All Chubu articles — Page 3

Location, Chubu, Seasonal Travel, Shizuoka

The Metasequoia Avenue at Susono Sports Park, Facing Mt. Fuji

An avenue of metasequoia trees in full rust-orange autumn colour framing a snow-capped Mt Fuji dead centre at Susono City Sports Park in late November, stadium floodlights rising on the right and a few visitors on the walkway.

A dawn-redwood avenue inside a municipal sports park that frames Mt Fuji between rust rows every late November - a field report from two dated visits, since no tourism page covers it.

Nobu
September 20, 2026

Location, Chubu, Seasonal Travel, Yamanashi

Mount Mitsutoge: Routes, the 2026 Trail Closure, and Autumn at the Foot

A crimson and orange Japanese maple in full colour beside the cracked paved approach road to the Mount Mitsutoge trail above Nishikatsura, with golden larch and dark cedars behind it under a partly cloudy sky in mid-November.

The classic Mt Fuji viewing climb, with a 2026 caveat: the Haha-no-Shirataki section is closed. Open routes compared, plus the Shinrei walking path in peak November colour.

Nobu
September 20, 2026

Location, Chubu, Seasonal Travel, Yamanashi

Chasing Autumn Down Mt. Fuji: Golden Larch and Two Quiet Waterfalls

Aerial view over a vast forest on Mt Fuji northern slope in early November, golden larch trees mixed with dark green conifers in bands of colour running up toward the mountain bare upper slopes under a blue sky.

Three dated stops from one autumn: golden larch on the Subaru Line (2 Nov), Kaneyama Falls at peak maple (12 Nov) and Taro-Jiro Falls (27 Nov) - with bus, road and parking detail.

Nobu
September 20, 2026

Location, Chubu, Seasonal Travel, Yamanashi

Lake Yamanaka Autumn Leaves Festival 2026: Dates, Light-Up Hours & Local Tips

A wooden pavilion under a blazing canopy of red, orange and yellow maple trees at Asahigaoka Lakeside Green Park during the Lake Yamanaka autumn leaves festival, fallen leaves carpeting the ground.

Planned dates 30 Oct-15 Nov 2026, nightly light-up 16:30-20:30, and how to arrive by bus from Shinjuku - with my own full-colour photos from the lakeshore.

Nobu
September 20, 2026

Location, Chubu, Culture, Events & Festivals, Experience, News & Updates, Travel Tips, Yamanashi

Fujiyoshida Yabusame Festival: Where Hoofprints Tell the Future (Sept 18–19, 2026)

A white festival horse in purple regalia is led down Honcho-dori shopping street in Fujiyoshida during the September yabusame procession, with Mount Fuji rising directly over the retro shopfronts and street lamps

Fujiyoshida's yabusame festival, Sept 18–19, 2026: horses run from 1 p.m. on the 19th, and between the runs a hereditary diviner reads the hoofprints — the districts' forecast through next spring. Access, times and my 2025 procession photos.

Nobu
September 13, 2026

Location, Chubu, Niigata, Seasonal Travel, Transportation, Travel Tips

GALA Yuzawa Guide (2026-27): The Ski Resort Inside a Shinkansen Station

A wide panorama of GALA Yuzawa southern area: a bowl of snow-covered mountainside under a deep blue sky, with tree-lined pistes and a lift line running up the centre.

The Shinkansen stops inside GALA Yuzawa's ski centre — 77 minutes from Tokyo by the resort's own count. What last season's calendar, prices and non-skier tickets tell you before the 2026-27 details appear.

Nobu
September 11, 2026

Location, Chubu, Nagano, Seasonal Travel, Travel Tips

Shiga Kogen Lift Tickets 2026-27: One Ticket, 18 Ski Areas, and a Discount That Isn’t the Point

Cabins of the Shiga Kogen Resort Gondola descending above a snowy valley, with pisted runs fanning up the wooded mountainside behind and a lift base station below.

Shiga Kogen has published its 2026-27 prices: ¥9,500 a day, one ticket for all 18 ski areas and 45 lifts. The two-day ticket saves just ¥500 — because the product is flexibility, not discount.

Nobu
September 10, 2026

Nagano, Chubu, Experience, Location, Shrines & Temples, Travel Tips

Suwa Taisha: All Four Shrines, and Why the Order Does Not Matter

The kagura hall at Suwa Taisha Shimosha Akimiya: a dark timber hall with a deeply curved roof, hung with an enormous braided rice-straw shimenawa rope, flanked by two bronze guardian lions on stone plinths, with visitors climbing the stone steps.

Suwa Taisha is four shrines with no head shrine and no set order. The Upper Shrine is south of Lake Suwa and the Lower Shrine north — the opposite of what the shrine s own English page says.

Nobu
September 9, 2026

Location, Chubu, Nagano, Seasonal Travel, Travel Tips

Happo-one 2026-27: The 39% Lift Discount You Need a Japanese ID Card to Buy

Hakuba Happo-one seen from the valley floor in deep winter: snow-covered village houses in the foreground, the resort pisted runs fanning up a broad wooded mountainside behind them, and the sharp white ridge of the Northern Alps above, under a cloudless blue sky.

Hakuba Happo-one cuts its ¥9,800 day pass to ¥6,400 from 1 October. The only condition is a My Number card — so foreign residents of Japan qualify and tourists do not. The English pages never mention it.

Nobu
September 7, 2026

Chubu, Location, Seasonal Travel, Transportation, Travel Tips, Yamanashi

Fujikawaguchiko Autumn Leaves Festival 2026: New Hours, Paid Parking, and the Bus That Leaves Early

Looking south across Lake Kawaguchi from the north shore on a November afternoon: a rust and orange maple canopy overhead with many branches already bare, the pale outline of Mount Fuji half hidden behind cloud on the far side, boats pulled up on a wide band of exposed gravel shoreline, and dry pampas grass in the foreground.

The 2026 festival runs 7-29 November with the illumination ending at 21:00, half an hour earlier than last year, and the town car park charged for the first time. Neither change exists in English.

Nobu
September 4, 2026