Iris – Page 104 – goinggaijin.com

Horoscope

I had a terrible day today. One of those where all you want to do is staying huddled up in bed and cry your eyes out. I guess we all have those days from time to time. I am not sure what triggered this, but I have been thinking about a certain person a lot lately (you might know who you are – if you were reading this), and I so needed a hug today… Sometimes it is not nice being single.

Anyway, in the late afternoon I dragged myself out of bed and even out of the house. At Yoshida shrine, which is virtually next door, there is currently the setsubun festival taking place, a kind of traditional New Year’s celebration that lasts three days. In any case, it is a matsuri, and there are lots of food stalls surrounding the shrine, and I yearned for some takoyaki.

On the spur of a moment I decided to get a palm reading. This is still very popular in Japan, many people have their palms read ever so often, and you can see a few palmistry stalls at almost every matsuri. There was this one stall that said “computer palm readings” and because it had an English sign and promised an English result as well, I gave it a try. Find below what my palm wants me to know today (and my comments to it).

Fortune
Having an outstanding aesthetic sense, you distinguish yourself in the fine arts and related areas (blogging?). There is a side of you that is difficult for others to comprehend because you are a person that carries yourself in a unique fashion (just like everybody else…). At some point in time though you will be recognized (as what exactly?). It is important to have friends with whom you can discuss anything (and who are not living on the other side of the globe…) As regards your success, you may not be able to carry out your original intentions due to physical troubles (glad I wasn’t planning a second career as top athlete). You should be prudent and prepare carefully for success in the future (exactly what I’m trying to do right now).

Work and Money
You, who are skilled at giving aid to others, will surely progress smoothly to promotion (being self-employed helps, surely – choose your own title). In whatever happens you should not depend solely on your own talent, but also consult your bosses (?) In doing so your bosses will be pleased (which is a good thing) and you will be able to work without sacrificing yourself (do I detect a renunciation of the traditional Japanese art of karoshi?)

Love & Marriage
It is said that love is another consideration (if all else fails, get married). This is truly so in your case (thanks). It will become a point of worry for you (spot on). The string will become entwined, but will eventually become untangled (there’s always hope). Stay away from any marriage with a young student as it will be faced with ruin (no worries there, I always found the professors more interesting).

Health

Take care to watch your blood pressure (okay). Your digestive organs are in good shape (unless I eat Kimchi), but you may have some trouble with your ears (it’s called tinnitus). As regards your diet, try to eat a lot of vegetables (do they grow them chocolate covered by now?). Beware of a traffic accident at an intersection (okay).

It did the trick – it made me laugh. Especially the part about Love and Marriage, even though missing somebody to give me a hug right now still hurts a little. And when I came home I had received a nice email from a friend. Although just a chain letter, it had the message “somebody out there cares for you”, which is very much what I needed today. I’ll go off and send her a long message now…

Naughty

Last Tuesday, after my tandem meeting, I went down Imadegawa street. Somewhere between the university and the river, there is a large garden with large trees, surrounded by walls and high hedges. I pass this place every time I go to my soroban class, and for a long time I was wondering what it could be.

A temple? No, their gates are much more obvious and also usually invitingly open. A hotel or ryokan or kaiseki restaurant? Possible, but no restaurant name or noren curtain in sight. A private residence? Most likely, but then, where is the mailbox?

On Tuesday, I decided to make another attempt to solve the problem. I went to the largest gate and tried to decipher the kanji on the large stone next to it. Of course, I could not read any but a single one, but I copied them as faithfully as possible. A number of cars were parked there and through the hedges I could see people moving about, but as the gate was closed I did not dare venture further. Suddenly however, I could hear voices – two people were talking and after a short while a side door opened and an old man walked to his car.

Old people are somewhat dangerous. They don’t speak English, but when asked, they like to explain things at length, and then they talk a lot of very fast Japanese. Anyway, I thought I could at least ask him whether this garden belonged to a temple or ryokan. No, he said, this was no temple, but a “seifuso”. Kyoto university’s seifuso, to be precise, and he pointed at the stone next to the entrance.

