Consolidation

We are having typical December weather in Kyoto. Mornings and nights are pretty cold, but when the sun is out during the day it’s actually nice and pleasant. I could even dry my clothes within just a few hours on my balcony today!

The momiji season is all but over by now. Last Friday, I went to Eikando with a friend of mine and it was just a bit too late for the autumn colors. The temple was packed with people despite everything but it was not unbearably full. Afterwards, we went to the Lake Biwa Canal Museum where I could find out more details about the boating trip I took beginning of October. Even my friend was pleased with the museum, she’s a nerd at heart too.

Now that autumn is more or less over, I have packed all my things and moved them to my living room for the winter. I usually do this just after Christmas, but I’m not expecting any guests to stay with me this year, so I did it today. As I said, the evenings are cool enough to need heating, and I think it’s a waste to heat up one room and go to bed in another freezing one. I don’t need heating during the day yet, especially when it’s sunny, so I’ll keep using my office as long as possible.

Business as usual, so to speak. At least one thing that didn’t break down completely this year.

Biting Bullets

Quite a while ago, I broke another tooth. Essentially it’s a lot of filling in the middle with only the outer rim still tooth enamel – and a part of that finally broke away. It happens. What is not quite normal is that only today I finally bit the bullet and made an appointment at the dentist’s.

schematic of a toothWhat took me so long? Well, I’m terrified of dentists. And while I’m not alone in this, I can pinpoint the reason exactly: When I was a child and our local dentist had to drill down on something, there was smoke coming out of my mouth. I cannot recall whether the procedure hurt, but that blueish smoke wafting in front of my young eyes has scarred me forever.

Over the years, I have grown up and gotten better at going to the dentist, overall, at least. But this time, the hurdle was extra high: the newly broken tooth was the smokey one… I’m not looking forward to this, since it will take several visits to fix this. Not to mention that it will probably cost me a fortune. Thank goodness I haven’t spent all of Shinzo’s money yet.

Not My Day…

Have you ever had one of those days that go all wrong from the start?

seiko alarm clockWhen I still had a job that forced me out of the house each morning, such days would inevitably start with my trying to brush my teeth with my face cream. Or to moisturise with my toothpaste. (In my defense: Similar sized tubes standing next to each other. Plus: I’m not a morning person.)

Unfortunately, there are no such simple indicators anymore since now I work from home and often sit in front of my computer already before I think of hygiene. Therefore, I had no clue whatsoever that last Thursday would turn into one of these “I should have gone right back to bed” days.

It started mid morning when I wanted another cup of tea and wondered where all those bread crumbs on my kitchen floor had come from. And why some of them where moving. On closer inspection these turned out to be insect eggs/pupae the size and color of sesame, and some of them had already turned into tiny white larvae.

Thankfully, they were all concentrated around the garbage bin, so I cleaned out the lower kitchen cabinets (more eggs), swept up about a handful of insects-to-be and threw the whole mess out. To date, no further wrigglies to be found, but the whole operation cost me half an hour on a day where I had already several appointments.

The first meeting was rather uneventful, except for the fact that I had ordered hot fruit tea (or so I thought) and was served an iced soda. Nice, tasty and very fruity indeed, but not quite what I wanted on that rainy day.

Next meeting: rehab for my hip pain. The clinic has changed their mode of working, so it’s 40 minutes of manual therapy followed by two or three exercises of five minutes each. Already the first excercise – a stretching of the left hip muscle – was too much for my ancient jeans. They promptly tore at a very improper place and exposed about 20 cm of my inner thigh. No more exercise after that!

However, one more meeting to go, so I had to rush home, and get changed into something less revealing. At which point I found out that I was not only out of jeans, but out of any kind of pants that were both fitting me (thanks Corona!) and suitable for the current season. All I had were thin summery pants and thick woolen ones for mid winter. I did find some sort of workaround though (don’t ask…) and off I went for my last meeting of the day.

I made it just in time and ordered a glass of orange juice. When the staff put the glass in front of me, it was cracked halfway through. Thankfully I noticed it before I left the counter, and I got fresh juice in a new glass without charge. Other than that, this meeting was uneventful as well.

Finally, upon return to my part of town, I went to Uniqlo to shop for pants. It was exactly the painful experience I try to avoid – which is how I came to be pantless in the first place. Having more curves than the standard Japanese girl makes shopping extra difficult, even if the sizes as such appear to be the right ones – I still can’t get the pants to fit over my hips. Anyway, in the end I could find two that fit me rather well and I went home, well, not happy as such, but content.

Mostly content with the fact that the day was over and I could finally close the door behind me and hide under my covers.

