
Panasonic LX100 at an effective 70mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Koetsu-ji Temple (光悦寺), Kyoto Japan
I had quite the photogenic day on Monday, with a local outing in the morning to see a nearby temple's fall foliage, then a ride into the mountains to see by bicycle some of the places seen during the weekend's “First Taste of Kyoto’s Fall-Foliage Season, 2017 Edition” post.
Today's post is about the bicycle ride (view at Strava).
The photo that opens this post is the entrance path to the Koetsu-ji Temple (光悦寺), which I pass on the edge of town just before entering the mountains and making the climb toward Kyomi Pass. We first saw it on my blog three weeks ago, in all green, here. Indeed, as I speculated there, it's spectacular dressed in fall colors, but also as expected, it was crowded.
I took the photo above expecting it to simply illustrate “crowded”, but I really like its vibe, so I made desktop-background versions.
A lady kindly took my photo for me.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 56mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Me

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Kyoto
taken on the fly, pointing the camera behind me as I climbed up toward Kyomi Pass
On the way down I came across Yasukawa-san, who had invited me on the trip to Norikura last year. We had a nice chat for a bit.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 35mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Junction on the Way

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 34mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.3, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
I Love this Old Bridge
My post “Cycling to Kyoto’s Ochiba Shrine Amid the Fall Colors” two years ago is similar to today's, but has a better photo of the bridge, here.
I wonder how long ago the bridge was in use. It now leads to nowhere (the road just stops), because, I assume, the construction for the current modern roads completely changed the landscape in the area.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fine Timber
one of the many ceder farmers in the area
taken at 28 kph (18 mph)
The main thing I wanted to do on this ride was make the short climb up to the Soren-ji Temple, which until now I'd visited only by car.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 54mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Oops
fallen tree near the top of the climb

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Top of the Climb
near the Soren-ji Temple
I made a segment on Strava for it, but 50 of the 52 registered rides are incorrectly attributed to this segment due to bad GPS data. In looking at them, most were recorded with Strava's iPhone app, and the pattern of wonky GPS is really consistent. I'm guessing that they all suffered the insidious iOS snap-to-road “Feature” long enough for the iPhone to think they were on this steep climb, until realizing that they couldn't be and yanking them back to the flat road they were actually zipping by on.
As it is, I think at the moment only the two slowest recorded rides are actually riding this 400m @ 11% climb. Mine is the faster of the slowest, so I've got the moral “KOM”, at least until a real cyclist shows up. 🙂
From the data above it's clear that it's not common among cyclists, but it's so lovely up there.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Little Park
at the top of the climb
(the road seen at left is the end of the climb)

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 50mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.7, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Back Entrance to the Temple
The leaf-covered steps were a bit nicer a couple of years ago, as seen in the post about my first visit to this temple, “A Few Pretty Pictures from Kyoto’s Middle-of-Nowhere Sourenji Temple”. Some photos of this stairway also appeared on “Kyoto’s Souren-ji Temple at f/1.2”.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/1.7, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Road in Front of the Temple

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just Gorgeous

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 28mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cleaning the Leaves
from the street in front of the temple

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/1.7, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
View From the Parking Lot

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Main Entrance
After the temple the road descends sharply, then dead ends as far as cars are concerned, but there's a path that a bicycle can take...

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Steeper or Steepest?
I took the path on the right

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Back Down

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Steep and Narrow

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Bit Precarious for a Bike

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/1.7, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Steps!
I was almost down, but I retraced my steps back to the temple

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 60mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo Op
of my bike back at the top of the climb
Then I went down to the village to poke around its paths and alleys.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 35mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Steep Cross Street
really just a short driveway to a house

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Aforementioned Steps
this is where they led to

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Narrow Alley

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 37mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Someone's House
with a road-bike stand?

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/1.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Road-side Shrine
Nakagawa Hachiman Gusha (中川八幡宮社)
Then I headed north for a bit....

