Ever since we were first in Kyoto four years ago, we have been keen to revisit a little shop which sold local products beside the Philosopher's Path. The latter gained its name from one of Japan's most famous philosophers, who was said to practice meditation while walking this 2km route on his daily commute to Kyoto University. It's a gorgeous stroll, beside a small canal, on a path lined with pretty trees and vegetation which are lovely when in flower.
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| The start of the Philosopher's Path |
We caught a bus to the start of the path, which is right beside Ginkaku-ji Temple. Again, we had visited this temple in 2019, so had decided not to revisit. However at the last minute we thought we should. And what a good choice that was. It includes a particularly spectacular zen garden. Second-time around, it was every bit as good.
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| Ginkaku-ji Temple |
From there we continued alongside the canal, stopping occasionally to look at the odd gallery or shop beside the route. This is where we were very keen to see the Bougatei store. It sold Japanese handcrafted creations, particularly bags of all shapes and sizes, fans, purses and so on. The bright colours and patterns of the bags had a serious wow factor. It was therefore hugely disappointing to find that the shop was closed. We knew (thanks to Google) it had been closed during March for renovations but it had planned to reopen in April. Darn.
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| Artist on the bridge |
However, we did come across an older Japanese man making pencil drawings on one of the small bridges across the canal. We bought a small picture from him last time. We showed him a photo we took of him in the same spot in 2019 and he was chuffed. We bought another, and slightly bigger, picture from him this time.
Not far from here we headed slightly off-route to visit the Kuonji Temple. It being 1pm by this time we were feeling pretty peckish. Queues of hungry customers were waiting outside the few eateries in the neighbourhood but John found one on Google just 100m away down a side-street. The owner welcomed us profusely into his empty restaurant (which seated maybe 10 people) and proceeded to cook up one of the best meals we have had so far on the trip. John ordered octopus balls, as you would expect! I ordered okonomiyaki, a savoury egg dish with cabbage and other ingredients. The guy constructed the pancake on a hotplate and then laid it on a heated griddle in the middle of our table, where it quickly finished cooking. Both dishes were simply delicious and we went away very happy.
After all that, Kuonji Temple was closed, so we took a few photos of the garden over the top of the outside walls. There was a real treat in store next though, when we walked the short distance to Ninzenji Temple complex. Having visited the main temple in 2019, this time we paid to access the Tenjuan Temple Garden. I think we had run out of energy last time we were there. The typical entrance fee to a temple/shrine/garden is around $6 throughout Japan. The zen garden here, which was begun in 1267, was simply delightful. Camellias and rhododendrons were in flower, as were some of the azaleas, and red-leaved maple trees appeared to have autumn foliage. It was very pretty.
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| Ninjenzi Temple |
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| Kounji Temple |
There are in fact a whole series of temples along the base of these foothills, and they are not too distant from the centre of Kyoto. We opted to walk home rather than bus, and enjoyed continuing to stroll further along the waterway, past Kyoto Zoo and poked into some interesting little shops on the way. We never seem to make it home before 5pm. A short rest, then a quick meal at a local eatery.
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| John's dinner set |
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| Kodaiji Temple |
Like last time, we caught a glimpse of a real geisha. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance for a decent photo because she ducked into a building further down the alley. We walked up the alley and could just make out through the screens a group of men and geisha, all having a great time judging by the conversation and laughter. So, geisha clearly live on...
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| The geisha's party house |
It's now 10pm and for a supposedly quiet day, we somehow ended up walking 18km. That's our biggest mileage so far. We have another 'quiet' day planned for tomorrow. I'm worried! Dinner was 50m away, and rather good.
