A traditional coffee shop

Yesterday I went back to the little coffee shop in the mountains to show it to Mike. We sat on the veranda and neither of us spoke for ages as the view invades you. It gets inside your mind and you cannot think. Mike saw a monkey wandering along the road-I couldn't see it from where I was sat but he said it was big and my students were unsurprised at this news-in fact said it was probably not fully grown. The only other customer-a very intellectual looking man came over to talk to us and told us that historically this cafe was important as a place to make friends. He told us about his restaurant near by and when we looked it up we were sold-must try it out it looks delicious.
I forgot my camera but I don't think pictures can capture an atmosphere anyway. Those coming to visit will get a chance to feel it but for other people. I did what I always do when I want to capture something-here's a little poetry snuck onto the wrong blog I know but maybe it will give you a flavour.

A Coffee in Japan

Mountainside.

Only still and peace.

Running brook.

Stirring trees.

I can smell the hundred year old wood used to build.

This meeting place.

A monkey saunters by.

Bigger than he expected.

Stirring soul.

Trying to make sense of what he sees.

Silence from us.

Sensual overload.

Can there be this many greens?

The smooth path of fingers over coffee cups

No uniform shape or colour

Just ritualised elegance.

Not just a coffee.

Not just a tea.

Stirring history.

Kyoto

Kyoto was a fairly brief adventure due and a little marred by the typhoon that's passing through at the moment. But we had a lovely time. Our hotel was beautiful; built around a few central inside gardens Spanish style. We had a Japanese style room with tatami and futtons. They provided Yukata-like a thin, plain kimono for wearing in the hotel and it felt really peaceful and as if you were looked after. 
We took a taxi to Gion in the evening and had dinner in a restaurant there. We walked around the streets and even had an ice-cream in defiance of the weather. I was rewarded in the winding streets of the old town by the sight of a Maiko, an apprentice geisha in full kimono and make-up walking along. We went to a temple which had beautiful paper lanterns and a pagoda with people practicing for a dragon dance-sans costume. Very atmospheric.
We spent this morning at Nishi-honwang-ji Temple which was close to the hotel. We ate lunch at the restaurant there and decided tto get on the road before the weather turned any worse. 
A tantalising glimpse of Kyoto...looking forward to going back. 

 Yukata wearing.

 Temple in Gion at night.

 Nishi-honwang-ji Temple. Below is an ancient gate way preserved by UNESCO.

A Few Days in Japan

I was taken out by one of my students for lunch yesterday. We had a delicious sushi set lunch sat at the bar so I could see the chef preparing each dish. I ate the usual tuna and salmon sashimi as well as other kinds of fish, some egg like spanish tortilla and also some small white fishes with black eyes-a little squeamish with that one! I tried sea eel and had a delicious okra sushi. We also had a plate with a tiny helping of stir fried veg and pork, a bowl of miso soup and a little bowl with a savoury egg custard type thing. Everything was so beautifully presented. We had a desert of tiny pieces of green tea jelly, ice cream and a sugared fruit type thing with plum tea. 

After lunch we went to a beautiful coffee shop in the middle of nowhere in the mountains with a stream running by-it was exactly the perfect image of japanese countryside. The coffee place was a traditional wood building with open doors to the veranda and low floor seating. We met her friends and there was a lady who makes bead jewelery and I was made to choose some beads to make into a necklace as a gift. It was a little surreal but very, very kind. 

The coffee place was a kind of Nirvana, quintessentially Japanese in it's peacefulness. I can't wait to return.

Today our secretary bought us each a gift of a name stamp. It is a piece of bamboo with each of our names in Kanji inside a case with silk lining that contains a tiny red ink pad. It's necessary for official documents instead of a signature. Mike's means dance and poem which is kind of beautiful but mine means apricot and to begin which is kind of meaningless. But what an awesome gift! I quite like being Joanne over here-Japanese people have a wonderful pronunciation of it that make it sound lovely. They don't put that 'W' between the A and the O. 

Okay enough rambling I'm just too excited about Kyoto.

