It’s the most wonderful time of the year… For me the Christmas music goes on from November 1 (along with some cheeky fairy lights), and then when December 1 comes round the tree goes up, the mince pies go in the oven and the merriment begins.
I love all the build up – the hours spent choosing the perfect presents and wrapping them, going for long walks in frosty nature, singing carols with gloved hands wrapped around hot mulled wine… Christmas is one of my very favourite times of year.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Japanese food. I eat it nearly every day. But when you haven’t been brought up in a rice culture. every now and then you crave something else.
We live in a tiny apartment here in Kyoto – far too small to dry our washing, so once or twice a week we pedal off to the launderette to get everything dried. And while our clothes are swirling around in the giant metal tumblers, we have the perfect excuse to spend 30 minutes across the road in Le Petit Mec, a patisserie so continental you’d think you were in Paris.
Great pizza, big sofas and cocktails or coffee! Just a short bike pedal from Ginkakuji Silver Pavilion, Boogaloo Cafe Hyakumanben is a great place to chill out for hours.
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Back in my days of having a ‘job’, my frequent response to the question “How are you?” was “I’m so busy”. Thinking back to those days, I even used to write that in emails to friends, as if being busy was my news and something to be proud of. What was that all about?
A couple of days after we arrived in Kyoto, my man and I went on a long cycle across the city (hence the dodgy outfit in the photo below!) and out west, through rice paddies and bamboo forests under a huge blue sky. I wanted to show him where I lived for a formative year when I studied here at the tender age of 19, doing homestay with a Japanese family.
I had written them a postcard and intended to pop it through their door, hoping to arrange to meet up some time soon. But when we turned into their road, my homestay mother was out in the street chatting to a neighbour. “Besu???” she cried. (There is no ‘th’ sound in the Japanese language so my name becomes Besu!) I was surprised she recognised me after more than 15 years, but she did right away. Within five minutes she had called over my homestay father (the sweetest old man ever), invited us in for sweet potatoes and tea, phoned her daughter, got the old photo albums out and got the neighbours round!
With my homestay parents, Mr & Mrs Ito, outside the house I lived in for a year aged 19
As we sat in their living room sipping tea I had a kaleidoscope of flashbacks – feeding fish sticks to their dog from the little kitchen table, making long distance calls to my family from the phone by the window (no Skype back then!), checking the bottom step of the staircase for letters that had arrived in thin blue airmail envelopes, being dressed in a kimono for my coming-of-age ceremony back when I was 20… one after another the memories came rushing back, and it was lovely to be able to share them with my man.
When we had finished up our tea and my man had polished off the last of the sweet potatoes, we and half the neighbourhood headed over to Heiankyo for a festival by Ikeshita pond, with more tea served by ladies in kimonos. What a lovely unexpected interlude that was – and such a blessing to know there are people in this city with whom we go way back.
Have you ever taken a night bus? It’s not the most comfortable way to travel – you have to sit in a chair for many hours (obviously) and even if you manage to sleep, you get woken every couple of hours at service stations when the driver stops for a rest. But even so, I kind of like the night bus.
Everyone is on a journey somewhere, heading to the big smoke for different reasons – perhaps for a job interview, to visit friends, to start a new life.
I love pressing my face against the steamed up window, watching the other night traffic whizzing past.
I love sitting in the dark with my iPod on, listening to Adele and thinking of random things.
And I love coming into the city at dawn, riding past the majestic Imperial Palace, seeing the capital wake up.
If you haven’t taken a night bus lately, why not try it? It really feels like an adventure.
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I’m on a big adventure in Japan right now. If you fancy an adventure of your own why not join me for the Do What You Love e-course? Shake things up, expand your comfort zone, nurture your playful spirit and feed your creative soul. Identify your passion and make it a greater part of your every day life! Find out more and register here. But hurry, class starts soon!
