Autumn 2019: Seasonal colors in Kyoto

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." -Albert Camus

So autumn has come and this is my favorite season in Japan! I am lucky to be living in Osaka as I am just an hour away from Kyoto, which is one of the cities I love and is really beautiful during the autumn season. I really love the colors of  もみじ ( jJapanese maple trees) which plentiful in Kyoto. 

I traveled to the city again with my friend from the Philippines, and it was his first time experiencing autumn in Japan.  I was really happy to go with him. We were lucky that the weather was really good on that day, too!

Our first stop in Kyoto was the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. When we arrived at Arashiyama Station there were a lot of people, mostly tourists who had arrived early and were crossing over the Togetsu-kyo bridge to arrive at Arashiyama's Bamboo Grove. It was a little tough as there were lines of people going there due to the number of people arriving at the same time, and there were even policemen to help organize the flow of traffic.

So it took us about 15 minutes or so just to pass over the bridge because of this line. This place is truly popular!

As you can see, there was really a very long line of people crossing the bridge.

Along the way we already saw a lot of momiji.  We were so excited to see it and took a lot of photos of it ... and with it. 

So beautiful!

Me, shamelessly posing for this photo. Haha!

When we arrived in the Bamboo Grove as usual it was really crowded so I just took a photo of my friend taking photos!

We did not stay long in the Bamboo Grove instead deciding to go to Kiyomizudera Temple.

I was excited to see this temple again because I was expecting it to be really beautiful with the colors of autumn.

Transportation : Getting from Arashiyama Bamboo Grove to Kiyomizudera Temple, we took the train in Saga Arashiyama Station, which is 5-minute walk from the exit. From Saga Arashiyama we took the train bound for Kyoto Station and from there we took the No. 100 bus to Kiyomizudera Temple. Cost of the bus fare is 230 yen.

Arriving in Kiyomizudera Temple, I took another photo of this tree, as I really loved the color of it.

Arriving in the temple it was not as crowded as the Bamboo Groove.

We go inside Kiyomizudera -- cost of the ticket is 400 yen. 

Kiyomizudera's main hall is covered up from February 2017 to March 2020 for the renovation of its roof but even so visitors will be able to enter the Main Hall during the renovations.  That said, the famous photo of this temple will the replaced with this covered version one in the next few months. Too bad!

But the place is still really beautiful from this view. I took this photo from the Main Hall of the temple.

Snap photo of the pagoda.

And some more snaps. The autumn colors around Kiyomizu never fail to amaze me. I was happy that we arrived here just before the sun went down as in the evening we cannot take photos anymore of these beautiful trees.  Our timing was just right!

After this we thought about going to go to Fushimi Inari Taisha even though at that time it was dark already.  We still decided to check it out, and it was indeed super dark. It was my first time going to Fushimi Inari Taisha in the evening.  (Inside the torii gates there are lamps so you can pretty much walk around still.)

So this sums up my trip in Kyoto for one day during the autumn. It was a really nice day and I feel so inspired because of the autumn colors.

Thank you for reading!  Im excited for next year's autumn. Til then~