Published: 28.10.2025
Chapter 2
After a healthy night's sleep, presumably right after you had lunch, I woke up refreshed in the Japanese morning (you must have slowly gone to bed) and had no jetlag at all, which is convenient!
So right after breakfast with a tuna-filled onigiri (which is a type of triangular rice ball wrapped in a nori seaweed sheet and eaten as a snack) and a huge soft bun called melon pan, I set off for the philosopher's path, one of the most beautiful and fairy-tale-like places I have seen in my life. A canal with shallow fast-flowing crystal-clear water with large fish in it and ducks on top winds its way between old banks full of cherry trees, Japanese maples, and rhododendrons, stone benches where I could spend whole days (and probably will), old painters sitting and sketching on one of the numerous bridges, someone playing quiet music on a sound drum, metal pipes covered in thick moss lying between the riverbanks, protected by large thorny crowns so no one gets the idea to balance across, birds singing despite the late October, colorful butterflies flying among the camellia flowers, and huge wasps, maybe even hornets, still trying to suck some pollen from the roses. Behind the footpath stand dreamy old dark brown wooden houses with thick ceramic roofs and countless angles and corners. In one spot, the stray cats congregate, each missing a notch in their ear (some also missing half their tails), which is a sign that animal friends have caught and sterilized them. The cats are all well-fed and very tame since people come by every day and bring them something to eat. There’s also a clean bowl of water always standing there. A lady with a big camera, who seems to be a regular visitor there, and I have petted them extensively.
Everything breathes a wonderfully old-fashioned calm at this place that makes you want to hum "ommmmm" all the time. Fortunately, there weren't too many tourists around; they must have crowded at the nearby Ginkaku-ji temple, one of my favorite temples that I plan to visit tomorrow morning when they open at half past eight.
In return, I finally accidentally rediscovered another enchanted temple I couldn’t find at all during my last visit because I had forgotten its name: Honen In, surrounded by a dark park on the mountain, black water with huge red-orange goldfish (koi?), stone lanterns, Zen sand sculptures, various mosses, and buildings made of ancient wood.
After this delightful long walk, I needed a recharge and enjoyed a huge green matcha ice cream in a dough cup that was also thickly filled with matcha cream!
On the way back, I mentally made a list of all the things that delighted me today on my journeys, just like in my previous visits. Some I had forgotten, others are burned into my memory: the stub-nosed minivans, much prettier than the old VW buses, the ancient brown mini-houses, almost all of which have a tiny garden in front of the house, no larger than two or three square meters, and yet there always grows a tree! And that tree always looks incredibly Japanese; I don’t know how they do that! Today I saw persimmon, apple, and even a banana tree in such mini-gardens! That in front of almost every house stands a red bucket in case a fire breaks out, but most forget to fill it with water. The big 1.5-liter bottles of water in front of all the houses are meant to prevent the stray cats from peeing against the house walls. Next to it usually lies a blue or green plastic net folded up, but I’ve forgotten what that’s for. And that you always have to keep to the left: on the sidewalks, on the escalators, and always when someone comes toward you. I’ve almost collided several times; I have to pay close attention!
Later in the afternoon, I went down to the river and had a small picnic at sunset, nostalgically with a small Tetra Pak of sake with a straw, even though I don’t particularly like sake! But Johnny and I found that so funny six years ago that we wanted to try it. I still didn’t like it, but it had to be done!
Afterwards, I made a detour to our old curry restaurant, where the elderly owner is still in the kitchen cooking, and his wife takes care of everything else.
And then, for the good night, to the sento around the corner. A sento is a kind of Japanese public hot bath where no thermal water is in the pools, or else it would be an onsen.
And I really experienced a few terrible faux pas today! There are very specific behavioral rules for these establishments: First, you must take off your shoes and place them in a locker, then pay. There was actually that ancient man at the counter again, who never smiled. We always thought he looked depressed. In the meantime, however, he has learned three words of English and could explain to me that the visit now costs 200 yen more than before. I wondered why he didn’t give me any towels, as they used to be included, but luckily I had packed my own large towel and only needed to borrow a small one. However, when I was already inside and had stripped completely naked, I noticed to my overwhelming horror that there was also no shampoo and no soap anymore, which used to be there for everyone at the washbasins. You are supposed to wash yourself from head to toe for several minutes with lots of foam before being allowed to step into the hot bath. I had to improvise and poured bucket loads of hot water over my head, chest, and back, hoping no one would see that there was no foam! I think it worked since there’s a flat wall between the pools and the washing area, but I felt terribly guilty. That I also just took a washing stool that was standing there instead of one of the stacked ones at the entrance, which I hadn’t seen, and a lady from the small sauna, where a TV was running, rushed out to take it back, didn’t help me feel any more secure. So I sat a bit apprehensively in the warm water and wasn’t really relaxed. One bath is lukewarm, one is hot, in one you get little electric shocks from the side, and one has bumpy stones at the bottom that massage your feet. The last one bubbles and smells of herbs. After I had briefly tried all of them, I quickly got dressed again (actually, you are supposed to wash your hair again now with foam!) and made my escape! Next time I will know better how to do it. I hope they let me in again!
