the Higashiyama ward office, amongst other things.

Starting on Thursday, after Craig gathered himself together with coffee and a shower, we walked up to our carpark so he could view the glory of a bitumen covered piece of land. It’s funny how on second viewing it looked a bit smaller. When we arrived there we found a car actually parked on our piece of land! Anyway, Craig liked the area and I was much relieved considering I had actually already signed and paid for it.

On Friday we went up to the ward office to register both Craig and his inkan. I thought this would be relatively straight forward, since I had already undertaken these tasks without much issue, however, it turned out we had to prove we were married and then there was the issue of who was head of the household! So, we completed as much information as we could then had to come back home to get the proof of our nuptials. Now, I do have all our important documents here, so that wasn’t an issue. What really caused me to squirm is that there is a very large mistake on our marriage certificate, which indicates that we were married in a Christian Revival Crusade service. Clearly not true, it was a civil service, but this is now on our formal records here.

The certificate also has our “old” names on it, so we then had to show we both changed our names by deed poll. Which brings up the second mistake in our personal records, which is that instead of issuing me with a name change document, for some reason unknown to anyone except himself, the clerk in the registry office issued a new birth certificate for me. Try explaining that to Japanese officials. Luckily they accepted the documents without further ado – it could have been messy though!

The next day we met with the builder and architect. This meeting was to look at the changes the architect had made based on my discussion with them the last time we met, to find out the result of their measuring of the land and to get an official schedule of the build, which our lawyer wanted. It turns out that one of the walls along the side of the block is actually built on our land, including quite large footings. This has impacted how the side of the house towards the back is going to be, because the cost of removing the footings and re-building the wall would be prohibitive. So, the final result is that the deck area on that side will have to be shorter than planned.

Other than that we were very happy with the changes made. Also, some of the regulations we were worried would impact our design didn’t have the impact we were worried about – mainly the fire regulations. We were sent away with more homework to do – deciding how many power points we wanted and where. We had to complete this task by our next meeting, which was the following Saturday.

On Tuesday we went to Teramachi to collect our company inkan and on Wednesday off to Osaka to meet with our lawyer. At this meeting we handed over the proof of our purchase of the carpark, the latest design for our minshuku and the schedule. The lawyer also dropped the bombshell that he would have to hand over our passports and residence cards to extend our visas and this would need to happen closer to the expiry date of our current visas – 25 March. Putting 2 and 2 together, the outcome is that Craig has to stay here until the 21^st of March, which of course delays the sale of our house, but, it does give us more time to actually do things other than preparing for and having meetings.

The lawyer also gave us homework, which was to get an official copy of the registration of our personal inkan, to get some new photos for our cards and (and this is the kicker) to go to the bank and take out the money we have there to put into the company and then to re-deposit it – on the same day. This is apparently to prove we can do this…????? So, on Friday we completed our assigned tasks, including the highly embarrassing withdrawal and deposit of the money. I’m sure the staff there thought I was a mad gaijin (foreigner). The good news in all of this is that the lawyer is going to apply to extend our visas for 12 months, so no more renewals for the time being, saving a lot of money!!!

On Thursday, however, we did a touristy thing and visited Fushimimomoyama- jou (castle). In all the times we have visited Kyoto, we had never been to this castle, so it was fun to go to a new place here. The castle is a little run down, and doesn’t seem to be a popular tourist venue, but it is very nice none-the-less. It was amazing to go to a place here in Kyoto and not have many people around.

Yesterday (Saturday) we again met with the builder and architect, to go through our homework (I think we passed!) and to bed as much down as possible for a final quote for the build, the architect and all approvals. We have selected many things, including floor coverings, lights and window dressings, and most importantly the heated toilets. The sign for the intention to build will have to go up on the carpark prior to the build with our details on it, so we also have to get that all bedded down, which includes the registration of our company.

Today (Sunday) we took time out to go to the antiques market at Touji temple, which occurs on the first Sunday of every month. I was looking to buy a vase so I can have some flowers in the flat, given it is now essentially spring here. I ended up buying two…There were many things I would have liked to buy, but I managed to control myself, given we will have to spend a lot to get this minshuku up and running. As an aside, the construction of this temple was overseen by Kukai, previously mentioned in Week 9 as the monk who pioneered the self-mummification ritual.

Tomorrow, we are off to Osaka see the lawyer again and present our homework (ie certificates, photos and proof of the money in the bank). It is also Craig’s birthday, so we will be going out to dinner somewhere – Craig is hoping to go to an Italian restaurant which is near our carpark. Wood oven pizza!!!!!!

This week I have decided to add some photos of our local area, which is the Gion area. There are many small and very traditional roads nearby and you often see either Geiko or Maiko walking around there.

…and, if you are wondering who is now the official head of the household…? After much consideration, we decided to take the traditional Japanese route and Craig is now officially installed as Head of the Household! His crown will be arriving soon.

Hello and welcome to the week 12 wrap! During this week, yours truly undertook a significant assignment just so that I could keep you fully informed, in a chocolatey kind of way – but more about that arduous task later.

