When it comes to places to see autumn leaves in the Kansai region, people often first think of the ancient temples in Kyoto or the vast parks in Nara. In Osaka, although the number of places where you can see autumn leaves is less than in Kyoto and Nara, the scenery is no less beautiful than the two cities above. Today I will introduce to you the most beautiful place to see autumn leaves in Osaka in my opinion – Katsuo-ji Temple.
Address: https://maps.app.goo.gl/vvmE3g8TriPff1Bh6
How to get there: First you need to take the train to Senrichuo Station, then walk about 100 meters to the nearby bus station, get on bus number 29, it takes about 30 minutes and the last stop will be Katsuo-ji Temple. The bus comes about once an hour, so you should search Google Map to check the bus schedule before you go to avoid waiting for a long time.
However, during the autumn leaves season, due to the high demand for travel here, there will be many more buses running directly from Senrichuo Station to Katsuo-ji Temple, there will be one such trip every 15-20 minutes. To avoid crowding, you should depart around 8 o'clock! Senrichuo station arrive Katsuoji temple, there will be one such trip every 15-20 minutes. To avoid crowding, you should depart around 8 o'clock!
Entrance ticket: 500 JPY / 1 adult.
Right at the entrance to the temple is an extremely magical scene. Surrounded by red leaves, there is also a fountain and mist spray at the large Koi fish pond – a unique feature of the temple.
The time I arrived was around 9 o'clock, but there were already quite a few tourists visiting here.
Katsuoji is a Buddhist temple famous for praying for luck, and the lucky symbol here is the Daruma doll.
You can see thousands of Daruma dolls here, placed anywhere in the temple.
Daruma dolls initially have no eyes. People come here to draw the left eye of the doll while praying, then bring it home. And if the wish later comes true, they will continue to draw the right eye of the doll and bring it to the temple and place it here. Looking at the number of dolls here, we can also easily see how sacred the temple is!
Before going up to the main hall of the temple, we will pass through the area of stairs filled with Daruma dolls of all sizes. This is also a favorite photo spot for all visitors to visit here.
From the main hall of the temple, we can admire the entire splendid autumn scenery below.
Today I was also very lucky to take this wonderful photo. With full red, yellow, and green colors, along with the scenery of the entire city sinking under the clouds in the distance.
Going up to the higher part of the temple, there are still many red maple trees that are gradually turning the most beautiful colors.
Going up to the top of this slope, we even have a more panoramic view of the city.
The colors of autumn in Japan.
Next, I start to go down to the other side of the temple.
On the way down from the temple, there are also many beautiful photo angles with red leaves.
The large fish pond at the entrance, where people watch and feed the Koi fish. In the distance is also a souvenir shop. The famous souvenir here is Momiji tempura – a deep-fried red leaf dish :D, remember to buy and try it when you come here.
There are also quite a few food stalls at the entrance, mainly cakes and snacks.
After taking photos and exploring Katsuoji, I moved to the next equally famous place in this area – Minoh Waterfall (箕面大滝) at Minoh Park.
Address: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Wm6Jtc57tEQVpNVQA
On weekends during the autumn leaves season, the road to Minoh Waterfall from Katsuoji Temple will be blocked, and only pedestrians are allowed to pass. So walking is almost the only way to get here on weekends. The distance is about 3.7km and it takes about 45-50 minutes to walk.
But don't worry, because the scenery along the way is also amazing. I stopped to take so many pictures along this road that I hardly noticed its length and didn't feel tired at all.
In addition, from November 11th to December 3rd, on weekends, at Minoh Waterfall, there is also the Minoh expo event, the event of lighting up the red leaves, temples as well as waterfalls here. This is also the main reason why I really want to go to Minoh Waterfall today.
The lighting time here starts at 5pm. Since I still have quite a lot of time left, I took a walk around this area and stopped by the restaurants here.
There are many restaurants serving tourists here, the food is also very diverse, from grilled sausages, grilled mochi, to grilled fish with salt, and the most special dish here is Oden.
There are many Oden shops here, along with long lines of people queuing to buy in front of the shop.
I also queued here and tried Oden.
Oden here is really delicious, and extremely suitable for the cold weather in Minoh (The afternoon temperature in Minoh is only about 4-5 degrees Celsius).
After eating, I moved to the waterfall area to take pictures and wait for the lighting time. And here is the result after 2 hours of my waiting:
Very beautiful, isn't it?
Stepping back, we will be able to capture the entire bridge along with the waterfall and the beautiful rows of red leaves.
Really worth my waiting time!
After taking photos here, I started to move to the nearest train station, Minoh Station. The distance is about 2.7km and it takes about 40 minutes to walk. The walking path from the waterfall to Minoh station is also beautifully lit, and there are many people walking back and forth, so you don't need to worry about the dark.
Minoh station address: https://maps.app.goo.gl/dVQXGm3W5GCsNCL8A
This is the end of my one-day journey to explore Katsuo-ji Temple and Minoh Waterfall. Hope this article will help you understand more about how to get here, as well as know more about an extremely beautiful place to see autumn leaves in Osaka. Thank you for reading to the end of the article!
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Really excellent photos