Katsuoji visit part one: Hiking in Japanese forest and Minoh waterfall

Howdy!

Today's post is about a trip to Katsuoji Temple I took with my friends about two weeks ago. (see, I told you I'm behind on blogging about stuff...)

It was national sports day, so I had a day off class! Lucky~

There is a bus that runs to Katsuoji, but being the genki and adventurous types we are, my friends and I decided to hike there. It wasn't too tough, and the forest we walked through is completely beautiful!

In Japan, autumn, and the leaves of the trees changing colour, is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful times of the year. I can see the leaves are starting to turn red, and I'm so excited. 

Minoh, where I'm living, and Minoh waterfall in particular, are pretty famous for how beautiful the Momiji (red maple leaves) are. We have actually already visited Minoh Waterfall a few weeks ago, but it is so pretty and on the way to Katsuoji anyway so we stopped off there.

On the way to Katsuoji, we passed Ryuanji temple:

The waterfall area was so much more crowded than last time we went, but it's still pretty. If you want to avoid the crowds, I'd recommend going either in the morning or late afternoon though, not on a national holiday like we did.

If you visit Japan, please try and visit one of the beautiful forests!

I found some love graffiti! In Japan, instead of writing "Amy <3 xxx" people write both their names under an umbrella, because supposedly only lovers share an umbrella. I thought it was so cute! Japan doesn't seem to do PDA as much as in the UK, although I have seen people hold hands, and if people are drunk and its late they might kiss. Still, I think it's a lot more reserved than the UK. Maybe I'll write a whole post on PDA in Japan, or something. Anyone interested? :)

We found this really high ledge to climb out to and look down onto the valley. It was scary but such a beautiful view! 

We also found a viewpoint where you could see Osaka city:

The trees in the forest were so tall!

A lot of the trail had a disused feeling, because there weren't many people hiking there. Nature had overtaken a lot of the paths.

There are always a lot of signs saying "let's take our rubbish home". Translated into English it sounds horrendously patronising, but it's just a nicer way of saying "no littering".

There was a random pond in the middle of the trail. So beautiful, and the whole area was so still and peaceful.

There were a lot of fallen trees around too. I wonder if it was from storm damage? But a lot of them look like they were neatly cut down by people.

That's it for now, next post will be about Katsuoji itself. 

Thanks for reading! 

-Amy xoxo