This is yet another entry in my bucket list for the trip. The name alone triggered off such idyllic notions in me that I felt I
must walk that same path made famous by a celebrated Jap poet/philosopher (can't remember his name, but it's one of those MSG sounding Jap names).
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| signboard marking starting point of walk from the northern end |
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| carved on this rock at the starting point are the kanji characters "The Philosopher's Walk" |
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| here's how the walk resembles |
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| shops hugging one side of the walk |
VERDICT: I felt so stupid and cheated after finishing the walk....and hey, it's not short ok. Took me about one hour plus to complete it. And I've already been walking all day! Yes, it's a nice walk, very pleasant with trees and water on one side and shops on the other. There's even a gentle breeze caressing my cheeks as I strolled down the path. It was kind of like Dorothy following the trail of the yellow brick road in "Wizard of Oz"! But hey, the fact remains that it's just a CANAL! We could've done the same in Singapore with our Singapore river or Geylang river and then hyped it up by intellectualizing it with some half-baked myth about how someone famous once left his trail of footprints there! I bet you tourists will be sold! Sprinkle a few shops along the canal and you'll have a potential tourist attraction! It's all about marketing!
Tourists can be so naïve and made to do the stupidest things -- yours truly is no exception. In previous trips, I have kissed the Blarney Rock in Cork, Ireland:
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| kissing this slab of rock is no mean feat; you have to bend over backwards (literally!) to kiss it, and all this while suspended high above the ground. Ended up banging my forehead against the rock instead! Legend has it that kissing the Blarney Rock will give one the gift of the gab. |
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| the rock is located at the top of this castle |
But I digress....that was in Ireland years ago....Back to this Japan trip, I did another stupid thing designed to humiliate tourists, but I still fell for it. In the Toudaiji temple in Nara, there was a pillar in the temple which has a small cavity at the bottom. The story goes that those who manage to crawl through it will be 'enlightened', at least according to the description in my trusty Lonely Planet, everyone's travel bible.
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| there u go, the pic says it all...My curiosity was piqued by the long queue, and I finally succumbed. What followed nearly made me die of embarrassment -- I got stuck in the hole, with my legs sticking out from one end and my hands flailing frantically from the other. I've underestimated my thinness. I could neither propel myself forward nor retract myself. There was a hush of silence outside, as the onlookers were taken aback, probably frozen with embarrassment and did not know how to react. For a while, I thought I was going to suffer the utter humiliation of being stuck there as the crowd watched and snapped photos. With the sculpture of the Daibutsu (the Great Buddha) barely metres away from me, I felt like the Monkey God being pinned under the five-finger mountain! Fortunately, I managed to wriggle out with one final, desperate push, and quickly made a hasty exit -- without daring to meet the gaze of the onlookers. So did I become 'enlightened', you ask? Well, one thing's for sure -- I felt like a real fool! |
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| a blurred pic of the Daibutsu that dominates the main altar in the Toudaiji temple...it's barely metres away from the pillar under which I was stuck! |
