Autumn leaves紅葉
Pick your dates from the table below.
Pick your dates from the table below.
Autumn colour is the other great travelling season here, and it is easier to plan for than cherry blossom. It starts in the mountains of Hokkaido in late September and finishes in Kyushu in early December, and any one place holds good colour for two or three weeks rather than one.
It also moves downhill as well as south. In a mountain prefecture you can find the colour by changing your altitude: high passes in October, valleys in early November, city temples in late November. If you are a week “too early”, go up. A week too late, go down.
Late September – mid October: Hokkaido and high mountains in Tohoku and Nagano · Late October: Nikko’s upper lake, Tohoku valleys, the Alps · Early – mid November: Kanazawa, Hakone, Gifu, Tohoku lowlands · Mid – late November: Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Shikoku · Late November – early December: Kyushu.
Kyoto in the last two weeks of November is as busy as blossom season. The others are not.
Maples against wooden temples, floodlit in the evening at several. Late November.
Colour that people come from Tokyo for, from the upper lake down. Go on a weekday in November.
A gorge of solid colour with a viewing platform above it. Late October.
Colour at high altitude in early October, before the road closes for snow.
In November, with the pines already roped for snow.
A Buddhist town at 800 metres, in early November. Stay overnight in a temple.
Highland colour across open moor, on the road between Aso and Beppu.
A deep forested gorge with a vine bridge across it, in November.