Felicia Fredlund

Writer. Editor. Reader.

2019

Picture of the Month: A Year in Japan #5

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Flower arrangement with plant penguins at Odori park in Sapporo, 2019
Cute flower arrangement at Odori park in Sapporo, Hokkaido

In these Picture of the Month posts about my year in Japan, I have mentioned how terribly hot and wet summer is in Japan. The truth of the matter though is that Japan isn’t small enough that it is the same absolutely everywhere, even if you don’t count Okinawa (tropical).

I live in Kyoto, on the main island of Japan (Honshu). My first time in Japan was in Fukuoka on Kyushu, the (bigger) southern island.

There is also a big island to the north, called Hokkaido. Its climate is fairly similar to Sweden, although they have more humidity in summer and, you know, typhoons passing by.

This is where I escaped for a glorious long weekend. Leaving 38 degrees Celsius behind for 20-25C. Basically getting to perfect summer temperatures, if you are me.

Suddenly I loved going out for long walks again. Sitting outside to read or write poetry. Walking until my feet hurt.

Visiting a shrine, and some other places.

A small church/chapel with a squirrel statue on top
The Squirrel Church/Church of Squirrels in a garden outside Obihiro, Hokkaido, somewhere. (I don’t know where.)

And for one day I hoped a train and visited the hometown (Obihiro) of a Japanese person I’ve gotten to know. She lives in Kyoto, same as me, but was visiting home for a little while in summer.

She and her mother took me around to a beautiful garden and forest outside Obihiro. But first they took me to a restaurant where I had the best tempura I’ve ever had. So delicious.

The garden we visited had both a Japanese garden area, but it was bigger with other sections that I don’t know how I’d define. I don’t know if they belonged to a specific garden tradition. If they do, I don’t know those traditions.

Squirrel carrying three small fruits of some kind
A squirrel in another area of the garden that has a Squirrel Church.

It was gorgeous though and we had a rain free day. Quite a surprise since I’d actually had to go a day later than planned because the trains had been cancelled the day before due to heavy rain outside Sapporo (where I stayed).

After that garden we went to a cafe, and then walked through a smaller forest with some sculptures and small houses with art.

A very enjoyable day and a lot of Japanese practice, which is great. I hope by the time I finish the year here, I can hold casual conversations fairly easily in Japanese, right now they are certainly not easy and don’t feel very casual since I have to work so hard, haha.

Beautiful lotus in full bloom at park in front of Akarenga in Sapporo
Beautiful blooming lotus outside Akarenga, an old government building (not in use) in Sapporo, Hokkaido.

Picture of the Month: A Year in Japan #4

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Gion festival float in Kyoto
The Gion festival floats are very prettily illuminated.

In the middle of July, during the hottest time in Kyoto, there is a big festival, Gion Festival, across multiple days with two parades.

PARADES!

When the temperature is guaranteed to be 35C or more. I don’t get it.

Thankfully, the festival have some things happening in the evening when it is still way too hot (it doesn’t cool off except for a couple of degrees), but at least no sun beats down on my head.

So off I went with a friend.

The evening activity is something that happens the three nights leading up to each parade. The parade floats are set up and illuminated. Around this are food stall, souvenir stalls, and some shrine stalls.

I went during the days before the second parade, a much smaller event, with almost no food stalls and very few people. A huge point in its favor because leading up to the first/bigger parade, the evening events are usually packed.

And since it is summer, I cap this post with a picture of some really pretty ice cream that can be bought in the Kawaramachi area in Kyoto. I don’t know if the waffle cone is hand made, but the decorations are, and the soft ice cream (lemon flavored for me) was delicious.

It was so yummy.

Pretty and delicious ice cream in Kyoto
Prettiest ice cream I ever ate.

Picture of the Month: A Year in Japan #3

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Japanese Garden at Nijo Castle in Kyoto
Inside Nijo castle grounds: A beautiful Japanese garden right by a tea house with excellent matcha and sweets.

The time to visit Japan is not in summer. Trust me on this.

Kyoto during this year in Japan for me have been 30+ degrees Celsius from early June, and July and August stayed at a steady 35-38 degrees throughout. Plus humidity on top of that.

I haven’t minded the rain. I do like rain. The typhoons are a bit extreme though.

So as spring melted into summer, my sightseeing went from some (because settling takes time) to none in fairly short order. But I did get out for one thing in June.

Nijo castle in central Kyoto.

I could go look up all kinds of facts about this castle, but I didn’t learn them at the time, and didn’t need them to enjoy visiting it.

