A slower season beneath Kyoto’s maples

Kyoto in autumn asks only one thing of you: wake before the city does.

At seven, temple gardens in the northern hills are still and dew-wet, the maples lit from behind.

Gardens worth the early alarm

Choose the smaller sub-temples, where a single garden can be contemplated from the veranda for an hour.

When the leaves turn

Peak colour usually arrives in the last two weeks of November.