Welcome to my Japan Fall foliage blog! After witnessing the beautiful cherry blossoms in Japan in March 2019, we were inspired to visit Japan again in November 2019 to witness the gorgeous fall foliage! We visited many Japanese temples, gardens, and parks around Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Aichi and Osaka to see fall foliage. My favorite leaves are maple leaves in vibrant red oranges all over Kyoto! In this trip to the mountains, temples and countryside of Japan, I feel like we got transported into a Hiyao Miyazaki movie like Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke as we saw all the beautiful nature, moss green covered rocks, tori gates, shinto shrines, lightning rope, spirit creature stones, maple trees everywhere!
We visited Icho Namiki (Ginkgo Avenue) in Tokyo in the rain. It was a gorgeous site to see and fun to take a stroll with gingkos above and on the ground. We also went to Showa Memorial Park to see a beautiful grove of gingkos lining both sides of a fountain. You pay a small entrance fee to get in and I highly recommend this park for gingko viewing. We took the subway to see the Hikarigaoka Park gingkos and maple trees which is a gorgeous site. At night, we visited the Rikugien garden fall foliage 🍁🍁🍁 a beautiful landscape garden night illumination in Tokyo. I love how Japan has beautiful serene gardens in the middle of the city among high rises.
We found beautiful fall foliage at Jokoji Buddhist Temple in Aichi Japan. There were alot of red and yellow maple trees. 🍁🍁🍁 It's so beautiful and serene here perfect place to meditate with nature. This temple was in a remote place where we took the bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya and rented a car and drove an hour to the mountains to see it. It was worth the drive hardly any tourists there. We hiked up the pathway to Jakkoin Temple in Aichi Japan at closing so we only saw the base of the temple at dusk.
I highly recommend the 2 mile round trip mountain hike to the Minoo park waterfall as you will be rewarded by a waterfall framed by red and orange maple trees at the end. The entire hike in the forest is lit up like starburst colors and there are many food stands and restaurants along the hike. You can take the train there from Osaka to the mountain base.
We also found beautiful orange and red maples at Tanzan shrine, Nara. 🍁🍁🍁The vibrant colors are unreal and phenomenal. To get here we took the train to Osaka, rented a car and drove about 1.5 hrs to Nara in the mountains through switchbacks. We had to get used to driving on the left and sorta followed our google navigation which read off road signs in Chinese. I felt like I was crossing that red bridge in Spirited Away to the Muroji temple in Nara. Just like Chihiro did in the movie, I held my breath so the spirits can't see me. Next to the red bridge was a nice restaurant where you can enjoy a hot bowl of soba noodle overlooking a beautiful river and bridge on a cold Autumn day.
Ruriko-in Temple fall foliage reflection is so beautiful with rainbow colors, Kyoto 🍁🍁🍁🍁Rurikoin Temple is one of the most beautiful sites in Kyoto as the Buddhist temple is open for public only twice a year in Spring and Autumn. The main attraction of the temple is maple trees which display astonishing scenery with the historical buildings and traditional Japanese gardens at the temple. The orange red maple leaves reflection on the lacquered wood floors was a gorgeous sight to witness. Ninen-zaka Slope and Sannen-zaka Slope are iconic streets of Kyoto City, which represent Japan’s good old days. Lined with cute shops selling food, chopsticks, umbrellas, and Totoro and Studio Ghibli gifts.
On our last day, we visited Hoshi no buranko bridge at Hoshida Park in Kyoto 🍁🍁🍁, one of the largest wooden draw string bridges in Japan. It means place of many stars. The bridge is a little shaky when you walk towards the middle and you're literally suspended on top of a beautiful forest of orange and yellow maple trees! We drove an hour in the rain from Osaka to get here and then hiked up the mountain.
Japan has taken my breath away with it's natural beauty and preservation of nature. It has become my favorite travel destination to come back to frequently to see cherry blossoms in the Spring and fall foliage in the Autumn season. I don't think I would get tired of the beautiful trees and flowers here. Until next time beautiful Japan, thank you for sharing your nature's wonders and beautiful culture with us. I'm so inspired to paint everything that I've seen on my trip from yellow gingkos, rainbow landscapes of maple trees and bamboo forests and beautiful city gardens.