Okay, I thought, at least I now know the reading of those kanji, this will make it easier to look them up later. And I bowed and thanked him and was ready to leave when he looked at me a little mischievously and asked: “Want to see?” And with this he turned around and bid me follow him into the garden.

It was enormous, just like I had suspected. The purpose of the buildings at the entrance I could not make out, but then we soon passed a spot with three tiny traditional tea houses surrounding a beautiful Japanese moss garden complete with stone lanterns. Further, we went along a little stream next to low hills with pine trees, that were being cut. We finally climbed the last hill to overlook the main part of the garden: A large pond fed by water flowing down the hill; behind the pond an expanse of carefully cut grass with meandering pebble paths and groups of small rocks and bushes for the eyes to rest upon. And beyond that, two large, two-storied wooden houses in traditional Japanese style, with large rooms and windows overlooking the garden. It was truly beautiful, but unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, although my guide invited me to take pictures.

I have since found out the following: Seifuso villa was completed by 1914 and comprises 12 houses in total. It was built as a private residence – although seifuso apparently means dormitory – for a Mr. Kinmochi Saionji, was donated to Kyoto University in 1944, and since 2012 is registered as an Important Cultural Property. On this page of Kyoto University, there is more information, and also a photo of the main house.

Why the title of the post? Well, somewhere halfway through our tour I realised that my guide would carefully avoid all the other workers in the garden. We did not go down onto the grass or approached the houses. He tried to stay as invisible as possible. I think that, while the old man himself was allowed to enter the premises, he was no permitted to bring anyone else. His “Want to see?” was obviously done in the spur of the moment. Old people do have some leeway here in Japan, but still, he was certainly very naughty be inviting me inside…

4th kyu!

Last Thursday I took the 4th kyu exam for my soroban – and I passed!

I already took the test in November, but then I became nervous and got stuck at the divisions and could only finish 9 of the 15 in the allotted time – which is exactly one too little. Anyway, this time I have passed with a not perfect, but still quite good score of 130 – 120 – 130. I am quite proud of myself, to be honest.

And now: further to higher levels. I have started to train for the 3rd kyu level in November already, but in the last month I have focused to get up to speed – the most important part – for the 4th kyu test. The next level test will be much more difficult, because it involves a number of new things:

Decimals. Multiplications and divisions from 3rd kyu level and up can involve decimal numbers. The way of calculating the result as such does not change, but now you have to figure out between which two columns to set the comma. It took me a while to get used to it, I make fewer mistakes by now, but my speed has suffered. Decimals make no sense in addition and subtraction on the soroban (as each number is represented by a column, whether left or right of the comma), so they are still without them.

Anzan. This is the Japanese expression for mental calculations. For this test, it is relatively simple – add six 2-digit numbers and write down the result – but every now and then, sensei lets me do multiplication and division anzan as well. The trick is to imagine a soroban with its columns and using the mental image of shifting beads to do the calculations. I got used to this system after a while, but I still have problems remembering the values on all the columns. While right now, the exercises are still very easy, they will get harder later on, so the soroban trick will be needed. Japanese kids can be astonishingly fast with this method.

Word problems. Reminiscences of school: “You pay for 34 pencils that cost 124 yen each with a 10.000 YEN bill. How much money do you get back?” The level of those problems is very easy, after all those are school children, but for me they are very difficult – everything is in Japanese, of course. It helps to look for keywords, though. Nokoru or noko is the indication that the problem asks for the remainder of something. Zenbu means all of something. The rest can be quite easily figured out by looking at the numbers, interestingly.

Denpyou. It translates as slip calculation, and dates back to the origins of soroban. Soroban were used by merchants to add the numbers written on receipts and invoices, and this is exactly what denpyou is doing. You get a booklet with rows of numbers, and you leaf through it while adding them up. The difficulty is to flip through the booklet fast enough and also not to miss any of the numbers by accidentally flipping two pages at the same time. This may be quite the challenge for the next test, I think.

Screening

I am still in search for a new place to live. Finding one proves interestingly difficult. To be fair, I do pose some difficulties, starting with the fact that I am a foreigner and not every landlord wants to rent to one. Yes, I know, it is 2015 and in Japan people are still allowed to discriminate on those grounds – hence, my real estate agent is always asking first whether a foreigner – from Austria! – is considered a good tenant. Foreigners, of course, all want the same: space and light; and on top of that I need a room that is completely separate from the living space to become my office.

