This week, I was very busy for hanging out with my friends, and I went to Kyoto three times in a row. I'll gradually write about what we did in my posts, but first, I'd like to share some pictures of the autumn leaves. I took those at Kōdai-ji. Since I'm danka (a family that supports the temple ), I can enter the temple for free whenever I want, so I invited two of my friends, and we saw its beautiful Japanese garden together. I've written about the temple once here.

Fortunately, we could see these vermilion or crimson colors everywhere.

Before visiting the temple, I thought it was too late to see leaves changing, but we were still able to see it.

When I saw the wall with full of silly graphite, my heart sank. I really hope visitors show respect for our culture.

After leaving Kōdai-ji, we came across a person who was wearing a kimono like a maiko (a geisha's apprentice). When I was young, only real maiko wore that style of kimono, but nowadays, everybody can rent one. It's hard for me to judge if the girl is a professional one.

She was having her photos taken by professional photographers.

We passed through her and walked up the slope toward Kiyomizu-dera.

Even though we didn't see many Chinese tourists because of the sanctions, there were still lots of tourists.

When I saw the gate, I remembered that it was my first visit since I was there with my British friend. Back then, I don't think we saw the Japanese national flag. It was my first time seeing a temple displaying the Japanese national flag.

We stood a high spot and looked down the view of Kyoto City.

On the way back, we stopped by a ceramic shop called Asahido.

I spotted my hand painted piece into a show window! I sold this work last year to the shop. You can read more detail here. It was my first time seeing this piece in a year. I know it's not cheap, but I really hope somebody will buy it.

(5061)