Kyoto in autumn, week by week
Autumn colour in Japan is treated as the quieter sibling of cherry blossom, and in Kyoto it is nothing of the kind. For about three weeks in November the city receives the largest domestic travel wave of its year, the temples that matter open at night for it, and the hotel rates behave accordingly.
It is also, in our view, the better of the two seasons. The colour lasts longer than blossom, the weather is more reliable, the light is lower and warmer, and the foreign visitor numbers are lower than in April.
The trick is knowing that autumn in Kyoto is not a date. It is a descent.
The colour comes downhill
Blossom moves north across Japan. Autumn colour, koyo, moves south and downward, and inside Kyoto it moves down the hillsides into the city over about a month.
The mountains north of the city turn first, in the last days of October and the first week of November. The temple gardens on the eastern and western hills follow in the middle of the month. The city floor, the gardens on flat ground and the streets themselves, turn last, in the final week of November and the first days of December.
That is the entire planning insight. If you are in Kyoto in early November, you go up. If you are there in early December, you stay down.
Week by week
Late October to the first week of November: go north and up. Ohara, a valley of temples about an hour north of the city, with Sanzenin’s moss garden underneath the maples. Kurama and Kibune, connected by a mountain path that is a genuinely good ninety minute walk between two shrines and a river. Takao, north-west and higher, which is the first place in the Kyoto area to turn every year. Mount Hiei above the city, with the Enryakuji temple complex spread through the trees.
The second week of November: the eastern hills begin. Eikando, which is the temple most associated with maples in Japan and opens at night for the season. Nanzenji and its aqueduct. Shinnyodo and Konkaikomyoji, which sit five minutes from those two and hold a fraction of the people. This is the week we like most, because the colour is arriving rather than peaking and the city has not yet filled.
The third week of November: peak, or close to it. Tofukuji, whose valley of maples seen from a covered bridge is the single most photographed autumn scene in Japan and is managed accordingly, with queues and one-way systems. Arashiyama in the west, the Philosopher’s Path, Kiyomizudera. Everything is beautiful and everything is full. Dawn is not a suggestion this week, it is the whole strategy.
The last week of November: the city floor. The flat gardens turn. Nijo Castle, the Imperial Palace park, Shosei-en, the temple gardens in the centre. Rates and crowds peak with the last weekend of the month.
The first ten days of December: the quiet reward. This is our favourite week to send people who are flexible. The mountains are past it, the city gardens are at or just past their best, some of the eastern hill temples still hold colour in sheltered corners, and the domestic wave has gone home. The light is low, the mornings are cold and clear, and Kyoto feels like a city again.
How much the forecast moves
Colour timing depends on the temperatures of the preceding six weeks, particularly the cold snaps in October, and it shifts by a week or more from year to year. Forecasts appear from late September and are revised through October.
What we do about it: we do not build an itinerary that only works if the maples peak on a specific date. We build a Kyoto week with both the high options and the low options in it, and we choose between them two or three days ahead based on what our Tokyo office is actually seeing. Lior lives in Japan and this is the sort of thing a local office is for.
Crowds, honestly
The last two weeks of November in Kyoto are among the busiest travel periods in Japan and it is domestic travel, so weekends are far worse than weekdays. Three practical rules:
Be at the gate at opening. Most temples open at 8am or 9am, some at 6am. The first hour is a different place from the third.
Use the evening illuminations properly. Many temples open again after dark in the season, with the gardens lit. It is genuinely beautiful and it is also busy, so we book the ones that sell timed entry and we choose the second slot rather than the first.
Go to the temple next door. For every famous site there is one five minutes away with the same trees and a tenth of the visitors. That is most of what our Kyoto planning consists of in November.
Weather and what to wear
Kyoto in November sits around 61F (16C) by day and drops to about 45F (7C) in the morning, and the city is in a basin, which makes it colder at dawn than the forecast suggests. It is one of the drier months. Layers, and shoes that come off easily, because you will be removing them several times a day.
What it does to the budget
November is a peak month in Kyoto and the rates show it, particularly for the last two weeks. Expect city hotel rates well above the spring shoulder, small ryokan booked out, and the better rooms gone six to nine months ahead.
The two ways to spend less without losing the season: travel in the first week of December, or base yourself in Osaka for two of the nights and come into Kyoto on the fifteen minute train, which is a real saving in the peak fortnight. The full cost picture is in what two weeks in Japan really costs.
Where else to be in the same fortnight
Kyoto is not the only good autumn in Japan, and on a two week trip it should not be the only autumn you see.
The Japanese Alps, a week or two earlier. Kamikochi, Takayama and the Kiso valley turn through late October, and the timing dovetails neatly with arriving in Kyoto in mid November. That is exactly the shape of Japan in 14 days through the alps.
Nara, half an hour away, where the deer park and Kasuga’s forest turn a week or so after central Kyoto.
Koyasan and the Kii peninsula, where the temple lodgings and cedar forests are at their best in the second half of November.
Miyajima and Hiroshima, where Momijidani, the maple valley, is named for exactly this.
How we plan a Kyoto autumn week
Four nights in Kyoto, not two. One day north and up, one day on the eastern hills at opening time, one day west in Arashiyama beginning before the bamboo grove fills, and one day with nothing in it that we fill three days ahead based on where the colour actually is. Dinners booked from Tokyo by our own office, because in the third week of November the counters are full.
Plan this trip
Tell us your dates and we will build a Kyoto week that works whether the maples are early or late, with the restaurants booked from our Tokyo office. Free first outline, no obligation.
Keep reading
- Japan: the complete guide to planning your trip
- Cherry blossom, region by region
- How much does two weeks in Japan really cost?
- What we would skip in Japan
- Japan in 14 days through the alps
- All our Japan trips
Frequently asked questions
When exactly do the leaves peak in Kyoto?
Is autumn better than cherry blossom?
How far ahead do we need to book?
Are the evening illuminations worth it?
Can we avoid the crowds entirely?
Does the rest of the country work in November?
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