…and as I was saying, hasn’t this been a crazy year so far?

Hello! Tis me returning with another month’s worth of “what have we been doing recently?” I hope you are all well and weathering the weirdness of this time as best you can. We are still not doing much, although we have had one guest stay here! She only stayed for one night, but even that was a nice change. She was a Japanese person, from Osaka, and she was here to get away from everything prior to getting down to some serious study for an English exam, which she needs to pass to enable her to migrate to Canada. A lovely person and she said she might bring her family here to stay after her exam…fingers crossed.

The last month here has been hot, hot, hot. I think we have had only one day below 35 (and even then it was around 34), but still we are not getting the super humidity that we have experienced in the previous few years. We have had a few fabulous thunderstorms and now we are getting some typhoon action – number 10 is just passing west of us at the moment, which may bring us some heavy rain.

Typhoon 10 – as big as Honshu

Another thing I have noticed since the end of the rain is the summer clouds. It just wouldn’t be summer here without the giant meringue clouds. Those great towering white behemoths are quite awe inspiring and beautiful. They are also harbingers of thunderstorms, though not always. None-the-less the sight of them always makes me feel happy.

Last month I introduced a new segment ‘Close Encounters of the Animal Kind’, which came about because we kept having interesting animals visiting our yard, as well as seeing some while we were out and about. I didn’t expect it could keep going monthly, though I was hoping to see a Tanuki up close. Unfortunately that has yet to happen, though I am not giving up. I have to report, though, that we have indeed had more up close encounters!

Firstly, I have to report that the Red Helens keep coming to our yard, to visit the Geisha and Lantana flowers, which makes me smile every time 😊. There has also been many visits from a different swallowtail butterfly, which is yellow and black, but not as big as the Helen. In fact, I saw two of them flying around together yesterday, so I’m hoping we may have some more next year.

There have been other members of the insect family visiting – the first being a Japanese Giant Mantis (called ookamakiri here). The one in our garden, who was enjoying our vegetables for some time, was around 11cms in length, with very large green eyes. The other frequent (almost daily) visitor is a Carpenter Bee, which loves the Geisha flowers. This one appears to be all black and about 2cms in length. It’s abdomen is shiny, unlike the bumblebee. These are solitary bees, which usually build their nests in wood, mainly dead wood, hence the name.

Notice the partially eaten leaves…

We have also had a couple of four-legged visitors. One of these is another Japanese Weasel (itachi), which we only knew was there because Ziggy went after it. He was on a lead attached to a heavy chair outside, and in his attempt to get the weasel he nearly pulled over the chair. The weasel, however, was incredibly fast and I suspect would be a rather fearsome fighter, so lucky Ziggy couldn’t get to it. This is about the third or fourth time we have seen one in our backyard recently, so I am beginning to think that it may live nearby, or even in our backyard. There is a hole at the base of the stone wall, which has been partially blocked up, but more than big enough to accommodate a weasel, and now the entrance is hidden behind some plants…

The last visitor was rather less expected – a Japanese Badger – well, actually two of them initially. It was late at night and very quiet outside, when all of a sudden we heard…noises which sounded like two squeaky toys fighting! We rushed to the back deck door, turning on the light in time to see the two fighting, with the loser then running away down the side of our house. The spoils??? Our fig tree, yet again. I watched it, as best I could see with the badger being dark in colour, climbing around in the fig tree. Unfortunately as it was night there are no photos, but I have included a couple of photos from the internet, for visual reference.

Yet again, this month, we haven’t done overly much, this time because of the heat rather than it being wet. We undertook two recreational outings, one at night and the other involving a visit to the mountains (both being cooler options 😊). Prior to these, we went to a birthday celebration for a woman we have met here. She and her husband are here on a scholarship and are from Israel. She is researching and writing an anthropology thesis.

About ten of us had a picnic dinner and drinks on the banks of the Kamo river to celebrate her 31^st birthday, which was very pleasant. It was definitely a mixed crowd of mostly women from many different countries; Israel, Mongolia, Nepal, Iran, Malaysia, Japan and, of course, Australia. It was nice to meet such a diverse range of women, most of them studying. We had an interesting discussion about Zoroastrians, amongst other topics!

The birthday girl learning a dance

Our night-time visit was to Nijo-jo, which was being lit up during the month of August. We started the evening by going to a restaurant we hadn’t been to for quite a while, which serves Taiwanese style veg food. The food was, as always, fabulous and this time there was a really nice young man serving who was from England but had a Japanese mother, so spoke both English and Japanese very well. Interestingly, he a very ‘posh’ English accent having grown up in Oxford. Following that pleasantness, we walked to Nijo-jo to stand in a queue for what ended up being around an hour, but then we are in Japan and they are the world champions at queuing.

We got there around half an hour before opening to make sure we got in, because they were limiting the number who could enter to ensure social distancing (which has become a term here – ソーシャル・ディスタンシング). Once we got our tickets we had to change lines to go in the gate, before which we had to load some tracking software (in case of the need to track everyone for a positive test in someone) and have our temperature taken.

Inside we received a lantern to carry with us and walked through areas which were lit to highlight certain parts of the grounds, along with a video of fireworks being displayed on one of the giant stone keep walls and some stations which produced bubbles filled with incense smoke (so that when they popped it smelled beautiful). The bubbles were underlit with coloured light, so looked quite spectacular as they poured out of the machines. All quite ethereal.

Our visit to the mountains took us to the villages of Kibune and then Kurama. We decided to again attempt the climb from Kibune village across the mountain to Kurama-dera and then have lunch at the veg restaurant in Kurama, at the base of the temple grounds. There was a slight hitch to our plans, though, because we didn’t know repairs were being undertaken on the Kurama train line. This meant we could only get to Ichihara station, which is three stops before Kibune. At the station we were directed to a bus station about 300m away, for a bus which took us to near the Kibune train station, at which point we had to change buses to get to Kibune, around 2kms away.

At Kibune we decided to visit Kifune Shrine which we had never been to before, than head up and over the mountain to Kuruma-dera – over 2kms, mostly up. It is somewhat strenuous doing the climb in this direction – much easier from the other direction, and as we climbed quite a few people passed us going in the other direction. When we reached the main temple hall of Kurama-dera, there was no-one else there. It was a very strange sight because it is a very popular temple with the Japanese. Anyway, it gave me plenty of time on the point of power in front of the hall, after which we descended to Kurama village and the restaurant. I always love having lunch there, and especially so after that exertion! We also got to see the new Tengu installation, which replaced the previous one damaged in the typhoon two years ago (hard to believe it was that long ago…).

Summer seating over the river

I was so hungry…

On a more mundane note, one of the interesting things about our life here is the fact we live on a short, dead-end road (a roji), which actually has no name. This sometimes causes issues when trying to give directions to get to our B&B, especially as the road our road runs off of also has no name…Anyway, our no name road is having some work done on it this week, to replace the storm water drains (we think). This is going to require the entire road be dug up, creating a problem re access to our home. There are no footpaths and the road is very narrow, one car wide, so for the duration we have had to move our car to a nearby temple carpark, which they have organised. Complications of life living in one of the old areas.

Just before I sign off, I should mention that Halloween has entered the shops already, which, as you should all know, I love!!! (and Craig fears as I see so many things I would love to buy 😊) Yet again Costco has some amazing Halloween items, including a 2m tall werewolf (WOW!). Scarily, there are hints of xmas also appearing, and so I leave you with some photos of the Petemo xmas catalogue for your pets, highlighting the xmas cake ranges for cats and dogs, and a range of pet hors d’oeuvres……………….

Cheers!

I’ve recently taken to taking photos of us in trains, because there’s so few people in them it’s weird. Anyway, didn’t notice the two in the background had photo bombed until I checked the photos before writing the post!!!! Hilarious. Not normally something that happens here.

Interesting names for wine – huggy, or crass?

No words…

Love an apricot sky

Two years on, and they’re still dealing with the aftermath. Firewood anyone?

Dry arrangements

From the upstairs window

Looks like a brain, or maybe coral?

The long hot summer

Hello everyone!!! Here I am again in front of a blank screen, gathering my thoughts. I often start by reviewing what I wrote in the previous post, which I have just done and I promise to start this post in a much more positive way 😊. No, things haven’t improved in any way (in fact, things seem to be getting worse…) but the sun is out now, and has been so for a few days, which has definitely lifted my mood.

Yes, the rainy season finally ended on the weekend, after two months, and it has been sunny and quite warm ever since. We are having days of mid-30s and higher every day, however, it still isn’t overly humid, thank goodness. The last month consisted of rainy days with about one day of sun per week. The rain was quite heavy at times – the heaviest we had here was a one hour period of over 33mm.

We also had a few thunderstorms, which made me happy but the kids hated. Poor Miro, she really found the heavy rain very scary and with the thunderstorms on top of this, well, she just hid as best she could. One interesting side-effect of the extended rainy season (and even the Japanese said it was unusually long) is that the sound of summer, courtesy of the cicadas, didn’t commence until the last few days of the rain – a few intrepid souls started then, with the majority joining the chorus after the rain completely stopped.

And on a nature and creatures note, in a new segment, which I am calling Close Encounters of the Animal Kind, I have to report that yet again during this month we have had some close encounters with local creatures, while at home! The first visitor to our garden was a Japanese Weasel – possibly a return visit, or this may have been a new weasel, hard to tell as both were seen from within our living area as they ran through.

