This is the walk that connects two of Kyoto's quietest wonders with two kilometres of canal in between. The Tetsugaku-no-michi — the Philosopher's Path — runs the foot of the eastern hills from Ginkaku-ji down toward Nanzen-ji, and on the right week in April it is the single best stretch of cherry blossom in the city. Start at the top, walk down.
From Demachiyanagi it's a bus or a long flat walk to Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion that was never silvered — go for the teien (garden), the cone of raked sand and the moss climbing behind. Then onto the path itself, named for the philosopher who paced it to work, cherry trees leaning over a stone channel the whole way down.
Detour to Honen-in, a thatched gate and two beds of raked sand almost nobody bothers with — go even if you double back. Past Eikan-do and its hillside maples, you reach Nanzen-ji: climb the great Sanmon gate, then find the brick aqueduct behind it, still carrying Lake Biwa's water. Keage on the Tozai line is the way out.
