Here begins another picture parade! I (hopefully) already wrote about my visit to Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto. Well, when the leaves change color for the Fall, everything changes, so I decided to head over again with some friends and take a look. As expected, it was gorgeous.
Trees with leaves painted as vivid a red as this one are unusual and highly prized, though there are many different shades of red that are equally as beautiful. Japanese tourists also were stopping to snap shots, and I heard some people's host families routinely collect, freeze, and use such red leaves throughout the year for decorations and foodstuffs (maple leaves especially are somewhat sweet).
The entire mountain was aflame with the colors of Autumn. You can see it in the background. This area, note, is not actually part of Kiyomizu Temple, but a walkway through a number of shrines and temples in the vicinity.
And the obligatory pond stocked with fish easily the length of my forearm. The fish are a little scary, but the view is breath-taking.
And a bridge leading to some temples and the like that we did not visit. This is one of the few bridges over these Japanese style ponds that I've seen that you can actually cross. Most are built to be beautiful, not functional.
And Christmas had come even here. Note the Christmas balls and garland lining this archway on the Temple grounds. I do not, admittedly, know what this place was, but even so, I thought it worth noting.
Fortune booths like this one function on the honor system. As stated before, these omikuji are small slips of paper containing one's fortune. Most of my friends purchased one, and someone checked and found that indeed, fortunes of the same date (it's arranged by birth date) contained different fortunes, so it really is random (I don't know if they will be cursed for checking, though)!
As night fell, places began to light up. I have a few pictures of Kiyomizu Temple at night taken with my friend's camera (mine is not that great and couldn't handle anything once dusk well and truly settled in) that I will dig up and add later.
And finally, what says freindship but a picture like this. Amusingly, the girl next to me I met in the customs line coming into Japan, and we have (by similar coincidence) ended up on the same plane leaving Japan. Weird, I must say, and awesome. I guess life is just like that...and I don't mind :D
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