kyonoki

Nature Corner

Japan's primeval forests, ancient bamboo groves and sprawling mountains of pine were the inspiration for thousands of artists even a mere 50 years ago. After the war came and went,  Japan's economy burgeoned and bubbled so much that every aspect of Japan's natural landscape was sacrificed in feeding the industrial machine that had been created. Sacrifice was not only for Japan's workers, but for it's flora too. (more)

31 05 05 - 03:24 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

River Wading

Hanging out at the Kamo River for Tomomi's birthday BBQ.  Happy Birthday Tomi-chan.
Click the pic to have a look in the kyonoki galleries.

30 05 05 - 05:26 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

Tsuyu

Rice planting has begun, green shoots struggling to find their way above the flooded waters of the paddies. Tsuyu (Rainy Season) is here, finding myself sweating without moving a muscle and feeling that the air is a solid thing trying to crush me, squeezing at my head.  Skies become grey and overcast, smothering the tops of the mountains and spreading themselves out in a makeshift ceiling, trapping and pushing down the air. Spurts of rain come unexpectedly and Kyoto's dull urban streets erupt in green, reminding us all that no matter how many times the government mutilates the trees (something about being worried by the amount of leaves in autumn and the danger of overhanging branches.....sigh), they are still there and still thriving. In the same way, the rice fields squeeze themselves into the urban landscape, standing still while houses are constructed around them and roads cut through their neighbours. Of course their unique survival has a lot more to do with the massive subsidies farmers get than their necessity or Japaneseness.  As Tsuyu sweeps from Okinawa to Aomori, June heralds in the humidity that is a formidable feature of Japanese summers, infusing July and August with a breathless tropical heat rarely felt to such an extent in Europe. As Big Ben stops under a day of freakish heat in London, where temperatures reached 31 degrees, spare a thought that this will be a cool day in Kyoto in less than a few weeks time.

27 05 05 - 07:14 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

Ben Franklin and the Bamboo

Looking out of the window in front of my desk at Kunimatsu Elementary School I can see a bamboo grove, nestled in between housing complexes, surviving when the rest of the mountain was stripped, flattened and swallowed up. It demands attention purely because it is so out of place. Bamboo in fact is pretty much out of place in the terms of Japan's modern landscape despite being the hardiest, most fantastic plant (tree?). There is a reason for the survival of this meagre grove. It is famous, incredibly famous if the stories are true. (more)

27 05 05 - 03:16 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

Rokuchuugakko

So this is my new work place, Roku-chuu School. Like most Japanese schools it is not very remarkable, except for the fact that it lies in the precint of Narita Fudosan Shrine, a massive Shinto Shrine. There are 700 students: the first years in the north building, the second years in the west and the third years in the east (teachers in the south). All the buildings are unconnected so when it rains it is very much a case of grabbing your papers, throwing them over your head and running for the next covered walkway. And as rainy season is here in under a week, I think I will be doing this a lot.

26 05 05 - 05:43 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

Animal Caution

Seen on the playground plains of Japan, trotting noisily through the mazelike back streets of the suburbs, these pack animals are distinctive by their bright black or red shells. Oblivious of the world about them as they chatter and squeal in their groups, four or five of these seemingly harmless creatures are capable of taking down a fully grown adult. Varying in size from micro to middling, they are a common site all over Japan. While they have no special powers, their incredibly dextrous fingers from continuous game playing allow them to cling their prey into submission. Most sleepy first thing in the morning, they are nontheless dangerous at this time. If cornered by a single animal you may try using popular anime to throw them off your scent and distract them. Pokemon and Naruto are particularly successful. You should slowly back away, turn and run. It is, however, unlikely to find them without their pack and so should not be approached. They are weak alone, but together prove a formidable force. Elementary school children are a dangerous foe indeed.
   Yes, it is that time again. My one monthly visits to local elementary schools in Narita.

26 05 05 - 01:24 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

Bride and Groom

With the greatest pleasure and biggest grin, I want to say congratulations to Miss Louisa Daniels and Mr Jason Scott Bagshaw on their upcoming wedding. I miss Louisa very much and have to say that Jason is the luckiest guy to have snagged the fantastic and most desirable Miss Daniels. The wedding will be on 29th July. Fingers crossed for your dress fittings and the last minute preparations. Really sad that I have been missing out on everything up until now, but will be sailing, hiking, jogging, climbing, flying, gliding, swimiming and hopping my way back to Blighty across two continents for the big day. A mean cook, smooth Sonic player, wine guzzling, cleanliness obsessed babe, who made me laugh at the phrase 'blood on the walls' for its sheer musical genius. Love you Louisa. Good luck and congratulations.