First up I have an update to a very early post where I was talking about the unusual noises I could here from the flat, one of which sounded like a steam train whistle reminiscent of Puffing Billy. While watching tv the other night what should come on but an ad. for a steam train…in Kyoto! So onto Google (my electronic oracle) and sure enough not only is there one, but there are actually two steam trains running in Kyoto. One runs from near Arashiyama (a beautiful area famous for a huge bamboo grove there) which is a fair way from here and out of the question that I could hear that.

 Puffing Billy

 Train near Arashiyama

The second steam train runs around on a 1km track at the Kyoto Railway Museum, which is near the Kyoto station (near here). Now, whether that is what I can hear, or there is still some other unknown steam whistling device out there, I don’t know but I still hear the whistle multiple times every day. Never let it be said that I give up easily…

Now, onto the more serious side of why I am here, ie the vegan minshuku. I had another meeting with the builder and architect this week and received the first draft of the design they are creating. To say I was very happy is an understatement. It had pretty much everything I wanted in our future home and livelihood, including room for the kids out the back (which, BTW, the architect had drawn into the plan, ie three cats in the back yard – lovely). All the guest rooms are en suite, with one room being slightly bigger than the others; we’ll be able to charge more for that. All guest rooms had a balcony too. Our living area is a reasonable size and we have a deck out the back to sit outside and enjoy the backyard.

I asked for a few minor adjustments to the plan, but all in all, I was very happy. There is a downside, though – we won’t be moving into our house any time soon. All of the required approvals will take a long time. Japan is a fairly bureaucratic country and I know all about bureaucracy, as you will be aware, with my being a public servant for 29 years. What is adding to the time required to pass through all the gates is that currently there are many people seeking approval to run an accommodation facility. Kyoto is very, very popular with tourists at the moment. I have been astounded at just how busy it has been here, right through the coldest time of year. The sheer number of buses pouring into the Kiyomizu-dera area is phenomenal (Kiyomizu-dera is a very famous and important Buddhist temple near our flat).

After our meeting I went to the vegan café with the woman who is the English translator I mentioned previously. The café is run by friends of hers. It was very nice and I had a lovely meal with good company. It is, of course, also good to find these places we can refer our guests to. The style of the café was somewhat bohemian, which I have noticed quite a bit here.

So, things are moving along in the planning stage of our minshuku – which will be rather longer than I had anticipated. I also went to order our company representative seal (inkan) this week, at the request of our lawyer, who will be creating our company soon. It is not a cheap thing to do, with the inkan I ordered coming in at over ¥34,000 (around $350AUD). This was a cheaper, machine carved version. If I had ordered a hand carved version, it would have cost over $600AUD.

Now, onto that part of this post which I know some of you are very keen to hear about: Barentaindee and chocolate – or just chocolate. You may recall in my last post (does that sound wrong somehow???) I said I had seen an item on tv with a reporter going to a hall where there were lots of chocolate stalls and I knew it was near Kyoto station? Well, a little research, using the electronic oracle, and I found out that it was in iSetan, which is one of the upmarket department stores in Kyoto. The event was called the “Salon du Chocolat 2017”! It was in a promotional hall in iSetan, which is actually located in the Kyoto station building.

I was feeling a little trepidation as I walked there, imagining a large, rampaging crowd of women, trying to get their last minute chocolates – it was Monday, 13 February. To my surprise, however, while it was a little crowded, it wasn’t too bad; quite civilised really. I suspect if I had gone there the day before – Sunday – it might have been a somewhat different story. On reflection, I think I was the only westerner there. I know there were some Chinese tourists there, but they were only a few, it was mostly Japanese women buying their chocolate gifts

According to the list of stalls I got there were 99 stalls!!! The list includes French, Belgian, Swiss and Japanese chocolatiers. It was a tough ask but I made my way around all of them and even had a few tastings. I ended up buying some Japanese and Belgian chocolates, just for the sake of research, which Craig and I will enjoy together when he is here…this coming week!!

 one of the drawers…

I bought the first chocolates from a Japanese stall which had the most beautiful chocolates I had ever seen. They were like works of art – I think it would be difficult to actually eat them. In the end I bought a mixed box of matcha and ordinary chocolates. Still beautiful but I love matcha and the box they came in is lovely. In fact, it turns out when you take the plastic off (which I did to take a photo to show you all), that it is designed as a set of 2 drawers. I will be keeping it for jewellery or some such thing. The other chocolates were all chosen based on flavour and price – the French chocolates were VERY expensive.

The other chocolates:

(note that the last photo is of the pamphlet for the chocolates, because I couldn’t open the container without destroying it. I bought the pack of 3, top LH side)

Along with the chocolates, there were stalls with chocolate drinks and chocolate ice cream and chocolate macarons and…If you are a chocoholic, you have to make the effort to come here for this event one year. It truly was chocolate heaven – it even just smelled like chocolate walking around there. The photo of the week comes from this event. I just couldn’t resist getting a photo of this – who knew this even existed??? I asked if I could take a photo for my friends in Australia – they said just one. Unfortunately I rushed it with all the people there, etc and it is a bit blurry, but you’ll get the idea. I present The Chocolate World of Zoology:

As mentioned above, Craig is coming over to visit this week, which I am very much looking forward to. He’ll be here for 2 weeks!! So much to do, so little time. Of course, given how long the build is going to take, we’ll have plenty of time once he is able to come here permanently. I just have to be patient…not my long suit…

Cheers to you all for now, and my advice if you are going to come over here; book your flights 6 months in advance. Kansai airport (Osaka), is very, very busy.

