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.

This temple in the mountains behind the Kyoto Incline was just as beautiful as Nanzenji, but wonderfully uncrowded.

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.