Going back to round out my posts about my first visit to the Hosen-in Temple (宝泉院) in Kyoto's mountain suburb of Ohara last fall, today's post picks up after parts two and three.

The path from the main road is flanked by stalls selling all manner of snacks. These senbei were pretty and, according to Damien and Paul who accompanied me on this trip, tasty; I generally shy away from carbs, so I photographed rather than ate...

We got off that main path and took a back route through village streets that Damien knew, freeing ourselves from the crowded path of touristy concessions. It was just a normal unphotogenic village, but there's always beauty and interest if you take the time to look.

I had high hopes for these peppers when Paul pointed them out, but the result is just boring. I would have liked to get closer, but they were set back from the road and I didn't want to step onto someone's property. Here's the scene...

Now a few miscellaneous shots from the temple itself that didn't make it on the previous three posts...

The weather was moody, alternating between drizzle and overcast, to brilliant direct sun. A similar shot, sans my color checker, is here.

Damien is standing in front of the tsukubai water basin seen in close up in the first photo above (and in many shots on the previous post in this series), but he's actually contemplating what to do about the single leaf in the gravel by his right foot (which I must admit was photogenic; my shot of it is here).

Outside the rock garden back near the entrance, a wider shot of the scene seen in the initial post shows the Mt. Fuji shape that some trees have been pruned to....

The Housen-in temple is immediately adjacent to the Shorin-in Temple (勝林院), which we did not visit on this trip, but could see some nice views of the front grounds. This view, from near the entrance to Housen-in, appeared on “A Long But Photogenic November in Kyoto”...

The path leading up to the steps is surrounded by moss...

On the way to our next destination, we passed in front of the entrance, so here's the path from that point of view:

So, that concludes the posts about the Housen-in Temple, our first temple of the day. It wasn't our last.... we were just getting started.

Continued here...