…and we interrupt the Trump coverage to bring you…something –  anything else!

If you think I am a little tired of the sheer volume of media coverage on Trump, well, you are right.

Of course, the time when I tend to watch tv is between 4 and 7, so news and current affairs (and I don’t mean like the ‘current affairs’ programs in Australia – which are more about bashing people, like tenants etc) are the main viewing fodder. There are, however, some other shows, and quite often they involve food in some way. Whether it is cooking, showing techniques, roving around sampling food from different restaurants, take aways or cafes, or speaking to chefs about their restaurants, there is a big focus on food.

I am a big fan of cooking shows and seeing different foods, so this little oasis of tv viewing is wonderful to me. One thing I really notice here, is that often when talking to chefs they will focus on the produce they use. This then leads them to visit the people who grow or harvest the produce. They spend a lot of time with the farmers and often help them pick their crops, or prepare the produce for market. One show recently also showed a couple harvesting nori seaweed, which was fascinating (see photo below). All of it is hard physical work.

Which brings me to one thing I have really noticed – the vast majority of those who own and are working their farms or who harvest or prepare other produce, such as the seaweed, are not young…and when I say not young, many of them are 70 or over. I know this because they nearly always put a person’s age on the screen when they introduce them – even celebrities! There are a few younger people, in most cases helping on the farms with the older people, but not overly many. I watched the other day as the person who was there interviewing the farmers tried to pull a large daikon out of the ground, and they couldn’t even budge it. Yet, there was this older couple pulling them out relatively easily!

(the picture left above is of an 84 year old farmer helping to train some people from the Philippines in rice farming)

Like just about everywhere else in the world, Japan has an ageing population. They are also grappling with the movement to the big cities of the younger people. First they move to study, then stay to get work, because the truth is there isn’t much work out in the rural areas for them. The government knows there is a big problem – Tokyo is growing very rapidly, with most of these young people heading to Tokyo (and it’s already huge!) – but they don’t know what to do about it, They are throwing money at the local governments for them to use to help stop the drain, but short of building factories or enticing other employers out of the cities, they are struggling to find the answer.

(some 84 year olds having fun!)

Japan’s population was 127,094,745 when the most recent population census was taken on 1 October 2015. This was, in fact, a decrease of 0.8 % from the previous census five years earlier and is the first decrease since the survey began in 1920 (and it looks like continuing). People aged 65 or older made up 26.6% of the population – that’s 33,465,441 people (around 10,000,000 more people than are in Australia). Interestingly, of the total population, the number of non-Japanese residents totalled 1,752,368 (there’ll be at least 2 more next time!!!!)

Looking at the ageing population even closer, last year the number of centenarians rose by 4,124 from the previous year to reach 65,692 in September. Women account for 87.6% of this population. They expect over 30,000 more people to enter this venerated group this year. There were only 153 centenarians in 1963! Japan’s oldest woman is Nabi Tajima, 116, born in August 1900. She is, in fact, currently the oldest person in Japan and the third oldest in the world – all women.

So, where is this all going? The population is decreasing overall, while the number of older people is increasing – significantly. Well, as I sit there and marvel at these amazingly fit and healthy older people, and admire them for their zest for life, I wonder what is going to happen when they are no longer able to tend their farms. Who will continue growing the daikon and rice and climb down to the rocks to harvest the seaweed? Even more problematic, who will help look after this large elderly population as it grows?

What started all this analysis – apart from the fact that I studied statistics and one of my jobs previously was a population and labour economics researcher????? Actually, it was an article in the Yomiuri newspaper about a woman who is 93 and is still running a small restaurant in Tokyo, with the help of her son, who is 67. She and her husband opened it in 1960…As I was reading it, I hoped that Craig and I would be able to continue running our minshuku for many years into the future. One of the things I like about Japan is how they generally respect older people and their abilities. They don’t have the attitude that people are useless and unemployable after a certain age. It also reinforces to me that one of the keys to ageing well, is to keep active – and I mean both mind and body.

Ok, after that serious note (these wintery days, when you can’t do much outside, leaves too much time for retrospection!) this coming week is Barentaindee or Valentine’s Day, which is huge here in Japan. Basically here it is all about chocolate – so for those of you who are chocoholics, now is the time to be here. It is also somewhat different to Australia, in that the givers of the chocolate on Valentine’s are the women, and it is not just to be given to someone you fancy. Many give to co-workers, friends and others on this day. There is a reciprocal day, on 14 March, Howaitodee or White Day, when the men have to give gifts to all the women who gave them gifts. Generally chocolate again. All well and good, but if you are a popular guy…

As you can imagine, there have been many stories about chocolate on tv this last week or two. A lot of coverage is being given to French chocolatiers, and it seems there are many French chocolatiers visiting here at the moment – even here in Kyoto. Last night they showed a hall somewhere near the Kyoto railway station, which had many, many stalls of chocolate and at least three French chocolatiers actually present at this festival of chocolate! The young woman who had the onerous job of going around these stalls and interviewing these people, then had to taste quite a bit of chocolate, it seemed. She also got a box of chocolates from each of them, which they autographed for her! She was very excited by all of this.

