Japan in November: 7-Day Autumn Itinerary — Tokyo, Mt Fuji, Kyoto & Miyajima

Meiji Jingu Gaien Ginkgo Avenue

📍 Aoyama, Minato City

The 300-metre double row of ginkgo trees that turns solid gold in mid-to-late November — arrive before 10 to photograph the avenue empty, then watch it fill for the Icho Festival stalls at the far end.

Nezu Museum

📍 Minami-Aoyama, Minato City

Kengo Kuma's bamboo-walled museum hides one of central Tokyo's best maple gardens — stone lanterns and a tea house under red canopies, ten minutes' walk from the ginkgo avenue.

Koishikawa Korakuen Garden

📍 Koraku, Bunkyo City

Tokyo's oldest daimyo garden, built in 1629 — the maple valley around the Tsutenkyo bridge peaks in late November, and the Full Moon Bridge doubles over its pond on still afternoons.

Rikugien Gardens

📍 Komagome, Bunkyo City

Edo-period strolling garden famous for its November evening light-up — stay past dusk when the maples around the central pond are illuminated and the teahouse serves matcha under the lanterns.

Kanda Yabu Soba

📍 Kanda-Awajicho, Chiyoda City

November is shin-soba season — the year's first buckwheat harvest — and this 1880 institution is where Tokyo goes to taste it, ordered simply as seiro with a side of tamagoyaki.

Mt. Takao Cable Car (Kiyotaki Station)

📍 Takaosanguchi, Hachioji

Japan's steepest cable car climbs through the maple canopy — in November the Momiji Festival runs at the base and the queues double by 10, so ride early.

Yakuo-in Temple

📍 Mount Takao, Hachioji

The 1,200-year-old mountain temple on the summit trail, guarded by winged tengu statues — monks blow conch shells before the goma fire ritual most mornings.

Mount Takao Summit

📍 Hachioji

599 metres up, and on a clear November day — statistically the clearest month — Mount Fuji stands straight down the valley to the south-west. The upper trails hold their color a week longer than the city.

TAKAO 599 MUSEUM

📍 Takaosanguchi, Hachioji

The free nature museum at the mountain base — its wall of resin-cast leaves and moths explains why one small mountain holds a quarter of Japan's plant species.

Keio Takaosan Onsen Gokurakuyu

📍 Takaosanguchi, Hachioji

Open-air hot spring baths directly behind the train station — soaking under maple leaves after the hike is the whole point of doing Takao in November.

Arakurayama Sengen Park (Chureito Pagoda)

📍 Fujiyoshida

398 steps up to the five-storey pagoda with Fuji floating behind it — the postcard of Japan. November mornings give the best odds all year of a cloudless summit, before cloud builds after noon.

Oshino Hakkai

📍 Oshino

Eight spring-fed ponds so clear the trout look suspended in air, ringed by thatched roofs and late-turning maples, with Fuji rising behind the village.

Mt. Fuji Panoramic Ropeway

📍 Kawaguchiko, Fujikawaguchiko

Three minutes up Mount Tenjo for the classic high view — Fuji on one side, Lake Kawaguchi's red shoreline on the other, and the Kachi Kachi rabbit statues at the top.

Momiji Corridor (Momiji Kairo)

📍 North shore, Lake Kawaguchiko

A 150-metre tunnel of 60-year-old maples along the Nashigawa stream — the town's Momiji Festival runs here through November, with the trees lit after dark and food stalls along the water.

Oishi Park

📍 North-west shore, Lake Kawaguchiko

The lake's north-west corner lines up kochia and autumn flowerbeds in front of the water with Fuji dead centre — stay for sunset, when the summit goes pink before the lights come on.

Nanzen-ji Temple

📍 Nanzenji, Sakyo Ward

Arrive from Tokyo on the morning shinkansen and start under the massive Sanmon gate — climb it for the maple view, then follow the incongruous red-brick Suirokaku aqueduct into the trees behind.

Eikan-do Zenrin-ji

📍 Eikando-cho, Sakyo Ward

Kyoto's single most famous maple temple — 3,000 trees over ponds and covered walkways, and the rare backward-glancing Amida statue. Its November-only night illumination is worth re-entering for after dinner.

