東福寺 Tofuku-ji Temple @Kyoto

We wanted and had hoped to try to catch some 紅葉 autumn colours from the maple leaves during our trip, but it was so difficult to find reasonably priced lodging in 京都 Kyoto, so we decided to stopover at 京都 Kyoto for 1 day (and stayed in a capsule hotel) before returning back during the later half of the trip. 東福寺 Tofuku-ji Temple was the place to try our luck for the day time… and we were so so glad that we made the effort to come here!

As we had our JR Rail Pass activated, we took the train from 京都駅 Kyoto Station to 東福寺駅 Tofuku-ji Station on the JR Nara Line, and from there, it was an easy 10-minute walk to the temple as we basically just followed the crowd.

While the peak was probably over, it was amazing to see the red, orange and yellow colours all around us… simply stunning, and totally worth the ¥400 per adult entry fee! We’ll let the pictures tell the story 🙂

Useful Links:

• 紅葉 Autumn Colours – Autumn colours are to the Japanese autumn what cherry blossoms are to spring. The viewing of autumn leaves has been a popular activity in Japan for centuries and today draws large numbers of travelers to famous 紅葉 koyo spots both in the mountains and in the cities. Each year, starting in mid September, the “koyo front” slowly moves southwards from 北海道 Hokkaido until it reaches the lower elevations of 東京 Tokyo and 京都 Kyoto.
• 東福寺 Tofuku-ji Temple – 15 Hon-machi, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto-fu 612-0839 Japan 〒612-0839 京都府京都市東山区本町１５