Kyoto's fall foliage season starts very late compared to the rest of the world. Last year's first fall-colors post wasn't until November 3rd, while 2006's was even later (and less colorful). In browsing my blog's full list of posts, or my fall-colors category, you'll find that late November / early December are when Kyoto's fall colors reach their peak.

Two things tell me fall is coming (besides the calendar). One is that it has started to cool a bit. This morning, the temperature dipped below 70°F. The other is my server logs, which have suddenly become full of people looking for “fall foliage” and “fall leaf desktop”. It's not as easy to tell what people are searching for since Google seems to no longer send the search term along to my site, but I can still see the fall-foliage photos that they're ending up at.

I had one good fall-foliage sunny day last year, but otherwise, last year seemed to be mostly cloudy, including the December 3rd visit to the grounds of the old Kyoto Imperial Palace that provides the pictures for today's post...

The grounds of Kyoto's old Imperial Palace, now a huge park, are full of beauty and kid fun throughout the year (but especially in the fall and in the spring). Clicking on the “nearby photos” link under any of the photos above will bring up photos taken nearby, from other posts that have appeared on my blog over the years.