I take burned-out professionals into Kyoto's gardens to listen
I run a small thing called Kyoto, in Sound where I take people out for a couple of hours somewhere in Kyoto and hand them a sound recorder and headphones. We walk slowly, we listen, and they go home with the recordings they made of that specific morning.
I moved to Kyoto a year ago and noticed pretty quickly that most people visit a city like this to see it. But few slow down enough to hear it.
The kind of people who'd get the most out of it are, I suspect, the people reading this: a phone in one hand most of the day, a tab open for work and another for the rest of your life, notifications that always feel urgent for some reason. There's a philosopher, Byung-Chul Han, and he's got a name for it: the burnout society. Too much positivity. Too much productivity. No off switch, basically. You don't really notice how loud it's all gotten until you stop.
And these sound walks are mostly an excuse to stop (for a little while at least).
We don't cover that much ground, that's not really the point. One of my favourite spots to take people is the garden at Shōren-in. There's a temple bell you can ring, a bamboo grove that creaks and knocks together on a windy day, and a verandah where you can sit for as long as you want, looking out at a small pond with koi in it, in near silence. That's it. You wander around recording the sound of that moment. Your email inbox will be fine to be left alone for a little while.
I'm not promising enlightenment. People just tell me over and over again that they feel calm, and that it was exactly what they didn't know they needed.
You don't need me for this, by the way. You can do a version of it anywhere really. Pick a small route, leave the phone in your pocket, and pay attention to what a place sounds like for an hour. I promise you'll enjoy it.
But if you're ever in Kyoto and you want company, good equipment, and, I don't know, someone who knows where to go, come and find me: www.kyotoinsound.com
Thank you for reading, SJF
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