Takao in the Fall

Takao is one of the best places to see the fall colors in Kyoto, as such it gets incredibly crowded on weekends this time of year. Today was a nice sunny day and so we decided on the spur of the moment to head up there after school. We caught the JR bus from Marutamachi Senbon at about 2:10 and arrived in Takao at about 3. (The bus is Y500 from Kyoto station.) Takao was gorgeous as usual. Our first stop was Jingo-in temple. To get there, you go down in to the valley then across the river and up a huge flight of stairs. Along the way we had tempura maple leaves (surprisingly tasty-but more tempura than maple leaves), roasted chestnuts and mikan. Jingo-in is gorgeous this time of year (this time I really will include pictures). One highlight was tossing small discs off a cliff to make sure your bad karma goes flying away. On the way back we decided to go the 3.3 km down river to Kiyotaki and head home from there. This might have worked if we'd had a full day, but it gets dark early these days. Half way there we couldn't see too well, despite the nice moonlight. Still we made it back to Kiyotaki for the 6:20 bus back home. We got ramen at a nice place near the bus stop and made it home to finish homework.