Now, for the photos of the week…what else could I do but show you some of the creations for Valentine’s Day.

Cheers and keep eating!

OK, so it’s time we look at what happened in week 10.

I went to visit a new builder on Tuesday with the purpose of getting a new perspective on our potential new home and to get a second quote for the build. I had to take a train to get there and let me tell you was I grateful for that. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were all quite cold, but Tuesday in particular felt like the wind was blowing over an ice field. These days were mostly overcast, with a short exception on Thursday. It was the first time I actually felt cold outside, even with gloves on. Thankfully – and again I send my blessings to the people who design these things – the seats on the train are heated. So, I had time to thaw out before I reached my meeting.

At the meeting, there was a woman who acted as interpreter, because neither the builder nor the architect could speak English. She was very nice, and very helpful. After I explained what we are trying to do, ie vegan/vegetarian B&B, she told me that she knew some people who run a café, which just happens to have a vegan menu! Not only that, it is quite close to the flat. She has suggested we go there together and she can introduce me to the owners. It also happens that she attended university in Brisbane, so she understands Australian…. I am looking forward to meeting her and her friends at the café.

The other major event this week was Setsubun – the celebration of the official beginning of spring. Setsubun was on 3 February and the first day of spring (risshun) was on 4 February. This festival dates back to the days of the lunar calendar and, in fact, risshun used to be thought of as the start of the new year. So, the ritual that goes along with this festival is a cleansing ritual, to clean away any evil from the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year ahead. The actual ritual is called mamemaki – literally meaning bean scattering.

If you’re wondering, does this mean that it involves throwing around beans, then You’re Right!!!!! The relevant beans are soybeans and for this ritual, they are roasted. The beans are thrown around inside the home (I have to admit I didn’t do this) and they are also either thrown out the door or at someone who is dressed as a demon, or oni. While throwing the beans, you call out Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! (Demons out! Luck in!). I did undertake the latter, although being in a block of flats I decided to put a box outside the front door, so that the beans didn’t spread all over the floor and stairs with me then having to pick them all up. On the other hand, I did throw some out the balcony door, so as to get the full effect.

The really fun part of this ritual, is that families do it together, with one parent (generally the father) dressing up as oni and scaring the kids, while the other parent helps the kids throw beans at the oni to scare it away. Why didn’t we have fun things like that when I was a kid? I might have considered being a parent if I could have dressed up as oni to scare little children. They look like fun demons, don’t they?

Events are also held at local shrines and temples, where priests, monks and invited guests, such as celebrities and sumo stars, join in the festivities, which includes them throwing beans at the crowd. At the temple I went to geiko and maiko attended and the maiko performed some dances. Geiko is essentially the Kyoto term for geisha, while maiko are basically apprentice geiko. The shrine I went to was the Yasaka Shrine, which is located in the Gion area and, as a result, is the local shrine for the geiko and maiko of the Gion district, hence their attendance. It is a very large shrine and a lot of important events are held there.

I went at midday to see the ceremony with the Shinto priests. The robes they wore were beautiful and very colourful. They spoke to the crowd and then two women each performed a dance. These women were carrying swords, which I hadn’t seen women do before and the crowd applauded at the end of each of the dances. Following this, the priests and women threw beans in little packets at the crowd. The crowd were very keen to get one of these packets of beans, as it is considered good luck. It was vicious! I had a little old lady nearly knock me over trying to get some.

After this was over, I was looking at what the shrine shop was selling when one of the helpers told me I should buy some lucky beans and a ticket. They were ¥300. Then they told me I had to line up to exchange my ticket for something else – I wasn’t sure what it was at the time, but I thought hey why not??? Not like I’ve got to be anywhere… Turns out the queue was at least 100 people long – it took over 10 minutes to get to the end. While I was in the queue I realised the people were exchanging their ticket for another ticket, which had numbers on it. It appeared that some people then lined up again, while others walked away.

So, I get to the end and have to pick out a ticket from a barrel. The man then told me I had to go to the white tent. I did get a prize! A set of 2 chopping boards. I think there were some other, much better prizes. The numbers corresponded with what they gave you. Feeling pleased that I had won something, I went to Starbucks and had a caramel macchiato to wait for the next performance, which was due at 1:00. I hoped it would involved the geiko.

I walked up the street looking in the shops as I was returning to the shrine. There was a fantastic local crafts shop on the way (which for some reason I hadn’t noticed in the past) and I spent a bit long in there. So, by the time I got back to the shrine it was a little after 1:00. This time there were at least double the number of people and I couldn’t see that much, but I did see that there were 3 maiko dancing. I knew they were maiko because a nice lady next to me told me this and she also said that the senior geiko was sitting on the stage too. Showed me a picture of her.

