In the 2nd day in Kyoto, I headed for Sagano. Sagano's old temples and banboo forests are famous and popular among ladies. The Keifuku-Arashiyama-railline took me to Arashi-Yama station. This is famous for its beauty during the fall colors. This was the coldest day this fall due to the cold air from Siberia. But the air was clean and transparent. The best day for sightseeing.

Photos of Katsura-River, small ferryboats, and fall colors. Years ago, Kakuno-Ryoue tamed the rough river so that ferry could carry materials. Since then, some part of the river is called Ohi-River.

Around Arashi-Yama
Just near the station, there is a Togetsu-Bridge. The river is called Katsura-River around here. But just north from here, the river changes its name to Ohi-River. The Arashi-Yama is the mountain standing on the other side of the river. For more than 1000 years, the people of Kyoto loved the scenery of this place. Indeed, the fall colors covered the entire mountains of Arashi-Yama and Kokura-Yama.

The grand view from Dai-Hikaku. The river below is Ohi-River, then Kokura-Mountain with te city of Kyoto behind itself. The triangle shaped mountain is Hieizan. Inbetween there is Kinugasa mountain which is famous for Kinkaku. The small 3 (or 2) hills is Futa-ga-Oka.

I took passenger ferry to the other side of Ohi-River on the way back. The other side of the river is Kokura-Yama, covered with fall colors. Many old templs of Sagano locate on the other side of the Kokura-Yama.

From Togetsu-Bridge to Dai-Hikaku
When I was wandering around the Togetsu-Bridge, I saw a small hand-written sign, which said "Dramatic View" or "Dai-Hikaku". Hmm, there was also a copy of a column from a newspaper. It talked about a templed called Dai-Hikaku, which was almost closed some time ago. Originaly, Kakuno Ryoue created the temple. He was a very rich person, and he spend all his wealth to construction of canals and big reclaimed land. He is the one who tamed the Katsura-River (and hence it changed its name to Ohi-River). Dai-Hikaku was created to calm the spirits of people who died during the construction. Five years ago, a group of volunteers started to re-built the temple by creating a new path and maintaining the temple.

This really sounds interesting. I gotta visit this temple. The path went on the left side of the river, but it looked as if it was sandwiched by Arashi-Yama and Kokura-Mountain. Now I am looking up the fall colors of Arashi-Yama, which I watched it from far just awhile ago. The path ended about 1 km (0.8 mile) at an old Japanese style hotel, which still operates today. There was a stairs of about 100 steps. At the top of the step, there was a Dai-Hikaku. The priest came out and greeted me with a nice smile. Something I never expected in a temple of Kyoto. He also explained about the view from a main guest house. "Oh, we can see the Hieizan, today" said he. It was a bit misty from the cold air. But the mist had disappeared under the morning sunlight. According to him, "the mist usually come out again in the afternoon when temperature gets warm". The view at the very right moment was, very dramatic.

The small garden of Giou-Temple. It was very profound. But the tourists (including me) packed the small temple.

Nison-Temple
The name of the temple came from having two Buddha. My guidebook said "Nison-Ji has a different class of beauty when it comes to fall colors..." but the fall colors were almost over. Only a lot of tourists in the temple. There seem to be many other good stuff to see in this temple (if there were not this many tourists...)

Giou-Temple
A small but profound Giou-Temple had beautiful garden surrounded by bamboo forests as well as a small hermitage covered with moss. This temple is famous for "Tale of Heike", the most beautifully written story of Japan. The "Tale of Heike" starts with a sentence "Gion shouja no kane no oto, shogyo mujoh no hibiki ari..." Some people think that all of Japanese remember this sentence. I could almost agree.

Walking through bamboo forest near Osawa-Pond.

Walking Sagano
There were many souvenir shops specialized in bamboo ware and potteries, as well as some tourists. But once I came to Osawa-Pond area, there hardly was a tourist, but only a peaceful countryside of Kyoto. This area is also known as North-Sagano, where court nobles of Heian-era spend their time enjoying the sceneries and writing poems. It is said that the scenery of North-Sagano hardly changed since then. Today, we can still enjoy the cherryblossoms of Atago, moon watching at Osawa-Pond, and listen to music of crickets.

Then, I got lost. But I still could see the directions. After walking through fields, I ended up in Hirosawa-Pond. Unfortunately, there were no water in the pond for its yearly maintenance.

The stage of Kiyomizu-Temple and fall colors. The city of Kyoto lies in the distance. The white dots were flashes from cameras. It was impossible to take photos without a tripod.

Kiyomizu-Temple at Night
Were there thousands? Or even tens of thousands tourists were walking towards Kiyomizu-Temple in the evening. This temple is large enough to even accept this many people. The priests were shouting using loudspeaker, "WATCH YOUR STEP; IT IS DARK!" Almost unbearably loud, but I guess there was an accident before. The temple is light-up but not bright enough to see my steps. Even one person's mis-step could result in hundreds people's fall. But, can't they lower the volume? Passing through many gorgeous temples, I finally came out onto the stage. It was amazing to think a wooden structure can support this many people. Japanese famous cliche was "Falling out of Kiyomizu-Temple's stage" meaning taking a big risk. The best view was from the Senju-Doh (Thousand-hands Buddha statue's Hall). The stage and the city of Kyoto appeared from light.

But there were more to see in this temple. On the way back, there was a step just before the stage. I enjoyed the fall colors which I saw it from the above. At the bottom of the step, there was a Otonoha-Waterfall. An old myth says a divine help will happen by drinking the water. And yes, there were a lot of people drinking the water. There were 3 waterfalls, actually. Each fall gives different divine help. But drinking all of the water from the 3 falls will cancel the divine help. Don't be greedy. There was a nice little tea house next to the waterfall. Then, there was a small pond, which reflect the temples and fall colors. Everybody cheered with the scenery.

The outside of the Kiyomizu-Temple was very nice. The world's best writer, Murasaki-Shikibu (wrote "Tale of Genji") also visited here. I guess it has been a popular tourist place for more than 1000 years. Kiyomizu-Zaka has became over developed but San-nen-Zaka and Ni-nen-Zaka still retain the good-old Kyoto. It was even better at night when there only a few tourists.