Kyoto in Autumn

The Haruka express from Kansai puts you in Kyoto by late afternoon. Your ryokan is in Higashiyama, on a lane too narrow for cars, and the first evening is deliberately empty.

The gates are busy by nine and empty at six. You go early, climb as far as the Yotsutsuji junction where the city opens up below, and are back down before most people have arrived.

West to the bamboo grove, then up to Okochi Sanso — the villa of a silent-film actor, whose garden most visitors walk straight past on their way back to the station. The maples above the Hozu river are the point of coming in November.

The whole day within walking distance of the ryokan. Kiyomizu-dera first, then down the stone lanes of Sannenzaka to Kodai-ji, which lights its garden after dark in maple season.

Nara was the capital before Kyoto was, and Todai-ji still holds the largest bronze Buddha in the world in the largest wooden building. The deer in the park have been considered sacred messengers since the eighth century and are entirely unbothered by you.

A private tea ceremony in the morning with a teacher who explains what she is doing rather than performing it, then the canal path north from Ginkaku-ji under the last of the maples.

The ryokan will hold your bags while you take a last hour in the garden. The Haruka runs every half hour and your flight is not until evening, so nothing about this morning needs to be rushed.