The second visit was by a female Macaque and her juvenile, who appeared to be fully weaned and was moving around independently. Yes, it was a quite a shock when it occurred! We were in our living area (as so often we were during the wet time), when we heard a very loud bang outside, followed by a couple more. I said something along the lines of “WTF was that?” Craig, looking outside, said it was a monkey on our deck roof (which is see-through), at which I immediately raced to get the camera (as I do when something unusual like this happens 😂).

She walked across the deck roof and was checking the fig tree while I was trying to get photos through the door, which is double glazed with cross hatched wire in the outer glass (fire regulations here), so it was quite difficult but I knew I couldn’t make any noise and I was trying to stay out of line of view, because I knew she would be spooked. Well, she finally did see me and went back across the roof and climbed to the balcony. I ran upstairs (quietly) and went in to the first room to go to the balcony, just in time to see both her and another, smaller monkey climb onto a neighbour’s roof.

With the thought that they would be back for the figs, I put a couple of cucumbers outside, near the mochi bowl water feature – a good place for a photo 😊. Some time later they did return, this time via the roof of the kiln behind our house. They spent some time in the fig tree (breaking one of the branches), then the mother must have spotted the cucumbers, because she climbed down into our back yard, grabbed a cucumber, rinsed it and then started eating it. Photo opportunity achieved! I got one through the window, then tried to open it quietly…but failed. So, she joined her offspring on the kiln roof.

Later they climbed down to the ground, then onto the next door flat balcony balustrade and finally our roof. Not sure where they went after that. A few days later we awoke to find a gift left by one of them on our deck roof. We hadn’t heard them, which is surprising for me, since I awaken at the least noise. The last time we know they had been in our yard was a few days later, when we arrived home to find the remains of a couple of cucumbers behind our car and all of the ripe tomatoes on our bushes stripped. The cucumbers came from our neighbour, Mrs Takeuchi’s vegetable garden.

The final recent visitor to our yard, which we have never seen before, is a Damselfly. In fact, I have never seen one before anywhere here, that I can think of. It is as beautiful as a dragonfly and a similar size, at around 6cms. It has two pairs of black wings and a long deep green (borderline black) body. We have seen it over a number of days recently, hopefully filling up on the multitude mosquitoes around here. Yesterday we went to a hardware shop to buy a bowl, which are often used here for growing lotus, to try to create a breeding area for it…fingers crossed.

The four wings fold together then spread separately as it flies

Onto our major outings for the month, which were limited to two due to the inclement weather. We had seen a poster a while back for an exhibition of embroidery at a museum near Kiyomizudera, which looked really interesting. So, after some research to find out where it was, and waiting for a clear day to walk there, we went to the Sannenzaka Museum, which houses works of traditional Japanese crafts, including metalwork, cloisonné, makie lacquerwork and Kyoto Satsuma ware.

Wow! Stunningly beautiful works are housed there and I am a huge fan of cloisonné and Satsuma ware, in particular. Unfortunately, photographs are not allowed in the museum (and there are no books containing details of the permanent exhibits), so I have copied some of the few photos from their website for this. The special exhibition consisted of Meiji art embroidery and Yuzen-dyed cut velvet works (applying dye directly to the fabric by hand), both of which were very much Kyoto based techniques. Some amazing creations, but again no pictorial catalogue. One of the best things about this museum was that they had exhibits with step-by-step displays of how these crafts are created.

I would really like to have this one…

Amazing embroidery, took my breath away when I saw it. I would also like this…

The other outing involved a longish train journey to Hyogo prefecture, to visit a building/museum that we first saw on tv and have been waiting to go to for a while – Yodoko Guest House, architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I knew he had been in Japan early in the 1900s, because there are some of his works in Tokyo. What I didn’t know is that he had lived here for a while, and designed 14 buildings while here, including the US Embassy.

So, we waited for a rain-free day (which turned out to be gloriously sunny) when it was open to the public and set off for Hyogo. The place was as good as I expected, maybe even better. I had always wanted to see something of his, but thought we would have to travel to America, which I am not overly interested in doing otherwise. Anyway, fantastic to wander around inside and see some of his furniture designs along with the actual buildings themselves. The level of detail is phenomenal – truly a feast for the eyes. Interestingly, along the same road Yodoko House is situated on, there were many examples of really interesting design, as if the architects have been inspired by the location of the houses.

Speaking of design, a number of friends had mentioned they had recently watched a couple of programs by a gardening guru, Monty Don, which were about Japanese garden design. We tried to get them through ABC iView, but were blocked because of our location (we can only see some programs through there – something to do with regionality). Anyway, Craig finally found a way to see them, through a site with BBC programs on it, so we were able to watch them.

They were interesting, especially as at least three of the gardens are ones we visit regularly in Kyoto, two of which are close walking distance from us. We have also visited a number of the others he showed, though none of the gardens in Tokyo – we haven’t spent overly much time in Tokyo during our journeys here, preferring more regional areas. Thankyou to those who mentioned him – it is always fascinating seeing places you know well through other’s eyes.

On a final note, a short story that I meant to mention last time but forgot to. Before the ‘second wave’ hit, the Japanese Govt had been talking about connecting with other countries which had similarly low Covid numbers, to try to stimulate some movement between them, initially for business travel but ultimately to revive some tourism. Anyway, there were four countries they were initially concentrating on – Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand and Australia. This was being reported on the news over a few days, and, as the Japanese have a way of doing, they put up photos to illustrate the story – four photos each representing one country: Thailand, a Thai temple; Vietnam, a rice paddy (I think); Australia, the Opera House; and New Zealand…some sheep!!!!!! Well, we both nearly fell on the floor laughing when we saw this. Hilarious. I suppose they couldn’t think what else to show about New Zealand? Sorry New Zealand, but we just loved this and every time it came on it had the same affect.

!!!!!

And on that note – Cheers!

Two of the nearby houses

Interesting clock at the train station in Hyogo, and one for the ‘person-hole spotters’!

A model of the Yodoko Guest house

It’s all about the detail

Clouds upon clouds

Summer and kakigori – shaved ice dessert – at a really interesting cafe

The last of the lotus…

(my hand for size reference)

New frog statue to replace the Buddha Miro beheaded

New water bowl with papyrus plant for the damselfly (which has now disappeared – doesn’t like the bowl?)

Checking for monkeys…

So, here we are in the second half of the year and no sign of the virus situation easing up… In fact, it seems young people (20 – 40 yrs), combined with the governments in some countries (including here) which are deciding that saving the economies of their respective countries is more important than any other consideration, are giving the ‘second waves’ a red hot go. The only slight problem with all of this is that it is likely to damage the respective economies a lot more in the long run by reopening too early than staying in lockdown mode for a bit longer – and I say this as a small business owner that is watching any prospect of our business reviving in the near term fly right out of the window (of opportunity).

Anyway, as there is very little I can do about it except try my best not to get the virus and if I indeed did happen to become infected, then spread it further either knowingly or in a ‘Typhoid Mary’ kind of way. As I can’t let all of this get to me I just keep taking one day at a time; and so, to the weather. At the moment we are experiencing what it is like to have a full rainy season in Kyoto. Over the last month at least half of the days have been rainy, some consisting of light but consistent showers and others where we have had fairly heavy rain – at least 20mm in an hour the other night. This, however, pales into insignificance when compared to the recent rain in Kumamoto (in Kyushu), where they had 116mm in one hour, and around 500mm over 24 hours.

On the night with the heavy rain, we could actually hear it, which is unusual, since we normally can’t hear the rain at all. I discovered then that Miro is afraid of heavy rain, and spent a few hours soothing her. Despite all the rain, it still hasn’t been overly humid, with yesterday feeling the most humid it has been so far this summer. We have only resorted to having the aircon on once to date, and that was for a short while on one higher temperature day after coming home from the gym. Otherwise, we are using the fan when necessary, which certainly helps to keep the bills down a bit.

Moving on to our month of activities, yet again we have mainly been out looking at flowers, and nature generally, although we did visit a museum recently, now that they are all reopening. We also participated in a BLM march held here in Kyoto, which was really fantastic. We found out about the march via Instagram, which the organisers used along with other social media to get the word out. They were very organised about it, insisting we all wear masks and asking us to download the Covid tracking app which has recently been released in Japan. They also made sure we marched three abreast, in lines, which most people did.

While it is a constitutional right of all Japanese people to participate in peaceful marches, they still have to be organised in conjunction with the police, and the police participate during the march in terms of directing the marchers and traffic to ensure no issues occur. The meet-up point was in Maruyama Park and we then proceeded to City Hall, which is just under 2km, with the route taking us along two main roads in the centre of the city. I wasn’t sure there would be many people participating, given we’re in Kyoto which is fairly conservative (despite the Communists being the most supported party here…they are very nationalistic). On the day there were at least 1,000 people marching, which was marvellous, and despite some bemused onlookers we also received a lot of support from the sides.

