Autumn 2026 · Tochigi · Oita · Kyoto
Three places in Japan share a title nobody officially awarded, and this year the forecast starts of their peak colour are more than four weeks apart: Nikko’s Irohazaka from about 23 October, Shin-Yabakei, the valley around Yabakei’s Hitome-Hakkei viewpoint, from about 15 November, and Arashiyama from about 24 November, on the dates in Weathernews’ second forecast, released on 8 October 2026. The gaps between them are the useful part — they are what makes seeing all three in one autumn arithmetically possible, and they are why the order matters.
Who decided these are the three?
Nobody I could identify. I looked for a ministry list, a cultural agency register and a dated announcement, and found none of them, and I could not trace the phrase to an original source. Treat it as a label in circulation rather than a verified designation.
What is verifiable is who repeats it. Oita Prefecture’s official tourism site uses the phrase, in Japanese and in English. So does Nakatsu City, the municipality Yabakei sits in. The Kyoto City pages for Arashiyama and the Nikko Tourism Association page for Irohazaka that I read do not. The label does more work for Yabakei than for the other two.
One government page mentions the title. The Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Japan Heritage portal notes that Yabakei was named one of the three great foliage spots — in a feature by a private weather company. That is a reference to a published feature, not a designation.
It is also worth knowing that the two sources most often cited for the trio do not actually say it. One is a popularity ranking of foliage destinations built on 2024 visitor data. The other is a top-ten list, in which Yabakei is number ten and is described not as one of the three great foliage spots but as one of Japan’s three great scenic curiosities — a different list entirely.
Yabakei collects these titles. It is also one of the three great curiosities and one of the three new views of Japan. Nikko’s Kegon Falls is one of the three great waterfalls. These trios accumulate, and no single body issues them.
None of that makes the three a bad shortlist. They are genuinely different from one another in a way a ranking of the ten prettiest maple valleys would not be: a temple town, a mountain road, and a gorge full of rock spires. It just means you should treat the phrase as a starting point rather than a verdict.
The 2026 dates, and why the order matters
Weathernews released its first foliage forecast of the year on 3 September 2026 and named two of the three directly. The third, Shin-Yabakei, appears on its Kyushu map. Nationally it expected colour “later than average or slightly later”, on the basis that it forecast higher-than-normal temperatures through the autumn. Its second forecast, on 8 October, kept the later call for many spots that usually peak from late October onward, while those that usually peak by mid-October are mostly around average; it moved the Irohazaka forward to about 23 October and left Shin-Yabakei and Arashiyama where they were. It forecasts Shin-Yabakei as a whole, the valley that contains Hitome-Hakkei.
| Site | Peak colour from |
|---|---|
| Irohazaka, Nikko easy to reach, hard to move | About 23 October Weathernews, 8 Oct (31 Oct on 3 Sep) |
| Shin-Yabakei home of Hitome-Hakkei; weekday buses only, four a day | About 15 November Weathernews, 8 Oct (unchanged) |
| Arashiyama, Kyoto trains every few minutes | About 24 November Weathernews, 8 Oct (unchanged) |
Read down the dates and the order writes itself: north first, then south-west, then Kyoto. On Weathernews’ dates, thirty-two days separate the first forecast start from the last, which is longer than most people’s entire trip, and a trip covering 15 to 24 November takes in the starts for both Shin-Yabakei and Arashiyama, nine days apart and both in the western half of the country. These are forecast start dates for three sites — for Yabakei, the whole Shin-Yabakei valley rather than the Hitome-Hakkei viewpoint itself — not the full windows in which each is worth seeing.
Two cautions on those numbers. Weathernews defines “peak” as running from the day about 70 per cent of a site has coloured until leaves begin to fall, so the date is a start, not a single best day. And Weathernews’ dates are from its second forecast, issued on 8 October, two to seven weeks ahead of the three dates; its first, on 3 September, had the Irohazaka at about 31 October and the other two on the same dates. It plans a third for late October; treat that one as the update to revise plans against, not a guarantee.
Nikko: a twenty-minute road that can take six hours
The Irohazaka is two one-way roads — the first descending, the second climbing — with 48 hairpin curves between them and about 440 metres of height gain. The curves are signposted with the characters of the old iroha alphabet, one per bend, which is where the name comes from.
