Kyoto House

We are now settled into our house sit for the remainder of our time in Kyoto. We have it pretty easy here because there are just three cats to feed twice a day. The cats have access to the outside so there is no litter box to clean. There are no dogs to walk, no house plants to water, and, this being winter, there is no yard maintenance. As I said: easy.

The house itself is an old 1950s wooden Japanese house. It's not without its charms with wood floors, tatami mats, and shoji screens. But it also has its quirks and shows signs of a neglectful landlord (the family we are house sitting for are renters). The house definitely shows its age as it has no insulation and no central heating. And it is COLD here. The saving grace is a pair of kerosene heaters used to keep a couple of individual rooms warm, the most important of which is the living area where we spend our waking hours when we're not out sightseeing. If we keep the doors to the room closed and the kerosene tank full the heater can keep up with the thin, drafty walls and we can stay cozy. Deborah fairly freezes when she's working in the kitchen, however, and has learned to cook really, really fast.

The other heater is a smaller portable unit kept in the bedroom but we don't run it when we're asleep – just a bit before we get in bed to take the edge off the chill. We stay toasty cuddling up under a pile of blankets and with the occasional boost of body heat from one of the resident cats, but middle-of-the-night trips to the freezing bathroom are a thing to be dreaded.

Our host family consists of an Italian/British professor, his Canadian/Japanese wife, who is a teacher, a two-year old toddler, and a 3-month old baby. They are off to Thailand on holiday while we look after their three cats Mimu, Sookie, and Atticus. Mimu is the most social and hangs out with us a fair bit. Sookie likes attention too but seems to prefer to hang out in the unheated upstairs area, although she is warming up to us more and more. Atticus we were told has taken to spending more and more time outside or away and that we might not see him at all during our stay. So far that has been the case. His dinner usually is gone by the next morning, but who knows who is eating it.

This house is in the northern part of the city, not too far from a subway station so we can get around fairly easily. It's not a palace but it will serve us well as a base for exploring this beautiful city. And of course the price is right.

 Hard to see behind the trees, but this is our temporary home in Japan.

 Living room.

 Upstairs

 Very steep stairs.  My feet only fit sideways on the treads.

 

 Sookie

 Mimu - preheating our bed

 The doorways are all low. To avoid a major concussion I have to duck constantly or just continually walk around hunched like I have an advanced case of osteoporosis.

 Sookie hanging out on the roof.