Ochiairo: The Pavilion of Sleeping Clouds

Chen organised it as a surprise, which she is far better at than I am. All I knew was that we were heading south for our anniversary, into the green middle of the Izu Peninsula (伊豆半島). In an ordinary year the destination would have been well beyond us. June 2021 was not an ordinary year. Japan’s borders were shut, the country was running on domestic guests alone, and even its most revered inns were discounting rooms that would normally be booked solid for months. So we set out for somewhere we had no real business going. We took the train to Shuzenji (修善寺) and had soba for lunch near the station, then caught a bus deeper into the hills to a stop called Suishochi-shita (水生地下) and started walking. The idea was to reach the inn on foot, north along the river. The weather had other plans. It rained straight down and without pause, until the path was a stream and our boots and coats had given up any pretence of keeping the water out. We reached Joren Falls (浄蓮の滝) at about four o’clock, the…