Kourankei Finally

I had heard about Kourankei from my Sony students. It's supposed to be the coolest, most popular place to view the fall colors in the area. And they kept offering to take me. But something always came up. So I finally decided to go on my own. It was much further than I had ever driven before here. Basically I had to follow my own footsteps back up to Horai, and then keep on going. It was a nice enough drive. But I got to a place where I didn't know what to do next, or if I was even going in the right direction. I stopped a couple of times to get directions and maps. But the maps showed where I was now, and which direction I needed to go, but then not what to do next. And several times I wasn't sure I was on the right path, so I turned around and went back. It turned out there had been many signs to the city Asuke, and if I had known Kourankei was at Asuke I might have found it an hour or so earlier. Well I got there very late, but by god I found it. So I wandered around along the riverside and walked up to the top of the hill. I stopped at the temple, that had a guard cat napping away happily on the cushion of honor in front of the buddha. But the leaves were actually past there prime. I had come too late. The pictures actually look better than reality (more photos on Flickr). By the time I got back to my car it was 4:00. I was supposed to be back in Hamamatsu by 4:45. That wasn't going to happen. So I called my private student and cancelled. My second private student called me to cancel, so my profits took a big hit. Not too mention the half a tank a gas, and my mood by the time I got back. Nonetheless, I had heard so much about it, it was very good to get it off my list of places I need to go. Now, I just need to get Okuni, Magome, Hakone, Izu, Nara, Nikko, Gifu.........