Essentially this means I have to be able to get to my office from the entrance without crossing any other of the rooms I live in. This rather trivial constraint already rules out about two thirds of all apartments! Very often, the genkan, the entrance space where Japanese people remove their shoes, is right inside the kitchen. Yes, I know this was rather common in Europe too – a friend of my grandmother’s had a place like this – but I can say with confidence that in the 1980s nobody would build an apartment like this anymore. In Japan, however…

Space is the next issue. Everyone knows that everything in Japan is quite small; a standard room has six tatami mats, that’s about 12 square metres. This is reasonable – until one starts to reduce the size of one mat to fit in more apartments… Hence, it is really important to actually visit a place, because 30 tatami can mean something quite different, depending on the place.

Another problem: Light. Interestingly, many apartments are built in a very long and narrow fashion. Most likely this is a reminiscence of the old machiya merchant houses, that had a very narrow street front and a sheer endless number of rooms behind it (the reason was tax evasion…). Of course, those old houses had at least one courtyard in the middle to provide some extra light, but in modern apartments this is not quite feasible, at least not in the fifth floor. So essentially what you get is a long narrow tube with openings on both ends. Which, unfortunately are not always sufficient to light the entire space in between, especially if at one of said tube endings there is another wall nearby…

So, yes, it proves rather difficult to find something I like. And as I will spend a considerable time there, I think this is a rather important point. On my quest for the perfect apartment, I have so far seen six places. Four of them were an immediate “Oh goodness, NO!”, one was a “well…” and another one was a resounding “YES!”. Which is actually an excellent average. The apartment has a good size, lies in a quiet area, is newly renovated and very bright, and all this comes at a reasonable price.

Hence, I instructed my real estate agent to prepare the contract. That was last week Tuesday. It took him a while, but he finally got back to me on Saturday late afternoon to tell me that I am not getting the place: I did not pass the extra tenant screening. Despite the fact that I have finally found somebody who will act as a guarantor for me (essentially somebody who co-signs the contract and promises to pay the rent and any damages I may cause in case I am unable to pay myself), there was still an extra screening needed to make sure that I’m a decent tenant and will not default on my rent.

And the whole thing failed because: I don’t have a mobile phone now and the company thinks I am not reachable. No promises that I will get a phone as soon as I move in, helped. No phone numbers of friends and the insistence that it’s really better for a real estate company to talk to a Japanese than to me who can barely communicate, helped. Which begs the question whether a 17-year-old with the latest mobile is more trustworthy than I am. Or why people in Japan have managed never to have heard of email (even my agent had troubles with that…)

I was furious. Then I was disappointed. Then I started pleading with my agent because it was such a lovely apartment really… He refused to get back to the agency. Essentially he said that Japanese people are very stubborn (he did not use this word though) and that once they say NO, that’s that. I guess there were other things they didn’t like about me, but the “cannot be contacted now” was the easiest way to refuse me.

So, I am back to square one. Now, of course, the agent keeps on saying that whenever such a company stands between me and the actual owner of the place, it is useless to even try applying. Which does not sit well with me… I am now wondering whether I should get the “well…” apartment I mentioned above (I spoke to the owner, and he’s a very nice and relaxed guy which will make living there rather easy), or whether I should wait for the perfect place to show up on my radar. Unfortunately my time is limited…

Suggestions?

Bugs

Old houses in Japan come with lots of surprises. Bugs are one of them. Yes, I have written about them before and I have also stated that during winter time, they are not that big an issue as the house is too cold without heating. Of course, just because they are not active right now does not mean you cannot find the traces of their nefarious summer activities…

The other day I had a meeting and I wanted to dress nice for it. As most of my nice clothing is still in boxes in Europe, I have only little choice, especially in winter. However, there is this very nice bright red turtleneck sweater I bought last year when I was in Austria, and I decided to wear it.

