Along with cherry blossom season, fall is a great time to visit Japan. In any country, fall leaves are beautiful and make for great photos and this holds especially true with Japan. Japan’s most famous fall leaf is the Japanese Maple Tree which turns brilliant red in the fall. These red leaves are referred to as “kouyou” (紅葉) in Japanese.

Read more about fall in Japan and check out some of my favorite places to see the autumn foliage after the jump.

The photo on the left was taken at The Itchiku Kubota Kimono Museum and the one on the right on the grounds of the Golden Pavilion.

There are many sites in Japanese that give more detailed information, I cannot read Japanese very well, but even so, there are some sites that are very helpful. For example rurubu.com has a map of Japan and a small color picture of a maple leaf to represent the current status of the leaves in the area. Another site worth checking out is Yahoo Japan’s site that looks like it encourages user submissions. If you want to find a different site, simply go do a google search for “紅葉” followed by the year (紅葉 2008) and you will get more sites in Japanese. The photo below was taken at Kinkakuji in Kyoto.

The bulleted list below are places I have been to and personally recommend for the fall season.

• Arashiyama(Kansai)
• Fuji Five Lakes
• Towadako (Lake Towada, Tohoku)
• Oirase Strean (Tohoku)
• Kyoto
• Nanzenji (Kyoto)
• Naruko (Tohoku)
• Nikko (Kansai)
• Tokyo

Read more about fall in Japan and check out some of my favorite places to see the autumn foliage after the jump.

Along with cherry blossom season, fall is a great time to visit Japan. In any country, fall leaves are beautiful and make for great photos and this holds especially true with Japan. Japan’s most famous fall leaf is the Japanese Maple Tree which turns brillant red in the fall. These red leaves are reffered to as “koyo” or “kouyou” (紅葉) in Japanese. The photo on the left was taken at The Itchiku Kubota Kimono Museum and the one on the right on the grounds of the Golden Pavilion.

There are many sites in Japanese that give more detailed information, I cannot read Japanese very well, but even so, there are some sites that are very helpful. For example rurubu.com has a map of Japan and a small color picture of a maple leaf to represent the current status of the leaves in the area. If you want to find a different site, simply go do a google search for “紅葉” followed by the year (紅葉 2006) and you will get more sites in Japanese. The photo below was taken at Kinkakuji in Kyoto.

The bulleted list below are places I have been to and personally recommend for the fall season.

• • Arashiyama
  • Fuji Five Lakes
  • Kyoto
  • Naruko (Tohoku)
  • Nikko
  • Tokyo

For more information and a few photos, see the official Satoland Site.

Thanks to Greg Logan for the photos!

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  • You like canals–Otaru has a famous canal (which can actually make for some interesting photos…maybe)
  • If the Snow Lantern Festival is going on, it might be worth checking out Otaru at night.  This festival goes on around the 2nd week of november, but don’t plan to stay more than a few hours.
  • You like music boxes–there are a few music box museums here
  • You are into glass–there are some interesting glass products and art available here
  • Seafood is your favorite food and you are not content with the seafood in the city where you are
  • You have a very short time slot open and you are bored of your current location
  • Otaru is the only place in Hokkaido you have not been to.

Seriously, Otaru is really close to Sapporo but almost every other place in Hokkaido as a lot more to offer not only for photographers but for an average tourist as well. If you have been and disagree with my, please leave a comment, it is possible I was just in a bad mood and the weather was really bad when I was there…possible, but unlikely!  Let me just say this, it isn’t so much that Otaru is a horrible place, it is more of the rest of Hokkaido being that much better!

For more information about Otaru, see the Japan-Guide.

I have not been to many zoos in my time but I have to say I was pleased with Asahiyama Zoo. There are some exhibits that are set up really nicely to take some very interesting photographs. The two best for this are the penguin exhibit and the polar bear exhibit. If you are traveling with kids, I highly suggestion considering taking a trip to the Asahiyama Zoo, and come on, let’s be honest, who doesn’t like animals? Especially ones that you most likely will not have a chance to see real life in the wild.

More photos after the jump and check out the official homepage of Asahiyama Zoo (English) for more information or see a video of the penguins.

These ice sculptures (are maybe I should say ice advertisements because that is pretty much what they are) are cool but the best part or the little ice bars that open up at night. In 2007, there was a Baily’s, Hennessey and even a Song Park Karaoke place where you could sing a song and you get a score depending on how accurate you were and then depending on your score you would get a coupon for a real establishment of Song Park.

Check out the video of a few of the ice bars here and a few more photos after the jump.

I actually went a few days before it started and left on the second day because it was a lot cheaper to do it that way. I suggest doing it this way not only because it is cheaper, but also because most of the big ones are (almost) done anyway and you can also see how they are made.

Of course it seems whenever I go to Hokkaido I am really unlucky with the weather because on the first day I was it it was so warm that it was raining and almost ruined a lot of the sculptures. The main part of the snow festival is in Odori Park but there 2 other places to check out, Sato Land and Susukino. I have a different post about the ice sculptures and ice bars in Susukino.

At the Odori Park site, the big sculptures a lot of times are used as stages for different perfomances throughrout the festival. As you can see below, they even built a (not so) small jump for skiers and snowboarders to do some tricks.

On a side note, if you are looking for something else to do because maybe you are arriving before the Sapporo Snow Festival starts or staying after it ends, you may want to check out the smaller and lesser known Chitose Ice Festival.

Check out more photos after the jump or check out a video of some performances and other happenings at the Sapporo Snow Festival.

The most famous place in Furano is called Farm Tomita. The best time to go is in July when the Lavender is in full bloom. I was there in late August and there was still some flowers and lavender in bloom, but if you can, go in July.

Biei is most famous for the rolling hills and trees that have been in famous commercials. If you don’t rent a car, a good thing to do is take the “twinkle” bus. There are two different routes, the flower route and tree route. Both routes go to about 5 different locations and you can get off at some of the places for about 10 minutes to take photos and some places you just drive by. If you want more time or don’t want to be on a schedule you really should rent a car for Furano and Biei as the good places tend to be spread out.

For more information please see the Japan-Guide.com.
Here is the Official Biei Homepage.
Here is the Official Furano Homepage.

There are a few nice things about Lake Toya that I really liked. For one, there are all these (sometimes) interesting sculptures all around the lake (as you can see above). Second, every night in the summer there is a small festival at night where there are fireworks over the lake and also a small traditional dance and taiko drums. Also if you are into outdoor activities there is plenty of hiking, fishing, camping, boating and other water activities available.

For more information please see Japan-Guide.com.

Besides the view it is also famous for some old western style buildings. To me they are not that interesting because I am from the west, but maybe you are more interested in them than I am. I was told before I went that sometimes Hakodate feels a little like a ghost town and while I wouldn’t go as far to agree with that, I can understand why one might get that impression as there didn’t seem to be much going on when I was there. Also if you are a fan of seafood, Hakodate’s Morning Market is a great place to enjoy fresh fish and seafood in the morning. Below are some of the western style buildings.

For more information, please see the Japan-Guide.com.