2022
Both Entokuin and Kodaiji Temples are in the same vicinity of each other and offer arguably the best night views of autumn leaves in the world, so I chose these two gardens to visit for my night viewing!
There are approximately 17 temple gardens in Kyoto city that are open for nighttime leaf peeping, and each with its own beauty.
I often recommend to visitors that you need a whole month to really see Kyoto. Everything from the food to the Japanese rice brew called sake has a story to tell. The temples and shrines are beholden of timeless beauty. Even the smell of tatami flooring is authentic. 70% of tatami in Japan is imported from China, and almost all modern domiciles use fake or altered tatami as flooring in some way or another. Real tatami is made from a grass called "Igusa" and is part of the "wa**####**su" legacy established by the Japanese thousands of years ago. 80% of foreign tourist have never experienced the aromatics of true tatami, which is a medicinal herb that relaxes you. When lying on one you get a real sense of being outdoors on the grass. In Kyoto everybody uses authentic tatami, and it is amazing to sit in an evening garden overlooking the turning leaves, and being draped in a warm blanket with someone special and smelling the tatami's perfume aroma permeate up through to your nose.
Kodaij-ji Temple is located in the Higashiyama Hills of eastern Kyoto, not mountains. Like many holy edifices in history, this temple was built in honor of the memory of a late spouse, hence the solemn beauty of the layout. The calmative effects of the tatami, the turning leaves, the night sky, and the lake were warm on the senses. Could really feel Kyoto in this garden.
Bamboo Forest