Japan in autumn is the country's best-kept seasonal secret, which is a strange thing to say about a destination that attracts millions of visitors a year. The cherry blossom season in April draws enormous international attention, and rightfully so, the sakura is one of the natural world's more spectacular events, and the cultural significance attached to it in Japan gives it a weight beyond aesthetics. But the autumn foliage, the koyo, is equally extraordinary, considerably less crowded with international visitors, and set against a backdrop that the spring season, with its cool grey skies, cannot match.
October in Japan is the beginning of it all.
What October Actually Looks Like
The koyo season moves from north to south as autumn progresses, beginning in Hokkaido in September and reaching Kyoto and the central Honshu regions in November. October is the month when the mountains turn, the Japanese Alps, the hills above Nikko, the forests of Tohoku, and when the country is operating at the temperature that makes walking its cities and temples and mountain paths genuinely comfortable.
The humidity that makes summer in Japan a serious physical proposition has broken by October. Temperatures in Tokyo and Kyoto typically range from the mid-teens to the low twenties Celsius. The light has the quality of late European summer, golden and low-angled, and it falls on the orange and red maples in the temple gardens in a way that the photographs barely capture.
Why This Season Is Different
Japan in cherry blossom season has become one of the most booked travel periods in Asia. Hotels in Kyoto during peak sakura weeks now require reservations many months in advance, and the most famous viewing spots, the Maruyama Park weeping cherry, the Philosopher's Path, are so densely crowded at peak bloom that the experience can feel more obligatory than transcendent.
Autumn koyo has not yet reached the same level of international crowding, though it is becoming more popular. The viewing spots are still navigable. The ryokan in the mountains outside Kyoto can still be booked with reasonable planning. The temples at dawn still have long periods of relative quiet before the day-visitors arrive.
This will change. Go before it does.
Where to Be in October
Nikko, north of Tokyo, is the first major destination to turn. The mausoleum complex of Toshogu, one of the most ornate and extraordinary pieces of architecture in Japan, set against the full autumn color of the surrounding mountains is one of those sights that reorganizes your understanding of what a human-made place can be. Day-trippable from Tokyo; worth an overnight to see it at dawn.
Kyoto in late October is just beginning its color season, with the maples in the temple gardens showing their first changes. The key Kyoto experience in October is the morning temples, Ryoan-ji before eight, the bamboo grove at Arashiyama before the tour buses arrive, the stone garden at Daisen-in when the raked gravel is still in its morning configuration and the color from the maples outside is just visible through the shoji screens.
The Japanese Alps, the Kamikochi valley in Nagano Prefecture specifically, reach full color in October and offer the single most visually extraordinary autumn landscape in Japan. The valley is only accessible by bus (private vehicles are prohibited), which limits the crowds, and the walk along the Azusa River with the peaks of the Hotaka range above you in full autumn color is the kind of thing that people describe, years later, as one of the best days of their lives.
On the Ryokan in October
A ryokan stay in October, in a property set in a garden or backed by a mountain that's turning, is the complete version of what the autumn season offers. The kaiseki dinner at these properties shifts with the season, the mushrooms that Japanese chefs handle with the seriousness of truffle season in France, the first yuzu citrus, the chestnuts, the mountain vegetables that have no names in English because they exist only in this context.
The onsen, the outdoor hot spring bath, achieves its ideal season in October. The air is cool enough that the steam rises visibly off the water, and lying in a traditional stone bath with autumn maples overhead is the kind of experience that makes the flight worthwhile without any of the rest of it.
The Practical Reality
October flights to Japan book up earlier than most travelers expect. The country's post-pandemic tourism recovery has been significant, and autumn travel in particular has grown faster than the infrastructure has expanded. Book flights in spring for October travel. Book the ryokan at the same time. The best properties in the mountains outside Kyoto and in the Hakone region fill by June for October stays.
This is the year to go. The koyo season is not infinite, and the discovery of it by international travelers is accelerating. The version of Japan in October that exists right now, accessible, extraordinary, less crowded than its spring equivalent, is worth traveling a long way for.