New Sofa

Today I compounded my love of recycle shops by bagging this awesome specimen of a sofa. Not only is it stylish black leather but it's also like a Sylvanian Family piece of furniture. Both the end stool and arm come away from and the back can fold down into a bed. Also the middle back panel can fold downwards to form a table between the end two seats. A transformer of a sofa. All for an excellent price. 

Me looking like the excitable child that I am!

Catch up

Sorry for the long absence but the Blogger site was down for some days and then I fell out of the habit of writing. The weather has been a little crazy here and we had a taste of the heat that summer will bring. It was that  white heat that comes from the ground up it feels. The sun is too bright to be a pleasant force but is just swallowed up in the melting sky. Of course you do not hear a word of complaint from me. Sunshine is always, always a blessing. No more pasty skin, no more eczema, no more depressing cold moments huddled under a blanket trying to perform some mundane daytime task.
However, as we got up yesterday morning the limpet heat that had clung to the air all night was instantly blown away by a heavy rain storm. As soon as the black clouds opened the heavy air vanished as if frightened away by something bigger. So we braved Nagoya in the rain and were eventually rewarded by a glorious, bright, fresh afternoon. 
I'm addicted to recycle shops here-we both are a bit. Where's the guilt in playing along with this week's fashion when it costs £3 and is completely without a carbon footprint this time around?
I suppose all who read this will know already but anyway. The pressure is now on for us to provide the silky smoothest holidaying experiences for those lovely people who have spent a near fortune on tickets out here this last week or so. You WILL have fun! I'm so excited to share the experience with a selection of dear ones in a matter of weeks. 
Please consider yourselves updated and I will endeavour to give you photos next time xxx

Tagumi Temple

Walking Around Seki

With all our exploring of the surrounding area it's been easy to forget the city we're living in. We've spent a lot of time walking along the river and visited one Temple but there is much more to Seki. It's famous for eel restaurants and cutlery (sounds unromantic but cutlery is a diversification from Samuri sword making of which Seki was the home of the best). There is a whole street of various coffee houses some upmarket and expensive and some old-fashioned and dark. Today we walked around a beautiful Shinto Shrine. We've passed it many times and it has a fantastic tiered wooden roof just as you'd imagine a classical Japanese structure. We didn't go inside as it is so peaceful that it almost forbids distraction. It clearly requests that no photos be taken though so that is why you lack a picture. We found a path that follows the boundary of it though and it was the perfect image of peaceful contemplation. We sat in a pretty public garden opposite with wisteria hanging from a trelis and let the stresses of boisterous Saturday morning students fall away. It's easy to get bogged down in normal life but on a warm, sunny day it was magical to let the scenery impress itself on your mind and remember that after all this is an adventure and we are living in Japan. 

Mino Pictures

Eels

Hello. Yesterday we went to a lovely eel restaurant with a pair of teachers from a neighbouring school-and very lovely they were too. We had the speciality which is rice with panfried eel in a kind of soy sauce (amusingly soy sauce is called show-you in Japanese). It came with pickles and clear soup and a little dish of eel calimari with pepper and lemon. It was all very tasty and we drank green tea with it. The eel itself is chopped up so looks like little fish fillets and has teh same kind of texture and flavour as a white fish. I liked it-it was pretty easy food really for Japan.
Afterwards we came back here and had a brilliant chocolate mousse cake from the bakery next to or school. Most cake seems to involve mousse here and I like it better than icing.
Off to play my new guitar now!
xxxx

My New Guitar

Since we had nothing planned for the day today we had a long walk in the sunshine this morning and decided to head off to a few recycle shops this afternoon. Recycle shops are second hand shops and are quite big over here. They usually have a fair-sized music section and a good bit of bargain retro clothing so Mike and I both like them.
I have been toying with the idea of buying a cheap acoustic guitar as I miss playing my strat a bit and it's good to have a hobby. I almost left without trying this one as it was a bit more than I wanted to pay and I felt too much like it was a whim. But I have always wanted a Gibson (I blame Hannah) and this was such a beautiful replica. So after four credit cards failed we managed to get the cash and purchase my little beauty. Now it has been well researched by the resident expert and he's decided it may well be from 1978 and is a star buy. He would've bought it himself had he known what it was. But sadly for him it is mine-all mine!
Tonight it is an eel restaurant with new friends.
Much love, Jo xxx