"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

Run & Walk to Ryozen Kannon - Feb 2026 - Kyoto

My second short run to the edge of Kyoto took  me to a landmark we could clearly see from our hotel a mile or two away, in the centre of the city - the Ryozen Kannon statue. This female boddhisatva, or some would caller her a goddess of mercy, towers over the buildings at a temple complex built after the second world war in the name of peace. As I later discovered, it's a place where people go to remember those who died in the war, of all nationalities, lighting incense and praying for peace before (or even inside) the immense seated figure of Kannon.

My run began on the banks of the river, which has decent running trails both sides, heading south before I wound my way through streets of traditional japanese buildings with temples and pagodas appearing on the horizon as I rounded each corner. Soon I found myself alongside the Kannon, a pristine white statue on the roof of the Ryozen Temple. The complex wasn't open yet - as always, I was too early for that on my morning run - but it gave me the chance to soak up the atmosphere and resolve to come back and visit another day.

Running back, I found a paved but car-free route running past shrines and under Tori gates, before tentatively upping the pace on the riverside trail in the last mile before the hotel. My running has been very stop-start for a year or more now, with niggles holding me back from racing or from building up the mileage. Everything felt pretty good on this session though, including the modest speedwork at the end. Some 1-mile and 2-mile races beckoned over the coming days and I felt fine to give them a go....I may not have been race-fit, but racing is one way to get there!

Ryozen Kannon - Kyoto - 7 Feb 2026

Waking up with a head cold on Feb 7th I decided, based on recent experience, not to try and "burn off" the virus with a hard 10k race. That was a disappointment, as I'd been looking forward to a hard threshold-effort run on the flat and even banks of the river, but I'd tried riding an audax with a nascent cold a few months before and only succeeded in making myself a lot sicker a lot faster. Fortunately, I was still in pretty good shape and while running wasn't recommended, a stroll across town to Ryozen was no problem. I had spotted the immense Kannon statue from our hotel's restaurant on the 17th floor, a few days before. Like most people I have talked to about the statue to, I mistook it at first for a Buddha figure, but a little googling put me straight on that. Kannon, or Kwannon, is either a Bodhisattva of Compassion or Goddess of Mercy, depending on how the Japanese original is translated. I was fascinated by the idea of such a modern temple, dedicated to peace in the wake of WWII, in a city thronged with ancient shrines and temples dating back many centuries.

Kokila and I walked out of the hotel and over Sanjo bridge, taking back streets (via a stop at the excellent Uno Ramen, where we sat cross-legged eating the most delicious vegan ramen you could imagine) towards the historic temple district of Hirashiyama. It was only a few minutes before we were walking on streets of traditional Japanese houses and shops, passing plenty of Japanese people in traditional dress as well as crowds of shoppers and sightseers.

We climbed two flights of steps alongside Koda-ji Zen Temple and were treated to the awesome sight of the Ryozen Kannon directly ahead of us, around 30m high tall and seated on the roof of a temple building - she absolutely fills the sky and takes your breath away when you first see her.

We paid the tiny visitor tax to enter the temple and were each given a lit stick of thick temple incense to offer as part of our prayer for peace. Meditating on the face of the Kannon I really felt something - modern she may be, constructed (as the signs informed us) of concrete over a steel frame perhaps, but she had the benevolent consciousness I would expect from a deity-statue millennia old, having absorbed all those centuries of devotion. This reminded me of Kokila's native Coventry, where the ancient-and-modern devotion to peace blends beautifully in the cathedral.

After our meditation on the Kannon we went inside the statue, to meditate again by the light of tiny taper candles dedicated to the signs of the oriental zodiac. As I was a Monkey and Kokila a Sheep in that system, we had the same Buddha figure to meditate on. After that, we explored the various shrines and the memorial hall, which had tiny offerings of soil and sand from war cemetaries all over the world - in memory of those of all nations who died in the fighting in Japan in the 1940s. It was a touching memorial, of a sentiment kept alive by four services of remembrance each day.

We came back out into the late afternoon sunlight for one last meditation on the Kannon - for me this statue eclipsed all the other shrines and figures I'd seen by some distance and was one of the highlights of Kyoto.

On the way back, we decided to rest our feet and take a bus, which meant a diversion through the massive Yasaka Shrine to find our way down to the bus stop. This imposing complex of buildings dates from the 7th Century and seems very much alive and active in the present day. There were long lines of people waiting to ring the temple bells and make an offering, there were crowds milling around buying prayer sticks and food, it was one of those vibrant market-place temples that are so much a part of Asian life. Soon the noise of people and bells was behind us though as we passed through a Tori gate and back into the material world, in the shape of modern rush-hour Kyoto....

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