Our first botanically oriented visit this month took us to Ohara and the beautiful Sanzenin temple grounds, with the intention of seeing the huge hydrangea area there. We also invited a couple we know here to come with us, since they hadn’t been there before. It was a lovely warm, sunny day and there were very few people at the temple, which was a bonus, and consequently we had a lovely time wandering through the extensive garden at our own pace and in relative quiet, so we could hear all the birds and other creatures. Unfortunately it was a little too early to get the full glory of the hydrangeas, but it is such a wonderful place it didn’t really matter.

(yes, I know, shade into light…)

Speaking of creatures, in my last post I described our encounters with some large creatures. This time we encountered the other end of the scale, seeing many tiny frogs and some tiny crabs. This is interesting not only because they were so tiny, but also because we have been up to Ohara and Sanzenin many times and never seen any of the local wildlife. I assume that the significant reduction in the number of people visiting has meant the animals feel safer being more out in the open.

The first creatures we saw were actually in the carpark we usually park in. There is a very tall sheer wall at the back of the parking area, with a wide drain at the bottom which always has water in it. We had reversed into the park (as you always do here, no matter which carpark you are in) and I went to the back to get my parasol out. As I was about to step behind the car I noticed a sudden movement and luckily caught myself in time before treading on the grass there. It turned out to be a tiny brown frog, about 3cm in length. At that point I noticed a number of other frogs in and around the drain, along with some tiny crabs (Japanese fresh water crab), which were about 3cm in width across the brownish shell, while their legs were orange.

Along the path up to the temple there is a creek and a fence dividing the two (perhaps to prevent cars driving in there?). On the top of one of the posts there was a tiny green frog – a Japanese tree frog – which was slightly smaller than the brown frogs, at about 2.5cm in length. Inside the temple grounds we noticed many other little frogs and could hear what sounded like some larger frogs making their presence known. We also saw a snake! It was on one of the small islands in one of the ponds in the grounds, had full length reddish stripes along it’s dark body and was about 2m in length. It turns out this is a Japanese Rat Snake, which is the largest snake in Japan, outside of Okinawa. It was really beautiful.

One final wildlife encounter I must mention, even though it was about 100m from where we were standing, was a Tanuki!!! I have been trying to see a tanuki in the wild since we first came to Japan, but to no avail. Recently we were at the Princessline bus stop, which is close to the base of the hill leading to Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s mausoleum, and it was around 6:00pm. I was looking towards the hill waiting for the bus (which comes from that direction) when I saw a smallish animal run across the end of the road. It looked about large cat size, but the head was different – bigger and squarer – and it had an unusual colouring, with a sandy coloured torso and black legs and head. It also didn’t move like a cat. I, of course got very excited because I guessed it may have been a tanuki, especially since we had been told by a neighbour that she had seen a tanuki close by recently. So, Craig found photos of tanukis via the electronic oracle and they were exactly the same. I wish I could have got a photo, but I’m now thinking of going on a tanuki hunting party in the near future! (Be vewy, vewy quiet…)

That night we were catching a bus into town to go to Engine Ramen, one of my favourite places to eat in Kyoto, although we had heard that it may have closed permanently… Well, the information was correct, unfortunately. I have now contacted the owner via Instagram and expressed my dismay, and he indicated there may be a chance it will re-open at a new location later this year – maybe. I’m crossing my fingers. In the meantime we went to Ain Soph for a burger and bought a takeaway “cheesecake” (because we were full but I really wanted to try it – verdict: yum).

Continuing with our restaurant visiting regime, we also went to Veg Out and Mumokuteki during the month, both of which are veg and very popular, so not at risk of closing down. After visiting VegOut we walked home through Chisakuin, which is the large temple close to our home, and which has a large hydrangea garden at the back. They were in full bloom, so it topped off a nice lunch very well 😊.

The view from VegOut

Prior to visiting Mumokuteki, we went to the Raku Museum, which is a private museum dedicated to pottery, mainly raku ware which was first developed by an ancestor of the owners, Chōjirō, who was a tile maker in the 16^th century and was commissioned to make some hand formed bowls for the developing tea ceremony. Raku ware (raku-yaki) is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally used in Japanese tea ceremonies, most often in the form of tea bowls. It is characterised by being hand-shaped rather than thrown and are fairly porous vessels, which result from low firing temperatures, using lead glazes and removing the pieces from the kiln while still glowing hot to cool in the open air. As I love the style of the raku ware bowls, and we hadn’t been to this museum before, I thought it would be an interesting first visit after all the closures. It was a lovely place, and while not cheap, it was amazing to think this family had been making pots continuously since the 1500s.

This bowl is called Nekowaride and was made by the current head of the family. It is called this because it was broken one day by a cat that his dog was chasing through his workshop. He loved this bowl and was very upset by it’s demise, so his wife took the pieces to be repaired. Apparently he loved the new form more than the original, so much so that he felt thankful to the cat for breaking it!

The final visit for this blog happened somewhat by accident, in that we went to Toji hoping the antiques market would be on (hoping to buy a replacement for the Buddha statue which was accidentally beheaded by Miro when she tried to climb it to reach a dragonfly and it fell backwards into the drain…), but regrettably it was not. Fortuitously, however, the lotus are just coming into flower now, and Toji has a lovely lotus pond, so we spent some time there admiring the flowers and watching the turtles, of which there were many.

It’s at times like all of these that I realise how wonderful it is to be able to visit so many gardens and see just how beautiful and fascinating nature can be, especially here in Kyoto.

Cheers!

A new shikishi

I just liked the reflection in the sunglasses…

They have a system for it in Osaka?

Some mask shots – the new normal…

This business wear shop has some very interesting mannequins, and they move them around weekly. Also, more masks…

Interesting marking on this tree. Not sure what has caused them.

River turkey and raging river after some heavy rain

The garden before heavy rain

After heavy rain and one hydrangea had collapsed. One of the flower heads inside.

On the way to the museum – some interesting things.

Just gorgeous flowers…

We see many cars here with collections lined up on the dash

Hello and welcome to Kyoto in summer – early summer, that is, so we haven’t reached the mushi mushi ‘walking puddle’ part of summer yet, but it is coming as surely as I love cats (and all animals, really). Having said all that, this means we have reached the end of May, which, as always, is the most beautiful month of the year weather-wise. Warm, mostly sunny and not humid. In terms of the continuing flower show which is Kyoto, May also brings us azaleas, irises, peonies, roses and multitude annuals which the folk of Kyoto love planting in pots at the front of their houses.

May really is the month of acceleration for all life here, not just the plant life, but also the animal life with the bird song all around us (and one bird I am yet to identify, which sounds almost exactly like the Australian Lyre bird [when it isn’t mimicking a multiplicity of other birds and any other sound it hears]).

We have had close encounters with a few of the insects at home during this time, including some wasps which we do try to avoid getting too close to. The wasps here vary in size from small bee up to the very scary giant hornets which grow up to around 5cms and can be lethal to humans. Recently they have become known as the ‘murder hornets’ in America, as they have found their way there and are causing fear not so much for the ability to kill humans (although that is also a concern) as for their delectation of eating bees.

Actually, the other encounters have been with some additional giants – the Red Helen butterfly and the Giant Japanese Dragonfly. The butterfly happened to be hanging around a plant we have next to the deck door just as I went to check on Ziggy outside. I, of course, went into a fluster rushing to get my phone to finally get a photo of it, nearly falling over in the process… Anyway, I managed to get a few photos before it flew away, which enabled me to confirm that it was, indeed, a Red Helen (which, of course, made me happy 😊). The Red Helen has a wing span of between 11 and 13cms. It really is huge.

It did not stop moving the entire time I watched it…

The next encounter was with the dragonfly, which had landed on one of the window screens of the dining room. I again rushed to get my phone for a photo, although I needn’t have because it stayed in the same position for well over an hour, including when we were getting up close to take some detail shots of it. This giant grows between 9.5 and 10cms in length.

My hand for reference

(yes, and Craig reflected in the window…)

We did have one other encounter with a giant, but this was not an insect and not at home. It occurred when we visited the Kyoto Botanical Garden, during one of our two major outings this month, both of which involved visiting gardens and taking many (many) photos of flowers 😊. The botanical garden is quite a long way away from home, but it is definitely worth the effort. It had been closed for a couple of months because of a viral epidemic you may have heard of, but it had re-opened late in May so we took the opportunity to visit, hoping to see the peonies. Unfortunately we were a little too late for them, with only a few blooms left.

That’s all there was – the last one looked like a head of lettuce!

We also had thought the hydrangeas might be well into opening, since ours at home were getting close, but that, too, was not to be, though there were some. What was fully in bloom were the roses, which I am not so much a fan of (I’m with Morticia on this one), but I have to say the collection they have there includes some colour schemes I have never seen before. The one thing I do like about some roses is the scent, but sadly we didn’t find any that had any scent at all – even what looked like Blue Moon had no scent whatsoever, unlike the bushes we had at home in Adelaide (yes, well, they are a blue/purple colour, they smell beautiful and the bushes were already there when we bought the house).

So, what giant creature(s) did we encounter there???? Tadpoles. Yes, having got off the train one station too early (Kitaoji, instead of Kitayama and I wasn’t listening carefully enough), we entered the garden through a different gate and found ourselves in a section of the garden we hadn’t seen before, which included a smallish lotus and iris pond. As a lover of both, I stopped to take photos and as I squatted to photograph a lotus I noticed some creatures swimming in the pond, which I initially mistook for fish. On second glance I realised that they were in fact huge tadpoles, significantly bigger than any I have ever seen at around 15cms in length!