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/1.7, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Approaching Max Carpet
Iwato Ochiba Shrine (岩戸落葉神社)

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Slightly Off Center
I'm not squared up with the gate and the building in the shot above because the lady seen in the prior photo was camped where I wanted to be, standing in front of her tripod seemingly doing some light browsing on her phone, completely ignoring her camera, the shrine, and folks waiting for her to move. After a while, I finally gingerly asked whether she was standing in that particular spot for a particular reason, and she replied in English “I don't speak Japanese”. So I repeated my question in English, and she said that no, she wasn't there for a particular reason, and went back to her phone.
This was fairly jarring. It was clear that she wasn't trying to be mean or troublesome, but that she simply didn't consider that she might be bothering others. One could guess from her accent where she was from, and roll your eyes and think “yeah, those people tend to be pretty rude”, but I try so hard not to do that. Each person is individual.
I finally ask whether she'd be so kind as to move just a bit over, at which point it finally dawned on her, and she moved slightly out of the way. Japanese folks looking on smiled in appreciation of my efforts.
And as inconsiderate as she was, she willingly agreed to snap a photo for me when I asked...
I then spent a few minutes digging among the leaves looking for part of my polarizing filter... I had dropped it while taking this photo and the clickspring that holds the glass in had apparently sprung out and away. I hoped I might find it, but didn't. One of the Japanese photographers even helped digging through the leaves for a while. Very kind.
Then I headed back home...

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 32mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.2, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Sugidani Maple”
“Famous place, 1km”
I didn't make the detour to see the maple this time. I'd done so two years ago (blogged here) and came away with a flat and missing bolts on my cleats.
However, I did take the next detour...

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/1.7, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Finally Going to Explore
the road on the left that I've passed dozens of times
It was a lovely road that went for about a kilometer, at a mild average of 5%. It ended at a graveyard.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/1.7, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Isolated Graveyard
I made a Strava segment for this ride as well, as there wasn't already one.
The path continued past the cemetery. Normally I'd not take this kind of path on my road bike, but it was mostly grass over dirt, so it was quite easy riding except for the occasional rock or log...

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
End of the Line
I was told later on that I could have untied the ropes and passed,
but it seemed pretty clearly “stay out” to me at the time
At this point I was about a minute's walk from the Himuro Shrine that I posed about seven years ago, but I couldn't get to it. It's just as well, because I wanted to return to take pictures of the road I'd just ridden.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/1.7, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Back
The tree that had fallen across the path had been really quite tall... here it is looking down its length...

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/1.7, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Perpendicular to the Path

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 34mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.3, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Time to Bunnyhop

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/1.7, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Back at the End of the Road

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Old Landslide?

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 38mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.4, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hermit Shack?

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 35mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.3, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tiny Bridge
every little bridge had a “9-ton limit” sign facing both ways

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 35mm — 1/30 sec, f/2.3, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lovely
I returned to the main road and continued up and over Kyomi Pass.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 30mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.2, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Near Kyomi Pass
京見峠の近く
gorgeous light
As I was flying down from Kyomi Pass toward Kyoto, I passed Henry Foster making his way up. I'd ridden with Henry on one of my first rides years ago. I did a quick U-Turn and killed myself to catch up to him to say “hi”, and to snap a blurry photo...

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/8 sec, f/1.7, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hi Henry!
Then I continued down again. About 10 years ago, a section of twisty mountain road was replaced by a wide, modern road with sweeping turns, and until now I'd never taken the old section of road on a bike, so I thought I'd give it a go today.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/1.7, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Old Hairpin
splitting from the modern replacement

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 28mm — 1/40 sec, f/2.1, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Steep, Narrow, Twisty, Cluttered
pick any four

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 47mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.6, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Recently-Fallen Tree

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/1.7, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Taiko Practice
By the time I came by the temple seen in the first photo of this article, it was almost 5pm and few people were around, so I could get a nicer photo:

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/1.7, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Koetsu-ji Temple
光悦寺
I would have liked to have taken the photo from a lower vantage point, but another photographer's head was immediately below my camera as I took the shot.

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 41mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Still Sitting There
he never budged the whole time I was there
The signs on either side of the entrance are tastefully done, though the one on the right doesn't seem to be very effective. 🙂

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 50mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.7, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
“It's Dangerous to Photograph from the Street”
“and it's bothersome to others in the area”
I was careful, of course, to be considerate of all, though at that hour there was almost no one around.
Really beautiful pictures
Autumn looks really under rated for a vacation.
What beautiful roads surrounded by all those colorful trees… nice pics!
Hi Jeffrey,
It’s been a long time since I wrote to you. Again, you took very-very nice pictures:) These autumn foliage photos of the forest is amazingly beautiful, you should wonder these places more often:):):) Also the rural life, the villages, the houses are spectacular. Have you been there before? Which part of Kyoto region is this?
Best wishes,
Endre
Beautiful ride, lovely photos as always, and all this on a *road bike*! I am in awe of your bike handling skill.