The old wooden bridge wasn’t too bad at all. Actually, I loved it for the natural material and the simple appearance matched the atmosphere of the wooden hut in the countryside. However, it’s time to build stronger and safer iron bridge because the house will be lent to a family with a toddler.
They have two cars and it isn’t a good idea to park them on the steep and narrow sloped road across the stream. The bridge is strong and wide enough to bear the weight of a heavy 4WD minivan, so that they can pull their cars into the premises. Naturally, it cost me helluva money but I’ve gotta do it as the proprietor of the house…
Only one person came yesterday to build the bridge, but he was a man of dexterity, and finished his job within one day! I, on the other hand, have been working on my house renovation for more than half a year, and it’s not quite done, yet… Uhhh.. will be done today– hopefully.
While I was fixing the broken weathercock, doing an aerial act on top of a ladder leaning against the steep roof, my son flew his drone.
A birdeye view of the weathercock and me
The ridge of the roof, by the way, was about twenty feet above the ground, and the ladder was actually three shorter ladders tied together in order to extend the length to reach the tip of the roof– naturally very unstable, and of course it was so scary to climb up to the top of it. Well, somebody gotta do it, anyway.
Through with the weathercock mending, I moved on to a painting job of the roof. I had to put the long, swinging ladder on a gable side, and the ladder was even more unstable, but I had no choice to use it for painting the gable edge in white.
Thanks to my effort the white trims of the gables looked good, and the entire roof turned out very nice. The weathercock certainly added an air to the house as well.
In Japan, fireworks are supposed to be appreciated mainly in summertime. The cherry blossom season here in Kyoto is over but it is not summer yet, and the air temperature had dropped down to 4 degree Celsius even before sunset. So, when I happened to bump into the unexpected and untimely fireworks over Takaragaike pond this evening, I thought I was seeing things.
A music-story-telling unit called “Nocanan” (my friend Haruhiko Saga and his wife Takako) will perform at the former Tea House in the Nishijin district, Kyoto, on April 21.
To compensate the audience for the expensive ticket, I am going to give away everyone of the audience a music CD containing Saga’s Morin Khuur tunes.
He played the “Oshirasama Morin Khuur” I made while traveling in the Tohoku and Hokkaido regions one and a half years ago. I was so happy that he liked my work and its sound. I almost cried out when he played the rough and rustic instrument just for me in a dark midnight park where no one else is around. “Making of Oshirasama Morin Khuur”
In the morning of my departure to complete the last leg of my Tohoku-Hokkaido jurney, Saga kindly recorded five pieces of music, which are in the CD above-mentioned. The CDs have been burned with the labels and jackets printed, and packaged already.
The view from the stageThe side view of the make-shift theaterThe stage for twosome
Aside from the CD, I have set up the stage in the former Tea House. It is so small and can accommodate only 15 people as the audience. That was the reason for the high entrance fee. Although small, the stage has the wooden floor made of hinoki planks that are considered to be the best material for the stage board. thus the term “hinoki butai (hinoki stage)” = on the first-class stage, or more metaphorically, be in the limelight.
Now that the show biz stuff is ready, only thing yet to be done is to tidy my place. The house is now full of mess! (and of course no photo of it here). I have been busy fixing my another house in Hanase and neglected the house in Haradani, which the Sagas are going to stay in. However, I am not necessarily good at putting things away… and the time is running out…
phew!
The old wooden bridge wasn’t too bad at all. Actually, I loved it for the natural material and the simple appearance matched the atmosphere of the wooden hut in the countryside. However, it’s time to build stronger and safer iron bridge because the house will be lent to a family with a toddler.
