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By Patricia Belyea
KYOTO JP I left my hotel heading for the Philosopher's Path. Before I arrived at the start of the Path, I spied a weathered torii gate and log steps beckoning me up a wooded hillside.
After about 25 stairs, I saw a sign decorated with a snake. Knowing there was a shrine nearby, I assumed it was welcoming me to the Year of the Snake. Nope.
Using Google Translate on my phone, I read: Beware of the Japanese Viper. Okay!
The stairs kept going and going. I trudged up 150 stairs to a lookout over the west side of Kyoto. All around me was quiet.
I had wandered well off the beaten tourist path — underscored by the complete absence of English signs.
I was experiencing shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, in Japan! This amused me as I live in a forest in Eastern Washington. Yet somehow, back home, I have never felt the same sense of calm.
The silence was soon broken by the sounds of small children. Little ones in color-coded hats were traipsing down a nearby path.
I followed their chortles and cries, and soon arrived in an area of broken-down wooden shrines — alongside a well-cared-for Inari shrine, guarded by foxes with their kits tucked into apron pockets.
As I continued through the green space, I saw a few more buildings and torii gates but never reached the main mountain shrine, Yoshida Shrine.
My exit point was a long set of steps leading to the street below. At the bottom stood a towering torii gate flanked by two fierce upside-down komainu — a rare sight.
Leaving Yoshida-yama, I eventually made it to the Philosopher’s Path. Leafless cherry trees overhung Lake Biwa Canal with no hint of the soft pink wonders to come.
Near the southern end of the Path, a local named Morita cajoled passersby into dropping fairy boats into the water. If one’s leaf craft floated, you were a lucky person. If it flipped, you were just rehearsing.
My bamboo leaf boat landed upright on the canal and floated away!
I was charmed by this moment of delight — just like my whole morning getaway on Kyoto’s north side.
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ABOUT US: Okan Arts, a petite family business, is co-owned by mother-daughter duo Patricia Belyea and Victoria Stone. Patricia and Victoria sell Japanese textiles online, host creative quilting experiences, and lead quilting & textile tours to Japan.
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