After the dancing was finished, the priests came out again and again threw the beans at the crowd. It was even more pushy this time, so I backed away – fast!!! Interestingly, the priests had changed their clothing and were wearing indigo patterned robes this time.

I left after that, although there were more performances due at 2:00 and 3:00. I came home and ate my roasted soybeans for good luck. You eat 1 bean for every year of your life, plus 1 more for good luck for the coming year. They were actually very nice but I did stop at my required number. Though, given my year of birth has recently changed to 34, perhaps I could have eaten more!!! Yes, it is now 34/10/10 (Japanese write the date as year/month/day and the year is the year of the reign of the particular emperor – I think this year is 29).

That about wraps up my ramblings for this week, I do look forward to the warmer weather. Two final photos this week – the first is a photo of Ziggy who I caught trying to steal my room shoes…

The second is the photo of the week. Apparently Psycho Bunny is a menswear outlet which began in New York. It looks like a store is about to open in Terramachi (a fantastic shopping arcade in the centre of Kyoto). I was just surprised by the name and the logo!

Cheers for now, and here’s to spring! Kanpai…

Hi all and welcome to week 9 – well, actually it’s currently week 10 but this post is related to week 9.

I have to say that after all the highs and lows of the previous weeks, it was a pretty quiet week really. There were my usual outings, mainly directed at shopping, and which are completely driven by the weather. That is, at the beginning of the week, I look at what is coming weather-wise and decide which days I am going to go out and where to. As I don’t have a car, I do my shopping in parts. There are some places better for certain things than others, so it is also driven by what I need. Hence, I have to decide what I am going to eat for the week at the same time.

Generally, I am making meals which have 3 servings in them, although sometimes I overestimate and have to eat the same meal on 4 nights…but I am making 2 meals for each week. Also, every fortnight I have to walk over to Aeon Mall (is that from Aeon Flux??? or, was Aeon Flux named after a mall???), to get the cat supplies. Luckily they deliver and it is free – I suspect it is because I spend over 5,000¥ each time.

I also have to take my granny trolley with me on those outings during which I will be buying heavy things such as milk, drinking yoghurt and my veggies for the week. Then, of course, there is the nihonshu and that is a heavy item. I have tried to find a decent red here, but I haven’t lucked out yet. There is very little Australian wine here and I am not that up with French or Italian wines. I bought a Sangiovese a while back, it was over 3,000¥ (and that is expensive for here), but it was somewhat watery. Nothing like the lovely big wines in Australia…sigh. Yes, I do miss them. That cache of wine under the beds in the spare room…5 doz. Rockford…

This week Serena has really got into the bird watching. Outside the main window there are a couple of largish trees, quite nice really, and the birds do like to congregate there at times. In particular, there are 2 turtledoves who sleep in the trees overnight (and no, no partridge…), which she has taken a specific interest in. When she is really deep in observation of birds, she makes little noises, like little chirrups. When watching these two she is also using her ‘I want food’ noise and licking her lips!!! Shows how deeply embedded the desire to eat birds is in cats, considering we got her at 3 months and she has been an indoor cat, her only forays outside in a harness. She also paws at the window sometimes too. Here she is really getting hyped up (note the very rapidly moving tail) and below is one of the taunting turtledoves.

One thing that has taken my interest, which I saw on tv, is the public display of mummified monks in some temples, mainly in Yamagata. These monks are not bound or in any way covered, although they are dressed, as you can see below. This is one of the most famous mummies, the monk Daijuku Bosatsu Shinnyokai Shonin (1687-1783) at Dainichibo Temple. This is the one I saw on tv.

With my curiosity piqued, I did a little research on these monks and was somewhat surprised by the results. I don’t know if any of you will be interested as well, Craig said he was not at all interested…I must say, I am not inclined to travel to Yamagata to see them, but all the same, I found it interesting. See what you think…

It is said the practice of self-mummification, known as sokushinbutsu, was pioneered by a Japanese monk named Kukai over 1,000 years ago. This was a ritual undertaken by a Buddhist monk over a number of years that ended in the death and complete preservation of the body of the monk. This process of self-mummification was mainly practiced in Yamagata between the 11th and 19th centuries, by members of the Japanese school of Buddhism called Shingon (“True Word”). Those who undertook the ritual of sokushinbutsu did not view this as an act of suicide, but rather as a form of further enlightenment.

The steps involved in mummifying their own body were extremely rigorous and painful. For the first 1,000 days, the monks ceased all food except nuts, seeds, fruits and berries and they undertook extensive physical activity to strip themselves of all body fat. For the next 1,000 days, their diet was restricted to bark and roots. Near the end of this period, they would drink a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, which caused vomiting and a rapid loss of body fluids, which also caused the internal organs to shrink. It also acted as a preservative and killed off maggots and bacteria that would cause the body to decay after death.

In the final stage, after more than six years of preparation, the monk would lock himself in a stone tomb not much larger than his body, where he would go into a state of meditation. He was seated in the lotus position, and remained so until he died. A small air tube provided oxygen to the tomb. Each day, the monk rang a bell to let the outside world know he was still alive. When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed for the final thousand day period of the ritual.

