About this picture
Late afternoon sunlight sweeps across a traditional Japanese garden courtyard beside an open tea pavilion. Concentric curves of raked sand ripple past mossy earth and scattered cherry blossom petals. At the center, a weathered stone lantern glows warmly between sculpted pine branches and blooming shrubs. Stepping stones lead past a quiet garden pond toward a tall bamboo fence, where the silhouette of a solitary figure in a grey coat and fedora stands motionless among the cedar trees.
The story so far
This photo is part of The Mender of Lantern Street, a story told one torn photograph at a time. In the previous envelope, Mira restored photographs of a bustling evening market in Kyoto. The final picture revealed Ada smiling straight into the camera, proving someone else had pressed the shutter.
How to play
Drag a piece onto another square to swap them, or tap a piece and then tap where it should go. Hold Preview for a faded glimpse of the photo: enough to see where the sky and the street go, not the details. Pieces that belong together join up and move as one, and turn green once they are in the right place. You have 4:30 for these 36 pieces, and the clock keeps running if you leave the page. Each photo has three stars: one for restoring it, one for finishing with1:48 still on the clock without taking extra time, and one for doing it in 47 moves or fewer. Each episode starts with 2 hints and earns more along the way; unused hints carry over to later photos. Playing needs a free account, which keeps your stars and stamps on every device. Restoring photos earns stamps (more for more stars, and extra for whole episodes), which buy more time or more hints. Once the photo is restored, turn it over and look for the clue hidden in it. Photos open one after another and episodes in order; each new chapter opens once you have enough stars from the chapters before it.