Japan in autumn: Kyoto, Takayama and Nikko

1. Day 1: Arrive in Tokyo

   Haneda or Narita airport to your hotel in Tokyo, welcome dinner

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Tokyo
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Tokyo Haneda (HND) or Narita (NRT); a driver meets you in the arrivals hall and takes you to the hotel, about 40 minutes from Haneda or an hour and a half from Narita. Plan to land by mid-afternoon to make the evening briefing. The hotel is on the east side of the city, close to Ueno and Asakusa, because that is where the train to Nikko leaves from on day 3. If you arrive early, the streets around Asakusa and the shops of Ameya-Yokocho are an easy first walk. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group, hands out IC cards for the metro and explains how the week works: early starts at the busiest gardens, free afternoons, and why your suitcase goes ahead to Kanazawa. Then we walk to a local izakaya for a welcome dinner of small shared plates.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Tokyo Haneda (HND) or Narita (NRT) airport
   • Welcome briefing with your guide and a metro IC card
   • Welcome dinner at a local izakaya

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: Drive figures are from Haneda; Narita is about 70 km and 1.5 hours.

   

2. Day 2: Tokyo gardens and ginkgo

   Rikugien, Meiji Jingu and the Jingu Gaien ginkgo avenue, then a free afternoon

   • By train
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Tokyo
   Day 2 details

   Tokyo's autumn colour comes late and in gold. We are at Rikugien when it opens at 9 am: a stroll garden laid out around 1700 for a shogun's adviser, with a pond, small hills and maples that usually turn in late November. By metro we cross to Meiji Jingu, the shrine to the Meiji emperor, reached along a wide gravel path through a planted forest, and on to Jingu Gaien, where an avenue of about 140 ginkgo trees turns yellow at the end of the month. Your guide picks the order on the day so we meet each place in its quieter hour. Lunch is your choice around Omotesando or Aoyama, and the afternoon is free. Your guide suggests ideas: the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, the shops of Ginza, or an evening view from one of the city's observation decks. Tonight, pack an overnight bag; your suitcase is collected for Kanazawa.

   Included

   • Rikugien garden at opening with your guide
   • Meiji Jingu shrine
   • The Jingu Gaien ginkgo avenue
   • Suitcases forwarded from Tokyo to your Kanazawa hotel

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot on paths and gravel in the morning. Ginkgo colour is usually at its peak in late November or early December.

3. Day 3: Nikko's shrines and a ryokan night

   Tokyo (Asakusa) to Nikko by Tobu limited express, about 1 hour 50 minutes

   • By train
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Nikko
   Day 3 details

   With only an overnight bag, we take the Tobu limited express from Asakusa at about 8 am and reach Nikko before 10. The shrines and temples of Nikko, listed by UNESCO in 1999, sit in a forest of tall cedars above the town. We cross the vermilion Shinkyo bridge, then spend the morning at Toshogu, the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, whose gates are covered in carved and painted animals, flowers and sages; the three wise monkeys and the sleeping cat are here. Climb the 207 stone steps to Ieyasu's tomb if you like. Lunch is yuba, the soy-milk skin Nikko is known for. In the afternoon we visit Taiyuin, the quieter, darker mausoleum of his grandson Iemitsu, then walk the riverside path at Kanmangafuchi past its rows of stone Jizo statues. Our ryokan has an onsen, and dinner is a kaiseki meal of many small courses.

   Included

   • Reserved seats on the Tobu limited express from Asakusa to Nikko
   • Shinkyo bridge
   • Toshogu with your guide, including the steps to Ieyasu's tomb
   • Yuba lunch
   • Taiyuin
   • The Kanmangafuchi Abyss walk and its Jizo statues
   • Ryokan night with onsen and kaiseki dinner

   Easier option: Skip the 207 steps to Ieyasu's tomb and Kanmangafuchi; rest at the ryokan from mid-afternoon.

   Free time: Evening free at the ryokan after dinner

   Activity: About 3 to 4 hours on foot, with stone steps and uneven paths. Nikko's leaves usually peak from late October to early November; on our dates they may be past their best, while the cedars stay green.

4. Day 4: By shinkansen to Kanazawa

   Nikko to Utsunomiya, then the Tohoku and Hokuriku Shinkansen via Omiya to Kanazawa

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Kanazawa
   Day 4 details

   A slow ryokan breakfast, a last soak if you want one, then we leave Nikko at about 10 am. The local JR line runs down to Utsunomiya in about 45 minutes; from there the shinkansen takes us to Omiya and on along the Hokuriku line across the mountains to the Sea of Japan coast. It is about four hours door to door, in reserved seats, and lunch is a bento chosen at the station, eaten on the train the way Japanese travellers do. Your suitcase is waiting at the hotel in Kanazawa when we arrive in the middle of the afternoon. As the light goes, we walk to Higashi Chaya, the old teahouse district, where wooden lattice fronts line the lanes and the lanterns come on at dusk. The evening is yours: Kanazawa is a seafood city, and your guide will point you to good counters for dinner.

