Travel ideas and tips for each season in Japan.
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.
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.
Japan has had no government autumn forecast since 2008, and it only ever covered Kanto. Every date you read comes from a private company. What the state still measures, and why its definition is not the one you want.
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.
The 2026 floor-maple opening runs 17 October to 30 November, at 800 yen in October and 1,200 in November. JNTO puts the temple in the wrong prefecture and the temple English page gets the illumination an hour wrong.
Arashiyama, Nikko and Yabakei share a title nobody officially awarded. In 2026 they peak three and a half weeks apart — and one of them has no bus at the weekend.
Tsuki-no-Ishi Momiji Park in Nagatoro and Torii Kannon in Hanno have no English guide page. The illumination hours, the two fees, the weekend-only statue and the train that strands you — checked against the operators.
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.
Two of Kyushu late-autumn best sites have almost nothing written about them in English, and what exists is out of date. Prices, illumination dates, the weekday bus problem, and three corrections to the official English record.
Four brick tunnels on Japan's original 1900 Chuo Line, abandoned in 1966 and locked ever since, open for nine days from 28 November 2026. Dates, fares, the 33-minute run from Nagoya, and why the maples may or may not cooperate.
Field notes, weekly
One email a week. The Japan worth planning around.
Nearly every image on Hidden Japan Gems was photographed by me on a Sony α7 across five years of walking Japan; a few licensed photos fill the gaps. Please don't re-use my photos without permission — reach out if you'd like to.
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