Category: experiences

Yesterday I took a day off and went to an exhibition in Osaka. I enjoyed it very much, even though it was very crowded and even though everybody around me seemed to snap pictures all the time. Sometimes even without looking at the art in detail at all. I don’t get it…

Anyway, when I came back to Kyoto I was to meet a friend at the Takashimaya department store. Near their information counter – always a good meeting spot – there are a few seats available, and I sat down next to an elderly lady, who, in truly elderly lady fashion immediately struck up a conversation with me. (Elderly people love to talk to me!) It was the usual: where are you from, oh you live in Kyoto, what are you doing… kind of conversation which I can hold up quite well by now. And she asked if I come to the Takashimaya often, and I answered, well, sometimes, today I’m meeting a friend here. And she said that she was just done with her own shopping and then she began rummaging in her bag.

And then, suddenly and completely unprovoked, she took out her wallet and gave me a Takashimaya gift certificate for 1000 yen. Just like that. And then she shook my hand, mentioned in getting up that she was 80 years old, and then she left, never to be seen again.

I’m still flabbergasted. Why on earth would she give this to me? I never really know how to deal with these random acts of kindness, other than say “thank you very much” and roll with it. Anybody else got any suggestions?

Busy day today, even more so than a usual Tuesday: Leave home at 10:00 for Japanese class, then from 14:00 a business meeting. Home at 18:00, just to go out for a special soroban class one hour later. Finally exhausted home for good at 21:00.

The day had an interesting and very unexpected highlight though: lunch time. These days, I have my Japanese class at the Kyoto Rohm Theatre, where there are public spaces to sit and meet for free. After the class I usually stay and have lunch, do some writing or other offline stuff, and then I move on to my meeting in town.

During lunch, there are always more people coming and having their bento boxes, but today it was exceptionally crowded, and with lots and lots of old people. I found out that there was a special concert today from 13:30, which explains why there were no empty seats to be had around lunchtime. As usual, I had finished lunch and started writing, and it was busy enough that within a short time span, two old ladies (who apparently didn’t know each other) sat down at my table. Japanese people avoid doing this, and both of them completely ignored me, the second one even demonstratively turning her back at me. Oh well, I just kept writing.

But then, the first one left – and the second one promptly turned around and started chatting with me. And then she put her own bento box on the table (hand-made vegetarian maki sushi) – and offered me some of it! She went so far and put the food right in front of me and because it would have been rude to refuse, I had another lunch with the old lady, who was very happy to have somebody to share her food with. She said something like Shared food is always delicious, but eating alone is so sad…

Japanese people never cease to amaze me. I know that the elderly – old ladies especially – have some sort of fool’s license, they can get away with many things younger people would be immediately punished for. But this was certainly a new facet of Japanese society that I have never seen before, and probably will not see again.

When you start living in Japan, sooner or later you will start talking to some Japanese about your own country and how it is different from Japan. And then, the topic of the seasons will come up, and your friend will say something like: “You know, in Japan, we have four seasons!” with a gleam of pride in her eyes, as if the concept of four distinct seasons is something no gaijin has ever heard of. However, said gleam will immediately turn to bitter disappointment upon your answer: “So do we. So what?”

I think I finally figured out what they really mean with that. it’s not the fact that there are four distinct seasons at all, the Japanese are well aware that other countries have those too. Also, it is easy to diagnose summer when it has 35 degrees outside, or to declare winter when you’re suffering from frost bite. I think what they mean is that the change of seasons is obvious, irreversible, and swift. Sometimes the change of season is so abrupt, it happens over night.

For example, it is already autumn here. It started about 2.5 weeks ago. How I know? Well, it has cooled down, even though we still have more than 30 degrees. There are also more rainy days, but that’s not it either. The two things that made me sigh with relief: Humidity has dropped considerably, from one day to the next. Now I have to actually move to start sweating, in summer this is not necessary. Also, most of the cicadas that make summer so noisy, have died. There are still some around, but there are much fewer individual insects, and those are different species since their call has changed.

Thinking about it a bit more, I now believe that all the four seasons in Japan have a rather distinct point as to when they begin. And most of those points are not related to any fixed day, obviously, but to some event in nature. That’s probably the reason why the Japanese love any kind of nature viewing so much: They know the cherry blossoms mark the height of spring, and that when the momiji colors are over, winter will come. It’s also easy to notice these things when you’re living in a wooden house with hardly any insulation, as most of the old Japanese did, and many still do.

Anyway, let me list the things that mark the new seasons in Japan. Feel free to comment if you think I’m wrong, after all, this is just my theory.

Spring starts with the ume (peach blossoms). It is still cold then, and it may still snow, but once the red peach blossoms can be seen, they mark the end of winter. The height of spring has been reached during hanami – cherry blossom viewing. And once the last cherries have lost their blossoms and put on their green leaves, it will only take a week or two more to arrive at Summer.

Summer begins some time in May when the temperature rises further, but even more so, humidity. Early summer comes with tsuyu, the rainy season, and the rain does not ease the humidity, on the contrary! When you can’t seem to stop sweating, no matter what you do (or not do), that’s summer. At some point the cicadas will start their noisy song, marking midsummer.

