The Kamo River Running Path

Legend has it that the Kamo River through central Kyoto first ran south in another location altogether. When the city became home to the imperial capital, the thought was that a river cleaving this new home in two would signify the division of the nation. So the Kamo was diverted to its current course due south along the eastern edge of the city before sprawl broke its banks and began to clamber up into the forests and the mountains.

Running along the Kamo River is simple. It’s a shallow river most of the time, a metre deep, and along its flanks run flat, elevated paths wide enough for co-mingling pedestrians, runners, and cyclists. Getting down onto those tracks from the many bridges that cross the water is simple too though after dark the bridges that don’t lead directly down to the footpaths can be sort of confusing.

Tonight I ran it after dark. I started as the sun began to set and finished the 12.2 kilometre return run about an hour later. I’m staying at the Hotel Vischio Kyoto just south of Kyoto station and I followed the route to the river that Google Maps gave me when I told it I wanted to go to Demachiyanagi at the bottom of the fork where the Kamo and Takano Rivers become one. This was clunkier in hindsight than I reckon it needed to be and a run due east from the hotel to the waterline would have worked just as well provided I’d been able to get over the river and down on the eastern side to the footpath so I could work my way north and then back over.

Nevertheless.

Even though I ran at night I’d recommend running during the day. This is because visibility of the world around the track will be better. Night time was beautiful and without music the sound of the rushing water as it dipped down over small drops was peaceful and calming and if you were to lean into the Buddhist trappings of the place — maybe zen.

For holidaymakers, it’s a perfect straightforward run to clear your head and the almost endless number of bridges along the stretch of the river — which extends too southward beyond where I started at Shomen Street and returned because the path ended for a moment going south at National Road No. 1 Line — mean you’ll have plenty of options for calling it whenever you want.

Personally I ran up to the confluence where, in the dark, I couldn’t see the stepping stones. In another tick for the daytime, you’d be able to see them before the sun set.

That’s largely the track and what to expect: flat and simple with getting to it being the only trick. In truth, the only reason I ran from my hotel to the river rather than just getting to the river and then starting to run is that it’s winter and it’s cold. My last 12 kilometre run ended in about 29 degree heat while this run finished in single digits at just 4 degrees Celsius. To warm up fast with just track pants, a t-shirt, and a long-sleeve thermal over the top whose sleeves I ended up rolling up, I just started running down both main and side streets.

If you’re familiar with winter running, or you’re running in Kyoto in any other season, head straight for the Kamo and start from there for ease. Otherwise you’ll get caught in the web of traffic lights that I am blessed are more optional in Brisbane — at least socially — when no cars are coming.

This running track is not anything like a secret. It’s a perfect, flat, accessible spot for everybody in the way that (to use my own very specific example) running from Shinjuku down main roads to the Imperial Palace and around was not. You could even add a Kyoto Imperial Palace loop to the Kamo River run with a step up and off the water at the Kamo Ōhashi Bridge if you’re on the northern side or the Marutamachi Dori from the southern side. In between is the Kojinguchi-dori bridge if you’re making up your mind, like I often do, halfway through.

What I liked about this holiday run overall was mostly that I could think about things from a distance. Far removed, of course, from Australia I had the space to gather my thoughts and to spend an hour with them and get warm and then to get into a rhythm and then to really just send my mind off into the places that it likes to go when my body’s working as intended without having to really think about it. While I was running along the Kamo River I wrote bits of this article that I intended to transcribe directly before I went to dinner with my family.

After a few large beers, as Aussies are wont to do in Japan, I sort of forgot exactly what those things were. But one of the goals was this: to be better at writing and publishing what are functionally running travelogues. I don’t know how much more running I’ll do here in Japan between the next few days in Kyoto, some time in Osaka, and then a couple of days skiing in Hakuba in the dead of winter. But the goal is not to journal every square kilometre. The goal is just to get the thoughts down.

Because — and this is one of the thoughts now returning to me from the Kamo run proper — I have this habit of putting off what doesn’t have a clear output. The downside is that the funny stuff, the tricky things, the opportunities that look unusual from right here, are the ones that can come good in the long term.

The trick with running long distance, not that 12 kilometres is that much to write home about really but it’s a good distance that requires time and energy investment without consuming your whole day like a marathon or an ultra marathon does, is that it clears you up a bit. Focus, commitment, clarity, rhythm, good breathing, your feet just doing over and over and pounding the pavement as I’m sure without research that Murakami describes in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

Running in Japan and then writing about it… Can you tell I’m on board with Haruki?

To circle back: It was a clarifying run. Cold out but by kilometre three I was warm though the hands clasped around my phone and my hotel room key were stiff fast and I had to stretch my fingers to keep them good. My ears caught alight when I came back to the default 23 degree heat of the room. My track pants are not made for running or they’re not made for sitting low on my hips because they chafed, in my ignorance and packing optimistically stuff to run in and not really expecting to so leaving behind the Nut Butter, the inside of my thighs.

Alas.

Run the Kamo River.

You might find something like an idea that takes you elsewhere. A single thread appearing clear above the shallow water, easy to grasp, and as ready for you as you are for it when you just sit down and write down not this but something else more commercial.