Koyo is one of those Japanese words for which there is no English equivalent. It means, 'to view autumn leaves' - long O sound like apple core. like the sound a crow makes. Ko yo.
The leaves here arent playing around, they really are so beautiful! I must take pictures at my new favourite spot (glimpsed a week ago and investigated today). It is a gully running along side the water - you descend the stone steps and find yourself in a little public garden with benches underneath trees that have been trained to wind around the post and lintel of a pergola. From the gully the street and concrete of the city are invisible but you can see trees and leaves and misty mountains. Its really lovely.
Yesterday while I had my lunch a man came and sat next to me. I asked him if my cigarette bothered him (I can do that in Japanese!!) and he looked blank and then said "Chinese!" pointing to himself. Well that was that, we had no language at all in common. But we sat together all the same. He had brought chips for the beady greedy pigeons that were milling about and together we fed them and watched them impose their beady-eyed twitchy hierarchies on eachother. Pigeons really are quite hilarious.
Food here also changes with the season. Like anywhere, the summer fruits have become ridiculously expensive and autumn stuff - naatjies, persimmons and other unknowables - are coming into the shops. Drinks and sweets also change. The cold coffee in the vending machine is hot now and a good thing too! They are nice to hold. There is a boiled sweet brand called Chelsea that is green tea flavoured but, I now find out, only for summer. For autumn, the shops stock Chelsea's fall assortment: coffee and hot milk tea flavour . Yep, ceylon milk tea flavoured sweeties. they are delicious! In the office today my supervisor drew a fish for me that he says is a popular autumn meal - they are long and pointy nosed and cheap. They come cooked whole, skin all burnt and crunchy; I had one today for dinner. All its internal stuff was still intact and infused the meat with such a bitter black bile that it was inedible - possibly my first truly kak meal in Japan.
The cheap stockings that you can buy in Kombinis are now thick tights in plum and mustard and brown whereas before you found gauzy flesh coloured ones. Everyone and everything changes with the leaves it seems. In the spirit of autumnyness I went and bought myself a deep green woolen cardigan...that i promtply spilt oily ramen juice on. Bugger it! It was wool! Not knowing what Vanish looks like in this country, I might have to sew a felt bunny (in a warm autumnal hue) over the blotch. The white coat however, is doing well! I have worn it twice and managed to keep it away from food, beer and bike spokes.
I have been told the best leaves will be in about two weeks time so Im planning to go to either Miyajima or a park on a small island nearby called Setoda. Woudlnt one of you love to join me? I can offer you a futon, all expenses paid ferry ride to the Park and some delicious milk tea sweets. Please come and look at leaves with me.
for more autumn pics go here
