I asked the clerk in the tourist office at Kyoto main station “What is the best place for autumn leave viewing?” – “Tofukuji temple” he answered without any hesitation.
Of course I had no other choice but to go directly to Tofukuji temple (moreover it turned out to be extremely close to the main station. Just take one of the JR trains and you will be there in 3-4 minutes).
Unfortunately it was a rainy day but still it had its own charm (I hope you’ll feel it from the photos).
This is one of the few successful photos with flash:
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And without the flash:
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Even more momiji:
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And now is time for some more colors (pink and yellow) :)
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This creature I found in one of the gardens. It reminded me the “Princess Mononoke” movie little forest spirits. Who knows may be he is one of them just pretending to be from stone :)
And this is the lake next to which the creature was “hiding”. It definitely must be one of Princess Mononoke forest spirits.
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And some more photos of momiji and the temple:
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And even more :)
The temple is also interesting. It has a zen garden (next to the lake with the “mononoke” creature). This is part of the building surrounding the garden (on the second picture you can even see part of the moss garden where the creatures were hiding):
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Just a few more pictures of Tofukuji temple buildings (in the rain):
I would like to end the post with just two more pictures. The first one – the roof of the main building surrounded by the momiji:
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And the second one – I called it “Koyo canopy” I simply can not figure up anything more suitable :)
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I hope one day I’ll have the opportunity to visit Tofukuji in a nice, sunny, autumn day and than the real “koyo canopy” shall be revealed :)