25 05 05 - 05:51 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

Turbulent Times

  Last January a student who had graduated the previous Spring walked into his old junior high school and attacked students with a knife before turning it on a teacher, killing him. His motives were hazy, though he held a grudge against the school for his past indescretions. It was noteworthy if only for the fact that the teacher was killed. Neither the student's violence nor his age were particularly newsworthy. The boy was just the last in a long list of students snapping and venting frustrations at their peers and teachers.
Japan enjoys an envied position in terms of student discipline and dedication to their studies, but by no means escapes bullying nor the indifference growing in the classroom. Whether these tragic attacks are a hint at the disillusionment of Japanese youth, of the outdated traditions that persevere, the stifling rules of society or the economic insecurities that face the majority of graduates nowadays is not clear.
  In earnest each student is disciplined to conform, teachers pressurised to behave more and more like absentee parents during the day. Although the education system itself strives to modernise, it does so whilst at the same time maintaining the unbending traditions that make it so anachronistic in today's society. Teachers find themselves up against greater and greater challenges as they impose the will of the school while trying to cope with the needs of a much changed youth. As in England and America, the generations are more and more alien to one another and so it is often difficult to see things from the perspective of young adults.
  The fact that such violence and anger explodes in junior high school is perhaps unsurprising when you consider that at elementary school students are given a free reign, which is abruptly stripped from them when they graduate to junior school. Japanese youth go through waves of education that simultaneously gives them a voice and freedom one moment, the next taking it away and enforcing it under rigid rules. Whilst treated like children, students are often expected to behave like adults.
  I work in the same city in which the teacher was stabbed four months ago. The city government was in shock after this event and it took extraordinary measures to try and appease stunned parents. Each elementary school was given a security guard to keep watch every day. At the commencement of homeroom each morning the gates are closed until the toll of the final bell. Each guest is grilled before being allowed to enter the school grounds. Yet because of inadequate training, the majority of teachers do not know how to open the eletronic gates, let alone understand what the gate bell sounds like.
  It is sad that school feels closed off to the community and that anyone not a part of the school must be treated with suspicion. I am not saying that I disagree with all these measures, just that each school looks like a prison now with its 1970s buildings and high fences. In some way I often look at my students and think that perhaps the solution to violence in schools is by addressing the problems in each classroom rather than fearing what is outside it. The supression of emotions in regard to the group is disheartening. In communication class students often feel the mental restraints of what they can and can't say lifted, more comfortable in expressing themselves (no matter how limited their vocabulary), able to ignore their teachers far reaching and deep embedded expectations of them for a moment. Although we can never prevent events outside our control from taking place, maybe reform and renewal should begin within, listening to what the students of today want, and need, and expect. And surely are entitled.
  Sorry this note is a bit too long. As I come to work in Japanese schools for longer and longer I find these ideas taking hold. Maybe they are not all correct, but in my experience most of them are. Japan is not the only country who is perhaps failing its youth in some areas, it is just that I have first hand knowledge of Japan and so can make a judgement. The events in Neyagawa were shocking and the government is still uncomfortable about answering questions concerning it, walking on eggshells in the hope that people will forget it. I know I won't.

25 05 05 - 01:16 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

Scagba, Hagra and Parker Road! (A note to Louisa, Beth, Kevin and Steve)