Kyotographie 2020

I spent a great weekend with a friend of mine at Kyotographie 2020! This is an annual international photo exhibition that usually takes place in spring, but has been postponed by half a year because of Covid19. My friend always comes to visit and together, we try to see as many of the exhibitions as we can.

As usual, the exhibitions were very far apart at various venues, but because this year the scope was much smaller than usual – 12 exhibitions with 3 associated programs – we were able to see all but four of them, and we weren’t even overly stressed. My favourites are below, you can even “walk” through the exhibitions online – check out the links!

It’s hard to pick my favourite this year. I liked Mari Katayama’s photos of her body covered with gold glitter. Atsushi Fukushima’s photos of old people and their homes was very touching and made me wonder if I myself would one day end up like this – single woman that I am. Pierre-Elie de Pibrac from France captured the sheer beauty and opulence of the opera in Paris. And in the old Assembly Hall of the Kyoto Prefectural Building, Omar Victor Diop staged his own assembly with famous figures from African history who have something special in common.

I had a great weekend with my friend, and although it was raining on Saturday and there was a lot of walking involved on both days (for which I paid with leg pain throughout Sunday and Monday), I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this. As a bonus, I was taken home by the Kyotographie shuttle on Sunday afternoon when my friend got on the train back to Kobe – a perfect end to the weekend!

Whether it was the exhibition or meeting with my friend, it did help me get out of my funk a little. I’m feeling rather depressed these days (sorry for not writing, and I still owe you some pictures). I’m not sure what the cause is of all this – that I have practically no work, that I see even fewer people than usual, that I don’t go out much…? Atsushi Fukushima’s old people come to mind again – is this just what I’ll be facing 35 years from now, nothing to do but plenty of depression? Better come up with coping strategies while I still have full brain capacities…

Pleasure Cruise

Sorry for not writing on Sunday – it’s weird how Sunday is creeping up on me and then I have nothing prepared… In this case, I have some sort of excuse though: I was busy working because I took Monday off.

Already back in March, I wanted to take the Lake Biwa Canal Cruise, a litte boat tour from Otsu on Lake Biwa to Kyoto. I had booked everything and then, just two days before my trip, it was cancelled because of Corona… However, they have opened up again on October 1st for their autumn season, and this time I booked extra early to make it happen.

And I have to say: It was worth every minute! When you get to the terminal, you get to see a short film of the canal and its history, and you see the main locks in the beginning of the canal. Then you’re ushered into the little boat that has only 12 seats and except for a glass roof, is otherwise open. And the first tunnel is just a few meters past the boarding point!

What I found interesting were the many insects inside the tunnels where it was slightly warmer than outside, even though it was a bright day. In the first tunnel, we even got fog! In between the tunnels, the canal runs through quiet areas of Otsu and Kyoto, there are forests on one side and a path with big trees on the other. You can see the occasional temple and many birds along the water, and most of the people come and wave when the boats pass by.

I will add a few pictures tomorrow, the trip was really beautiful, especially from my seat in the very front. (Foreigner bonus, I’m sure).

To make the trip worth my while – after all, the cruise takes only 55 minutes, I went to Otsu a bit earlier to visit Miidera Temple, one of the largest temples in all Japan. Even so, it was blissfully empty, but maybe that’s because the precincts are so large that you wouldn’t meet many people anyway.

I will post a few pictures of my trip tomorrow, and I promise to write in depth about Miidera and my fantastic pleasure cruise on some other Sunday.

Improvised

The other day, on the bus, there was an elderly woman sitting across the aisle from me. In general, I do like to watch people, but she only caught my eye when she started nestling with some plastic. She had some strips of thin plastic which she twisted into a somewhat thicker string that she finally knotted into a circle.

She worked very deftly, but I could see no reason why she would do that, and on the bus to boot. From my experience with people watching, I can tell you that there are many very strange people on the loose. In cases as these, it is best not to stare. But she looked like a friendly and normal grandmother, so I kept glancing at her doings ever so often.

After she had finished two plastic circles, out came a small yellow towel. Most Japanese carry them, they are extremely handy in public bathrooms where very often, there are neither towels nor any other means to dry your hands. These days its even worse, when thanks to Covid19, most electric handdryers have been turned off to prevent spreading the virus. But I digress…

So, out came the towel and she folded in two opposite corners to form an (almost) rectangle. She then placed one of her plastic cirles of the third corner of ther towel and folded this in too. Now I was positively staring. What IS she doing, for crying out loud? Occupational therapy? On the bus?

She performed the same operation with the second circle and the fourth towel corner. I still didn’t get it. Only when she was trying to put it on did I realise: She was making a face mask!