Their body would be naturally preserved as a mummy with skin and teeth intact, without decay and without the need of any artificial preservatives.

The government did ultimately ban the practice in 1879. It is unknown how many monks actually ended their lives this way, but many have been found.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting…

Now, onto the photo of the week, which is related to my observation above of the dearth of Australian wines here. I do look to see if I can find any, and sometimes I find things which surprise even me!

Delightful!!!!!!!!

Never heard of it?!

And cheers to us all!

Greetings and welcome to week 8 – a week filled with sumo, lots of money changing hands and a special care package from Australia.

I had hoped to have good news on the sumo front, but it was not to be. So, I will have to rise above my considerable disappointment and finish off the ‘Sumo for Absolute Beginners’ guide. In last week’s episode, the rikishi had finished their rituals. So we come to tachiai, or the initial charge. The two wrestlers start by squatting either side of parallel lines in the centre of the dohyou, with the referee standing opposite the centre of the dohyou, slightly to the side of them. They jump up from this position once they have both touched the ground with their fists. At this point they very often clash heads…ouch.

Which brings me to my next point, the rikishi fight and enter the dohyou from either the east side or the west side. This is related to their ranking and performance. The east side is for those higher ranked at each level. Hakuho has been on the east side for some time, although this time because one of the other highest ranked rikishi was out injured, he swapped to the west side for two matches, presumably to balance things up. Unfortunately he lost both bouts while on the west – I think it upset his usual style because he is so used to entering the dohyou and tachiai on the east side.

There are five ranks in the professional sumo world – from maegashira through to yokozuna. There are no weight or height divisions; it is possible that the smallest rikishi could be up against the largest. While weight can tend to be an advantage if you are trying to oust your opponent, it can also be used against you through momentum. In the end, it generally comes down to technique.

To win, you must either force your opponent out of the dohyou, or force them to touch the ground with any other part of their body, apart from the soles of their feet (of course). As the dohyou is elevated above the ground (up to 60cm), they can sometimes fall quite heavily. It’s amazing they don’t really hurt themselves. The other thing is that there are five judges sitting around the base of the dohyou along with some of the audience. As you can imagine, sometimes the rikishi end up falling onto either, or both. I would not be very keen to have one of these very large men fall on me!!!!

Once one opponent is either out of the dohyou or has touched the ground, the referee declares the winner, unless there is some doubt about who touched the ground first either inside or outside the dohyou. At this point the judges come into play. The winner may or may not receive a prize after winning the bout. Prizes come from advertising, which takes the form of banners being carried around the dohyou prior to the particular bout. The more advertising, the bigger the prize. Apparently the rikishi receive 50% of the advertising fee. This also means that the more popular and higher ranked rikishi get more prize money. There are separate prizes at the end of the basho for best performed, etc.

…and so we leave the world of sumo until the next honbasho, the spring honbasho in March.

Also this week, apart from some event in the US on Friday, which I don’t want to mention, we settled on the land. So, Craig and I are now the proud owners of a carpark! Not sure how many parking spaces, but what it does mean is that it is covered in asphalt, which you will have seen in the photos.

Now all we need is to decide on a design and get the tractors and trucks rolling – of course, given the street the land is on is very narrow, they will be small versions of what we are used to seeing in Australia on building sites.

There has been more snow since last week, although nowhere near as much. In fact, it is snowing now. I also experienced another type of falling wetness the other day, which I think is actually sleet (of course there does seem to be some dispute about what exactly sleet is – apparently it can depend on where you come from). My version was small balls of icy snowy hail-like wetness. Apparently this happens when snow falls and as it falls it melts and then re-freezes before it reaches the ground.

The other item I mentioned above is the care package sent by Craig. How wonderful it was to receive it – and very exciting to see what was included. It was a large box with an assortment of items from plugs through to clothes and shoes (which I had put aside to be sent once I got here). Plugs? you say. Well, yes. I have been trying to find a plug to fit the smaller sink in the kitchen, so I can wash up in the actual sink, not a plastic container which we bought in July. Otherwise, you are washing dishes under running water, and while water may be in much more plentiful supply here than in Australia, I still don’t like wasting water like that.

So, that brings me to the end of week 8, but before I go, I want to send a huge thank you to Tom, who has helped me set up the subscriber function on the blog page. Being an absolute novice at blogging (I hadn’t even really read one before, just a couple of bits and pieces), I had no idea about widgets and plugins, etc. As far as I was concerned a widget was a term you used in economics for a general consumer item. For those who I have sent an email to previously and those who have commented, you have already been added as a subscriber. The other thing you will notice is that I have updated the design of the blog. I would rather create my own from scratch, but for the moment it looks somewhat better, I think. Please let me know what you think.

I have had a couple of request for particular photos – of the Kamogawa (river) near our flat and the kids. I added a photo of the Kamogawa resplendent in snow last week, so this week here it is without the snow.

