Anne's Short Musings

Anyone who has been to the tropics during the rainy season knows the feeling. The tension grows – and grows – until the sky can bear no more. The heavens open, and in a flash the rain falls from the sky.

This is not the gentle rain of a summer afternoon. It i s a tropical downpour, and as the first drops smash to the ground people squeal with delight and run for cover. In a matter of minutes the streets are deserted, and before long the street gutters are gurgling with water.

I had arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos, only a an hour or so earlier. The sky stretched deep and blue above me, and the heat and humidity were so high the sky was sweating. Somewhere between the airport and my hotel white clouds started foaming over the horizon.

I found this pair fishing by a canal in Kyoto. The Philosopher's Walk is a beautiful walk lined with cherry blossoms in the Higashiyama district. It begins at the Silver Pavilion and follows a walk taken most days by one of Japan's most famous philosophers, Nishida Kitaro - and also teddy bears.