Autumn in The Mountains

It's now freezing cold here and indeed it snowed quite heavily the other day.

Before the end of November though we were able to get up to the mountains near Chichibu and enjoy the Autumn colours.

These photos were taken at and on the way to our favourite old nunnery that is hidden away deep in the mountains.

The Ōchigawa, is a tributary of the Arakawa, it is full of autumn colours and delicious fish at  this time of year.

Kyoto

We hadn't been to Kyoto for about 18 years so it was good to make an autumn trip there on a recent weekend.

It is of course very popular with foreign tourists and can get a little crowded to say the least.

But if you get up early and get going you can avoid the worst of the crowds.

Also there are many temples futther out that are incredibly beautiful and little visited compared to the more famous ones.

Part of a trip to Kyoto is enjoying a traditional Kaiseki meal in an old inn.

Here are some, just some, of the dishes we had for dinner.

 Below are various photos of Kyoto and its gardens and temples.

It is easy to see why it is so popular.

The Yoshimine Temple in the western hills overlooking Kyoto waw particularly beautiful with the autumn colours. Also not crowded at all as it is quite a way out of town and we were there early.

This is a very old pine tree at Yoshimine that has been trained horizontally it runs for about 50 meters and is meant to be the longest in Japan.

The rock garden Mt Fuji, a little odd I thought.