Finally, the photo of the week…which fits in with the weather here and just to round out the snowman focus. This week I bought some angora socks (very warm!!! J), and one pair just had to be snowman themed. So, here they are:-

Cheers and here’s to keeping warm!

Following the highs of the Special Edition, comes the inevitable lows of ‘well not much happened’, which is pretty much what week 6 was all about. The kids are really settling in and me settling into a routine around them. Serena has really taken to the cat tower, which pleases me. I have, in fact modified it twice now to make it more suitable. Cat tower engineering…

One slightly more unusual activity I undertook during the week, was to try out a yuzu bath. Yuzu are Japanese citrus, which are fairly bitter but very aromatic. It is the practice at some onsens to have whole yuzu in the baths. What is an onsen, you say? Essentially an onsen is a hot spring (related to volcanic activity) as well as being the name for the accommodation and bathing facilities associated with them. They are more often in country areas and can be quite expensive and exclusive.

I don’t recall us ever having stayed in one, although when we stayed at Yudanaka, near an area where there are snow monkeys, the accommodation we stayed in did have their own hot spring. Also, as I recall, they had an automated piano in the breakfast room which played continuously while we were having breakfast. It was somewhat weird. Also, we were the only people in the breakfast room because it was 2011, just after the tsunami – but that’s another story.

Anyway, back to the yuzu in the bath…apparently it is good for protecting against colds, to treat rough skin, to warm the body and relax the mind! Whether or not any of these claims is true, I decided to try it out. It was very aromatic and quite pleasant on a winter’s afternoon.

So, onto week 7, and what an important week! It is the first of two weeks of the first honbasho of the year!!!!!!! Yes, it’s sumo time! Technically, the basho runs for 15 days, so a bit over 2 weeks. They are held at different venues around Japan – this one is in Tokyo. Come 4:30 every day during this period, you will find me in front of the tv watching the sumo, unless something prevents me from doing so…but it would have to be pretty important.

Being the first honbasho of the year, the Emperor and Empress made a special appearance on the first day. They appear such nice people and the crowd absolutely loved them. There was a special area for them to sit in, in large orange chairs. They are not huge people, and the chairs made look even smaller, and as to why orange? I took some photos of them for this blog and later, when reviewing, found one photo with a ghostly overlay of Hakuho, who happens to be my favourite sumo wrestler (see below). How did this happen – I have no idea. Somewhat strange.

There is a lot of ritual involved in sumo, in part because it is related to Shinto. The wrestlers sip water to cleanse and throw purifying salt into the ring before they enter and they clap their hands to summon the Kami. The referee dresses like a Shinto priest, which adds to the spectacle as they can be very colourful, and a Shinto shrine hangs over the ring (literally, from the ceiling).

Before the rikishi (sumo wrestlers) actually get to the business of wrestling, they usually spend several minutes in a preparation ritual, extending their arms, stamping their feet, squatting, and also generally trying to make the opponent unsettled. Each rikishi has their own movements or postures they like to do. Hakuho tends to stamp his feet on the edge of the ring (dohyou) 5 times and he always does some hamstring stretching and back twists. Another of the rikishi bends backwards, usually once, and the crowd always love that. I have to say, for a large man, he can bend quite a long way back!

 Stretching...

After all that posturing and bending and stretching and staring at the opponent, the actual bout can last less than a minute, in fact seconds! Certainly I haven’t seen one go more than a couple of minutes. Last night one started and then finished when one opponent slipped and fell.

Today is day 8, and so far Hakuho and one other rikishi haven’t lost…and I’m not a big fan of the other rikishi, so I’m on tenterhooks. More on the sumo next week.

Oh, there was one other thing of some importance this week, I signed the contract for the block of land on behalf of Craig and myself this week. Next week is settlement.

Finally, today Kyoto awoke to quite a lot of snow, and it is still snowing at 11:30am, although not that heavily. I was planning to go out to an archery tournament at Sanjuusangen-dou, a Buddhist temple about 15 minutes walk away. So, I got up early, got ready and went outside briefly to check out the street…

Luckily I have a pair of boots which have ripple soles, so I decided to wear them, knowing how dangerous it can get when there is a lot of snow and then people walking on it. It basically compacts to ice (for those who haven’t experienced this). I had experienced this once before, and nearly came a cropper – legs and feet going everywhere. After that, I held onto Craig to stay upright, but even then I was slipping…

Anyway, I went up to the temple, thinking maybe there wouldn’t be so many people there…wrong. Apart from the multitude people there to have their shot, as it were, all dressed in traditional clothing, there were many spectators. I ended up seeing the target and some arrows flying (and mostly missing), but that was it. So, I decided to walk down to the Kamogawa (Kamo river) which is very near our flat and is the main river through Kyoto. It was very nice, a winter wonderland, (*o*).

I must say, walking that carefully and slowly, picking your way through the snow (about 15cm deep in spots) and avoiding the ice, while keeping away from cars on our road, which isn’t overly wide, was more tiring on the legs than I expected. Especially as I am doing so much walking at the moment.

