Photo by Katsunori Shimada
It's fall in Kyoto and that means lots of little trips to see the magnificent foliage. Anthony and I took a long walk last week with Katsunori Shimada, my good friend of 10+ years. We went to the Kyoto Biwako Canal Museum (about the canal built in the 1880s that brought water and Japan's first electricity to Kyoto), then up the Kyoto Incline and into the mountains and temples and paths back behind it. (Five pages of pictures here.)
Our day was mostly uncrowded until during our return we descended from the mountains into the rear corner of Nanzenji (南禅寺 — the Nanzen Temple). There, it was an absolute mad house of tourists jockeying for position to take photos of the stunning foliage. I live pretty close, and so had known for some time by the mind-numbing traffic what to expect, which is why Nanzenji was a path to get home and not our actual destination. The photo at right (of part of the aqueduct bridge, lengthwise) shows some of the crowd even at this remote corner of the temple area. Still, Shimada-san was able to take the photo above, which I think is just fantastic. It'd make a wonderful computer desktop background. |
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This temple in the mountains behind the Kyoto Incline was just as beautiful as Nanzenji, but wonderfully uncrowded. |
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The only way to travel! The paths through the mountains in this area are fairly easy, and even Anthony could walk most of the way (what a trooper!) Toward the end, I carried him on my shoulders for a while, and then he got a special treat: a piggyback ride from Shimada-san. |
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Nice shots!
Thank you for the credit of photo! 🙂
Hi Jeff,
how is it going in Japan?
I’m just sitting in the Plant Gene Expression Center at Albany / UC Berkeley ! (yes I’m still working with plants :). Last year I moved to Munich, to live with Jens and to work at the University of Munich. (somehow I think I missed to send an email !?) Right now I’m here for 2 weeks, being sponsored by a BavariaCalifornia technology project. It’s fun to be back in Berkeley 🙂 I thought I might visit you in Cupertino, but all the way to Japan is too far for my rental car. Greetings to Fumie and Antony.
Katrin
What a treat to see the beautiful fall colors. It was Spring when Katsu and I visited the same area so seeing these pictures brought back happy memories of my visit to Kyoto.
I hope to visit Japan again soon.
Your photos show great sensitivity to the stone and foliage of the Japanese countryside. Thank you for sharing them with us.