My golden gingko tree bird branch watercolor painting and gingko leaves jewelry above were inspired by the Japanese gingkos we saw all over Japan! You can find my gold citrine gingko jewelry in my Poshmark store here: https://poshmark.com/closet/jubileekat
We visited Icho Namiki (Ginkgo Avenue) in Tokyo in the rain. It was a gorgeous site to see and fun to take a stroll with gingkos above and on the ground. We also went to Showa Memorial Park to see a beautiful grove of gingkos lining both sides of a fountain. You pay a small entrance fee to get in and I highly recommend this park for gingko viewing. We took the subway to see the Hikarigaoka Park gingkos and maple trees which is a gorgeous site. At night, we visited the Rikugien garden fall foliage 🍁🍁🍁 a beautiful landscape garden night illumination in Tokyo. I love how Japan has beautiful serene gardens in the middle of the city among high rises.
We found beautiful fall foliage at Jokoji Buddhist Temple in Aichi Japan. There were alot of red and yellow maple trees. 🍁🍁🍁 It's so beautiful and serene here perfect place to meditate with nature. This temple was in a remote place where we took the bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya and rented a car and drove an hour to the mountains to see it. It was worth the drive hardly any tourists there. We hiked up the pathway to Jakkoin Temple in Aichi Japan at closing so we only saw the base of the temple at dusk.
I highly recommend the 2 mile round trip mountain hike to the Minoo park waterfall as you will be rewarded by a waterfall framed by red and orange maple trees at the end. The entire hike in the forest is lit up like starburst colors and there are many food stands and restaurants along the hike. You can take the train there from Osaka to the mountain base.
We also found beautiful orange and red maples at Tanzan shrine, Nara. 🍁🍁🍁The vibrant colors are unreal and phenomenal. To get here we took the train to Osaka, rented a car and drove about 1.5 hrs to Nara in the mountains through switchbacks. We had to get used to driving on the left and sorta followed our google navigation which read off road signs in Chinese. I felt like I was crossing that red bridge in Spirited Away to the Muroji temple in Nara. Just like Chihiro did in the movie, I held my breath so the spirits can't see me. Next to the red bridge was a nice restaurant where you can enjoy a hot bowl of soba noodle overlooking a beautiful river and bridge on a cold Autumn day.
Ruriko-in Temple fall foliage reflection is so beautiful with rainbow colors, Kyoto 🍁🍁🍁🍁Rurikoin Temple is one of the most beautiful sites in Kyoto as the Buddhist temple is open for public only twice a year in Spring and Autumn. The main attraction of the temple is maple trees which display astonishing scenery with the historical buildings and traditional Japanese gardens at the temple. The orange red maple leaves reflection on the lacquered wood floors was a gorgeous sight to witness. Ninen-zaka Slope and Sannen-zaka Slope are iconic streets of Kyoto City, which represent Japan’s good old days. Lined with cute shops selling food, chopsticks, umbrellas, and Totoro and Studio Ghibli gifts.
On our last day, we visited Hoshi no buranko bridge at Hoshida Park in Kyoto 🍁🍁🍁, one of the largest wooden draw string bridges in Japan. It means place of many stars. The bridge is a little shaky when you walk towards the middle and you're literally suspended on top of a beautiful forest of orange and yellow maple trees! We drove an hour in the rain from Osaka to get here and then hiked up the mountain.
Japan has taken my breath away with it's natural beauty and preservation of nature. It has become my favorite travel destination to come back to frequently to see cherry blossoms in the Spring and fall foliage in the Autumn season. I don't think I would get tired of the beautiful trees and flowers here. Until next time beautiful Japan, thank you for sharing your nature's wonders and beautiful culture with us. I'm so inspired to paint everything that I've seen on my trip from yellow gingkos, rainbow landscapes of maple trees and bamboo forests and beautiful city gardens.
My golden gingko tree bird branch watercolor painting and gingko leaves jewelry above were inspired by the Japanese gingkos we saw all over Japan! You can find my gold citrine gingko jewelry in my Poshmark store here: https://poshmark.com/closet/jubileekat
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