After a dreary, grey-rain morning in Kyoto, the sun unexpectedly rearranged the sky palette into scarlet purples and deep magentas, and low-hanging mist.

A postponed excursion out to the Philosophers Path was now the perfect response. The path curves along the route of a canal and is lined with hundreds of cherry trees that explode with colour every spring and autumn. A short bus trip and we were there.

The Philosophers Path was so named after one of Japans most famous philosophers who is said to have practiced meditation whilst walking on his daily route to Kyoto University.

I wasn’t really in the mood to photograph today, with a slight headache and a psychosomatic hint of a sore throat.

Uh, oh…….

Japan is experiencing a particularly nasty flu season this year. Despite wearing a mask whenever there are crowds (and there are crowds everywhere)….riding the subway and negotiating some of the tourist crushes is basically rolling the epidemiological dice.

I packed my camera anyway and took a few shots (I will rate them a generous 4.9/10).

Once out amongst the mountains, soaking in the the post rain petrichor, and snatching a few moments of solitude, I felt much better.

PS. I set myself a challenge a while back not to take photos depicting people using their mobile phones. But here in Japan, that is nigh impossible. Everybody is faceplanted into their screens, all the time. If not scrolling, then framing up their selfie-faces.

That goes for locals and tourists alike. And some of the tourists are super entertaining to watch as they shoot off reams of me-pocs at one single location. Meticulously adjusting their poses and optimising the background.

Usually, this exercise is accompanied by some degree of frustrated scowl as they jostle for prime position in the crowd and try to play the angles so it looks like they have the entire place to themselves. A scowl that blinks into a momentary beautific and blissful grin for the shot. Then a rush to get to the next iconic spot.

I get it. I’ve done it. But. Selfies are really weird.