Nationwide

Japan's Autumn Colour

The front starts in Hokkaido in late September and reaches Kyoto at the end of November. Two months of colour, moving south at about 30 kilometres a day — here is how to be in front of it rather than behind it.

Golden larch forest below a ridge of snow-dusted mountains — Nagano · November 2022

Japan's autumn is not a week, it is a front. It begins in the mountains of Hokkaido in the third week of September, reaches the northern Honshu highlands in mid-October, the Kanto hills in early November, and the gardens of Kyoto and Nara at the end of that month.

It also moves down the mountains as it moves south, which is the part people miss. In the same prefecture, in the same week, the high valleys can be bare while the town below is still green.

At a glance

Hokkaido: Late September to mid-October, mountains first
Tohoku and the Alps: Mid-October to early November
Kanto, Tokyo, Nikko: Early to late November
Kyoto, Nara, the west: Mid-November to the first week of December
Rule of thumb: The front drops about 100m of altitude and 30km of latitude a day
Booking: November is the hardest month of the year for accommodation

Start high and north

A gorge filled with orange and yellow forest, a small bridge crossing it — October, Hokkaido. The mountain valleys turn five to six weeks before the famous gardens.Hokkaido · October 2022

A river running through a valley of autumn forest under a pale sky — Mid-October. Larch and birch rather than maple — a different, softer palette.Hokkaido · October 2022

The early colour is in the north and in the mountains, and it is almost entirely unvisited by foreign travellers, who arrive for the Kyoto end of the season a month and a half later.

An alpine valley in autumn colour with snow on the peaks above — November, Nagano. Snow above, colour below — the two-week window when both are in frame.Nagano · November 2022

The gardens are a different thing

A garden in autumn colour with steam rising from a hot spring stream — November, Kanto. Steam and maples: the reason autumn and onsen are sold as a pair.Kanto · November 2020

Maples in red and orange over a garden pond with rocks — A designed view: the pond, the rock, the one red tree. Japanese gardens are built for this fortnight.Kanto · November 2020

Mountain colour is scenery. Garden colour is composition — trees planted centuries ago so that one maple sits against one pine against one wall of water. It rewards a slow morning and an entrance fee, and it photographs best in flat light or light rain, not sun.

A maple in full orange seen from below against a blue sky — Shooting up into the canopy is the one reliable way to get the colour clean, without cars and signs in the frame.Kanto · November 2020

Yellow runs a fortnight behind red

A ginkgo avenue in full gold with cars passing beneath — Ginkgo peaks ten days to a fortnight after the maples, and holds for about a week.Tokyo · November 2020

If you arrive and the maples have gone, the ginkgo avenues are probably at their best — city streets rather than temples, and all the better for being free and open at any hour.

Planning around it

If you have	Go to	In
Late September	Hokkaido's mountains	Daisetsuzan, the lakes
Mid-October	Tohoku and the Japan Alps	Gorges, larch, first snow
Early November	Nikko, Hakone, the Kanto hills	Day trips from Tokyo
Late November	Kyoto, Nara, the west	Gardens and temples

Book accommodation for the last two weeks of November three to six months out, especially in Kyoto. It is the single most oversubscribed fortnight in the Japanese travel year.