The Nikko Tourism Association is unusually frank about what happens next. The climb normally takes around twenty minutes. In foliage season it frequently takes two to three hours, and the association records one long weekend when the climb took as much as six. Autumn weekends are worst between 9am and 3pm, occasionally until 5pm, and a car joining at 2pm can spend over three hours on the hill. For autumn weekends and holidays the association recommends starting the climb before 07:00; on weekdays, after 15:00. Tochigi Prefecture separately asks visitors to pick a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, to travel before about 08:00 or after 15:00, and to use public transport.
Tochigi Prefecture published its 2026 congestion plan for Nikko on 15 September 2026. It announces no Irohazaka road closure, no park-and-ride, no shuttle bus and no lane reconfiguration. What it does contain is four measures:
A right-turn ban, for two days only
A trial in the 2026 plan: right turns are banned at the Futarabashi-mae junction at Chugushi, by Lake Chuzenji, on 31 October and 1 November, 8am to 3pm, and it is cancelled in bad weather. The prefecture describes it as a traffic regulation intended to stop queues for parking from backing up into the traffic behind.
Temporary car parks, seven days
31 October, 1 and 3 November, then 7, 8, 14 and 15 November, at the Daiyagawa riverbed and two government depots. Free, about 450 spaces — but they serve the shrine side at the bottom, roughly 1.6 km and 25 minutes on foot from Toshogu, not Chuzenji.
Live cameras, seven days
The prefecture schedules its congestion-information service, which uses live cameras, on seven dates — 24, 25 and 31 October and 1, 3, 7 and 8 November — from 8am to 5pm, at three points including the Akechidaira car park and Futarabashi-mae. The plan does not schedule it on other days, so do not count on it for a mid-week visit.
Off-peak travel, and that is all
A request to travel outside the peak, running 15 September to 22 November. The Akechidaira prefectural car park, closed for a three-day experiment over 1–3 November 2025, is open this year; the prefecture confirms the closure trial was last year’s.
The Akechidaira Ropeway is shut for this entire season. The cable car up to the observation deck ran for the last time on 15 January 2026 and has been closed since the 16th for a rebuild. The operator gives the closure as running to 31 August 2027, with reopening planned for September 2027, and notes the works could extend it. It is therefore closed for the whole of the 2026 foliage season. Separately, and easy to confuse with it: the Akechidaira prefectural car park beside the road is open in 2026. That is the roadside car park, not the upper observation deck the ropeway serves.
Kegon Falls and its elevator are unaffected. The elevator drops 100 metres to a viewing platform at the foot of the 97-metre falls, takes a minute, has been running since 1930, and costs ¥600 for adults and ¥400 for primary-school children as a round trip, with preschoolers free. It runs 8am to 5pm from March to the end of November, with last entry at 4:40pm, so it covers the whole foliage season; from December it drops to 9am–4:30pm. There are no reservations — it is first come — and no food, drink or pets in the car.
One change landed on 23 September 2026, days before the season: the falls are being given more water. The operator announced that the discharge has been raised from 0.3 to 1.0 cubic metres a second, saying the falls can now be seen at their more powerful ahead of the foliage season, and Tochigi Prefecture’s live water page showed 1.0 cubic metres a second when I checked the same day. That is a reading on 23 September rather than a commitment for the whole autumn, but if it holds, the falls will be carrying more than three times the water they showed for most of this year.
One more thing the single “Nikko” date hides: the area turns in stages. In Weathernews’ first forecast on 3 September, Ryuzu Falls was given a start of about 18 October, Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Falls about 28 October, and the Irohazaka itself about 31 October. After its second forecast on 8 October, its spot pages on 10 October gave Ryuzu Falls about 17 October, Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Falls about 27 October and the Irohazaka about 23 October. When a TBS crew filmed at Ryuzu Falls on 2 October, visitors were saying it was still too early for the colour. The Nikko Tourism Association’s own tracker put the Irohazaka at mid-October to early November, and had it not yet started when it last updated on 13 September. If you are choosing a date, choose it for the specific viewpoint you want. See the Nikko autumn leaves 2026 guide for when the colour reaches each area, from Oku-Nikko down to the shrines, and a one-day route from Tokyo.
