Pretty autumn red leaves!

Hi there!

Here I want to share more seasonal pictures with you. I went to 南禅寺(Nanzen-ji Temple) of eastern Kyoto notable for its beautiful autumn leaves.

What time do you think it was when I took this picture? It was 10 in the morning and it was already full of tourists!!

This is the water bridge built in the precinct more than 100 years ago when we tried hard to catch up with the Western technology. So it has the Western design. I think it was copied from Roman Empire aqua bridge. Water is still running at the top of it.

I always wonder why, at this time of the year I don't see foreigners even though it's the best time to view 紅葉( autumn red leaves ).. Maybe it's before X'mas and for most people, simply, it's not right time for travelling.

I walked into 天授院(Tenju-in), one of the branch temples there, and found a nice pond garden.

Here you can see the trees reflected perfectly clearly on the surface of the pond.

It looks better in photograph.Yeah!! They have bamboos too!"Feed me!!"

Now the temple is open to public. ( well you have to pay to enter )

In the past monks must have had training here.

There is a wooden house by there.. At the veranda, it has only a few pillars so that they don't ruin the scenery of the garden.

One purpose of gardens at Zen temples is to help you concentrated when meditating.

Everytime I go to this kind of place, I can feel relaxed.

Lastly, here is Picture of the Day!!

Have a great day!!!

Beautiful Temple at night & Green Tea Sweets!!

Hello, how are you everyone?

My name is Keiko, doing guiding in English for people from overseas.
I'm such a Kyoto lover that it made me move to Kyoto a year ago..

This is my first post!
I haven't really done blogging before, so this is like an adventure for me.

The purpose of the blog is to spread the beauty and attraction of Kyoto.

Kyoto is a very famous sightseeing spots for not only Japanese but people from all over the world. But still there are tons of good stuff that are not known to them.. that is what I would like to show here.

I will always try to have a sense of seeking a [good material] for this blog as I spend my life as a tour guide.
So people, if my blog makes you want to visit Japan, that is my dream come ture!

Today, I went to Entoku-in in Kyoto with my friend to enjoy viewing autumn leaves.
It's been getting colder here.. winter is right there, and it's going to be a peak time for autumn leaves(紅葉) soooon!!
The chinese charctar 紅 means RED while 葉 means LEAF. (I hope your PC can indicate them) At this time of the year Japanese people start to get crazy about viewing beautiful autumn leaves.



Here are some photos I took at Enco-in.











Some of the leaves here are still not at their peak, but very beautiful !
They give us even more serene atmosphere than in daytime.
Usually temples are not open in evening, but many of them do " lighting up" events so visitors can enjoy autumn leaves in the dark night!
It really is hard for me to choose which one to go!




Time for Sweets???

Later, when my friend and I got out of the temple, we came across a very famous cafe, Tsujiri, who has one of the best qualitied sweets in Kyoto and has been opened here recently.

Knowing it's 7 pm, time for dinner, still, we gave in to our desire....


The upper one is a parfait with matcha (green tea) cake and purple sweet potato paste on top(the purple is a natural color!)

The below that is what I had, an assortment of ice cream with dumplings and matcha flavored cake and jelly. What you see next to it is the matcha(抹茶), traditional style tea.

It ususally has no sugar in it, because it comes served with sweets. So after eating sweets,
we drink it. The food here is so good.. Well, I don't care eating here at dinner time. It is that good. Definately my favorite place.


I will try to keep posting as much as I can..

Hope my blog entertains you and you come back here.



See ya!