I am glad I took a few extra minutes to check my attire in the mirror. I am also glad that it was in plain view, for had the hole been on the back of the sweater, I might not have seen it and had probably gone out with it… Yes, the sweater had a hole, about two centimetres in diameter. As I said, it was a brand new sweater, I only wore it once or twice last year, but, some of those bugs I referred to in the beginning obviously had a field day with my woolen stuff and this is the result. Later, I checked all my clothes (luckily I don’t have that many at the moment) and all the nice woolen sweaters and jumpers I bought only last year have holes, mostly small ones, but still large enough to be visible.

I am furious, honestly. That is not supposed to happen! My landlady blames it on the old house of course, and she is probably right, but still. No matter where in Asia I had lived before and how old the furniture was where I stored my clothing, nothing like this has happened before. Well, I have wizened up: As soon as possible (meaning: after my move) I will buy airtight plastic containers in which to store my nice clothes during summer. And I vow to gas all those moths with plenty of lavender sachets and cedar chips and possibly even moth balls. And woe the ones I meet in person…

43rd Nitten

I almost missed it! Yesterday was the last day of the 43rd “Nitten” exhibition here in Kyoto. It is the largest open-entry exhibition of Japanese artists, and it shows exhibits from calligraphy to applied arts to paintings, which are divided into Japanese and Western style paintings. The Nitten claims to be “the largest artist’s organisation with the most glorious history in japan, since 1907”, which I find gloriously funny…

Anyway, I realised around noon yesterday, that it was the last day of the exhibition, and despite my plans for a lazy afternoon at home in bed with books, chocolate, and chips, I made my way to the museum. Once again I was lucky and didn’t pay for it: Just when I wanted to buy a ticket, another visitor walked up to me and handed me one for free. I thanked her profusely and then went to enjoy the exhibition.

Just like last year, I passed on the calligraphy. A friend once suggested to view it simply as art, but I’m not very much into abstract stuff. I think the meaning behind the characters is an important part of the value of these pieces.

I enjoyed the sculptures, they were much less static than last year. Again, the (nude) female body dominated, and there are only so many poses a human body can achieve – yes, most of the sculptures were done after nature. My favourite was a simple piece showing a young woman sitting and reading a book; but part of the attraction may have been the title of “my time”. Yes, I can certainly relate to spending “my time” with a book…

Except for one or two snowy scenes in the high mountains the paintings were less to my taste this year. There was a single one, depicting two eagles (in a non-kitsch, matter-of-fact kind of way), that captivated me. Afterwards, I tried to find a postcard of it in the shop, but this particular one they did not have, unfortunately.

They did sell a photo of my favourite piece this year, though: The little, robot-like metal statue you see at the left of this post. It was maybe 50 cm high and had the title “flexible”. Although it had the same posture as in the photograph here, I still think that the parts can move. I took a very close look at the fingers, and they certainly seemed to be flexible. My own fingers itched terribly; I really wanted to try and see, but touching the exhibits was probably not allowed, and I was not finished seeing the whole exhibition yet…

All in all, I did not like this exhibition as much as last year’s. There were less outstanding pieces, less art that I could imagine owning; and although I think that the sculptures have improved, I found the paintings – which form the largest part of the exhibition – rather mediocre. I am looking forward to see the next Nitten, though.

Exhausted

I am very tired these days. I am busy looking for a new place to live and it proves to be very difficult indeed…

As I said, I would prefer to rent a house if possible, but all of the old houses I have seen so far are rather small and somewhat unpractical, and incredibly dark. There was this lovely old house I have been to, where the genkan, the front entrance, had three stepping-stones amidst a floor strewn with pebbles. I loved the house immediately. Unfortunately, the rest of the interior was not quite up to scratch… The top floor appeared to have been newly renovated, the two rooms were both very light and had an airy feel.

However, the ground floor… The kitchen was tiny, very old and could have used at least some cleaning, if not outright renovation. Ditto the bathroom. Given the amount of time I spend in the bathroom each day, I really don’t need one of those huge “oasis” kind of things that are so popular in the West these days. However, when I bow to spit during my toothbrushing, I prefer not to hit the wall opposite the wash basin with my behind. And I think it is a bonus if I can get to the shower without squeezing through the 30 cm that are left once the washing machine is in its place. If the bathroom had been in a better state, one might convince me to live with a Japanese squatting toilet though. I’m not a big fan of those – I still don’t know how to go “big” there – but if the rest of the house is okay, I’d just suck it up I guess.

