Kyoto in the fall

This is a bell house just outside a temple in Kyoto, Japan. I took this on a visit there in the fall of 1996--my first trip to Japan. Kyoto was once the capital of Japan and, as it stands today, is one of the best preserved ancient cities still in existence.

The city has over 2000 Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. In addition to the religious art and architecture, the city is surrounded by much natural beauty. It's well-known for its colors in the fall, and it draws many visitors. You can get a sense of the fall colors from this picture--the green, the orange, and the gold of the leaves.

The beauty of the natural surroundings, the cool crisp air of late October, and the intermixing of ancient and modern Japan made this trip one of my more memorable. I took lots of other pictures that day, including several of Kinkaju-ji, the famous Golden Temple of Kyoto. I hope to post more of these in the future.

Another picture tomorrow...

NOTE: I re-posted this after a fellow blogger, n E o A u T e U r , brought it to my attention that the image wasn't in the post. I tried using Picasa's "Blog This!" feature to upload the post and didn't check afterwards...but it's up there now. Thanks for letting me know.