A pretty stroll to lunch...

What the photos do not capture is how windy it was...sudden gusts threatened to carry the sweets away, and whisking matcha with a tree trunk as wind break was not the most elegant of experiences

Towards the middle of April parts of the canal beside the Philosopher's Path (哲学の道) become a river of petals.
The phrases 'hana-no-ukibashi' (花の浮橋 'floating bridge of flowers') and 'hanaikada' (花筏 'flower raft') both describe water thick with petals.

First opened in 1890 (lengthened in 1912), the irrigation channel that the Philosopher's Path (哲学の道) follows is fed by water from the Lake Biwa Canal. The 2km course (which takes about 30 minutes to walk) is lined with over 500 sakura trees.

As visitors enter Hōnen-in they pass through the Byakusadan (白砂壇), 2 terraces of white sand (roughly 7m long, 3m wide and 10cm high).

Said to symbolize water, the sand purifies the body and soul. Every 4 or 5 days a priest rakes new patterns, reflecting the weather or season.

Eikan-dō (永観堂) has over 3000 maple trees

That's a lot of leaves to rake up at the end of autumn

In the autumn Nao-san enjoyed an outside tea ceremony along the Path of Philosophy and was joined by an unexpected guest, glorious in the late afternoon sun.

The Path of Philosophy (哲学の道) runs between Nanzen-ji (南禅寺) and Ginkaku-ji (銀閣寺).

It came to prominence after the philosophers and Kyōto University professors Nishida Kitarō (西田幾多郎 1870-1945) and Tanabe Hajime (田辺元 1885-1962) used the trail as an exercise route.

Eikan-dō (永観堂) has over 3000 maple trees

That's a lot of leaves to rake up at the end of autumn

Nao-san enjoyed an outside tea ceremony along the Path of Philosophy and was joined by an unexpected guest, glorious in the late afternoon sun.