A sprinkle of red

I still can’t get used to the fact that leaves just turn later in Tokyo than they do in Seattle. I expect the trees to reveal their beautiful colors in October, not the end of November.

Man bright yellow ginkgoes in Hikarigaoka Park are almost gone. Last week’s winds blew most of the leaves into beautiful quilts covering the paths that were quickly swept away by the ground crew.

I love the fall leaves. I’m always sad to see them go. I love that November tends to be very dry, so the trees keep their leaves much, much longer than in Seattle.

I don’t mind going the extra distance to seek and view these beauties. So, when a friend told me about some red maples making their annual showing of splendor at a temple about an hour’s bike ride away, I excitedly told my husband about it. She forewarned me that they wouldn’t reach their peak colors until the first week of December, but I simply couldn’t wait!

After spending the morning chatting on FaceTime with a friend, my family headed out the door to explore. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to charge my bike battery. When I turned it on as we headed out, it read a disappointing 20%. I had already postponed our adventure by an hour so I could talk to my friend. I didn’t want to hold us up any longer. So, I turned it off, crossed my fingers, and put the pedal to the metal. While it sounds silly that I rely on my bike battery so much, my bike is actually really heavy and, therefore, really hard to ride without the assist.

Although I didn’t know it when we left, the ride was relatively flat. I had to hop off twice to push it up a couple long slopes, but otherwise I did alright. However, I still cursed myself quite a bit on the ride for not charging the darn thing. When I was almost out of steam I asked my husband how much further and he replied “less than 2 kilometers.” Thanking my lucky stars, I continued on because I knew I could make it that far.

Before we went into the temple, we ducked into a small restaurant for lunch. They make udon (thick, chewy noodles made from wheat) with carrots. All three of us wanted to try the bright orange noodles.

While the carrots didn’t add much flavor, they did provide a colorful plate and were delicious. It was a lovely representation of an autumn plate.

The entrance to Heirinji Temple was half a block away from the restaurant. We had to pay to enter the temple grounds. At first I thought this was strange, but then recalled we have paid to get into several temples over the years. ¥1200/$11.50 for the three of us didn’t seem that expensive (I think my husband and I were ¥500 each and our son was ¥200).

Right away, we were treated to some beautiful red maples. The scene of the trees surrounding the temple gates and buildings was a delight to my eyes. It was a bit cloudy during our visit, but the sun would suddenly peak through the clouds and the trees would be illuminated, like putting a filter on a camera. The red (and yellow) trees would suddenly be glowing.

Heirinji Temple is home to a strict form of Buddhism that requires a vow of silence as part of the monk’s training process. Therefore, parts of the temple are off limits to visitors, as they would be very distracting to the training monks. Even though we couldn’t visit every corner of the property, there was plenty to see.

Some of the statues on the property date back to the Edo period.

Do you see my son's little friend?

View through a fence.

There was still a lot of green left in the trees, making me want to take a trip back in a couple weeks. I can’t imagine enjoying it more than I already did, but I'm sure that as more trees turned red, I would appreciate it even more.

After about an hour, we decided we were ready to head back home. I still rode without my battery, but this time it was even easier because the hills were now aimed down instead of up. Next time, I will remember to charge my battery before heading out.