Four short years since we hoisted our saddle bags and trekked off into the great blue yonder. Louisa Daniels is in charge of traffic safety for the entire stretch of the British Isles, responsible for every child chasing a ball from behind an icecream van into an oncoming Corvette. Kevin Oliver is encamped upon his research ship, entombed within the ice-laden wastes of Svalbad. Beth Ambrose is leaving credit card debt in not one or two countries, but three or four continents. Steve Walsh is working his way through the ranks of a law firm, studying monkey and space law (presumably for the first capuchin astronaut). I meanwhile, am teaching the up and coming sumo wrestlers, geisha and company presidents of tomorrow.  But those four quiet years have blinkered us into sighing with relief, of trying hard to strike out a new future and forgetting the great battle we survived. The war has been over for as long as it raged. A battle fought in such insignificant surroundings as Parker Road and the laboratories of UEA campus. Saving the world has scarred us deeply, but those wounds were healing and our lives were playing out.
The death cries of the weasels were fading into distant memories, no longer waking us in the middle of night, cold sweat and fear dripping from our dreams. Weasel! Weasel! Weasel! Pushed back to the deepest depths of the Amazon, the Hagra worshipping hounds of death have been biding their time, swelling their numbers, waiting until their nemesis had vanished into the murk of adulthood. But we have been foolish, too sure of ourselves, arrogant and ignorant of the coming storm. While we planned marriage and mortgage and children, they stacked their cards against us. Now they have begun pouring from the Amazon, flowing over hill and mountain, through rivers and forests until the bright lights of ports beckoned. Boat by boat, ship by ship they have stormed Asia.
It is time friends to tell you that what I have feared is now true. The weasel balls have returned and the descendants of Scagba must unite against the hordes of Hagra.
Japanese shops begin to stock the fiends and children welcome them into their homes. Soon the battle will begin and we must be ready. We are complacent and they know it. The chants begin in the night, whispering through Kyoto. Weasel! Weasel! Weasel!
The shadow of Hagra is upon us...
Ramblings of a mad man? Or the reappearance of a novelty toy, remembering rainy days in the UEA computer lab texting Louisa and housemates at Parker Road.

24 05 05 - 06:14 - kieren - kyonoki| one comment - § ¶

Kingyo Calamity

Goodbye Egg and Brain, wonderful goldfish, swum to the great murky pond in the sky.
Like the hamsters we had in our youth, who died in dramatic and tragically comic ways (my own hamster went bald, my friend's ran off a balcony in its play ball), it is with a sigh and a shrug that we mourn the passing of a goldfish. No matter how loved, there is some deep resignation in us that they are the pet equivalent of lemmings, all rushing gleefully towards the cliff edge. Please note that this is a misconception...lemmings generally do not mean to commit mass suicide, they are just easily led and it only takes one sociopathic and evil lemming to spark off a furry waterfall of doom.
Goldfish can live for many years, but rarely make it to a ripe old age. There are the all too common cases of overfeeding, fungi, or in the case of Tomomi, dropping fish down three flights of stairs during a move in a Hong Kong housing complex. In my own family, our fish disappeared one by one over a Summer, picked off by a grass snake cunningly curled up within the brickworking. A snake that was caught and safely released in a nearby woods after my brother and I gawped at the size of the reptile. Not to break any illusions, but I always considered grass snakes small green things that could curl up in the palm of your hand, not metre long hydras from the depths of hell, clearing out countryside ponds at their leisure.
But if these tales are very much a case of been there, done it, then Hiroe has a story to top any you have every heard. It pretty much takes the biscuit. Her father loves goldfish and has kept them all his life. He has a penchant for the big tennis ball sized and shaped fish who look as if they have more brains on the outside than in. Some months after buying them, he decided to clean the tank. Because of their size he filled up his bath and kept them safe while he scrubbed away the algae. Now, while he was emerged in slime and gunk, his wife peered into the bathroom and noticed that the bath was full. Here is where we would expect the obvious conclusion...the plug was pulled, or else his wife stripped off and jumped into a nasty surprise. However this is Japan and baths are often left filled for days, the water reused by each family member as they are showered and clean before they bath. So she simply switched on that unique feature of Japanese bathrooms, the heater. Hiroe's father, proud of his work and admiring the gleaming tank, went to scoop up the fish and found carefully boiled pets floating and ready to eat.
Let this be a tail of caution to you fish lovers.
Egg and Brains were loved a lot. We are not sure why they died, but  we miss them. Grace lives on. Black lips and all.

