last colors of fall

The fall foliage was a bit late this year what with all the temps going up and down.

On top of that there were many days on the weekends where it rained.

Luckily we were able to catch the last glimpses of fall this past Sunday.

We started off at Tofukuji. We visited this temple last year, which I wrote about here.

Somehow there seemed to be a ton more people out and about this time around.

Between tiny spurts of sunshine we made our way around the grounds.

With all the tons of people there was a lot of waiting in lines, the ladies restroom, to get into the garden, just about everywhere there was a line for something.

I guess that is the downside when you get out and about during a popular season.

It was amazing how many leaves had already fallen.

Satoshi was concerned about who had to rake up all the leaves.

After visiting Tofukuji, we decided to visit the family grave at Sennyuji.

But before doing that, we figured lunch would be late so we decided to re-fuel with a couple of snacks...

Yakimochi...yomogi mochi (mugwort rice cake) filled with sweet bean paste...150 yen.

Love how the outside gets a little crisp from the grilling.

And a stick of kushidango (rice cake on a stick)...100 yen.

Both are grilled to order and served piping hot.

The stick from the kushidango was removed before served, which made it easy to eat.

The shoyu glaze makes a nice sweet-salty combination.

Lunch turned out to be very late (2-ish), because we had a late start out and because the line for the place we wanted to eat at was LONG.

The place was a tsukemono buffet, Akoyachaya, which I had heard about.

Tsukemono are pickled veggies. You should know that Satoshi loves tsukemono, even if he is supposed to watch his salt intake.

This buffet serves 25 different types of tsukemono, a piece of tofu, miso soup, rice and tea....1280 yen.

There are three types of rice to choose from...white rice, 16-grain rice and o-kayu (rice porridge).

You can eat as much rice and tsukemono as you want, no time limit. (Usually buffet places in Japan limit your eating time to 90 minutes or 120 minutes depending on the place.)

Satoshi tried all the different types of rice and all the tsukemono.

I liked all the different tsukemono too, especially the ones that used yuzu (citron).

Even though we liked this place, we agreed that this place is in a very touristy area and we probably wouldn't come back, unless maybe to bring out-of-town guests to try.

Akoyachaya
3-343 Kiyomizu (top of Ninenzaka)
Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto
Phone: 075.531.0056
Open: 11:00-16:30