I’m not sure how well you’ll be able to see them in this photo, but I can count at least 10 tadpoles.

Having investigated this oddity using the electronic oracle, I have come to the conclusion they (and there were dozens of them) were American bullfrog tadpoles. Apparently they were deliberately imported to Japan decades ago. Interestingly, they stay in the tadpole phase for around three years (or sometimes more), only growing legs towards the end of this period. I did see some with back legs, but none I saw had visible front legs. I have no idea what will happen to them once they become frogs – though there are plenty of wet areas, both small lakes and creeks within the garden area. I imagine it will get quite noisy once they reach this stage.

Some of the other wet areas

The other botanical visit was a return visit to the Heian Jingu shrine garden, to see the irises in bloom. We have previously been there to see the Dutch irises, but never the bearded irises, and I have to say it was magical. I literally took in a breath when we came to the pond where thousands of these irises are planted. It was possibly the most beautiful sight (in terms of flowers) I have ever seen, but then irises are my favourite flowers (my wedding bouquet consisted of just irises). Looking at the photos I took, they don’t really do it justice, and there definitely aren’t enough superlatives. I could have sat there for hours just taking it in, but the two benches were occupied and I think Craig wouldn’t have quite appreciated it in the same way. So, we continued on through the gardens and appreciated the silence and lack of other people there. I can tell you I kept feeling a strong pull to go back there, though.

ducks instead of people

Feeding the carp and turtles…the carp are bullies!

The bridge walkway empty – a very rare sight.

After we left Heian, we walked up to a vegan restaurant called Café Ren, about 2kms away. We went through the back streets, which is nearly always more interesting, and this path took us through a very upmarket area (many BMWs and Mercedes, etc, in driveways). The houses were mostly amazing and it certainly was a very pleasant half hour walk. The other amazing thing is we passed a business that produces headstones and other items for temples and cemeteries and lo and behold out the front was a small granite Ojizousan, which I had been looking to buy for our backyard for many months – and there it was. It was exactly what I had been looking for, better in fact, because it was a carved stone jizou, and it was affordable. So, now I have Ojizousan residing amongst the bamboo in our Zen garden.

Ojizousan

In residence

During this period of ‘iso’ (Australian vernacular for isolation…apparently) we have been making an effort to visit one restaurant per week for lunch (both take-out and eat-in more recently), in part to keep making contact with the owners we know and also to help support their businesses during this difficult time. We need them as much as they need us, so it is important to try to ensure their continued existence. We are a community of fairly like minded people and the ones we know personally are very supportive of us.

Take-out from Padma (finally)

Eat-in at Muku

Eat-in at Towzen (ramen and eggplant sushi)

Eat-in at Cafe Ren

One last item before I sign off – recently our doorbell rang and Craig answered it to find one of our neighbours outside, a member of the Takeuchi family. They are the family who run the pottery across the road from us and we often see them as they move between their homes, the pottery and the kiln building. We are following the man who came to the door on Instagram and he puts up frequent posts about the items he is making. A recent post had a selection of four small sake cups which he had just made as a test run, and was asking which of the colour schemes he was testing people liked the most.

I responded and said that I liked the green and purple colour scheme (anyone surprised???). Anyway, when Craig answered the door he handed Craig one of these sake cups, in the scheme I liked. He said it had a fault on it, but he thought I would like it. As you can imagine, I was stunned to receive this gift. BTW, the fault is a small run of one of the colours, hardly noticeable, but not perfect for sale. Yet again I am touched by the generosity of spirit that so many Japanese have. He also gave us a Maneki Neko house warming gift that he made (and which is very expensive to buy) when we opened, so I made sure I gave him a gift this time. He subsequently posted a photo of it on Instagram saying he will look after it. Lovely.

The fault is on the other side…

Cheers and keep on dancing (or drinking, or both)!

Some of the other plants at the Botanical Garden:

Allium, believe it or not (another giant!)

Clematis, another favourite

These shots are from our home garden:

I knew it!!!

Kawaii is everywhere

Having got off the train one stop early, we had to cross the river somewhere!

Oh dear…

Never miss opportunities

Miro continues to relax

…

Hello fellow ‘isolationers’! Here we are keeping ourselves away from as many people as possible, pretty much like the hikikomori (reclusive Japanese adolescents or adults who withdraw from society and seek extreme degrees of isolation and confinement) , except that we are doing this so as not to endanger the health of ourselves or others. As a result, ironically, we all have more time to notice the outside world and the movement of time, which seems to be slowing down and speeding up depending on what you are doing in your isolation. It is easy to forget what day it is when you aren’t following your usual routine.

Anyway, speaking of time passing, now that we have reached May the weather is lovely, for the most part. At the moment we are experiencing a run of days all in the 20s, mostly sunny with some occasional rain. The growth in our garden is really picking up and we are getting more flowers blooming and nearing that time. The Dutch iris I planted late last year are in flower. The peony has formed flower buds, which I am awaiting with anticipation 😊. The bearded iris are somewhat behind at the moment, but there is one bud already. The blueberry, tomatoes and cucumber all have flowers – I am particularly keen to try the blueberries, as the bush didn’t do much last year.

The Hostas booming!

Hydrangeas on the way; Dogwood flowering

One month ago

Today

In terms of our day to day life, we are still taking the occasional walk, I am now doing three ballet classes a week thanks to the Dutch National Ballet, and otherwise we busy ourselves with reading, playing games, watching tv, cooking and keeping up with some people both here and elsewhere in the world (mostly via electronic means). Miro continues to settle in with us – she now often comes to lie next to me in the morning while I have a cup of tea in bed. For those who are interested in ballet, the Dutch classes are good, with the sound and visuals very clear. They are available on YouTube and generally last a bit over 35 minutes. Barre and centre work are separate classes, but unfortunately I don’t have the necessary space for proper centre work. Much thanks to Ernst (teacher and artistic director) and Rex (pianist) 😊.

Lovely tv program about an older man and his cat (a Scottish Fold)

Ernst and Rex

The blossom finished up by mid April, while the azaleas and rhododendrons are out still. The last photos I got of the blossom were on 10^th April, and I know this because that is the last day I went to gym, only to find out that all classes had been stopped. I wasn’t the only one caught out, but I did wonder when most of the people who usually are waiting for the gym to open didn’t turn up. Not to be thwarted in my attempts to get exercise, I decided to walk home – about 3.5 km – and I was able to get the photos.

The canal pink with petals

The footpath next to the river

During the past month we went for two walks for sightseeing purposes, and we also walked home from town after visiting the tax office with our accountant (we arranged to pay our land tax monthly, rather than in four payments [which are not paid quarterly…]). The first was to Fushimi Inari via the Kyoto trail. This is quite a physically demanding walk and we actually pushed it further this time by taking a different route, once we reached the edge of the shrine mountain (about half way up the mountain), which took us down to the bottom of the mountain again, around the back and then up to the summit and then all the way to the bottom again.

No-one around…

We had never done this walk before and certainly noticed it in our calves the next couple of days. Having said that, it was a beautiful walk through nature and we also ended up walking through an area where new torii had been and were being installed. It was interesting to see this area and go through parts of the huge shrine complex we had never been. Along the way we passed a set of stairs which went off in a different direction, which we will explore in the near future…

L: a new section / R: one nearing completion, just the concrete to be smoothed over

L: a hole ready for the next torii / R: where does that set of stairs go?

Our other sightseeing walk took us along the Kamogawa, always a nice saunter, especially on a sunny day. We left home mid morning with the intention of buying a take away lunch to eat on the banks of the river, about 3 km from home. There were a reasonable number of people out enjoying the sun, exercising and generally being outside, and, interestingly, a few people out practising their instruments – notably one violinist and one shamisen player. We have to assume that living in close quarters can make it difficult to practice without upsetting some neighbours (we have one neighbour who is learning the violin…).

They are going ahead with the construction of the balconies for summer

There are a few places where you can cross the river on large stepping stones – some shaped like turtles

Unfortunately, when we reached the restaurant we had planned to get our lunch from we discovered they are closed on Thursdays ☹. We had never been to this place and were keen to try their bento style lunch, while listening to the shamisen player, but it was not to be. We decided to catch the train up to a restaurant we had been to before, knew the owner and were pretty sure would be open. I was disappointed that we wouldn’t have the music to eat to (it was a long way back to where the shamisen player was and we were hungry!), but we still went back down to the river to the nearest bridge (you have to be under cover to avoid the hawks attempting to snatch your food). As we neared the bridge we could hear loud yelling, laughing and screeching. A group of young people were sitting under the bridge making all this noise, and we were immediately frustrated by this din but too hungry to go further along to the next bridge.

Waiting for the train, by ourselves

We found a spot as far away from them as we could and settled down to enjoy our lunch. Just as we started eating, some voices rang out in song…it was the young people, who turned out to be choristers and singing quite intricate chorale music – and pretty well at that! We were stunned, especially as they appeared to be very young, ie early teens and younger. There were two male voices – one quite deep – and three female voices. Their voices were all amazingly mature. So, our lunch turned out to be very pleasant after all, including musical accompaniment. I should know better: never judge a book by it’s cover.