Philosopher's Path

📍 Sakyo Ward

The canal-side walk north from Eikan-do, quieter in autumn than in cherry season — the maples hang over the water and the cafes along it stay open for the leaf-viewing crowds.

Honen-in Temple

📍 Shishigatani, Sakyo Ward

A thatched gate up a mossy staircase just off the path, with raked sand mounds inside — free, monastic, and at dusk in November often completely empty under red canopies.

Omen Ginkakuji Honten

📍 Jodoji, Sakyo Ward

Handmade udon served with a tray of seasonal vegetables and sesame at the north end of the path — the warming end to the walk before Eikan-do's illumination.

Sanzen-in Temple

📍 Ohara, Sakyo Ward

An hour's bus into the Ohara valley for the moss garden where stone jizo peek out under a maple canopy — the walk up from the bus stop is lined with pickle shops selling the valley's shibazuke.

Hosen-in Temple

📍 Ohara, Sakyo Ward

A small temple built around one framed view — you sit with matcha and look at a 700-year-old pine and the maples behind it through the pillars, composed like a hanging scroll.

Kurama-dera Temple

📍 Kurama, Sakyo Ward

The mountain temple of the tengu — cable car or a lantern-lined climb through the momiji to a terrace over the valley. The fire-festival village below smells of roasting chestnuts in November.

Kifune Shrine

📍 Kibune, Sakyo Ward

Over the pass from Kurama (an hour's forest hike) or one train stop around: the red lantern staircase under maples is the image, and the water-oracle fortunes reveal themselves in the stream.

Eizan Railway Momiji Tunnel (Ichihara–Ninose)

📍 Between Ichihara and Ninose stations, Sakyo Ward

Ride back toward the city through the illuminated maple tunnel — for 250 metres the train slows and kills its interior lights, and the lit canopy closes over the carriage. Runs only during the November light-up.

Mitaki-dera Temple

📍 Mitaki, Nishi Ward, Hiroshima

Morning shinkansen to Hiroshima, then this hillside temple of three waterfalls — a vermilion two-storey pagoda under maples, ten minutes by local train from the station and almost no tour groups.

Machiya Street

📍 Miyajima, Hatsukaichi

The quiet parallel street behind Miyajima's main arcade — machiya houses, craft shops, and momiji manju bakeries hand-pressing the maple-leaf cakes the island named after this season.

Momijidani Park

📍 Miyajima, Hatsukaichi

The maple valley the momiji manju is named for — about 700 trees along a stream at the foot of Mount Misen, at their deepest red in mid-to-late November, with deer wandering the bridges.

Itsukushima Shrine

📍 Miyajima, Hatsukaichi

Time the shrine for late afternoon high tide, when the great torii floats — then stay on the foreshore as the lanterns come on and the day-trip crowds catch the ferry back without you.

Ryuanji Temple (Minoo)

📍 Minoo Park, Minoh

The 1,350-year-old temple halfway up the Minoo river gorge, base of Japan's lottery tradition — the trail to it runs beside the stream under an unbroken maple canopy.

Minoh Falls

📍 Minoo Park, Minoh

A 33-metre waterfall framed in red — the classic Osaka momiji view, 40 minutes' flat walk from the station. Buy momiji tempura on the way down: real maple leaves, salted a year, fried in sweet batter.

Katsuo-ji Temple

📍 Minoh

The 'winner's luck' temple where thousands of tiny daruma dolls perch on every ledge and lantern — its hillside of maples above the pond is one of Kansai's best and least-crowded November displays.

Expo '70 Commemorative Park

📍 Suita

Okamoto Taro's Tower of the Sun rises over 260,000 trees — the Japanese garden's momiji festival runs all November, and the park's scale swallows any crowd on the way back into the city.

Harukoma Sushi

📍 Tenjinbashisuji, Kita Ward, Osaka

End the trip in Japan's longest shopping arcade with the queue-worthy sushi counter locals pick over any conveyor chain — fat November mackerel and fatty tuna at half Tokyo prices, before tomorrow's flight out of KIX.