eattravelwrite's posterous - Filed under 'ishiyama-dera'

Leaf-peeping season in Japan is, sadly, over. I thought this would be a good time to post some more pictures I took during my leaf-peeping outings that, for one reason or another, were not up to my (admittedly perfectionistic) standards, and so didn’t go into my original posts.

In addition to visiting Takao, Ishiyama-dera, and Arashiyama, I also visited the Hiyoshi Taisha shrine for leaf-peeping.

Hiyoshi Taisha is at the base of Mt. Hiei, north of Kyoto. Unfortunately, the day that I visited, it was raining and bitterly cold, and my photos ended up being all invariably blurry--which makes for interesting moody-type pictures, but not much clarity. Some of them still struck me, though, so here they are.

In spite of the rain and cold that day, the red maple leaf colors were still stunning. Some of the falling red leaves even ended up sticking to the top of my umbrella--I could see their leafy silhouettes from the underside of the umbrella--which I like to think is a lucky sign.

Below: Pictures from Hiyoshi Taisha, Ishiyama-dera, and the bamboo forest in Arashiyama.

Filed under // arashiyama autumn bamboo forest bamboo grove hiyoshi taisha ishiyama-dera kyoto leaf-peeping takao temples

I keep leaving out a "p" in leaf-peeping

This past weekend was a long weekend in Japan—some sort of hybrid Labor Thanksgiving Day—and it was also the height of leaf-peeping season. So what’s a girl to do? Leaf-peep, of course! I decided to avoid the crazy leaf-peeping crowds in Kyoto and headed, instead, to Ishiyama-dera temple in Otsu, east of Kyoto.

Ishiyama-dera was one of the most lovely temples I’ve seen so far. I know I keep saying this for every temple I see, but it’s true. Similar to my experience in Takao, I found myself saying, this time in English and in Chinese, “This is so beautiful, wow, this is so beautiful.”

The temple is partly set on a mountainside (the name of the temple means “Stony Mountain Temple”), with numerous trails, terraces, pagodas, and gazebos. There are enough trails there that, in spite of the crowds, I was able to find paths to explore by myself. The grounds are highly landscaped, the trees are tall and soar over you. Gorgeous.

I also arrived right around two o’clock in the afternoon, which I’m finding is prime time for picture-taking during this time of year in Japan. The red leaves really do seem to glow in the late afternoon sunlight. It’s like discovering a secret when you suddenly see a tree in front of you with those glowing leaves.