A very nice lunch

For the walk back from the tax office we decided to go via a route back home that we hadn’t taken before. We ended up walking along another canal to the back of the buildings near the art galleries and Heian Jingu. Along the way, we came across a section of the path which someone who lived nearby was obviously tending, and decorating. It’s interesting how people find ways to have gardens even when they physically don’t have any land to create a garden in. The many pot based gardens are witness to this and it is interesting to watch how they are moved around and re-planted year round, year-on-year. In this case the person has planted out some flowers, including irises, and created a little place using public land which they can visit and enjoy, as well as passers-by, like us.

L: Someone had drawn in the sand at the park near Heian Jingu / R: A different angle of the giant torii

As we arrived home that day, there was the woman from Muku restaurant at our front door, with a bag of food for us! She had contacted us via Facebook a few days prior to see how we were going. Craig had responded and also talked to her about her business and whether she was doing take away, as many are now doing. She said she was so Craig indicated we would drop by and get something in the near future (support your local businesses). Lo and behold, she took it upon herself to bring us a mixed bag of items left from the day’s lunch trade – and she wouldn’t accept any payment for this. Yet again we see the generosity of people here, particularly from what we have come to know as the vegan community.

Thus, life continues, even though it is definitely not in a way that any of us expected (except for some sci-fi authors).

Cheers for now, and here’s to a return to some form of normality in the not too distant future.

Vale Tim Brooke-Taylor and Florian Schneider

Social distancing on the train

Is that it’s name, or the owner’s?

If I had a bike, I would, I think…?

I’m glad it’s not this world!

I ordered some hair colour (purple) and it arrived in this box

?????

Some cats of Fushimi Inari

 Miro on my bed, and Miro the climber

Adaptation

Gardening in pots

Hehehe

This is Amabie, a Japanese yokai (literally a monster). It is said that if you look at a picture of Amabie, you will be cured of illness caused by an epidemic.

Hello blossom! Yes, despite everything that is happening, the cycles of nature just continue on. So the second flush of blossom is upon us – cherry blossom is now in full bloom. It is a sure fire way to make you feel happy; a sunny day and walking under the blossom. Troubles? Crisis, what crisis? Of course, there is more than just cherry blossom blooming, and we’ll come to that later.

Even pigeons enjoy the blossom

There’s not much to say about the weather at the moment – it is pretty much the same as it was in February. On some days you just want to get out into the sun, and other days it is not so difficult to be inside. We are not in lock-down here, though I think it is past time we were, especially in Tokyo. For us, life is pretty much continuing as it has for a while, except that we have no guests and no prospect of guests in the foreseeable future. The one ever so slight change is that we are limiting our exposure to the outside world, ie people, as much as possible.

One thing we are really enjoying at home is the sudden spurt of growth in our garden. Everything is coming up fast, especially in the last two weeks. We are particularly pleased because we were a little concerned about some of the plants which appeared to completely die off over winter and we had never had experience of this in these plants before. One example is our geisha plants. In Adelaide they remained green year round but here all the leaves eventually died off late in winter and we were very worried. Now, however, there are leaf buds all over them – relief. The other shock was when the hostas died, because I had hoped they would fill out the area I put them into. Anyway, I checked the electronic oracle and it said that they would grow back in spring. Low and behold, there are new buds pushing up through the ground right now. Phew!!!

Our potted veggie patch

Peonies on the way

My first ever tulips

Hosta growing fast

Another hosta, a bit slower

A bit hard to see, but there is new growth on the geisha

In terms of life outside of our home, our outings consist of shopping runs, going for walks on nice days and going to the gym – yes, our gyms are still open. I only do classes; 2 x ballet, 1 x latin and 1 x Pilates per week. Three weeks ago, the gym implemented a limit on the number of people in the classes, and the classes were all shortened by 10 minutes so that staff could go in to clean the rooms and any equipment used between classes. In the studio my classes are in the numbers are limited to fifteen, but I have to say that most classes are now smaller than that anyway, as many people are not attending at the moment.

There are hand alcohol stations set up practically every few metres, so I am making good use of them (I think my hands are becoming alcoholic…), and I wipe over the barre with alcohol before every class, just to make sure. I am also wearing a mask when in the lifts – not in classes, though, the number limit means that we are all well separated (or is that socially distanced?).

One last comment about the current world situation; it has been interesting seeing how panic buying has panned out in different countries. Most, if not all countries have had a toilet paper and mask issue, although, while the toilet paper scare hit here early on it settled down pretty fast. On the other hand it is still hard to find masks and hand sanitiser here. I read that in the US there has been gun and ammunition panic buying, while in Holland there has been marijuana panic buying. Priorities…

Recently, the spring sumo basho was held – without an audience. It was eerily quiet in the auditorium and you could hear all the noises the rikishi made, which you would never normally hear. Strange to watch and even stranger for them having to wrestle with no-one nearby except the referee, the judges and the yobidashi (the various assistants), I imagine. This was the first time this has occurred in the history of sumo as it is today. At the end of the basho a special ceremony was performed to thank all the people who had watched the sumo over the fifteen days. Apparently the numbers were huge. Oh, and Hakuho won – again 😊.

Hakuho at the front – not sure if he’s having a snooze after his win!

In terms of our walks in the outside world, we chose places to visit mainly for hanami, ie to look at the blossom. We went to Heian Jingu to wander through the garden and then walked back along the lovely canal into the Gion area. While it was a little early for much of the blossom at Heian, the garden there is so beautiful, that it really doesn’t matter what time of year you go there. Having said that, the massive beds of iris will be in bloom soon, so I am hoping to go back there for that.

On the way

Ah, the sun…

One of those “yes, it’s Japan” shots

A young couple in wedding attire

Did I mention I also love willow trees, especially at this time?

For our other walk we chose to walk along Kiyamachi dori (one of my favourite streets in Kyoto) into town to buy Craig a pair of shorts from Uniqlo, then back home via the Gion. It is unbelievable how quiet it is in these areas. One of the most famous streets in Kyoto is Hanamikoji dori in the Gion area, and normally at this time of the year it is cheek by jowl along that road, with hundreds of people pushing to get through. Not now. Truth be told, this means it is very pleasant to walk along there at the moment.

Hanamikoji dori on the left, another Gion street on the right

Given we haven’t done that much, I thought I would add in some photos of our local area in this blog, with photos taken in the streets nearby. I also took some photos at the bus stop recently, where I catch the Princessline bus – my personal chauffeur service, for the most part! It is near the entrance to the mausoleum of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, hence the giant stone lanterns there.

The children’s playground

East and west of the bus stop

North of the bus stop, and one of the stone lanterns next to the stop

The back of the large Buddhist cemetery

As a special extra this time I have more photos of the flowers in bloom at the moment, because I love taking these photos and I think we all need to see some natural beauty to remind us that “The promise of spring’s arrival is enough to get anyone through the bitter winter”, if you know what I mean.

One of our plants

Ah, camelias…

This one is ours

From a distance and up close. Unusual flower

Azaleas have started 

And these are our tulips 😊

Cheers !

Sometimes Craig sneaks me into some shots…

And sometimes I sneak him into some shots (although the last one was an accidental photo)

Starbucks during a pandemic…normally you can’t get a seat here

Took the first photo, then got the evil eye

These ducks just kept one eye on me

The view out our bedroom window

Miro just wants to be near Zowie

Toy race horses in animal costumes…?

Just because I liked these shapes and patterns

I like to dream…(it’s an Aston Martin Vantage, if you can’t tell)

Not even in the middle of a pandemic!!!

…and we’re live back here on Earth, as panic deepens over the new paper virus – known as sinechartus-20 – which continues to spread worldwide. The virus has proved to be particularly devastating for both toilet and tissue paper, with both vanishing from shelves around the globe. Scientists continue to study the spread of the disease, but are at a loss trying to understand the mechanisms behind the outbreak. It also seems that it may be crossing over to other cell types, with many humans starting to show violent symptoms. One wonders where, and when, it will end.

Hi all, I have been reflecting on the action of people over the last month or two, and find that many of those sci-fi shows, especially those about viral outbreaks or zombie apocalypses, are tragically very accurate. How quickly people resorted to violence and vitriol after the corona virus was first reported is very sad indeed. Now, masks I understand because many here in Japan see them as a panacea, although it took a while for the alcohol pump packs to disappear (which are much more effective in preventing viral infection, overall).

The virus was first reported on 31 December and the first know armed robbery of toilet paper happened on 16 February, in Hong Kong, at which point you just knew this was going to be serious. It was the same day that our first cancellation took effect – a family of four who were booked for four nights were due to arrive. They gave us around a week’s notice, which was fine. Since then, we have had more cancellations, but some brave souls are still coming here.

Kyoto is very quiet indeed; never has there been a better time to visit many of the very popular sites. Relatively, from what we know, the outbreak here is on the lower end of the scale, with most of the reported cases having been on the cruise ship which the government allowed to dock in Yokohama, along with some of the people the government brought back from Hubei early-on. Of course, the great unknown is how many people are out there with mild to very minimal symptoms – and this is the case around the world.

What I can say is that we were lucky to have gone to Costco earlier this year and stock up on toilet paper and tissues, in anticipation of a few (subsequently unrealised) busy months ahead. Phew!