   Included

   • Reserved seats from Nikko to Kanazawa via Utsunomiya and Omiya
   • A station bento lunch on the shinkansen
   • Dusk walk in the Higashi Chaya teahouse district with your guide

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About four hours of train travel, then an easy hour on foot.

   

5. Day 5: Kenroku-en, then Shirakawa-go

   Kanazawa to Shirakawa-go, about 1 hour 15 minutes, then Takayama, about 50 minutes

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Takayama
   Day 5 details

   We are at Kenroku-en when it opens at 8 am, before the tour groups. It is counted among Japan's three great gardens, and in November the gardeners rope the old pines with yukitsuri, cone-shaped lines that hold the branches up under winter snow, while the maples around the ponds are usually turning. From the garden we walk to Omicho Market, where lunch is a bowl of fresh seafood or whatever you choose from the stalls. In the early afternoon our own vehicle and driver take us into the mountains to Shirakawa-go, listed by UNESCO in 1995 for its gassho-zukuri farmhouses with steep thatched roofs. We arrive as the day coaches start to leave, walk the village and climb to the viewpoint above it in the late light. Then it is about 50 minutes on to Takayama, where we stay two nights in the old town.

   Included

   • Kenroku-en at opening with your guide
   • Lunch at Omicho Market
   • Shirakawa-go in the late afternoon, with the village viewpoint
   • Private vehicle and driver from Kanazawa to Takayama, with your suitcases aboard

   Easier option: Ride the shuttle bus up to the Shirakawa-go viewpoint instead of walking.

   Activity: About 4 hours on foot on gravel paths. The mountains around Shirakawa-go usually turn in late October and early November, so the hillsides may be bare by our dates; early snow is possible.

   

6. Day 6: Takayama's market and old town

   Takayama on foot: the Miyagawa morning market, Takayama Jinya and Sanmachi Suji

   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Takayama
   Day 6 details

   Takayama is a mountain market town of dark wooden merchant houses, and the best of it comes early. We walk to the Miyagawa morning market along the river, where farmers set out pickles, miso, apples and handmade crafts from 7 or 8 am depending on the month; your guide confirms the hour the evening before. At 8:45 am Takayama Jinya opens: the only surviving government house of its kind from the Edo period, where officials sent from the shogun's capital ran the province, with its tatami halls, rice store and garden. Then into Sanmachi Suji, the old merchant streets, before the day visitors fill them, for a tasting at one of the town's sake breweries, marked by the ball of cedar hanging over the door. After that the afternoon is free. Rest at the hotel, browse lacquer and woodwork shops, or take the bus to Hida no Sato. In the evening we meet again for a dinner of Hida beef, the local wagyu.

   Included

   • Miyagawa morning market with your guide
   • Takayama Jinya
   • Sanmachi Suji old merchant streets
   • Sake tasting at a Takayama brewery
   • Hida beef dinner

   Optional experiences

   • Hida no Sato, the open-air museum of farmhouses, about 10 minutes by bus

   More active option: Walk the Higashiyama temple trail, about 3.5 km through a line of temples and shrines on the hill east of the old town.

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot on flat streets in the morning.

   

7. Day 7: Down the Hida valley to Kyoto, a light-up at night

   Takayama to Nagoya on the limited express Hida, then the Tokaido Shinkansen to Kyoto

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Kyoto
   Day 7 details

   We leave Takayama mid-morning on the limited express Hida, which follows the Hida River gorge south through the mountains to Nagoya in about two and a half hours; sit on the left for the river. From Nagoya the shinkansen reaches Kyoto in about 35 minutes. Your bags travel with us in reserved seats, and the guide helps at the changes. We sit down to lunch near the hotel, then the afternoon is for settling in, because tonight is the first of Kyoto's autumn moments. After dark we go to Kodai-ji, the temple a widow of Toyotomi Hideyoshi founded in 1606, for its autumn light-up: the maples, the raked garden and the bamboo grove behind the temple are lit, and the night air is cold and still. From there we walk down through the stone lanes of Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka into Gion, and the evening is yours.

   Included

   • Reserved seats on the limited express Hida and the shinkansen from Takayama to Kyoto
   • Sit-down lunch in Kyoto
   • Kodai-ji autumn light-up with your guide
   • Evening walk through Ninenzaka, Sannenzaka and Gion

   Free time: Afternoon free to settle in; evening free after the walk

   Activity: About 3.5 hours of train travel. Light-up dates change each year; if Kodai-ji is not running, we go to Eikan-do or Kiyomizu-dera's evening opening instead.

