Kyoto

Destination 》Asia 》East Asia 》Japan 》Kyoto

Year Visited: 2016 – Nov

During November 2016, I found a cheap flight ticket from Shanghai to Kansai, I grabbed that opportunity to experience autumn colors in Kyoto. Japan’s cherry blossoms are world famous, but the fall foliage in Kyoto is perhaps even more beautiful.

Japan’s capital for over a millennium, Kyoto is Japan’s cultural center and the most beautiful city. During its 1000+ years at the center of Japanese power, culture, tradition, and religion, Kyoto accumulated an unparalleled collection of palaces, temples and shrines, built for emperors, shoguns, and monks. Kyoto was among the few Japanese cities that escaped the allied bombings during World War II and as a result, it still has an abundance of historical buildings. In 1994, 17 historic sites were inscribed on UNESCO‘s World Heritage List under the group designation Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, only Rome lays claim to more designated UNESCO World Heritage sites than this city. 

---

Fall Foliage, the leaves start changing colors sometime in October. The peak of fall foliage usually comes in mid-November, and you can usually see colors on the trees until mid-December. Almost every temple, shrine and garden has a few maple trees and other colorful trees.

---

Fall Foliage at Kinkaku-ji Temple, officially named Rokuon-ji, is one of the most popular building in Japan, hence the most crowded place to view fall foliage.

---

Higashiyama District; a historic neighborhood in Kyoto. You will find many locals and tourists in kimono, walking around taking photos.

---

Few restaurants around the ancient town

---

Fushimi Inari Shrine, The highlight of the shrine is the rows of torii gates, known as Senbon Torii. Along the main path there are around 1,000 torii gates.

---

Beautiful flowers on the way to Fushimi Inari Shrine,

---

After enjoying spectacular fall foliage in Kyoto for few days, I took a train to Nara, the first capital of Japan.