Part 2: Magical Autumn Leaves

4:08 PM artcher 0 Comments

I love trees and now I love the Japanese red maple tree especially!

Osaka's Minoo Park, Nara's Todaiji Temple and Kyoto's Tofukujii Temple's garden have shown me how beautiful autumn can be decorated by all those red maple leaves.

Why did the leaves turn from green to red or orange during Autumn season? My internet research told me that it is because the leaves are reacting to the shortening of daylight hours as winter is approaching. The green chlorophyll in the leaves are breaking down, leaving behind the other color tissues from the leave before it finally fall from the trees…ahh…so that is actually the color of the leaves dying… Sad but still beautiful isn't it.


“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” 
― Albert Camus

And that quote explain how I felt about the leaf…

My travel to Japan was specially chosen on the 3rd week of November which is believe to be the best time to visit autumn in Japan if you want to see the peak of the vibrant autumn leaf. The chilling atmosphere and vibrant foliage makes the trip all worthwhile. However, the occasional rain did spoilt 2 of our original plan to see more garden and park. But it is part of nature, so we shouldn't complain :)


Notice the wet maple leaves in the pictures, it's because it was drizzling when we visited the location. I've actually picked a few leaves from the floor to decorate my photo album and they've all turned brown but still looking attractive because of their unique star pointed shape.

I think for every effort, time and money spent on traveling, there should always be a focus or a memorable experience that you can keep in your memory bank for as long as possible… and I'm trying my best to collect them...