After a day of working in heavy rain, a colleague and I climbed up the mountain behind the temple, just above the tea houses Kasa-tei (傘亭) and Shigure-tei (時雨亭). Kasa means umbrella and shigure means drizzle or autumn rain and is written with the kanji for “time” and “rain”. Very poetic, I find. Both tea houses were designed buy Sen-no-Rikyu, Japan’s most famous tea master.

We had a great view from the mountain, which is unfortunately closed for visitors. Some clouds still hang in the valleys of the distant Northern Mountains. My colleague explained that this is how we should plant moss – like soft mountain ranges, with valleys and hills, reaching out and retreating here and there. The mountains are our teachers.

The Kitayama mountains in Kyoto