Mobile café in Hamamatsu Castle Park

I have already introduced some autumn leave viewing spots in Kyoto and Mori-mochi. So, I wondered if it was necessary to write about Hamamatsu Castle Park. However, it is the most convenient place to see autumn leaves if you live or come to the downtown. I went there today, wondering how they look like now. There were many people taking pictures here and there in the Japanese garden. It was very difficult to take pictures without including people. I almost gave up writing an article this time and finally came to a mobile café near the central lawn area. Its name is Tatazumi Coffee.

This café used high-quality coffee beans, however, I wondered if they had something without caffeine. According to their menu, they had decaf coffee, kuromoji tea, milk, apple juice and many other items in addition to ordinary coffee.

I asked the master what kuromoji tea was and if it was good because all I knew was the tea was from Tenryu, the mountain area in Hamamatsu. He showed me tea bags and let me smell at kuromoji. He explained that the tree of kuromoji is used for toothpicks served with traditional Japanese sweets to cut them. In English, it is called spicebush. I thought the smell of it was refreshing and ordered a cup of tea.

It was my first time to drink kuromoji tea, and I could hardly explain how it tasted. It wasn’t strong nor tasted bad, but I couldn’t find a word to describe it. The master said that it was like herb tea. Maybe he had also difficulty explaining the taste.

Before I left the place, I tried to take a picture of the café as the master allowed me to do so. But it seemed to be very popular, and many people were standing in a queue then. So, I took a picture just from this angle. According to their website, Tatazumi Coffee is open in the same place basically from Thursday to Monday.

After drinking tea, I felt refreshed and returned to the Japanese Garden to see if there were less people than before.

This place with a waterfall is a popular spot to take pictures.

As in the mountain areas, some maple leaves turned glowing red.

I went through bamboo trees

to go out of the gate.

When looking back, I found the sunlight on the hedge looked beautiful.

Though Hamamatsu Castle Park is just a city park and is not a real forest, you can still enjoy changing seasons and nature in it. While taking this picture, I heard some children shouting as they found squirrels. In this park, you can easily see them as they come closer to people. It’s a pity that it was impossible to take pictures of them as they moved so quickly on branches and jump between trees.

Late Autumn in Mori-machi (2) - Daitoin Temple

From Okuni Jinja, I walked further toward the next destination Daitoin. It was about 4.7 km from Oukni Jinja, and the road sometimes became steep. It was really a lonely mountain road. If it had not been for a walking event, I couldn’t have walked there alone. At least, I could always see a few people walking behind or in front of me on my way to Daitoin.

Daitoin is a temple famous for the grave of a gangster Mori-no-Ishimatsu who lived in the 19th century. It is believed that you can have a gambling luck if you cut the gravestone and keep the fragment of it. But in front of the gravestone, there was a notice saying that the temple sells amulets containing a fragment of the gravestone and it is forbidden to cut it by yourself to take the fragment home.

As in Okuni Jinja, I could enjoy the glowing color of autumn leaves.

The old building for zen meditation had a quainter atmosphere than in other seasons.

Mori-no-Ishimatsu and his boss Shimizu Jirocho welcome you all year round.

This is a sculpture of a dragon on the wall of the main building.

I went down the stairs. The trees looked better from beneath.

I didn’t know what this stone and the plant beside it were, but the red color was beautiful.

It was a luck that the walking event in Mori-machi was held just on that weekend as we could enjoy autumn leaves both in Okuni Jinja and Daitoin. We still had to walk 4.4 km, however, I was very satisfied and continued to walk to the residential area of the town. On our way to the goal, Enshu-Mori Station, there was a shop selling gelato. According to the map, they make their original gelato according to the seasons.

At first, I didn’t feel like eating gelato at this time of year. However, I got curious as many people went inside the shop and ordered various kinds of gelato. They had a popular set of five kinds of gelato that you could choose from many options. I chose strawberry, Mikkabi mandarin orange, chestnut, green tea, and persimmon gelato. The major ingredients were from towns in Enshu or western Shizuoka Prefecture. Mikkabi mandarin oranges were from the north of Lake Hamana. Chestnuts were from Kakegawa, and green tea and persimmons were from Mori-machi. I started eating from the persimmon gelato with a spoon. I had never eaten one before but found it very delicious. Each of gelato had its original strong taste of the ingredient, and I thought they were the best gelato I had ever eaten. The last one was green tea gelato. It was good to finish with the rich bitter taste of tea from Mori-machi.

The name of the shop is Aria, and it was about 1.5 km from Enshu Mori Station. Even after the walking event, I keep the map so that I can visit there again on some other occasions.

Late autumn in Mori-machi (1) - Okuni Jinja Shrine

At the end of November, my mother and I went to Kyoto and enjoyed the beautiful view of autumn leaves. After that I didn’t think it necessary to go elsewhere to see them further. However, I participated in Sawayaka Walking in Mori-machi last Saturday, hoping to have another chance to have a magnificent view in the mountainous area.

This time, I bought a one-day pass for Enshu Railway + Tenhama Line (eastern route) for 1480 yen. It provides unlimited rides between Shin-Hamamatsu and Nishikajima and between Nishikajima and Kakegawa.