Now, onto lighter matters – the weather, and, as so often happens, I say something in my blog and it’s like a dare to the weather. One day after I posted my last episode, it snowed over night…yes, and it continued to snow a little, on and off, during the day. There was even some thunder!! Nine days later, it snowed again, although again it was quite light. In between these days, about half way actually, we had a day of 21C. In fact, the weather has been all over the place recently. Yesterday it was mid teens and rainy, today sunny and 20C, and tomorrow we are expecting cool and rain all day. What do I know?

During February we celebrated two years since taking possession of our home here. Hard to believe it has been that long. We still get many people saying what a nice place it is, and they particularly like how it is a blend of Japanese and western style. I think, as Australians, we are used to blends of different styles and foods, so it doesn’t really feel overly surprising to us. Japanese people are very surprised we serve Japanese style breakfasts – they often ask us what type of food Australians eat, and we always say it is a fusion of many different cuisines.

We only had one major outing during February and that was to see the plum blossom. In the past we have visited Kitano Tenmangu and other well known temples and shrines to see the blossom, but this time we went south of the city to a shrine called Jonangu jinja. We happened to see a segment on tv that mentioned this shrine and thought it looked nice. We also thought it would be less crowded – wrong!

When we arrived there literally hundreds of Japanese queued to see the gardens around the shrine. Clearly none of these people were really concerned about the virus. It took at least 30 minutes before we reached the entry to the gardens. It was, however, definitely worth it because it really was a beautiful place.

The shrine was built south of Kyoto at the time when the capital had just been established here and was known as Heian-kyo, in 794. It was built as protection for the capital and to ensure the nation’s peace. It enshrines the deity of the nation’s territory, the deity of bravery, and the deity of safe childbirth and child rearing. The area surrounding the shrine became popular as a retreat in the early days, so the imperial family and many aristocrats built villas there.

In fact, we were unaware of the information above but luckily decided to walk in the back streets to get to the shrine from the railway station, because you can often find some lovely places this way. One road back from the main road there were some amazing and quite large old houses in there, which I wondered if they were samurai houses. Most were beautifully maintained and it was a pleasure walking in amongst them.

The actual gardens around the shrine comprise around 30,000m² of land, with a huge area mostly planted out with plum blossom trees and camelias. There were also some small lakes and artificial creeks, populated with the ubiquitous carp, and some very interesting trees and other plantings in what I call the Dr Seuss style. These gardens would be a wonderful place to have wedding photos taken, especially at plum blossom time. Despite the multitude people there, we were able to get many shots with few or no people in the background, thanks to the way it was laid out and some patience. Gorgeous.

? Not sure

A close by temple

From late February through to early March we had a friend staying here with us prior to her leaving Japan to live in Thailand. We had met her and her partner after they found our place and contacted us to see if we would make a breakfast for them. They lived nearby, so had almost literally accidentally run across our place – and one of them happened to be vegan.

Anyway, Milena likes to walk most mornings and has a very good knowledge of the local area, so she took us on a couple of walks in our neighbourhood. The first one was during the day and took us along a trail we had walked before, but she took us on a few detours which we had not done before. At one point we ended up in a small temple which had an amazing panoramic view of Kyoto, and no-one was there.

The other walk was at twilight and took us through the very large cemetery which is nearby, behind Chishakuin temple, and in through the temple grounds. It was a clear, cool night, perfect for walking and was also a very pleasant experience.

Before I sign off, I thought I’d mention that Craig had his 50^th birthday the other day. Incredible to think he was 19 when we first met! Again, I say, time flies 😊.

Keep calm and ration toilet paper.

Cheers for now!

It amazes me how many bonsai in pots are outside houses

A Valentine’s gift from gym

Hhhmmm, I wonder who is part of this club???

Hard to see, but this fish is actually an albino

Ouch!!!

Another glove tragedy – this one has hanged itself

These are still awaiting their hands

A couple of friends

Just gorgeous…

Hello one and all! Here we are in the second month of the year, and still no snow – that is, until the day I sit down to write this. I have to say, though, it is a pretty poor effort in terms of snow. The sun is out and the snow consists of very small flakes flittering around and gone before they hit the ground. There is a heavy snow advisory out, but I really don’t think it will be happening here.

Weatherwise, January was rather more like early spring than winter, with quite a few days in the low to mid teens, and many of them overcast. Not very cheery overall. So far, this month the temperature has been a bit up and down (today is cold!), but the forecast is for a maximum of 18C next week!!! The guests we had during January, who were from Germany, Denmark and Finland, all said this winter in their respective countries had been unusually mild, with little or no snow.

Speaking of guests, yet again they have been such nice people. One couple stayed with us for a week and I found myself missing them after they left. It is easy to build up a relationship over a longer period, and sometimes we really just click with some guests. This particular couple is involved in the theatre in Germany, one a singer and the other a choreographer. While he didn’t sing while he was here, we have seen clips of him singing with his band (a Queen tribute band). He also tours Germany in Jesus Christ Superstar (playing Judas) and other musical productions, and is soon touring with a rock classics performance ensemble around Germany, which includes Alice Cooper.

We also had a return guest stay with us for one night – a New Zealander who lives in Taiwan. He is writing a book on travelling in Japan as a vegan. He wanted a space that he could film a video that was somewhat Japanese and would be appropriately quiet, which we were more than happy for him to do. The book will be sold on-line as an e-book, and, of course, there is a section in it about us 😊.

Back in early January, we attended a Vegan Seminar hosted by some students from a local high school and a person I have mentioned before in this blog, known as Diethelper on Instagram. Chisayo (Diethelper) contacted us last year about attending this seminar and giving a speech (in English thankfully) about why we became vegan and also about the environmental situation in Australia (with reference to the fires). We said we would be happy to do so, and I set about preparing a speech (I have given many speeches during my working life, so felt comfortable about doing so).

On the day there were over 40 people there, including some people we had met before at various vegan events and at their restaurants. After the welcome the first item on the agenda was making bliss balls, of all things! They told everyone they originated from Australia and they provided a range of dried fruits, nuts and been pastes (red bean paste and black bean paste) to use – yum! After this, we were served a vegan eel dish. It was made with tofu, burdock root and shimeji mushrooms and served with rice and a dipping soup. Now, I have never eaten eel before, but I can tell you it was very good.

I should say that the event was held in a hotel and the chef there gave a brief speech before we ate explaining how it came to be that he started making some vegan dishes. He is not a vegan, but had a friend who couldn’t eat certain foods, so he started experimenting and has now added some vegan items to his menu.

After we finished the food, the speeches commenced. I had a full speech written, but wasn’t sure how and where it would fit in. Anyway, Chisayo had a 20 minute segment during which she asked a few people to speak about their experiences and I was one of these people. In the end I mainly winged it because it was a bit less formal than I anticipated. I had researched the situation in Australia, including what size area had been burnt, which I compared with Honshu (around half the size of Honshu was burnt in total), the main island of Japan. This had an impact on the audience, and Chisayo gave us some money to donate to WIRES before we left.

Chisayo on the mic.

Other than this, we have only had a few outings during this period; a visit to the Toka Ebisu festival in the Gion area and the Setsubun festival in the Heian-jingu jinja (shrine). We also went back to an antique shop in town to buy a pair of ranma which we had seen late last year and decided to go back to buy them – they were on special (a bargain, and I really love a bargain 😊).

The Toka Ebisu festival is based around Ebisu’s birthday on the 10th of January and held at the Kyoto Ebisu jinja. Ebisu, is one of the Seven Lucky Gods and considered the god of fishermen and commerce. There are numerous things happening on the shrine grounds each day and people go there to pray for success in their businesses for the coming year. As with all things like this, many stalls are set up outside the shrine, with most selling food and drink, to lubricate the festivities. Apart from paying my respects to Ebisu and asking for a prosperous year, we checked out all the stalls and then bought a new shikishi for the year of the rat to hang in our the stairway.

So, this doesn’t produce alcohol follicles?

Setsubun is celebrated on February 3rd, to commemorate the day before spring is considered to commence in Japan. Various traditions are observed which are meant to drive away evil spirits and bad luck and bring in good luck and cleanse the home and family for the coming year. We have previously gone to Yasaka jinja for Setsubun, but decided to see what rituals were observed at Heian-jingu jinja. While it is fairly boisterous at Yasaka, the ceremony at Heian was a much more formal Shinto observance. Despite this, there was a very funny moment early on when the children involved in the ceremony didn’t do quite what they were meant to and the Shinto assistants were literally running back and forwards trying to organise these children.

Preparing…

Yes, the mask does have two sets of eyes – not sure why

For fans of Monty Python...(sorry about the shakiness)

Slight panic…

After we left the shrine and had a warming beverage at Starbucks we headed home and then commenced our Setsubun mamemaki ceremony, which involves throwing roasted soy beans (mame) out the doors to chase away oni (demons) and attract happiness and good luck into our home for the coming year. Following this, we each ate our age plus one roasted soy beans for good fortune to finish this ceremony. Another thing I love about living here, there are so many opportunities to celebrate life.

