Category: plans and preparations

Weekend Project # 8

It got rather warm the last few days, and I’ve switched out bedding and clothes and shoes to be prepared for when summer hits for real. Interestingly, I never liked going barefoot indoors. When I grew up, we had carpets everywhere, and walking on them barefoot felt unpleasant. So, I wore socks throughout the year, in appropriately varying lengths and thicknesses, of course. In Japan’s summer, however, socks are too warm even for me, but there is a solution: zori.

Zori are traditional Japanese straw sandals resembling flip-flops. People, especially the poorer ones, would wear them outdoors when going about town, for longer travels everybody wore waraji, also a type of straw sandals, but a different design that could be tied securely to the feet.

These zori are surprisingly sturdy, especially when worn only indoors. I wore the same pair of zori for the last three summers before the edges disintegrated, and I left little pieces of straw all over the house. But since they are so cool, not to mention comfortable, I decided to go with the trend and make my own – from old T-shirts.

I followed the instructional video I posted a while back, it explains all the necessary steps. I made one major change to the design: instead of the PP rope as suggested, I cut up an old bedsheet and made a braided rope for the skeleton of the zori. Technically this means that my version is fully washable, if this is advisable, I’m not sure. In any case, here’s the result, next to my old straw zori:

The colour combination turned out very nicely, and I’m quite happy with the result. One mistake I made is not cutting the T-shirt strips wide enough. Three centimetres seemed fine at first, but when stretched according to the instructions, they become quite thin, so weaving the base took ages.

Also, the red fabric I used for the straps may turn out a bit too dainty, but since I made the zori myself, I know how to replace them when the time comes. Theoretically, at least.

Finally, they turned out slimmer than I had hoped, but I think that walking around in them will take care of that problem in no time.

On to the next project!

Busy Preparing…

With Easter safely in the past (I barely noticed anyway), a more Japanese holiday is coming up: Golden Week. It’s a string of holidays on May 3, 4, and 5 plus an extra one on April 29. This year, May 3 and 4 fall on the weekend, with one special catch-up holiday on Tuesday, May 6.

And I have plans to take a personal holiday from April 28 all the way to May 6. Naturally, I have other plans too, involving Pumpkin, house and garden, getting ready for summer, festivals of two local shrines I want to go to… not to mention the seven books I just ordered from the library, with an eighth already waiting next to my futon.

That means that I’ll need to get all my work done – in particular the social media posts for WUIK – until Sunday morning; in the afternoon I’m invited to a Noh performance, which will a perfect ending to my work / a perfect start into my holiday.

All this to say that I will post the usual book review this Sunday, but my next post after that will be on May 7, probably a holiday-roundup.

On (Sick) Leave

While I was complaining last week about the cold weather, the temperatures plummeted even further, way below what’s normal around this time of the year. And I promptly got sick. I spent the weekend in bed with Pumpkin, but when I almost didn’t make it back upstairs after going to the toilet on Sunday night, I decided to get up again if just for a few hours on Monday.

Maybe it’s a flu, maybe another run-in with Corona, in any case I’m still having dizzy spells at times. This might also be because I don’t really feel like eating much, even though a friend of mine was kind enough to buy sweets and other easily digestible (and preparable) foods for me.

Anyway, I’ll be lying low for a while and this too will pass. And since it’s very close to Christmas and my usual holidays around this time of the year, I thought I’d just bow out a bit early – Sunday post is already prepared.

Take good care of yourselves, enjoy the holidays…. I’ll see you next year.

Preparations for the Cold

The autumn colours are over, and the temperatures dropped accordingly. In turn, Pumpkin and I are cold even indoors – I’ve mentioned the lack of insulation before, I believe…

So, time for my usual preparations for the cold: Once again, I’ve moved my bedroom to the smallest room on the second floor, facing south. My thick woollen duvet is in place, as well as the fleece blanket on top of it. Pumpkin may now sleep with me, not that he needs permission, really. It’s not freezing at the moment – we’ll keep those moments for February – so he’s in and out of my bed throughout the night. As long as he doesn’t wake me up doing so, I don’t mind.

There are also a few new things I have done this year to try and keep the house (and me) warm: First of all, I shut off the ventilator in my bedroom and nailed a board over the opening. Since I’ve moved in here, I never once used it, so I felt confident in my decision. There’s not much insulation in the hole that’s left, but I mainly boarded this up to decrease draught. With a bit of luck, this also prevents certain crawlies from coming inside…

Second, I asked for help from a neighbour’s contractor to put up a curtain rod in my genkan. There is now a heavy curtain in front of the entrance to the rest of the house, and I keep it closed in the nights. To be perfectly honest, neither of these improvements will make much of a difference with respect to the actual temperature in the house. Nevertheless, there is something to be said for the placebo effect, and that alone might just do the trick. 😉

However, one third thing that already made a difference in the nights: A friend of mine gave me an old hot carpet as a gift. Since I don’t use my living room much, not in winter, anyway, and I’m not sure whether it would withstand my heavy office chair, I came up with another use for it. It now lays between the two futon I use in my small bedroom.

