Arima's autumn keeps a garden of its own. Zuihoji Park sits on the slope above the hot spring town, and being higher it runs ahead of the streets below: the colour peaks in early to mid-November, and then it is finished. The place began as a temple of the same name, dissolved in 1873, and the old gate — said to have been moved here from Fushimi Castle — still stands among the maples.

Hideyoshi is recorded as having come back to this colour again and again. Out of that habit the place earned its second name: the garden where the day runs out while you are looking at it. It is hard to improve on that as a description. The name tells you what the place is for, and four centuries later it still works the same way.

What the eye gets is separation. Maple turns red and ginkgo turns yellow, and the two sit beside each other rather than blending, so the contrast lives entirely inside the garden. In November a small tea house opens for the season, with a shop and benches, which makes this a rare autumn place designed for sitting rather than walking.

There is no car park, and in November the lanes around the park close to traffic. So do the obvious thing. Walk up from the onsen town, take the bench, let the day run out, and go back down for a bath. The order of operations was settled by the Taiko a long time ago.