Tokyo Autumn Leaves 2026: Peak Dates for Every Major Spot

Tokyo's autumn colors peak somewhere between November 20 and December 10. Kyoto peaks in mid-November. Nikko peaks in late October. Every year I host people who booked the first week of November for "the autumn leaves," walk out into a city of green trees, and message me asking what went wrong.

Nothing went wrong. Tokyo is warm, low, and coastal, and it turns late.

I'm Atsushi, and I've hosted at Bon House in Kanamachi since 2022 — a few hundred guests now, and roughly one in five arrives in autumn with dates that don't match the trees. This is the guide I wish I could send them before they book.

Tokyo Autumn Leaves Peak Windows at a Glance

Spot	Typical peak	Admission	Getting there from Kanamachi	Best for
Mizumoto Park sweetgums	Late Oct – mid Nov	Free	20 min bus	Early color, no crowds
Mt. Takao	Mid Nov – early Dec	Free (cable car extra)	~1h50	Full mountain hike
Showa Kinen Park	Mid Nov – early Dec	¥450	~1h30	300m ginkgo avenue
Meiji Jingu Gaien ginkgo	Mid Nov – early Dec	Free	~55 min	The famous photo
Rikugien	Late Nov – mid Dec	¥300	~35 min	Classic garden, night event
Koishikawa Korakuen	Late Nov – mid Dec	¥300	~40 min	Maples, smaller crowds
Mizumoto Park metasequoia	Late Nov – mid Dec	Free	20 min bus	Late color, near-empty

Peak windows are typical years, not promises. A warm November pushes everything back a week; 2025 saw Mizumoto only 70–80% colored at the end of November. Check a foliage tracker in the week before you go.

On 2026 event dates: the illumination and festival dates below are the confirmed 2025 dates, given as a planning reference. Organizers announce the 2026 versions in late September and October. Do not book a flight around a date I've listed here — book around the peak window, then check the official site once dates drop.

Rikugien: Tokyo's Best Garden for Late Autumn Color

Rikugien is a 300-year-old strolling garden in Komagome, and it is the one I send guests to when they have a single afternoon and want the postcard.

Admission is ¥300 for adults, ¥150 for 65+, free for elementary students and younger. Open 9:00–17:00, last entry 16:30.

The maples around the central pond turn late — usually the last week of November into mid-December, which is exactly when the rest of Tokyo has stopped calling itself autumn.

Rikugien also runs an evening viewing during the peak. In 2025 it ran November 28 to December 9, 18:00–20:30 with last entry at 19:30, at ¥1,200 on the door and ¥1,000 in advance. The garden lights the maples and projects onto the white storehouse wall, and there's a fog effect over the Suikonoe pond area. Buy the advance ticket. The door queue on a Saturday night is not worth the ¥200 you save.

From Kanamachi: JR Joban Line to Nippori, transfer to the Yamanote Line to Komagome. About 35 minutes, and the garden is a 7-minute walk from the station.

Koishikawa Korakuen: The Same Peak, Fewer People

Koishikawa Korakuen sits behind Tokyo Dome and costs the same ¥300, peaks in the same late-November-to-mid-December window, and gets a fraction of Rikugien's evening crowd because it doesn't run the same headline illumination.

If you want maples and a camera and not a queue, go here instead. The maple grove near the Tsutenkyo bridge is the shot.

From Kanamachi, it's about 40 minutes via Nippori and Suidobashi.

Meiji Jingu Gaien Ginkgo Avenue: Check the Construction First

The Gaien ginkgo avenue is the row of 146 trees that shows up on every Tokyo autumn poster. Yellowing starts mid-November and the full gold arrives late November into early December.

Two things to know before you go:

The 2025 illumination ran November 22–30, 16:30 to about 19:30 — a short window, much shorter than people assume.

The area is under redevelopment, and in 2025 that restricted the paths near the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery, pushing the crowd into more of a one-way walk-through than a linger-and-picnic. Check the current state before you build an afternoon around it.

Go on a weekday morning. The avenue is 300 metres of tunnel and by Saturday afternoon it's 300 metres of tripods.

Mt. Takao and Showa Kinen Park: The Full-Day Options

Mt. Takao peaks mid-November to early December and holds its Momiji Matsuri across the season — the 2025 run was October 25 to December 14. The cable car from Kiyotaki to Takaosan station climbs through the maple belt, which is the reason to pay for it rather than walk. Weekends in late November mean a real cable car queue; a 7am start on a weekday is a different mountain entirely.

From Kanamachi this is a genuine day trip: about 1 hour 50 minutes each way via Nippori, Shinjuku, and the Keio Line.

Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa charges ¥450 for adults, ¥210 for 65+, and is free for junior high and younger. Its 300-metre ginkgo avenue is the flatter, easier, more family-friendly alternative to Takao — no elevation, wide paths, and rentable bikes. The 2025 autumn festival ran October 30 to November 30 with partial evening lighting.

If you're travelling with kids or anyone who won't enjoy a mountain, take Showa Kinen and skip Takao. See day trips from Kanamachi for how it fits with the rest of the region.

Mizumoto Park: The Metasequoia Forest Almost Nobody Photographs

Here's the one I'd spend my own Sunday on.

Mizumoto Park is 20 minutes by Keisei bus from Kanamachi Station, costs ¥220, and charges nothing to enter. It has around 1,800 metasequoia — dawn redwoods — and when they turn they go a deep brick-orange that reads more like Oregon than Tokyo.

The important detail is the timing, because Mizumoto gives you two separate autumns:

Late October to mid-November: the sweetgums (momijibafu) turn first — reds and oranges while the rest of the park is still green.

Late November to mid-December: the metasequoia forest turns, peaking around the first week of December. This is the later of the two and the better one.

That second window is the useful part. It arrives after Takao has thinned out and it runs past the point where most autumn guides have stopped updating. On a December weekday morning I have walked the full grove — about 20 minutes end to end — and passed under ten people.

Bring your own coffee. The food options inside the park are thin, and on a cold morning the vending machines are the whole menu.

A Guest Who Got the Timing Right by Accident

A couple from Taipei booked eight nights with me starting November 28 last year, mostly because flights were cheap that week. They'd assumed they'd missed the leaves.

They hit Rikugien's night viewing on the 29th, went to Mizumoto on a Tuesday morning in the first week of December, and came back with the metasequoia grove entirely to themselves under a clear sky. The wife told me it was the only place in ten days in Japan where she didn't have to wait for someone to move out of a shot.

Late November into December is not the leftover slot. For Tokyo specifically, it's the right one — and it's cheaper, because most people have already gone home.

Staying east makes this itinerary work. Bon House is an 8-minute walk from Kanamachi Station, which puts Mizumoto Park 20 minutes away by bus and Rikugien 35 minutes by train, and it costs a fraction of a Komagome or Shinjuku hotel in peak season. See the room and current rates — early December still has availability when the central Tokyo hotels don't.

What to Wear in Tokyo in Late November

Tokyo in late November runs roughly 8–16°C, and the evening illuminations are the cold part — standing still in a garden at 19:00 in early December is a different experience from walking around at noon.

• A proper layer under a jacket, not just a jacket
• Shoes you can stand in for two hours on gravel
• Gloves if you're shooting photos at the night events
• No umbrella needed most days; November is one of Tokyo's drier months

For broader first-visit logistics, see first-time Tokyo travel tips.

Building a Two-Day Autumn Plan from East Tokyo

Day 1 — central gardens. Rikugien in the afternoon, dinner in Komagome or back in Kanamachi, then Rikugien's night viewing if your dates land in the window. If they don't, swap to Koishikawa Korakuen and Tokyo Dome City in the evening.

Day 2 — local, slow. Mizumoto Park in the morning by bus, then the Keisei line to Shibamata for lunch on the Taishakuten approach. Kusa-dango and a temple garden, and you're back by mid-afternoon.

That second day costs about ¥700 in transport and is the one guests remember.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the best week to see autumn leaves in Tokyo?

The last week of November through the first week of December covers the most spots at once — the city gardens, the Gaien ginkgo, and the Mizumoto metasequoia all overlap there. If you can only pick one week, pick that one. Early November is too early for central Tokyo, though it works for Nikko and the mountains.

Is Tokyo or Kyoto better for autumn leaves?

Kyoto is better if you want temple-and-maple compositions and you're going in mid-November. Tokyo is better if you're going after November 25, when Kyoto is past peak and Tokyo is arriving at it. Trying to do both in one trip in mid-November means seeing Tokyo green.

Do I need to pay for the night illuminations?

At Rikugien, yes — the evening viewing is a separate ¥1,200 ticket and the daytime ¥300 admission doesn't cover it. At Meiji Jingu Gaien and Showa Kinen Park's ginkgo avenue, the lit outdoor sections are free, though Showa Kinen still charges its ¥450 park admission during the day.

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Last updated: August 2026. Peak windows are based on typical years and on 2025 observations; event dates listed are 2025 dates given as a planning reference — confirm 2026 dates with each venue from late September.