Autumn
Chasing the red leaves
50 places for autumn — the editors' six first, then the rest by rating.
50 places
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Daitoku-ji Temple
Kyoto's finest Zen dry-garden complex — 22 sub-temples behind one walled enclosure, four open year-round, the best karesansui in the city.
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Engaku-ji — the Zen mountain temple of Kita-Kamakura
Kamakura's second Great Zen Mountain — walk straight from the station exit to one of Japan's finest medieval bronze bells.
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Hakone Shrine and the Peace Torii
Hakone's iconic lake torii, standing since 1952 — free entry, clear Fuji view on calm autumn mornings.
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Takeda Castle Ruins
One of Japan's most dramatic castle ruins: a 353-metre hilltop, intact stone walls, and on autumn mornings, a valley of cloud below. Allow ~2.5 hours from Osaka each way.
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Lake Kawaguchiko
Japan's most reachable Fuji lake — the northern shore delivers the reflection view. Direct bus from Shinjuku.
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Enryaku-ji Temple
Mount Hiei's mountaintop monastery — where the founders of Japan's major Buddhist schools trained, and a single flame has burned for 1,200 years.
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Nara National Museum
Japan's leading Buddhist art museum in Nara Park — permanent sculpture gallery year-round, and the once-a-year Shōsōin Exhibition in autumn.
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Korankei Gorge
Central Japan's best-known maple valley, planted by one monk a tree at a time.
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Hitachi Seaside Park
5.3 million nemophila cover Miharashi Hill in April-May, and the same hill turns crimson with kochia in autumn — the most photographed seasonal flower event in Ibaraki.
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Ikura Soy-Marinated Salmon Roe — Salmon town on the Nemuro Strait
Pick the date by the tank, not by the town.
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Tofuku-ji — a Zen temple over a maple ravine
Kyoto's most celebrated autumn foliage view — the maple ravine seen from Tsutenkyo Bridge, in one of the city's five great Zen temples.
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Momiji Manju — Hiroshima's maple-leaf cake
Hiroshima's maple-leaf cake, at the pier where every Miyajima trip starts.
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Akita Inu no Sato — Odate's Akita dog hall by the station
Hachiko's birthplace, with a live Akita on view and free entry.
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Nagasaki Kunchi — Suwa Shrine's autumn festival of dragon dances
Nagasaki's great October festival, with free lottery seats and free street shows.
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Togetsukyo Bridge
Kyoto's most iconic mountain river crossing — free to walk across at any hour, framed by cherry blossoms in spring and red maples in autumn.
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Daikanbo Lookout — The high point of Aso's northern caldera rim
The one view that shows you how large the Aso caldera really is.
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Karatsu Kunchi — Karatsu Shrine's autumn festival of lacquered floats
Lacquered floats in a castle town, and a noon haul across the sand.
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Takayama Festival Floats Exhibition Hall
Real Takayama festival floats, up close on any day of the year.
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Kiritanpo — Akita's grilled rice sticks, simmered in chicken hotpot
Akita's harvest hotpot, bought part by part in a market that opens at five.
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Akiyoshido Cave — Limestone cavern beneath the Akiyoshidai plateau
Walk in from the valley and come out on the plateau by elevator.
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Akita Kanto Festival
Four August nights on a closed avenue, and the same poles indoors the rest of the year.
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Wakayama Castle
Seat of the Kishu Tokugawa — one of Japan's three senior shogun-producing clans — with a rare slanted covered bridge and a garden that frames the keep beautifully in blossom season.
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Tsugaru Apples — Aomori's apple country at a city-run orchard park
A free municipal orchard, open daily, with Mount Iwaki at the end of every row.
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Shikisai-no-oka — A banded flower garden on the Biei hills
A hillside planted in bands, so the slope itself does the composing.
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Minoo Falls
A city waterfall you reach by walking a river gorge rather than parking beside it.
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Saga International Balloon Fiesta
Asia's biggest balloon meet — come for the calmer morning flights.
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Mount Asahidake
Hokkaido's highest volcano, with a ropeway straight into the alpine zone.
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Okayama Muscat — Kurashiki's glasshouse grape country
Japan's famous muscat, graded and sold in the village that grows it.
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Heian-jingu Shrine
One of Kyoto's grandest shrine courtyards, free to enter, with four nationally designated gardens that bloom in every season.
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Jingu Gaien Ginkgo Avenue
146 ginkgo planted in graded heights so the avenue looks longer than it is — Tokyo's best-known autumn street, and a designed illusion.
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Kurobe Gorge Railway
A working hydro railway that still lets passengers ride in the open air.
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Lake Ashi
Hakone's most photographed scene — best on a clear autumn morning when Fuji rises behind the red torii gate. Board at Moto-Hakone-ko.
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Enoshima Island
Shonan's island shrine — 1,500-year-old Benzaiten, sea caves, and a lighthouse tower with a Mount Fuji view.
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Hasedera Temple
The Temple of Flowers in Yamato — 399-step covered stairway, cliff-edge main hall, and one of Japan's largest wooden Kannon statues. 50 min from Osaka on Kintetsu.
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Mount Takao
Michelin three-star mountain 50 minutes from Shinjuku — old-growth forest, a tengu temple, and a Fuji view on clear days.
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Arakurayama Sengen Park
The world's most recognised Japan photograph — pagoda, cherry blossoms, and Mount Fuji. Come before 9:00 on a clear day.
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Heijo Palace Site
Japan's best-preserved ancient palace site — UNESCO-listed, free to enter, and vast enough to feel genuinely historic.
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Lake Yamanakako
The Fuji Five Lake closest to the summit — clear Fuji views from the north shore, and Diamond Fuji twice a year at sunset.
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Ninna-ji Temple
Kyoto's last cherries of the season — the Omuro trees bloom at eye level in mid-April, backed by a 1644 pagoda.
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Nunobiki Herb Gardens
Japan's largest herb garden on a Rokko mountainside, with a city-and-harbour panorama that changes from morning light to evening glow.
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Musashi Ichinomiya Hikawa Shrine
The oldest and most senior Kanto shrine outside Tokyo, reached along a 2 km tree-lined avenue; entry is free.
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To-ji Temple
Japan's tallest wooden pagoda, minutes from Kyoto Station — and a famous monthly flea market on the 21st.
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Nagatoro — rock terraces and a pole-steered boat
Rock terraces of exposed deep-earth schist, and a wooden boat poled through the rapids beside them — two hours from Ikebukuro.
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Sanzen-in — Ōhara's moss garden and hidden jizo
A moss garden you walk onto, a thousand-year-old Amida hall standing in the middle of it, and stone children hidden at your feet.
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Chicken Nanban — Nobeoka's fried chicken in sweet vinegar
The birthplace of a dish the whole country eats, plus the valley's own produce hall on the way.
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Echizen Snow Crab
The crab's own front door — museum, market hall and a sea bath on one roadside site.
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Satsuma Shochu — Kagoshima's sweet-potato spirit
A working Meiji-era shochu kura at the southern tip of Kagoshima, free to enter, tasting included.
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Uonuma Koshihikari Rice
A counter inside Japan's most famous rice district, where the rice is sold and cooked on the spot.
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Inuyama Castle
A National Treasure keep on a river bluff, with a gallery round its top floor.
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Kiyotsu Gorge Tunnel
Columnar cliffs seen from inside the rock, ending in a pool that mirrors the whole gorge.