A walk on the Philosopher’s Path, Kyoto

The Philosopher’s Path is about a mile of stone walkway, stretching between Ginkakuji at the north end and the Nanzenji area at the south end.

We set off to walk the entire length.  The rain had washed down most of the remaining cherry blossoms, but it was peaceful and pretty to stroll along the canal beneath pink and vibrant green branches.

There are coffee shops and small restaurants and shops along the path – I spotted a sign for an antique print shop on the other side of the canal, and we crossed over to stop in.  (I really love Japanese woodblock prints.)  The shop was run by an older couple who happily showed me all their inventory.  After quite a long browse, I found a few things that they wrapped up well against the rain, and we continued on.

A bit farther along we came upon a sign for Yojiya, a Kyoto cosmetics shop (I love their yuzu lip balm!) and I convinced D we should make another stop.

It turns out that many of the Yojiya shops also contain cafés, as was the case here.  We took off our shoes in the foyer and stepped up onto the tatami mats, and were shown to seats (traditional style, on the floor) in a room with glass walls looking onto a garden.

I ordered a cake set with English tea and a slice of dark chocolate cake, and D had coffee with matcha sponge cake.  It made for a lovely, warm break out of the rain.

Afterwards we continued on to Nanzenji Temple; it has large and interesting grounds, though we were starting to get hungry for lunch and didn’t spend much time there.

We came across one last interesting sight on our way back to central Kyoto – a couple taking wedding photos on some old train tracks!