Japan is a beautiful country with a lots of changes in the seasons. The fall season will be sweeping across Japan and the leaves will be turning brilliant shades of reds, oranges and yellows. Colorful leaves (koyo) are to the Japanese autumn what cherry blossoms are to spring. The viewing of autumn leaves has been a popular activity in Japan for centuries and today draws large numbers of travelers to famous "koyo" spots.

 

Apart from the spring cherry blossoms and the raucous and drink-fuelled celebrations that accompany them – known as hanami, or flower watching – the one event that gets the most Japanese out of their homes is the change in the colour of the trees in autumn. Weather websites and TV meteorological experts all compete to predict the wave of red, brown and gold that spreads up the country from north to south and the autumn trees get much coverage on the news here, from morning to evening. The time from Mid-October until the end of November brings autumn promotions to the shops, plastic momiji leaves adorn streets and retail premises and the people ready themselves for trips out to see the leaves. Trees in various key places are lit up at night [Lake Yamanakoko's display is legendary] and generally a sort of festival air comes to Japan along with – of course – a fair bit of drinking and eating. Japan is a country very much in touch with its seasons.

 

Autumn food abounds and the smell of ‘oden’ [boiled vegetables in a sort of soup] pervades the air. Most of the display is over by the end of November in Tokyo but farther south you still get red leaves well into December. Kyoto, with all its temples and traditional charm, is obviously a superb place to witness the Japanese autumn in full flourish, as is the old city of Nara. But every street in every town in Japan has a momiji tree so autumn is never far away. Each year, starting in mid September, the "koyo front" slowly moves southwards from the northern island of Hokkaido until it reaches the lower elevations of central and southern Japan towards the end of November. Some trees around Tokyo and Kyoto remain colorful into early December. In Kyoto and Nara, the colorful leaves match with their historical architecture and are so beautiful.

 

The Maple Park has a famous waterfall and 12 different types of momiji with 5300 trees. The momiji maple tree variety is called "ichigyooji" ogurayama ichigyoji, Acer palmatum , with leaves turning bright red.

 

Minoyama Ryuuan-Ji Temple Ryuanji at Mount Minoyama Mino Temple The founder of this temple is En no Gyoja. It is a place of ascetic practises for Shugendo.

 

The waterfall Mino no Taki 箕面の滝 is especially famous in autumn with the red maple leaves. When En no Gyoja pracises austerities at Mount Katsuragi, he had a vision of "a mountain sending out light" in the north, so he went to look for it and found the impressive waterfall sending out light, or like a dragon. So he build a temple there and venerated Benzaiten 弁財天, the Deity of Water. Ryuuanji means "Dragon Peace Temple". He practised for a long time in this area and attained supernatural powers here. Meiji no Mori Mino Quasi-national Park (Mino Waterfall) We hope you have a chance to visit a beautiful Japan.