It takes about 30 to 45 minutes to heat up the bed nicely, and my pyjamas to boot. Once I’m going to bed, I turn the carpet off again; I don’t mind the rest of the room being cold as long as I feel warm myself. I might need the heater still, but only to warm my hands when reading before I turn in. We’ll see how this goes in the long run, and how expensive this will be. For now, I’m very happy with the arrangement, and Pumpkin is too.

Weekend Project # 6

There is something in the air around this time of the year that brings out the child in me – and I’m not even religious. I love Japan, but when Christmas approaches, a certain nostalgia sets in, and I miss things that I took for granted back home in Austria. The two things I miss most are: snow (I should’ve moved to Hokkaido) and baking cookies. And possibly central heating too (I should’ve moved to Hokkaido).

At least I have an advent calendar, the refillable one I bought two years ago is still going strong. However, there was a small problem with it: the little drawers on the sides didn’t close properly. This may sound petty, but I’m just OCD enough to find this annoying, so I fixed it by glueing little pieces of wood on which the drawers can rest onto the back of the calendar.

It didn’t take long, and now I’m ready to get the drawers filled again. And, as I’ve done before, while there will be chocolate and tiny sweets, some of the drawers will hold things to do like “have a bath” or “go for a walk” etc. It’s nice to create your own traditions for holidays.

Guided Tours

As some of you may already know, I’ve been doing something new this year: Last spring, I became a tour guide for (mostly) German speaking visitors to Kyoto.

That was a big step for me because I always thought this was not the kind of job I would enjoy. As an introvert who doesn’t warm easily to strangers, the sheer thought of spending hours with people I’ve just met – and generally having to be on my most charming behaviour to boot – simply scared me.

However, the reality surprised me. First of all, I get to talk for hours about my favourite subjects: Japanese culture and history. And second, people who book a guided tour are by and large curious and eager to hear what I have to say. So, I’d say, it’s a fun win-win for both sides, and the fact that I only do very small groups of max. 5 people does help.

Of course, there are drawbacks too. Although I enjoy the experience it can be quite draining because I’m still an introvert. Also, my arthritis doesn’t help with running around for hours, even though the amount of pain is not always the same. All this to say that usually, I’m pretty exhausted the day after a tour, both physically and mentally, and sometimes, I cannot do any demanding tasks at all on the next day.

Despite all this, the pros considerably outweigh the cons, and I have decided to continue with the tour guiding. Even more, I’m going to offer my own tours through What’s up in Kyoto starting next year.

For now, I’ve been working as a sub-sub-contractor for companies in Tokyo, who take roughly 30% of the fees. The money isn’t that bad, but at the end of the day, my hourly rate isn’t much more than what I get for an hour of English teaching (where I don’t have to move.)

Before setting everything up, however, I need to do some research on pricing and logistic details. I also want to offer more tailored tours for people who have seen the major tourist spots already and want to do something different. I have a few ideas already, mostly centered on the areas where I’ve lived before. Of course, I’ll keep you posted when everything is set up!

I’m Back!

Summer is over – which in Japan means that the humidity dropped considerably and the temperatures are now in the mid-30s. September is also typhoon season, but the first one that got people worried even up here didn’t even reach Kyoto (it did cause a lot of damage in Kyushu, though.)

In my summer off (from here), I did some serious BATI-HOLIC fangirling (the next two months will be busy in this regard…), got caught up on my reading, and finished a few other projects that have been lingering. They run the gamut from personal to house-related and business; I’ve even made progress on a certain long-term pet project of mine.

Speaking of pet: my beloved Pumpkin has made me explore Japan’s health care services in more depth than ever before, and he now owes me money. I’ll give you the details in due course.

Anyway, I’m back for now and will do my best to keep you in the loop two times a week as usual.

Summer Greetings

We’re still in a heat wave here in Kyoto. Even though there was a thunderstorm in the late afternoon that cooled things down considerably, the effect is not going to last.

https://k-kirie.com/At this time of the year, people send so-called shochuumimai summer greeting cards. They are meant to inquire about somebody’s health during the hot season. The winter equivalent are kanchuumimai, usually sent out in January or February. I think the summer ones are more cheerful, and knowing that the Japanese suffer more in summer, this might be the reason.

Although I do like the heat, I’m suffering enough for my brain to turn to mush… So I’ll take a bit of a break now, at least until Obon. Hopefully, it will cool down again afterwards.

Happy summer – stay cool!

Getting Ready…

I’m busy this week, so this is just a very short update. I’m getting ready for this year’s Gion Matsuri Ato parade where once again, I’m volunteering at the Ofunehoko. This huge float is always the final one of the second parade and it was always my favourite.

I’ll be working on Monday morning for four hours, and I’m preparing to wear yukata again. Since I have lost so much weight, I can wear a lovely shibori yukata I got from a friend some years back, and I even bought a nice yellow obi to complement the traditional blue.

In fact, I already wore it on Saturday for the Kimono Rock Party, but this time, my friend isn’t here to help me get dressed… I hope things will turn out just right.

For the second time this year, I have received an English version of the flyer that explains the history and trimmings of the float, so I’ll have to do some studying. Not that many people want these sort of details (not in English anyway), but I love this kind of information, so it’s not lost here.

I’m also planning to visit some of the other floats – a friend of mine volunteers at the Hashi Benkei Yama – and I hope it will be a good day with not too much heat and no rain either. We’ll see.