Episode summary:
I spent a blissfully peaceful day in Kyoto just after New Year strolling along the Philosopher’s Path. I wrapped up warm, sat on benches and let nature relax me. I watched the slow movement of the canal water and listened to the song of a distant bird. If ever there was an idyllic spot for mindfulness, the Philosopher’s Path in winter must surely be it.
If you want to know ‘is Kyoto good for New Year’, ‘what is the most beautiful area of Kyoto’ or ‘what temples should I see in Kyoto’, this podcast might give you a few answers, especially if you want to see some quieter places away from the main tourist trail.
Listen to a podcast about strolling along the Philosopher’s Path in Kyoto just after New Year.
Transcript – S2 E1: A meditative New Year walk in Kyoto
This week, we’re taking a meditative walk in Japan’s former capital, Kyoto. This episode is dedicated to Ben.
The temple is closed. There’s a gate and a sign. The sign is only in Japanese, but I’d bet several hundred yen that it says something like: “Closed, sorry for the inconvenience, see you in springtime.” Beyond the gate and the sign, there are neatly raked walkways and small stone statues. I feel a great urge to hop the fence but I remember where I am. This is Japan, where manners mean everything, and doing the right thing is, well, the right thing to do. So instead, I turn away and gaze out over the great city laid before me. It stretches west and south for as far as I can see.
I’m in Kyoto in the first week of the year. The New Year’s Day festivities are over and the crowds have gone. The sun is blazing away in a beautifully clear winter sky. I spent the morning walking through the geisha district of Gion and along the crystal clear Shirakawa canal to the 24 metre-high orange torii gates of the Heian-Jingu shrine. From there it was a short stroll along the quiet residential streets of the Eikandu neighborhood to the temple where I now stand, denied entry to the place I came all this way to see. But, as with many of my travel experiences over the years – and I’m sure yours too – as one door closes, another opens. And so it is today.
In the philosopher’s footsteps
A few yards from the gate to the closed temple is the start of a narrow and very slow flowing canal, alongside which is a walkway. This is the beginning of the Philosopher’s Path, a trail that runs several kilometres past a collection of truly wonderful temples. It’s lined with cherry trees, so in spring it’s a blizzard of pink sakura blossoms. In autumn, scores of Japanese maples paint the banks of the canal Halloween orange and bonfire red. In midwinter, however, the trees and the tourists are hibernating. What the Philosopher’s Path lacks in colour and life at this time of year it more than makes up for in tranquillity. I wasn’t planning to walk this path, but rather wanted to spend several hours in the temple, seeking solace, focusing on nature, calming my anxieties. But now, with time on my hands, I start to stroll along it.
I’m alone save for an elderly couple walking very slowly about a hundred metres ahead of me and seemingly holding each other up. I like to imagine they’ve taken this walk, hand in hand or arm in arm, for decades. Maybe they proposed to each other here. Thousands of people do each year, under the cherry blossoms usually. Maybe they’re walking it all these years later to channel the meditation of Nishida Kitaro, a famous Japanese philosopher for whom the path is named.
There’s not much water in the canal right now and there are sections where it moves so slowly I can’t tell it’s liquid at all. It looks clean enough to drink and I can’t help thinking that a dedicated, uniformed cleaning crew came past just a few minutes ahead of me, fishing out every last leaf. I see stunning houses just a few steps away, down the slope towards the city. I’m not sure if they’re private residences or yet more temples. Some have immaculately designed and trimmed zen gardens with white gravel flowing around islands of small trees and solitary rocks. I walk past the Otoyo Shrine, which is noted for its stone animals, birds, lions, cat–fox chimeras and alarmingly life-like snakes.
Perfect place for mindfulness
About 300 metres further on is the 16th century Anraku-ji Temple, famous for its annual Shishigatani Pumpkin Service, which happens every July. Visitors flock here to eat boiled pumpkin. I’m not sure of the relevance of the stewed squash, but I am tempted to find out. There are roughly 1,600 temples in Kyoto and many have interesting traditions such as this. Some temples are world famous, all over Instagram and heaving with visitors. Others, like several here on the Philosopher’s Path, are oases of peace, not always open and known and visited mainly by locals.
I sit on a bench and use the gentle flow of the water to start to clear my mind. I focus on my breathing and the nearby sound of a bird I cannot identify but love listening to. If ever there was an idyllic spot for mindfulness, the Philosopher’s Path in winter must surely be it.
© copyright Matthew Brace
