Place 8 of 18

Tsukubai

Ryōan-ji, Kyoto, Japan

The coin-shaped basin below the veranda of Ryōan-ji’s Zōroku-an tea room. Four carved characters share its square of water as their ‘mouth’ and read “I only know contentment.” In the tsuyu rain, the bamboo spout keeps time.

Rainy season

Tsuyu rains · Jun–Jul

Rain a year

About 1,500 mm

Where

35.03°N, 135.72°E

How to play

Rainpost is a free daily puzzle. Every day everyone gets the same rainy place, built as a small 3D miniature. Press and hold the water to drop rain; hold longer and the ripple goes farther. Ripples push something home, and you have five drops. Solve it to collect the place’s keepsake stamp for your Rainpost Passport, much like a national park passport stamp.

In this place: Drop behind the hydrangea to float it to the overflow lip.

Rainfall and seasons are approximate and describe the place’s usual rainy season, not today’s weather.

Today’s place and its keepsake stamp are free. Any other place opens as practice.