8. Day 8: Tofuku-ji at opening and Fushimi Inari

   Tofuku-ji, then one stop south to Fushimi Inari, then a free afternoon

   • By train
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Kyoto
   Day 8 details

   Tofuku-ji is the temple people queue for in late November, so we are at the gate when it opens, at about 8:30 am in the autumn season. From Tsutenkyo, a covered wooden bridge, you look down into a ravine filled with about 2,000 maples, and in a good year the valley is red and orange from rim to stream. Photography from the bridge is sometimes restricted at peak times, so we also take pictures from the paths below and the other bridges. We also see the Hojo gardens, raked gravel and moss laid in a chequerboard in the 1930s. From Tofuku-ji it is one stop on the JR Nara line to Fushimi Inari, where tunnels of vermilion torii gates climb the hill. Walk the first part with your guide or go on up to the Yotsutsuji viewpoint over the city. Lunch is your choice, and the afternoon is free.

   Included

   • Tofuku-ji at opening with your guide, with Tsutenkyo bridge and the Hojo gardens
   • Fushimi Inari Taisha and its torii gates

   Easier option: Walk only the first stretch of torii gates at Fushimi Inari, about 20 minutes, and take the train back to the hotel.

   More active option: Climb on to the Yotsutsuji viewpoint, about 45 minutes uphill on steps from the main shrine.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 to 4 hours on foot with many steps at Fushimi Inari if you climb.

9. Day 9: Arashiyama at 7 am

   Kyoto to Arashiyama: the bamboo grove, Tenryu-ji, Okochi Sanso and the Togetsukyo bridge

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kyoto
   Day 9 details

   We drive to Arashiyama on the western edge of Kyoto and walk into the bamboo grove at about 7 am, when you can hear the stems knock together and there is no one in your photos. Tenryu-ji opens its garden at 8:30 am: a pond garden designed in the 14th century by the monk Muso Soseki, with the hills of Arashiyama behind it and maples around the water. Up the slope, Okochi Sanso, the villa and garden of a film actor, looks across the city, and the entry includes a bowl of matcha and a sweet. We walk down to the Togetsukyo bridge over the Katsura River, where the hillside is often at its brightest in late November. Lunch is yudofu, simmered tofu, a Kyoto dish Arashiyama is known for. The afternoon is free. In the evening we gather for a farewell dinner.

   Included

   • Arashiyama bamboo grove at about 7 am with your guide
   • Tenryu-ji garden at opening
   • Okochi Sanso garden with matcha and a sweet
   • Togetsukyo bridge
   • Yudofu lunch in Arashiyama
   • Farewell dinner in Kyoto

   Optional experiences

   • Sagano Romantic Train or a Hozu River boat back towards Kameoka, if running

   More active option: Walk on north from the bamboo grove to Jojakko-ji and Gio-ji, two small moss and maple temples, about 2 km.

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: About 4 hours on foot on paths and slopes in the morning.

10. Day 10: Eikan-do, the Philosopher's Path and home

    Eikan-do and Nanzen-ji, then Kansai International Airport

    • Drive about 1.5 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 10 details

    A last early start. Eikan-do has been known as the temple of maples for centuries, and we are at its gate when it opens at 9 am, before the queues. Paths climb through halls joined by covered corridors to a small pagoda above the trees, and below it the pond is ringed in red. From Eikan-do we walk a short stretch of the Philosopher's Path, the canal-side walk under cherry and maple trees, and down to Nanzen-ji, where a 19th-century brick aqueduct runs through the temple grounds. We are back at the hotel by about midday. Check-out is in the morning before we leave; the hotel holds your bags, and you collect them on the way out. A private vehicle takes you to Kansai International Airport (KIX), about an hour and a half away; your guide sees you off. Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm to join the whole morning. If you are staying on in Kyoto, your guide will help you plan the extra days.

    Included

    • Eikan-do at opening with your guide
    • The Philosopher's Path to Nanzen-ji and its aqueduct
    • Drop-off at Kansai International Airport (KIX)

    Easier option: If your flight leaves before about 4 pm, see Eikan-do only and go to the airport from there, or leave straight from the hotel.

    Activity: About 2 hours on foot, with steps at Eikan-do. Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm.

Wildlife and weather: Late November is cool and mostly dry: Kyoto and Tokyo days are about 10 to 16°C with cold mornings, while Nikko and Takayama can be near freezing at night and may see early snow. The maples in Kyoto usually peak in the second half of the month, but a warm autumn can delay them into December.

• Tokyo2 nights
• Nikko1 night
• Kanazawa1 night
• Takayama2 nights
• Kyoto3 nights