24 05 05 - 05:22 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

Rain gods and Umbrellas

Before people turn their thoughts to wading in the rivers and lakes of Arashiyama and Biwa, before they hike to the cool climes of the mountains, escaping the bowled humidity of the city, it will be time to root through belongings to find elusive umbrellas gathering dust. The rainy season is just around the corner, waiting to infuse Spring with the tropical heat of Summer. Chances are though that no matter how many umbrellas you gather up, it will not be enough to see off umbrella theft, and the cyclonic winds that batter, break and send them sailing up into the sky. Surely there is a god that holds on to all these umbrellas and stockpiles them in an immense mountain in a secluded part of Japan. There is no other country on earth that sells umbrellas in such abundance for such a small fee.
With the comfortable cherry-blossom Spring over, subtle hints of the heat to come emerge without much notice. Salary men shirk their jackets, the trains hum with air conditioning and the sky drains its colour to that haze that is neither blue nor grey. Everything loses the crispness of April and May to that overexposed look of June and July. Unlike today, people in the past would abandon the city for the country and cross over the mountain passes to escape the soupy heat of Kyoto. With all our airconditioning we think we have the Summer tamed, but maybe we are not quite that smart. If you spend just a few minutes inside a temple you will feel how cool it is. Just wood and plaster and open air. No modern fangled technology and no sweat.
I guess that Rhod and I are luckier than most people. We live on the very edge of Western Kyoto, next door to what used to be the Western Gateway to the city proper. In a few short minutes we can reach Arashiyama and can swim in the river or else walk into the mountains. While people throng to the Kamo river to sprawl, relax and wait for the elusive Kyoto breeze, still it is possible to escape the heat in a few short minutes.  Kyoto is perfect, for it is still possible to find a peaceful space to be alone, away from the hustle, away from the secret drone of the city. Maybe in such a space there is a mountain of umbrellas, a heaven of parasols.

24 05 05 - 03:57 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

Beginning

I guess everything starts with a mild feeling of homesickness. Not the severe sort that makes you want to pack up and leave, nor the kind that comes from feeling that everyday is an uphill struggle. Rather it is a gentle tug telling you it is time to make the journey home to recharge and reaquaint yourself with those you left behind. This feeling of homesickness makes me remember that for all our new experiences and adventure, there are things we will miss, things we will forget, others we will regret. For me, I get the sense that although I speak to the people closest to me regularly, that I only ever get a snapshot of them in time. When I return and see them again I see that there are missing pieces between these flashes in time. Things that I will never know about, the small things, the unimportant things that nontheless make up daily life and bonds. Time is the greatest cheater of all, it cons away pretty much everything close to us.
So it seems that to make some amends and to bridge the distances, a website might be helpful. I could talk about things and show them rather than simple words. A lot that goes on in my life is pretty boring, but sometimes there are things that happen that I want to share and to do so is difficult. It is nice to know that I can take a picture in the morning and have it downloaded before anyone West of Moscow wakes up.
The idea of this website was to involve some of my closest friends in talking about Kyoto and combining four blogs into one. So each link reflects the personality and thoughts of a different person. So you have an English Junior High School Teacher, a Welsh Computer Programmer (who without, none of this would have been possible, thanks Rhod, wink), a Dutch Flower Arranging Teacher and a Japanese Fashion Designer picking up the threads of this website.
We are not sure where we are going with this site, but we want everyone to be involved. Although it is about Japan, it is not really about Japan. Yes, I am not quite sure what I mean either.

23 05 05 - 06:06 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

Renewal

Japan has a saying that, depending on how old you are, a year can be good or bad. Three years for men and three years for women are considered to be bad. 25, 42 and 61 for men. 19, 33 and 37 for women. This is called Yakudoshi. I guess women get their bad luck over with early on. When praying on the New Year, people pray that their bad luck years will pass smoothly. Last year was one of those years. I went from 25 to 26 and maybe I didn't pray hard enough because bad luck pretty much sweated it out through the summer and through the fall. The Japanese celebrate the impermenance of things, with their modern thinking hinged around the idea of the passing of the seasons and a cycle of loss and renewal. What is dead is reborn. We all get chances to start again. Sometimes those changes are big and sometimes small. I am lucky that for me this is a new journey. New job, and home and partner and friends...especially friends.

23 05 05 - 05:48 - kieren - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

James and Sam

We haven't seen a lot of Sam the Eagle recently. We have, however, seen his likeness walking the streets of Kyoto. None other than good friend to all at Kyonoki, James M.

Check it out in our new galleries

22 05 05 - 04:57 - rhod - kyonoki| No comments - § ¶

The blue one is coming

This site is about to get a whole lot more technical, and adventurous, than we initially planned...

20 05 05 - 08:22 - rhod - default| No comments - § ¶