Autumn, as I said above, will start with a sharp drop in humidity, usually at the end of August. The cicadas drop from their trees as well, and you can enjoy silent nights of sleep again. The most beautiful part of autumn is the koyo, when the leaves of the maple trees turn red, orange, or yellow. That does not happen until the night temperature falls below a certain threshold, but from then on, the momiji can be admired for two or three weeks. Once their leaves fall to the ground as well, some time at the end of November, that’s the end of the season.

Winter starts a week or two after the koyo, again with a drop in temperature. It may not snow everywhere (it doesn’t in Kyoto), and the temperature will hover just above zero degrees. It will be quite dry though, and especially clear days will be wonderful to go out and climb up somewhere and have a look over the country.

That’s my theory. Autumn was obvious this year, I will try to see if I can notice a similar swift change for winter. This whole year has been usually cool, I just hope we will not get an early and too cold winter this time…

Today, I came home after a hard day that started off with killing cockroaches in front of my door (again) and that ended with being squeezed into a packed tourist bus after having to go to the station for (scanner) shopping. And just when I was getting ready to unpack my new scanner and try it out, I glimpsed at the news… Here’s a link to the (English) Japan Times, just in case you don’t know what I’m referring to: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/08/29/national/north-korea-fires-missile-japan-reportedly-breaks-falls-pacific/

Apparently, around 6:06 this morning, dear leader Kim Jong-un has fired an intercontinental missile somewhere into the Pacific, straight across Japan. And since then, North Korea’s action has been condemned virtually everywhere from Japan to the US (who say they stand 100% behind Japan), to China, and the EU, and even Russia is on our side for once.

And I’m standing here without knowing what to think, really. In my view it’s unlikely that North Korea will attack Japan directly, since Japan with their doctrine of “self-defense” will not shoot first. However, if they attack either South Korea or – gods forbid – the US itself, then Japan will probably get drawn into the conflict one way or the other, not something I’d like to see up close.

The main problem is that both Kim and Trump are essentially overgrown children who like to throw all their toys out of the pram, and who are more or less immune to any reasoning or advice. And it does scare me as to what could happen if they are both unleashed at the same time… Nothing the world needs right now (or ever), really.

Below is a graffiti in Vienna by the artist Lush Sux. I’m not sure it has a name, but let’s call it “Kim Jong Trump”.

 

Yesterday was the final day of the Obon festival, where the dead, who have returned to earth during the last few days are sent off to the underworld again. In Kyoto, this sending off is celebrated with 5 enormous fires that are lit on mountains surrounding the city, called the Daimonji festival (or, officially, the Gozan-no-okuribi).

This year, I had wanted to go to Arashiyama to see the large torii, which is the only one of the five fires you cannot see from the city. However, I started a project in the afternoon and overlooked the time and because it takes about an hour from here to Arashiyama, I would not have made it on time to see the fire (each one only burns for 20 – 30 minutes or so.)

So, I decided to stay local and go to the myo-ho, which is not one, but two fires about 20 minutes from my apartment. They are on rather low mountains and other than the big dai on Mount Daimonji and the lovely boat-shaped funegata, I cannot see them from my balcony.

However, even here, I was too late because I underestimated the amount of people who would be in the area. The myo-ho fires can best be viewed from a little road that is usually completely devoid of traffic, but last night it was full with people! While I could see the first one of the fires, the ho, I was just a little bit too late to see the myo character. When I finally had made my way through all the people there, the fire had already gone out…

Oh well, at least I could see the big dai and the funegata on my trip. And next year I know to either be very early, or to take a different road a bit further south where there are (hopefully) no people. Or maybe I’ll make it to Arashiyama to see the torii after all.

Japan has an interesting system regarding the payment of taxes and social security, both for individuals and companies. The amount you have to pay each month does not depend on your current income, but on the income from the year before. And since the standard fiscal year for a company ends in March, the numbers for taxes and social security are calculated after that, and the new amounts have to be paid from July onwards.

Up until now, I have paid very little taxes on my income; I only had to pay national taxes to the amount of about 5000 yen per month. I would pay them twice a year only, accumulated for six months. However, now in the third year of my business, I also have to pay city and prefectural taxes on my income, which is another 5000 yen each per month. So, from one month to the next, my tax payment has tripled – and my income stayed the same, not to talk about my profits (for now).

Interestingly, these two payments cannot be processed automatically using a collection order for the tax office for example. The reason is – as my accountant claims – that the monthly amount may fluctuate depending on the number of employees and their salaries. And the Kyoto city and prefectural tax offices, naturally, are by far not as advanced as my gas company for example and could not possibly know how to deal with this.

And since my bank denies me internet banking for my company account for some random reason, I will now have to make a pilgrimage before the 10th day of each month to my bank so I can pay my taxes there – in person and with a manually filled out piece of paper. So much for the highly advanced tech-country Japan. Well, I guess all the staff at my bank need something to do…