Koyo, or what to do when the candle goes out?

I am told that now that November has come the sun has gone, and there will be no more of it until at least February next year. Apparently I am best advised to pretend I am in London, because that is how the weather will be for the next 5 months. If only I had chosen to go viewing autumn leaves a week earlier, when the sun was still out; instead on a dreary Sunday afternoon I drove with several of the maths students to Kyomizu temple, near the sea of Japan, to walk up a mountain and look at the leaves in the rain. As one can see from these pictures there is a lot of mist and drizzle but not a great deal of red and brown. This is because apparently the leaves have turned late this year, and by the time it is cold enough for them all to be red, there will be no light with which to take pictures of them.

Still, Mountains in mist and rain are a quintessential Japanese picture, so here are a few images from my afternoon in the Mountains to please those of you who yearn for Northern seasons.