It was not, however. The house was old enough to have a little garden in the back and a whole glass front between it and the adjacent living room – but still, the light from the garden did not even reach half of the living room, which was only six tatami, 12 square metres. Given my almost life-long intimate knowledge of depression, a dark place is something I definitely cannot live in. I certainly have no need to invite depression to follow me to Japan… Maybe, if the ground floor was renovated like the rooms upstairs, and painted with lighter colours, the house would actually be quite pleasant. But it’s not something I can wait for.

I have seen a number of apartments so far, and they are equally drab: rather dark and pretty small. I know now that the size of tatami must have changed over the years. I am quite sure that the six tatami from my room would not fit into any of the six tatami-rooms I have seen on my quest for a new place so far.

Anyway, I’m not giving up. Although it is exhausting, I will keep looking for that perfect place. You’ll hear from me when I find it.

Forex

It’s finally done and over: My house in Austria is sold. Well, in fact it was sold last year in June, but because of a notary who did not work quite as fast as he could have, because of some considerable back-and-forth that lasted about half a year, only now I was legally able to get the money. I then had to wait for some other assets of mine to be realised, and finally, this weekend I have transferred the whole amount to Japan.

With the exchange rate where it is right now and the fact that Japanese Yen have two more zeros than the Euro in general, I am feeling very rich right now. Very rich indeed, my account is showing millions right now. However, I’m still by far not rich enough to buy that house I have talked about a few weeks ago, but I think I can start dreaming of something. Right now, I prefer not to buy anyway, but maybe 5 years down the road…

However, had the whole transaction been finalised last week, I would have gotten even more money out of the transfer, but with the Euro essentially in free fall since the beginning of this year (thanks Angela!), I think I should be happy to have gained that much just by changing my Euro to Yen. Isn’t it interesting that when you already have a lot, you still crave for more?

Seijin no hi

Ah, it’s Coming-of-Age Day again, one of Japan’s Happy Monday holidays. Today is the day where all over Japan youngsters who have turned 20 in the last year visit shrines to celebrate being an adult. Most young people do so dressed in expensive kimono, with elaborate hairstyles, and just the right attitude…

I went to Heian shrine again today in the hope of taking some pictures, but either I arrived too late, or the place to be this year was somewhere else than last year.

In any case, there was a large group of young people in front of Kyoto Exhibition Hall, where some group had organised a meeting with speeches and photographers… so I did get some photos after all. Two things surprised me: First, the number of young people who were smoking. It is quite rare to see a Japanese person of any age smoking in public or on the streets. Especially in Kyoto, many tourist areas are strict non smoking zones, probably because so much of these parts of Kyoto are still made of wood, or maybe just because smoking in crowded places is not a very brilliant idea. There were even non smoking signs where the crowd gathered, but the brand new adults defied the signs as well as the guards and the police, who did not bother to say anything to begin with. I guess that they did not want to spoil the fun the youngsters had on their great day.

Second, the guys surprised me again, just like last year. The normal, traditional formal wear for a man has two colours: black and white, and maybe some gray in between. On seijin no hi, however, their kimono and hakama are often more colourful than the girls, and the young men don’t even shy away from dyeing their hair. I guess it’s the one and only and last day when they can be as reckless and irresponsible as possible in public. Obviously they had great fun doing so!

More construction…

Living in an old house has its pros – and lots of cons too… I spoke too fast on Wednesday, we’ll have more construction work to be done in the showers and bathroom, but at least this is planned work and hopefully does not take all the three days it is allotted.

Our landlady has informed us yesterday that in two weeks the sewage pipes from the showers and toilets will be replaced with something that hopefully does not get blocked that quickly. For three days, there will be no showers available during the day (between 8 am and 5 pm), but she said the workmen will try to keep one toilet operational during how ever long the repairs last. We’ll see how it goes. At least there is the possibility to take hot showers at home this time…