Pause

There's too much that's happened in the past months to recall it all. Maki sang at the attached cafe, and I went to Biwa-ko Hall to see Ando Yuko play, which wasn't bad but being an 'acoustic' performance she never left her chair, so hardly dynamic. I witnessed a few parades and festivals, and went to see Yasaka pagoda up close one night. Went on a wild goose chase through Otsu and Kyoto trying, and failing, to cash an international cheque before discovering that I could access money from my Australian bank account through my key card. Participated in three 'English conversation' classes making 1500 yen for each, but find doing it so stressful that I may have to turn down any future offers. I've gone to clubs four times since May 20th, which deserve a separate post. They couldn't be considered successful outings.

I've extended my visa, which was a relatively painless process, and pushed back my return flight to December 1st, however in a months time money is going to become a serious problem. It would be responsible to go to the Kyoto City International Foundation within a week to browse their job listings and seriously follow potential leads. I've decided that it was financially impossible to visit a doctor excepting an emergency and so have switched to an alternate heart medication which I had, however there is still only a three month supply of it and many symptoms persist. Work is a drag, but bearable, though I've been sleeping poorly, and have been considerably depressed for close to a month. For that, and financial reasons, I haven't left the building much and am becoming increasingly aware of the fact that I'm not making the most of my opportunity in being here. I've also found it impossible to drag myself away from the internet.

Kusuri

Only possessing recently expired Australian medical scripts, and with just one weeks worth of pills remaining I'm needing to make a doctor's appointment. Finding a list of English-speaking doctors was easy enough, however when I asked the hostel's reception how much a consultation generally cost I was told over 10,000 yen. This is absolutely shocking. Financially impossible or not I hardly have a choice, and will need to place some calls soon. My condition has been particularly bad over the past few days, and below average for the past three weeks, this additional stress hardly helps.

Yesterday I was playing with Google Earth and took a snapshot of Kyoto from my current location with 3D buildings enabled, then tried to recreate the image from the shin-kan rooftop. Technology can be great, I hope that google maps, earth, and street-view continue to improve.

Unexpectedly I may receive information on last week's cute Canadian-Japanese girl tomorrow, but I think ever trying to chase that up (at least after the first day) is something I'll come to regret - I mustn't advertise how poorly adjusted I am.

Kamogawa

Every couple of days I walk down the Kamogawa from Shichijo to the hyaku-en shop at the corner of Gojo and Kawabata-dori. The life there is wonderful. On most days pigeons, crows and eagles will be flying overhead with big herons, egrets, black diving birds and of course ducks ('kamo') settled on the water below - or idling on the banks if rains have made the current too strong. Groups of catfish - I've seen one at least a meter long - lay still beneath the bridges where last Sunday I spotted a small turtle paddling around.

Just as I started out on Tuesday a fairly fluent but demented elderly man grasped my arms as I passed and shouted "Welcome to Kyoto". Pulling several crumpled slips of paper covered in writing from his pocket he pressured a 45-minute English lesson out of me. "He is by nature a scoundrel... Why 'nature'? Nature is birds and trees and environment. Nature has more than one meaning? How many? How many meanings does it have?!", "It is high-time you went to bed. Why is it past tense? Why not 'Go to bed, now!'?!". He proceeded to demand my assessment of language teaching in Japan and how it should be remedied.

An adorable and friendly dog added a little colour to work yesterday, but I began feeling ill after heading out at 6:30, going north to Nijo via Teramachi then back down Kiyamachi, turning left across the river after passing some pink salons and following it to Shichijo. I need to force myself back to the river the next night I'm feeling healthier. The warm air, coolness from the running water, shadowy river grasses and walls of lanterns on the far side - there's no competition for it. Unfortunately my little camera is all but useless at night.

Katsuragawa

Headed out yesterday (April 30) planning to go west on Shichijo, over the river and to loop around Katsura Villa to Katsura-eki.

The trip down Shichijo was far longer and less pleasant than expected, and I lost half an hour walking up a channel adjacent to Katsuragawa which I'd mistaken for a the real thing before hitting a dead end. After an unnecessarily wide loop down I went south along the east bank imagining that I'd eventually hit a pedestrian bridge, significantly misjudging my relation to the Villa, and unaware that I was heading down a narrow spit with no bridges along either side. It was just after rounding the tip and being startled by a snake basking on the canal ridge ahead of me that I turned back to trace my path. A middle-aged woman walking a bicycle passed me, and it was only watching her disappear around the corner that had my conscience take leash and I chased her down to offer a presumably incomprehensible warning.

Despite all that the river itself was nice, and unlike the Kamogawa it's clearly a place for play. People were fishing, bug-catching, jogging and cycling and playing tennis on old courts. Over a rise kids were participating in a soccer meet and towards the Hachijo-dori bridge were tens of children in baseball uniforms with mums sitting by strollers on a large tarp next to the long row of bikes.

Eventually I took a convoluted path south through Katsura and over the JR tracks, getting to Katsuragawa-eki from the opposite side (rather than the far closer Hankyu Katsura station) and returned to Kyoto the saner way, having taken about 4.5 hours and gotten nicely sunburned.

I wasted time in the building's common area until 11:25 hoping to manufacture a run-in with the impossibly cute Canadian-Japanese girl whose dinner invitation I'd crazily passed up the night before. When I went to the cafe to drink away my sorrows and related that saga to workmates I was told she'd been in the bar and left 10 minutes before I'd arrived (and was flying home to Quebec the next day).