Nagoya Surrounding Autumn Leaf Viewing
Kaoransui, Kokei Eihō-ji Temple, Obara Shikizakura—these places around Nagoya are quite far apart, which led to giving up on several attempts at Chubu autumn leaf viewing due to poor cost performance. This time, I originally planned a private car tour to cover them all at once, but surprisingly found a day tour that already includes all of them with a very reasonable price, so this one-day tour was confirmed:
1. The itinerary of this tour is very reasonable based on my experience, going clockwise from Eihō-ji Temple to Obara and then to Kaoransui. Travel time is short, avoiding peak times with most tourists, the time spent at each spot is just right, and Kaoransui also offers night illumination of the autumn leaves.
2. Kokei Eihō-ji Temple is not large, featuring a large ginkgo tree as its treasure (photo 2). Although it’s not as big as Kyoto’s Nishi Hongan-ji, it is tall, with a lake and a bridge, and the maple leaves are very red. Whether as a warm-up for this trip or for photos, it was very satisfying (photos 3-6).
3. Obara Shikizakura, from the perspective of the four-season cherry blossoms, is somewhat overrated, especially if you have already seen the cherry blossom season; it’s hard to compare. The mix with maple leaves can probably only be improved through post-processing (photos 7, 8). But this place has a Yakushi-ji Temple, which is quite nice. As long as you don’t mind climbing a few dozen steps, there are also quite red maple trees and a ground covered with ginkgo leaves, which compensates for the shortfall of the cherry blossoms (photos 9, 10).
4. Kaoransui truly deserves the title of the King of Chubu Autumn Leaves, with mountains covered in red leaves, rivers, red bridges, and a pretty good snack street. Highly recommend the Kōjaku-ji Temple on the mountain; a temple with a red leaf background is always the standard for Japanese autumn leaf viewing (photos 11-16).
5. The tour allows 3 hours at Kaoransui, but based on my experience, 2 hours is enough to walk from one end to the other and back, then wait until 5 PM for the illumination when it gets dark, which is completely sufficient.
6. At the snack street, I tried the ramen you have to hold the bowl while walking—just average, but good for trying something new and not expensive; at the market in the middle (opposite the wild boar meat skewers), the first okonomiyaki was huge, felt like 600 yen could serve 3 people, and it tasted good; the sweet potato chips were also quite tasty, though not very cost-effective.