I left Shin-Hamamatsu Station at 7:48, changed the train at Nishikajima, and arrived at Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station at 8:49. It was cloudy, and the distance of the walking course was 13 km. The first destination was Okuni Jinja, the highest-class shrine in western Shizuoka Prefecture. It was about 4 km from the station, and we walked mostly in rural landscape. When passing by some fields, I saw two men cutting cosmos along the fields by machines. Before they were completely cut, I managed to take pictures of them. It was unexpected to see cosmos in December.

When I came to Okuni Jinja, I wondered if I could really see colorful leaves in the shrine.

But my expectation grew as I walked further inside.

The view around the pond was gorgeous.

Glowing red leaves were simply wonderful.

I thought I was very lucky to come there on that day. It was also nice that there weren’t many people even in front of the main building. I imagined how it would be crowded on the New Year’s Day.

After making a prayer, I went out from the exit on the right. There I found the most beautiful leaves I had ever seen!

Along the both side of a brook, there was a walking trail. It may have been the best time to stroll under the trees, with strong contrast of colors. I went over a small bridge.

The colors were as gorgeous as on the other side.

I enjoyed the view to my heart’s content. After that I visited Kotomachi Yokocho, a small area in front of the shrine where you can buy some sweets, drinks, etc. One of the shops was selling oyaki or buns stuffed with turnip greens and adzuki bean soup that are suitable snack for vegans.

I just drank hot amazake or a fermented rice drink. It is always very sweet, but I like it.

In Kotomachi Yokocho, you can find many traditional Japanese sweets. There was also a shop selling fresh warabimochi, jelly-like sweets made from bracken starch. They were sold with kinako or soybean powder, or macha or powdered green tea sprinkled on them.

In front of this shop, there was a rest area with tables and chairs. I had a seasonal snack consisting of warabimochi and daigakuimo or candied sweet potato. It was 500 yen, and I thought it was too expensive for its small size. But fresh soft warabimochi was very good. Daigakuimo was well fried   outside and soft inside. It wasn’t too sweet and was also good. I bought a small pack of warabimochi additionally to take home and proceeded walking.

Autumn leaves in Jakkoin, Kyoto

Last weekend, my mother and I went to Kyoto by Shinkansen. We left JR Hamamatsu Station at 7:49. The train was full of people as it was the best season to see autumn leaves. At first, we couldn’t have seats but managed to find ones when some passengers got off the train at Mikawa Anjo in Aichi Prefecture. After arriving at Kyoto at 9:37, we bought a one-day pass respectively that provides unlimited number of rides on the subway and three kinds of buses.

Kyoto have many famous spots for autumn leaves viewing. This time, we were going to Ohara that is a bit distant from the downtown. Usually it takes about 60 minutes to get there by bus, but we took the subway to Kokusai Kaikan (last station) and then the bus to Ohara. They increased the number of buses to Ohara during the autumn leaves season. We could take the bus soon and have seats. However, it took longer than usual to get to Ohara because the roads were crowded.

Bus stop in fromt of Kokusai Kaikan Station

Ohara is a mountainous rural area in Kyoto. Our main destination is Jakkoin, one of the famous temples in Ohara. On our way there, we enjoy a view of old-style houses surrounded by beautiful nature.

It was a little over 11:00, and we had lunch in Tamba Chaya. Though their lunch sets weren’t vegetarian because they used dried bonito broth for the main dishes such as buckwheat noodles, they included several kinds of local pickles. People in this area cultivate some vegetables that are a little different from those in Hamamatsu. They were growing very well.

Jakkoin is a very old temple that is said to have been built in 594. If you search with “Jakkoin Temple”, you can find some explanations of its long history, especially about Kenreimon-in who was the mother of Emperor Antoku. She became a nun after her clan Heike was destroyed in the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185. In this temple, she consoled the spirits of the people in the Heike clan, including her son Emperor Antoku who passed away during the battle at the age of six. Apart from the historical events, I thought Jakkoin is a temple worth visiting. My mother first visited there more than 50 years ago but still remembered the beautiful autumn leaves that covered the stairs to the temple. This time, we couldn’t have such a view, however, their garden was still impressive to see. According to the map, the building over there is a tea ceremony room.

We climbed up further to go to the main building.

From the stairs, we could see fallen leaves on the green moss on the roofs (one of them is that of the entrance of the garden).

This is the main building. The autumn leaves behind it were so beautiful. We got inside and heard about the history of the temple.

This is the Belfry of Shogyo Mujo. It is a Buddhist word used at the beginning of the Tale of the Heike, meaning “all things must pass.”

I highly recommend vising Jakkoin at this time of year if you come to Kyoto and have time. Although it was one of the best seasons to visit Kyoto, there weren’t many people on the road to Jakkoin. You can soak up in the tranquility and beauty of the nature.

In addition, they have traditional pickles called shibazuke. They are one of the three popular kinds of pickles in Kyoto. The ones I got from my mother are made of traditional ingredients only: eggplant, red perilla, Japanese ginger, and salt. According to a legend, people in Ohara presented these pickles to Kenreimon-in in Jakkoin. She liked it very much and named them shibazuke (shiba (紫葉) means a purple leaf). This pack was sold in a shop on our way to Sanzen-in, another famous temple in Ohara. I found these pickles very sour, almost as sour as a pickled plum for which red perilla is also used.

Even now, red perilla is a specialty of Ohara. Tamba Chaya near Jakkoin have juice made from red perilla they cultivate by themselves. I regret a little not to have ordered and tasted it. It may be as good as shibazuke though it may be much sweeter than the pickles.