Japan Photo Guide

Before you know it, the fall season will be sweeping across Japan and the leaves will be turning brilliant shades of reds, oranges and yellows. Even though I love cherry blossom season, I think the fall is my favorite time of the year. Below is a chart for the average dates to best observe fall leaves in Japan.

Read more about fall in Japan and check out some of my favorite places to see the autumn foliage after the jump. See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Kanazawa is located on the west coast of Japan in the Ishikawa Prefecture and is often called “Little Kyoto,” and like Kyoto has a nice mix of old Japan with modern Japan. There many old districts such old samurai and geisha districts (photo below) that have been kept in good shape throughout the years and make for nice tourists spots and nice photographs with that “Japanese” feel to them. If you have a limited amount of time, then I recommend going to Kyoto rather than Kanazawa but if you have time Kanazawa is worth checking out. When I was there for 4 days, I was lucky enough to have it rain for 3 and I still enjoyed my trip there.

Of couse, the best time to go to Kanazawa is in the Spring (cherry blossom season) or Fall (koyo leaves); however, the most famous place in Kanazawa is a garden called Kenrokuen. Kenrokuen (below, left, is the most famous latern and symbol of Kenrokuen) might be the most famous garden in all of Japan and is widely believed to be the most beautiful in Japan.

For more information see the Japan-Guide.com or the official homepage of Kanazawa City. Below is a photo outside of Kanazawa Station. From Tokyo it takes about 3.5 to 4 hours by train to get to Kanazawa.

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” (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.

Below is a tentative schedule for Koyo in Japan for Fuji Five Lakes, Hokkaido, Hakone, Kansai, Kanto, Kyoto, Kyushu, Nikko, Shikoku, Tohoku and Tokyo; however, depending on the weather, these dates tend to change from year to year. 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

Chūbu (中部地方 Chūbu-chihō) is the central region of Honshu, Japan’s main island. Chubu is most famouThe Chubu, or central, region encompasses nine prefectures in the midland of Japan, west of the Kanto region: Aichi, Fukui, Gifu, Ishikawa, Nagano, Niigata, Shizuoka, Toyama, and Yamanashi. The region is the widest part of Honshu and is characterized by high, rugged mountains. The Japanese Alps divide the country into the sunnier Pacific side, known as the front of Japan, or Omote-Nihon, and the colder Sea of Japan side, or Ura-Nihon, the back of Japan. The region comprises three distinct districts: Hokuriku, a coastal strip on the Sea of Japan that is a major wet-rice producing area; Tosan, or the Central Highlands; and Tokai, or the eastern seaboard, a narrow corridor along the Pacific Coast.

Of course, Chubu’s most famous landmark is Mt. Fuji, Japan’s tallest mountain. For more information, please see wikipedia or The Japan-Guide.com.