After getting inside and passing through a couple of walls, there is a big old building. Gorgeous really and inside are even more gorgeous things: wall paintings.

While Europe went more of paintings, Japan painted on their walls and on screens (and door screens). More gold meant richer, but they also went for white with ink, more in the style of Chinese ink drawing, although Japan developed some of their own techniques too in that area.

Although the inside was absolutely gorgeous and most everything was reproductions, we weren’t allowed to take pictures. Sorry, but you can probably find pictures online of what they would be like.

Some with flowers, made to different seasons. One had tigers. Those are just a couple I could remember of the top of my head.

Outside this main building were beautiful gardens and some ruins of older structures. There was also a big building under renovation that I have no idea what it looked like.

Since I’m more of a garden/park person when it comes to sightseeing, I truly enjoyed this part and had many pretty pictures, making it hard to only pick a couple.

To cap of my visit, about thirty minutes before closing and when I was just about to leave. It started pouring, like seriously pouring rain. Thankfully I happened to be inside the gift shop at the time.

Luckily for me, it slackened off about twenty minutes later so I didn’t have to bike for 20 minutes in pouring rain.

Moat at Nijo Castle in Kyoto
I really love moats. The mix of water and greenery, and often walls and bridges. This is also from Nijo castle.

Picture of the Month: A Year in Japan #2

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Kamogawa river in Kyoto at night
The Kamogawa river in Kyoto at night.

For the first time in my life, I would officially reside in another country, Japan. I have stayed up to three months in another country before (Ireland and Japan) so I was a temporary resident there, but more like a long stay tourist.

I’ve also stayed about two months in several more places.

This time, as noted in the first PotM: A Year in Japan edition, I had/have a one year (and three months) visa, provided I study Japanese during that time.

For the first two months or so, I had two goals in mind: see as many cherry blossom trees I could stand and settle into my new life in Kyoto (my new apartment and as a student).

And that is basically what I did through April and towards the end of May.

I live close to the Kamogawa river, and when the temperatures aren’t consistently above 25 degrees Celsius, I often go for a walk along it. It has beautiful cherry blossom trees, and I look forward to seeing it in autumn glory too.

I also took the opportunity to see some geisha/maiko dances that are mostly held in spring (with a couple at other times of the year), and I can highly recommend it. Beautiful shows.

It was also in May that I turned 30 years old. No more twenties for me.

Kamogawa river in Kyoto during the day
Same river as above, not the same place and not the same type of day. A lovely place to walk at.

Picture of the Month: A Year in Japan #1

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Cherry blossoms in Ueno Park
Ueno Park (Tokyo) shows off beautifully in spring.

A few years ago when I talked to my dad about potentially living in another country than Sweden, mentioning a few examples, he replied that he would miss the shifting seasons if he lived in a country that didn’t have four distinct ones like Sweden (and many other places).

Back then I didn’t know if I agreed or not.

Then a couple of years later, I became a digital nomad for a while. My work was—and is—completely mobile. All I need is a laptop and some internet.

Reading up on other digital nomads, I came to realize that they always seemed to chase the summer, and so did most travel companies that created work-vacation trips specifically for that crowd.

I was bored in no time.

Warm and hot (ugh!), warm and hot, warm and hot. That was the weather. Always, because when autumn came, flee to the equator, when winter comes to the northern hemisphere, flee to the south one.

It wasn’t that the weather alone bored me. But my skin missed feeling a chill. I missed seeing spring green and new plants; and autumn-colored trees and kicking through dry leaves.

I missed wearing sweaters and not being hot every time I walked outside.

Turns out my dad was very much right.

It made me realize I wanted to experience all seasons, regularly in my life. And since I’d loved Japan as a tourist a couple of times, I really wanted to experience a whole year there. Their beautiful Japanese maples in full autumn colors. Winter when temperatures in many cities (I wanted to be in) would be slightly chilly but not cold (in my opinion). And spring.

Wonderful, beautiful spring with its cherry blossoms.

The only thing I didn’t look forward to (and I was correct!) was Japanese summer. Hot, hot, hot, and humid, humid, humid.

Anyway, I got a student visa to study Japanese for a year, and off I went in April 2019. And these are a couple of pictures from my first couple of days in Tokyo, before I got to Kyoto where I would live for most of this year in Japan.

Cat figurines at Imado Shrine, Tokyo
This is the Imado shrine in the Asakusa area in Tokyo. One of the purported birthplaces for the lucky cat figure (maneki-neko).