Day 2: The Philosopher's Walk

A map of eastern Kyōto. Kyōto Station, Ginkaku-ji, the street below Ginkaku-ji, and the Philosopher's Walk are marked. The Walk extends south from Ginkaku-ji about a mile.

A portion of the map zoomed, showing Ginkaku-ji and the Philosopher's Walk. The Walk winds along the base of the hills on the edge of the city for a little more than a mile.

From Ginkaku-ji we turned south and walked south along the Philosopher's Walk. It's a mile long stone path that follows a winding canal. Apparently Kitarō Nishida, one of Japan's most important philosophers, would walk here during his daily meditations.

A stone canal about twelve feet across. Several inches of water run along the bottom. A stone path follows the edge of the canal, and shops are visible along the path.

Along the way we passed a shop that was selling t-shirts and mugs with cats on them. One of the shirts had a picture of a cat with a fish and this:

おいしいはしあわせ
Delicious is happiness.

This is philosophy even I can understand.

Ava rests on a bench along the Philosopher's Walk.

It was really hot.

Ava sits on a stone bench next to the path. She holds a water bottle wet with condensation.

Okay, quick language lesson. This is how my college Japanese textbook introduces weather:

晴れ hare: sunny, clear
曇り kumori: cloudy
雪 ame: rain
雨 yuki: snow
蒸し暑い mushiatsui: sultry, hot and humid

First, who uses "sultry" to talk about the weather? Second, what is "sultry" doing next to sunny, cloudy, and rainy? These are supposed to be fundamental weather types for introducing people to the language, yet the authors included "sultry, hot and humid" as basic vocabulary.

And then you visit Japan during the summer and learn that hot and humid is a fundamental weather type in Japan, and that after a while you really can only describe it as 蒸し暑い.

These cicadas, two or more inches long, are as much a part of the Japanese summer as anything. They sing a loud, high pitched, continuous noise. In wooded areas the noise will drown out conversation.

If you've ever watched a Japanese movie or anime and wondered why a forest or field was really noisy this is why.

They also fly. Sometimes straight at you.

A cicada, two inches long, sits on the trunk of a tree.

Kyōto has well over a thousand temples and shrines. Many of them are small, and we visited a few that we passed as we continued along the Philosopher's Walk.

We stopped briefly at one we think might have been for Ebisu, the god of fortune, fishermen, and fugu restaurants. We couldn't actually read anything, but there were a couple of flats of Yebisu beer left in offering at the altar and the resemblance had to be acknowledged.

A large, standing stone monolith. Its surface is covered with carved kanji characters.

A stone monolith stood in the shade in front of one of the small temples we visited. Its surface was carved with characters.

Ava for scale.

A close up of kanji characters carved into the stone monument.

To pray at a Shinto shrine you:

Put your money in the offering box
Ring the bell (the large cord next to Ava)
Bow twice
Clap your hands twice
Say your prayer, and think of the thing you are asking for
Bow once more

You definitely do not do the hokey pokey and shake it all about.

Ava stands outside a shrine, a wooden structure containing offerings and a statue of the god. A large cord, several inches in diameter, hangs from the ceiling.

Maybe we should have prayed at a shrine dedicated to the god of Posting Vacation Photos Faster.