Oni mask

We have to hope all these ceremonies help ward off the coronavirus, which is currently impacting the world. Here in Kyoto there has been one identified case to date, but it has definitely had an impact on the number of tourists visiting Kyoto. Around 50% of all tourists in Japan come from China, and so the travel restrictions are severely affecting many businesses here, particularly hotels, restaurants, kimono rental shops and all of the shops in and around the popular tourist destinations.

The centre of town is much quieter than normal and the other day when we visited the Kiyomizu-dera area, to buy some items for our business, it was much less busy than what is normal these days. You could really feel the relief of the shop staff that someone was in there buying something and notice the spruiking as we were passing other shops. It is likely to have a significant effect on those businesses which really rely on the Chinese tourists for the majority of their business.

As for me, I am being a little circumspect, given I have had pneumonia before. Viral pneumonia is a different kettle of tofu fish than what I had, which could be treated with antibiotics…
On a final note, our little street cat, Miro, continues to settle into our family, we just wish we could pat her, but she is still too wary for that barrier to be dropped. It will just take time and patience on our part.

Cheers for now, and stay healthy.

It’s all about rats (or mice)

If only it came in black

Looks like more than one!

Just seeing what we could frame with the lantern…

And just to prove spring is here

So, what is next? Ah yes, Valentines’ Day

A slightly blurry photo of Miro – had to take it fast

Hi all – before I launch into this new year and new year episode, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry it has taken so long, but I have been having huge problems with WordPress. While the text below was written over a week ago, I haven’t been able to upload the photos like I usually can. There was an update late in December and something is not working properly with the upload process, but I can’t find out what. Anyway, one photo at a time, sometimes working, sometimes not (then with added cursing), I finally got enough in. Not exactly what I had planned, so I hope you enjoy it none-the-less.

Happy New Year! Yes, we have now entered 2020, and I am into my fourth year here in Kyoto. I know I have said it before, but time really does fly.

We are well into winter here, while I know Australia is roasting – literally. We have been very saddened to read about the devastation that has been occurring over the last month, or two. I know people have died and many buildings and homes have been destroyed, and when you add to that the estimated ½ billion native animals that have died, along with farm animals that couldn’t escape and people’s pets, it deeply saddens me.

In relation to the weather here, December was mostly cold (sub 10C), however, we have had the odd warmer day, and I mean that in both ways. Some days have been in the low teens, and a few – like today – are in the mid teens. Strange. There is no snow on the horizon, at this stage, which I felt sure would be coming by now given how cold the start of December was. It seems to me that if we have to go through a cold weather, at least give us some snow!

During December we were notified that an official was going to be coming to check our business, in relation to our check-in process and record keeping. We had no idea exactly what they wanted to look at, so we asked our employee, Takako, to talk to them about it. All that she managed was a time being arranged, and even though the person coming was going to be able to speak some English, they wanted her to be here. They also said they wanted a copy of our check-in form and our hotel manual…

We, don’t have a hotel manual, and up until they mentioned a form, we didn’t realise that one had to be filled out, given we take a copy of all guests passports. We tried to find out precisely what had to be on the form, but it was somewhat unclear, especially because they had never sent us a copy of the hotel rules, despite being asked to. It turned out that the rules had recently been changed, to add more information being collected at check-in time (and we didn’t get anything about that, too).

So, we scrambled and made up a form, with the absolute minimum of extra information, beside that on the passports (eg home address and dates in Japan). Interestingly, we had a visit from a police officer a few months prior, and he seemed happy with us taking copies of passports alone (and very relieved we were actually doing this). We also printed a copy of our hotel policy statement document to give the person and re-sorted all the records we have, to make sure it was neat and well ordered.

On the day, the woman checked that we had our name out the front (on our letterbox there is a plate with our business details in Japanese) and, of course, our name on the front of the building. After this, she came inside, asked where we checked people in (at the reception counter) and what we told them during this process (usual things, eg fire information, curfew time, please be quiet on the nearby streets, no smoking and down throw your rubbish on the ground). She also asked how long we keep the records (she had to give us a hint on that one). She was pleased with our responses, took our documents and left… All up she was here just over five minutes! Living with Kyoto bureaucracy.

Last time I mentioned we were listed in the new Lonely Planet Vegan Travel Handbook. Well, about a week after that was published, we had contact from a journalist from an online site – Veganary – which helps people accessing vegan travel options and also posts articles about various vegan related topics. She told us that we had been listed in a news story entitled “Top Unforgettable Vegan-Friendly Hotels” which she had written!!! We have no idea how we were chosen for this and had had no indication that we were going to be listed in an article for this site. In fact, we didn’t even know they existed.

It says in part; “In this list, we have compiled some of the Top Unforgettable Vegan-Friendly Hotels from all around the world.” and “The guide features locations across Europe, Australia, Africa, Asia, and South America.” The section on us reads as follows:

“This B&B is tucked away in a quiet spot in Kyoto and has a rotating vegan menu that changes nearly daily. The decor is in a perfect blend of traditional Japanese and modern styles. Because Japanese cuisine is often focused on meat and seafood, it can be difficult to find fully vegan spots in Japan. This makes Minshuku Sanbiki Neko a must for anyone looking to have a quiet stay in Kyoto. The B&B is also close to many attractions, including Kiyomizu-dera, Fushimi Inari and the Gion area.”

Since this, we have also been mentioned in a few blogs – written by ‘influencers’ – so, it seems that the momentum is continuing to build. We are hopeful that all of this will help us grow to a level that we need to keep the Japanese government happy with us 😊.

Late in November we had contact from the woman who had provided the translating services between us and our builder and architect. She just wanted to catch up with us. So, just before xmas, we arranged to meet her at a restaurant she had found nearby, which she said had some food options for us. Enough time had passed since the issues we had getting our hotel licence, so we decided it would be nice to leave that behind us.

The restaurant was a really nice place – very atmospheric – but there weren’t really many options, so unfortunately, while very close (and the food was nice), not really suitable to recommend to our guests. It has a huge garden on the hillside behind it, where they grow many different fruits which they use for preserves and drinks. It was a nice walk after eating.

What was interesting to us is that she apparently hasn’t seen her sister and brother in-law (our builder) for quite a while, which we suspect is a direct result of her husband being ‘let go’ from his job at the building company due to the issues with organising our hotel licence. Sad that it seems to have caused a rift in the family – the whole episode certainly caused us a lot of stress.

Now on to xmas day. Each year since we have been here, we have gone for a long walk then had lunch somewhere nice. This time it was no different, except that rather than go to Fushimi Inari to walk around the mountain, we decided to walk part of the Kyoto trail we hadn’t done before. We decided on the change because Fushimi Inari was getting too crowded.

So we headed towards the trail behind Kiyomizu-dera, which heads up to the top of Mt Kiyomizu (we didn’t know it was the name of the mountain prior to this). It was a lovely, sunny day, with a max temperature of 14C, so perfect weather for mountain climbing. It took us around two hours from our place to the end of that part of the trail, and it was a really nice and somewhat invigorating walk. It was also very quiet – we only passed around half a dozen people on the trail.

In the photo on the right, if you look really (really) hard in the centre of the photo, between the trees, you can see the Yasaka pagoda in the distance…

After we completed that we went to a vegan restaurant called Sunny Place, which we had been meaning to go to for a while. We had met the owner many months ago at a vegan festival. She had a stall there and we had had one of her burgers each for lunch that day. When we walked in, she treated us like friends she hadn’t seen for a while. It was very welcoming and we really enjoyed our lunch – especially after all that exercise!

The other xmas traditions we observed were watching Nightmare Before Christmas on xmas eve and Love Actually on the night, with a very nice bottle of Mumm. All boxes ticked 😊. Oh, and we had made a xmas cake to share with our guests who stayed here over xmas – a pumpkin spiced latte cake, with caramel latte icing…YUM!

…and speaking of guests, we made them a special xmas morning breakfast, not very Japanese, rather more British, since they were from the UK. Sausages, fried potatoes and gravy, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach and a vegetable waffle.

For new year’s eve we had a friend over to share home-made pizzas and Mumm (again!!! 😊). We had planned to go to a local temple to witness the bell ringing and do the traditional Japanese new year celebrating, but it was a cold and rainy night, so we piked and had an early night (ie finished pre midnight).

She brought with her some kagami mochi, which is a special new year’s decoration for good luck. On 11 January, you open the packaging, use the mochi cakes in a soup and symbolically crush the packaging. It is the year of the rat this year, so the one on the right has a rat atop.

Last post I related the story of the owner of Muku restaurant turning up here unexpectedly and wanting to have brunch here. Well, it finally happened last Sunday, the brunch, that is. She contacted us on the previous Saturday and asked us if they could come the next day! We said it would suit us better the following week. So, she said there would be three coming. Then, the day before she said there would be four…mild panic ensued as we rushed to get some extra provisions to cover that extra person.

Later that night, she contacted us to say the fourth person couldn’t come after all. Anyway, she came with her husband (in person) and the woman who prepares the food for her restaurant. They were lovely company and we learnt a lot about both her and Taiwan (we will definitely have to go there one day). In relation to Diana (her English name – her husband’s is Charles…) she has very big plans to spread her vegan businesses to other parts of Japan. She already has two guest houses as well as the restaurant, and she plans to open more restaurants and guest houses. Definitely a ‘go-getter’ – she’s on a mission.

