The Garden of Words 2013

Takao Akizuki, Miyu Irino, a 15-year-old student with dreams of becoming a shoemaker, chooses to skip his first class and spends a rainy morning sketching shoe designs in the garden at Shinjuku Gyoen. There in the misty quiet of the city’s capital, he crosses paths with Yukari Yukino, Kana Hanazawa, a 27-year-old woman who is also skipping work and lingering over beer and chocolate. When she notices the school crest on his uniform, she offers him a short tanka and walks away, leaving Takao puzzled by its meaning and origin.

The pair keep stumbling into each other on rainy mornings, sharing moments in the park without ever formally introducing themselves. Their conversations drift between art and life, and Yukino’s curiosity about Takao’s shoemaking grows into a plan: he decides to make a pair of shoes in her size. With the end of the rainy season approaching, Takao stops visiting the park and returns to his regular routine, yet the memory of their quiet exchanges lingers.

A faint clap of thunder,

Clouded skies,

Perhaps rain will come.

If so, will you stay here with me?

As summer breaks, Takao goes back to school and notices Yukino again. His friends reveal that she is a literature teacher who has been the target of gossip and bullying. In a bid to protect herself from growing hostility, Yukino withdraws from work and finds refuge in the park, hoping time will heal her wounds enough to “walk” again. Yet she makes the difficult choice to quit her job and leave the school. Later that afternoon, Takao finds her in the park and greets her by reciting the 2,514th poem from the Man’yōshū—an act he discovered in a classic Japanese literature textbook—an intimate response to her earlier tanka.

After a sudden thunderstorm, the two retreat to Yukino’s apartment and spend the afternoon together. When Takao finally confesses his love, Yukino is visibly moved, but she reminds him that she is a teacher who is about to move back to her hometown on Shikoku. Takao’s abrupt departure unsettles him, and he voices his frustration at her secrecy and reluctance to open up. Yukino closes the distance, embraces him, and the two cry together as she explains that their time in the park has helped her find her footing again.

A faint clap of thunder,

Even if rain comes or not,

I will stay here,

Together with you.

The narrative closes with a quick look at the credits: Takao barely passes his final exams, but remains determined to pursue his ambitions, while Yukino returns to Shikoku and resumes teaching. In a post-credits scene, Takao revisits the park in winter, reads a letter from Yukino, places the shoes he crafted on the bench, and promises to seek her out again once he has made tangible progress in his career.

The manga adaptation by Midori Motohashi adds or tweaks some scenes: for instance, after the rainy season, Takao can’t visit the park on the only rainy morning of that summer because he is scheduled to attend the footwear college he wants, a change that saddens Yukino. In the ending, Yukino is depicted wearing the shoes Takao made, a small touch that underscores the bond formed in their unlikely, rain-soaked meetings.

Ultimately, the film’s mood rests on quiet, tide-measured moments—the way rain shapes Tokyo’s mornings, the tenderness of small favors, and the fragile healing that can come from a single, honest connection between two very different people. The garden scene becomes a sanctuary where art, longing, and resilience intertwine, leaving viewers with a sense of hope tempered by realism.