The forecast said 60% chance of rain. My umbrella said 100%.
The Philosopher's Path (哲学の道) runs about two kilometers along a canal in the Higashiyama district, named for the Kyoto University philosopher Nishida Kitaro who is said to have walked it daily. In cherry blossom season the canal is arched over by pale pink. In late March, two days before peak bloom, the buds are fat and just beginning to open.
I had the path almost to myself.
What the rain does
Rain changes old places. The stone lanterns along the path got darker and sharper. The canal reflected the sky in a way it doesn't when the sky is blue. The few other walkers were hunched under umbrellas moving quickly — they had somewhere to be. I didn't.
There's a small shrine about halfway along — Otoyo Jinja — where stone foxes wearing red bibs sit at the entrance. The foxes looked pleased about the weather. They always look pleased.
Nanzen-ji at the end
The path terminates near Nanzen-ji temple, which has an incongruous brick aqueduct running through its grounds — a Meiji-era engineering project that the Buddhist establishment apparently just accepted and moved on from. You walk through a medieval gate and there's Victorian infrastructure passing overhead. Nobody seems to find this strange.
I had lunch in a small soba shop near the aqueduct. The broth was dark and serious. I went back the next day.