Before I sign off, just one short story that really reminded me of why I like this place so much, and the people. I was waiting for the bus in town the other day and it started to rain, just lightly. I didn’t think I’d be waiting long, so just stayed there and covered my glasses. I had noticed a woman a few metres away from me, mainly because she was a very elegantly dressed woman and she looked a lot like Yoko Ono, but about 15 years younger. She even had a pair of sunglasses on like Yoko has worn in the past.

I had noticed her looking at me, but wasn’t paying too much attention – I was trying not to stare at her! After a short while, she started walking towards me and ended up standing next to me, holding her umbrella over both of us. She was a lovely person, we spoke briefly but then her car turned up, so she had to leave.

That’s all for this episode.

Cheers!

Yes  scooters can come in all shapes and sizes…and behind it an ‘ordinary’ motorbike – they are rather more rare here.

An interesting collection of Tanukis – but what’s that in the centre???

Yes, it’s another different kind of motorbike! A frog-nut bike?

Another interesting collection – of random things

A xmas tree at the Princessline bus stop 

A bit blurry because taken from a moving bus, but I couldn’t resist the xmas post box.

Craig sneezed…😊

A fungi we found on the path

Frog vodka – it’s artisan.

Yes, it’s that time of year again, and it’s happening again. So sad to see these lone gloves, left abandoned – seems it’s worker’s gloves at the moment.

Various new year’s decorations, the last being the one on our front door

Hello and welcome to the momiji episode! Ok, so momiji literally means autumn colours and this episode is going to be chock full of autumn colours, so be warned! This episode also covers the period which marks the end of my third year in Japan. Does it feel that long? Well, yes and no, and I say that unequivocally…😉.

And so, to the weather; winter appears to have set in early this year. Certainly it has cooled down earlier than last year, with the consequence that the momiji (see above 😊) came on somewhat earlier this year. It really is a lovely time here, quite magical, and I’m not sure if I prefer blossom over momiji! While the blossom is the promise of the warmer weather to come (and spring has always been my favourite time of year, as a result), the momiji is the celebration of the warm weather which has passed.

As it was momiji time, it was time for us to take the trip down the Hozugawa again – my birthday present. We had some guests here at the time, so we just picked a day when no-one was arriving or leaving and the weather was good (if a bit cool). We didn’t want to leave it till too late in the month, in case the momiji was past the best. We also hoped there wouldn’t be too many people there waiting to take the ride, since we ended up arriving later in the day than we had originally planned. Luckily we only had to wait about 15 minutes. The momiji was wonderful and the trip was yet again fantastic – I suspect it is one of those experiences that can be oft repeated without getting weary of it.

Just another day at the office…

The passing sightseeing steam train – they wave at us and we wave at them

The ride was a little rougher than the first time in a couple of places and I’m not sure if it was the result of there being less water in the river (hence less protection from the rocks to the side and below) or the ‘poleman’ being a little less careful about keeping us away from the rocks. There was also a little more water splashing over the side of the boat onto some of the people up the front. This, however, just added to the overall adventure, I think (although, I wasn’t the one getting wet 😊).

At the end of the ride, when we reached Arashiyama area, one of the guys propelling the boat asked if anyone wanted a picture taken of them. I don’t recall them asking this the first time we did the ride, but then we were further back in the boat so may have missed it. Anyway, I thought this was a good idea, so handed over my phone, He then told us to stand up, which we weren’t sure he was serious about at first, since one of the rules of the ride is to stay seated. After he motioned us up, we sort of half stood up…

They didn’t have to yell at too many people in boats to get out of the way this time

After disembarking, we made our way back into town and went to a new restaurant – Muku. It is a Taiwanese vegan restaurant which we knew would be opening somewhere, and it turned out it is a lot closer to us than we had hoped for. We had a lovely lunch and introduced ourselves to the woman running the place as we were leaving. She was excited by this and wanted photos with us! A few days later I received a call from her asking if she could come to our place to have lunch, at which point I had to explain we don’t generally serve lunches.

Anyway, a couple of hours later I got another call from her saying she was in the area and could she come to see us!! So, we said this would be fine, and then she said she was just down the road!!! Yes, we were rather surprised at all this, but she was a lovely person and we had an interesting hour or so with her. It turns out she also owns a restaurant in Wakayama, and three guest houses. She is, in fact, Taiwanese and her husband is Japanese. He was working in Singapore at the time, but she called him to meet us over the phone (video call) 😊, which was an unexpected turn of events (to say the least).

We had one other ‘momiji outing’ during the month, to Kodaiji at night, which they light up specifically for the momiji. It is something we have never done before, despite it being an annual occurrence. We left home before sunset, so as to be there to see the sunset – it was a clear night. Yet another wonderful experience (despite the bus load of tourists that arrived just as we did…), which I will highly recommend to our guests. They also light up the temple grounds during spring, so we’ll have to visit at that time too.

After walking around the grounds, we walked into town, through Maruyama park, Yasaka shrine and the Gion area, to have dinner at a ramen restaurant that has vegan ramen on the menu and is really good. The owner now recognises us when we arrive, since we go there often enough.

The xmas metal origami crane…

Something that has really been reinforced to us recently is how lucky we have been, overall, with the guests we have had (ok, barring one couple, and it was only one of them that was the problem). Overall, they have been such lovely people. We have spent quite a bit of time talking to many of them, and they are just such nice, engaging people. It really is a pleasure to host them.

We’ve had quite a mix in terms of ages, countries of origin, singles and couples and families. Many of the younger people are  professionals, quite frequently in the IT area. I was very excited recently when a young US couple stayed with us who had PhD’s in Maths. Our first Mathematicians…kindred spirits. We also recently had our first international pilot, who flies out of Taiwan. Sometimes it’s a little sad to see some leave. All we need now is more people staying with us.

These lovely people came to Kyoto for a friend’s wedding (Shinto). They live in Norway, although he was born in Russia. We just had to get a photo of them dressed for the wedding.

On that front, we recently had an advertisement in the GlobeRovers magazine, thanks to a friend from Australia who writes articles for the magazine. The owner of the magazine had recently visited northern Japan and we piggy-backed on the article he wrote for the magazine. It is a good article about winter in Japan, highlighted with some glorious photos. He offered us a free half page ad, which he said he would upgrade to a full page ad in return for a free two day stay here at some point. An excellent deal, which we happily accepted!

The really big news is that the Lonely Planet Vegan Travel Handbook is now available – and we are in there!!! There are various topics covered, and then individual countries, which is where we are (the chapter about Japan, of course). They contacted us some time ago to ask if we would like to be included (no brainer, although at first we thought it was a joke) and we sent them some photographs which they asked for. So, we are in a section of the chapter called “Dream Digs”, just us and a Buddhist temple retreat, which is in Wakayama.

Vegan Minshuku Sanbiki Neko
The Australian owners of this welcoming Kyoto inn are a great resource for vegan travellers to the region. Wake up to a delicious vegan breakfast, chill in the communal area and shower with cruelty-free toiletries. Find it in a quiet, residential area of the historic Higashiyama district. www.veganminshuku3neko.com

😊

Fingers crossed this gives our profile a big boost.

Finally, yesterday we hosted a brunch for the Kyoto Vegans Meet-up Group. We had to limit it to 14 people, which is the absolute maximum we could fit in the dining room, although in the end one person couldn’t make it (at the last minute). So, we had 13 guests for brunch – the last brunch (for 2019…). Silliness aside, it started at 10:30 (however, two arrived at 10:15 – I suppose that makes up for all the times we arrive early, which is nearly every time…) and the last people left at 15:20!! There was a lot of talking and they all enjoyed the ‘tasting plate’ we served them (basically all Craig’s work – he really does enjoy doing the cooking, and I’m happy to see him happy working).

It was quite funny watching all the people taking photos – of us plating the food, the plates on the table, other people eating, etc. Quite a few of these have ended up on Instagram. It was an interesting mix of people which included two here on holidays from China, who run the vegan group in Hangzhou and were interested to see what the groups do here in Japan. Slight difference in size, though, less than 100 in Kyoto, and 500 in theirs (this, apparently, is the size limit of any group as imposed by the Chinese government).

We really had a great time (and this despite me having a cold…☹ – thankyou to the makers of cold and flu medication). I suspect we’ll try to hold another event, if we have no guests on a Sunday during summer.

So, that’s your lot for now

Cheers and see you next year!

Vale Clive – I can only aspire.

Sunset…

Various views of Kyoto

Our momiji

So, we both had the HDR setting on, on our phones, and only a few of the photos turned out…

The most amazing cat tower ever!

The MOMAK shop window, a never ending source of entertainment. Taken one week apart – the mice seem to be breeding!

Not sure if you go there before or after!

Another interesting shop window

This person just keeps on adding items to the front step

What every well dressed dog will be wearing this xmas

A couple of the xmas decoration displays. Not sure what the things are in the bottom photo – Casper the Friendly Xmas Ghost?

This display greeted me when I went to gym last week! Possibly the nicest decoration I’ve seen this year – or ever. I wanted to take it upstairs for my ballet class.

A new decoration (not xmas) at Engine Ramen. I love it!!!

A bit glary, but you can see enough, I think – the Vegan group at brunch (and some loony in the background)

Miro – a street cat who is living on our back deck – we hope to encourage her inside permanently, at some point. She’s very wary of people.