They are still mandatory, okay: kindly requested, on public transport , but I hadn’t even noticed that she didn’t wear one until then. Unfortunately, my own stop was coming up, so I didn’t see her wearing her creation. The strings were a bit too short, so she needed to make adjustments. But just coming up with the idea on the fly, and to use what she had on hand – pure genius!

So yes, there are indeed lots of very strange people on the loose. But sometimes, it’s worth looking beneath the surface.

Domestic

We’ve just had a nice long weekend with Monday and Tuesday two holidays in a row. Since the weather was great, I took some time to cycle around and visit a few new places or just explore the back roads. I also did a lot of reading (a friend of mine just sent me her new book) and I caught up with some things household related. So, mostly, I stayed at home.

It seems that most people in the neighborhood did the same. And unfortunately, with all the windows open at this time of the year, you hear more from your neighbors than you might want to…

In the opposite building, there is a family where I sometimes see the husband hanging up the laundry on the balcony. Personally, I think it’s great when a man does his bit in the household, but I digress. Sadly, in the last time, I can hear them fight more often. I mean, I can hear him scream on the top of his lungs, he seems to be very angry. It’s way too fast for me to understand, but it does scare me, and I’m happy he is out of throwing distance from me…

Which leads to a certain dilemma: Do I say anything? And if so, to whom?

To him? Even though we are “neighbors”, I have never met him. And starting your very first conversation with a “oh, you’re the one screaming last Sunday morning…” is not the best idea.

To somebody else in the house? First of all, I am sure the others have heard something as well. But, I once said something when a burglar alarm went off in the middle of the day, and I was assured that it was nothing…

To the police? Well, it’s not as if I could tell them what is being said, the only thing I ever understood was “shigoto desu – it’s work”. Hmmm… now that I write this down, maybe his wife suspects that he has an affair?

So yes, even if you want to do the right thing, it is not always so clear what that would be, really…

Sleepless in Kyoto

I’m pretty tired these days and don’t have much energy… Thankfully, it’s not as hot anymore as it was a few weeks ago, but while the day temperatures have dropped a few degrees, the night temperatures have not. And the comparatively small difference between day and night makes sleeping really difficult at the moment. The last few days, I’ve been waking up several times in the night just to turn on the fan for half an hour or so, which helps just enough to fall asleep again.

Today, the weather was awfully windy and couldn’t decide whether to rain or not. There was a brief shower in the afternoon, but not enough to cool the city down. As usual in Japan’s summer, any kind of rain just makes the place more humid. However, it seems that the coming week will be more cloudy and thus, less hot, I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep!

Thanks, Shinzo!

It’s almost scary to realise that we’ve been living with Corona / Covid19 for about half a year now! And sadly, things are not getting much better yet. It seems that some countries stand at the beginning of a second wave, and it’s just been discovered that there’s no long lasting immunity against the virus either. Yes, it seems indeed that this one is here to stay…

Japanese currencyFor now, governments in many states give financial aid to businesses and sometimes even to private citizens to ease the burden. For my company, I am eligible for financial aid since my income for May 2020 has dropped by more than 50% compared to May 2019. My accountant is currently busy with the paperwork, although it seems that there are not that many documents necessary in the first place.

And for me as a private person, I already received the 100,000 yen that Shinzo Abe has promised for everybody living in Japan. And I’m already spending it, too. There are a few things I need, but nothing really substantial: A pair of light summer slippers that I can wear on the bicycle (meaning: no sandals). A new backpack since the one I’m using right now is two years old already and won’t last forever.

And I also bought a very nice and extra warm duvet for winter, stuffed with real sheep’s wool. I’ve been looking at this one since last winter, but couldn’t make up my mind to buy it. Now that that shop has a grand sale because they will close soon for renovations, I finally bought it last week – for 30% off and with the government’s money to boot. Hey, thanks, Shinzo! 

Other than this, I have no big spending plans. Except… well, Shinzo’s money won’t cover all of that… You see, I’m looking into something really big right now. It’s too early for details, but I’ll keep you posted, promised!

Heatwave

Sorry for not posting last night, I was flat out exhausted. We’re in the third week of a heatwave here and although there is a certain breeze that makes things more bearable, especially in the afternoon, it’s still not easy to get motivated.

Yesterday I had to flee my apartment because it got so hot, and I cooled down in my favourite cafe. Sadly, they don’t have wifi there, which makes being productive rather difficult. How much we rely on the internet these days!

Today, I have three appointments in the afternoon, I hope I can make them all… It seems that next week will be a bit cooler, which is to be expected. I hope my motivation follows suit – it does help if you can sleep through the night! We’ll see.