The changing leaves vividly color Kyoto, which lies in a basin and has marked temperature differences. For more than a millennium, people have delighted in their beauty and picnicked under the trees. Today, the changing leaves continue to enchant Kyotoites, who live within the changing seasons. The exquisite leaves adorn traditional kaiseki cuisine dishes, and the trees lit up at night are a magical sight. Some are so captured by their magnificence they express it in waka poetry and the arts.

Buddhists faithful intone "Namu Amida Butsu" in ardent prayer to Amida Buddha for the release from suffering and death in this world into the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. "Namu" means to embrace or take refuge in something. In this ideology, believers supplicate for a peaceful death and salvation in the afterlife. Discover the diverse faiths in Amida through Kyoto temples, the majority of which are dedicated to this celestial Buddha.