Finally, it comes to photo of the week, and what else would I choose than a snowman! This one is the right way up and had been created by staff at the local Lawsons convenience store. Cheers

Welcome to the Xmas and New Year Special Edition

As most of you will be aware, there aren’t many Christians in Japan, so Xmas here has very little to do with religion here. What it does have a lot to do with is decorations, presents, cards, food and fun. So, yes, it is celebrated here mainly in a commercial way and with friends. Xmas day is not a public holiday.

The decorations not only include upside down snowmen, but also reindeer, Santa-san, trees and lots of lights. A lot of effort is put into decorating areas with lights – lots and lots of fairy lights and other lighting effects. It is called “irumineshon” (long e). People go out in their thousands to see the irumineshon. I personally didn’t go out because it would have involved me travelling around by myself at night. So, unfortunately I didn’t see any of it this time. I plan to do this for Xmas later this year. The photos below are examples of the kind of lighting they do.

Retailers push the sales of gifts and cards, just as they do in Australia and elsewhere. The biggest difference lies in the food. The Japanese love cake and desserts just as much as anyone else, and they have a specific cake for Xmas but it is a sponge cake decorated mainly with strawberries and cream, ie red and white. For Xmas I bought a matcha (green tea) sponge cake wedge (yes, not the whole cake!) with cream and a little strawberry conserve decoration. This is mainly because I love matcha cakes and desserts and I thought that green was suitable for Xmas. Also, I am not a huge fan of vanilla sponge cake.

The other food many Japanese eat at Xmas is fried chicken, with the big winner here being KFC. Apparently it started in the 70s when KFC had a big advertising campaign about eating KFC for Xmas. Obviously it was a stunning success for them and they make up special buckets, etc just for Xmas every year. I made mushroom pasta for my dinner, which is completely different to anything I would normally have for xmas, but it involved some slightly more expensive items such as Blue Castello, and I had to find wheat flour and cream, which I did. It was very nice (even if I do say so myself) and I had it with some French bubbles (of course).

Once Xmas is over, and I mean immediately, the decorations come down. Then up go decorations for new year. This involves not only retail areas, but also private dwellings where many people put up special New Year decorations. I put one up as well (see photo below). The decorations are for protection, to ward off bad spirits, and for good luck for the coming year.

Interestingly, there has been much made of it being the end of the year of the monkey and the upcoming year of the rooster. As you can see, my decoration has a little chook on it. It seems that New Year in terms of the lunar calendar festivities is celebrated as much on 1 January as it is at actual lunar new year here. The changeover to using the Gregorian calendar happened in Japan in the 1800s, so the date of new year was changed to 1 January at that time along with the celebration.

New Year is a much more important celebration than Xmas, and tends to be the time family gets together to celebrate. It is about the death or passing of the old year and the birth of the new year. This is all intertwined with both Buddhist (relating to death and passing) and Shinto (relating to life and the future) aspects.

Again I celebrated with French bubbles…

On the night, I set my alarm to wake me at 11:45 so I could hear the temple bells being rung. I know, I know, but as most of you who know me will realise I am hopeless at staying awake late. Also, I hadn’t decided if I would go outside to listen or just stay in the warmth! Anyway, the alarm went off and already I could hear the bell at the local temple being rung. It is a VERY large bell, larger than most you see at temples, hence quite loud. So, with my interest piqued I decided to get up, put my puffy jacket on, tidy my hair and go downstairs.

Surprisingly it wasn’t as cold as I expected – my hands didn’t immediately feel painful! The local shrine and temple are at one place nearby, less than 10 minutes walk from the flat. It is a Toyokuni shrine, to commemorate Toyotomi Hideyoshi (predecessor of the Tokugawa shogunate, who lived in the 1500s). As I’m standing outside I notice lots of people heading up towards the shrine, so, on an impulse, I decide to go up too. It just seemed right and I felt quite safe.

There were many people at the shrine and temple, with a very large queue leading to the bell because they were allowing the people to ring the bell. The bell (see photo above) has a very large pole held vertically on chains and rope which is used to strike the bell. For this bell, the striker is the size of a tree – although it doesn’t look like that in the photo. Remember the striker is at least at shoulder height when you strike the bell. I doubt I could have swung it enough to make much noise. There were groups going up to ring it together. It was quite lovely, actually. Just after I got there, the crowd applauded, not because I was there and in my jammies, but for midnight. There was no yelling, no fireworks, just applause.

I stayed a little longer then left and passed the massive queue lining up to go into the shrine itself to say their greetings to Kami and to pick up some items, including their fortune for the year. I decided against lining up, in part because I was in my jammies and in part because I hadn’t brought any money to offer Kami.

On Monday I did go back, hoping the crowds wouldn’t be so large, to pay my respects to Kami and ask for a good year. There was a queue but it was much smaller and I was actually dressed appropriately!

Unfortunately there was no snow on either Xmas day or for New Year, however, there was some snow on the 28^th. There wasn’t much and it rained a bit as well – at the same time. So both were falling together. I hadn’t seen or heard of that before, so something new for me. It was very exciting when I saw the snow falling outside my window that morning! Nothing since…

The final photo below is one Craig sent me which shows that they do indeed have fireworks for New Year in some places in Japan.

Cheers for now…