Stay the night, and start early. The queue builds between nine and three, so the fix is either to sleep above the climb — around Lake Chuzenji or Okunikko, at the top of the Irohazaka rather than in Nikko town below it — or to start early from town. Asakusa to Tobu-Nikko is about an hour and fifty minutes by limited express. Of Tobu’s two passes, only the ¥8,000 four-day All Area one reaches Chuzenji and the falls; the ¥3,000 two-day pass covers the shrine area at the bottom of the hill and will not get you up it. Limited-express surcharges are extra on both.
Yabakei: the famous view has no weekend bus
Yabakei is not one place, which trips up most English write-ups. It is a set of gorges along the Yamakuni river, and the two you are likely to want are different valleys with different transport. Hon-Yabakei has the Ao-no-Domon tunnel. Shin-Yabakei has Hitome-Hakkei, the rock amphitheatre in the photograph above, and that is the one the foliage reputation rests on.
The transport is the part worth reading twice. According to the Nakatsu-Yabakei tourism association’s guidance, buses from Nakatsu Station to Hon-Yabakei run roughly hourly and cost about ¥700 one way. Shin-Yabakei needs a transfer at Kakisaka, and the onward leg runs on weekdays only: four arrivals a day at the Shin-Yabakei car park, three departures back towards Kakisaka.
There is no weekend bus to the famous view. If you are travelling without a car and you arrive in Nakatsu on a Saturday in mid-November — exactly when the forecast says to come — the public-transport route to Hitome-Hakkei does not exist that day. Both timetables for the second leg, the Nakamori line between Kakisaka and Shin-Yabakei, are headed weekdays only: four services a day reach the Shin-Yabakei car park and three leave it. The ¥10,000 round-trip taxi figure the association quotes is to Hon-Yabakei, not to Hitome-Hakkei, which is further up the valley — ask for a separate quote before you count on it. Plan a weekday, hire a car, or go by bicycle.
If you do go on a weekday, the connection that works is Nakatsu Station 10:10, Kakisaka 10:50, change to the 11:05, and Shin-Yabakei car park 11:24. Coming back there are three departures — 08:53, 15:23 and 16:53 — and the one that connects onward is 15:23, reaching Kakisaka at 15:42 for the 16:22 to Nakatsu, arriving 17:02. That is about four hours on the ground. Whether the 16:53 connects at Kakisaka I could not confirm from the published timetables. The Nakatsu to Kakisaka fare is ¥970; I could not confirm the onward fare from the timetables I checked.
The old Yabakei railway line is now a cycle route of about 36 kilometres, roughly 22 of them on dedicated cycle path, with rental at the cycling terminal and two other points and one-way drop-off between them. It is a good way to see the wider valley, but be clear about where it goes: it follows the Yamakuni river from Hon-Yabakei towards Yamakuni, and it is not a cycle-path route to Hitome-Hakkei. Treat it as its own day rather than as the answer to the weekend bus gap.
When you get there, Hitome-Hakkei costs nothing. The car park is free, open around the clock, and holds 256 cars. There is no illumination at the viewpoint itself — the nearby Hisashi-momiji is lit in season, but Hitome-Hakkei is not, and the path up from the car park has few lights, so this is a daylight stop.
Ao-no-Domon, in the other valley, is worth the detour for what it is rather than how it looks: a tunnel hand-cut through the cliff in the 1700s so that travellers could stop using a chain-and-ledge path across the rock face. Tolls were charged to fund it — four mon for a person, eight for an ox or horse — which is why it gets described as Japan’s first toll road. Repairs after the rockfalls that began in November 2024 finished in March 2026 and pedestrians were let back on 1 April. Vehicles are still barred, and the closure has been extended again: a fresh rockfall was found in August 2026 while the city worked out its response. Check before you plan to drive through it.
The sightseeing coach that used to solve this is suspended. The Yabakei course from Nakatsu — the one that took in Shin-Yabakei and Hitome-Hakkei without a car — is marked as not running on its operator’s own booking page. The operator’s Kunisaki course still runs at weekends and on holidays; the Yabakei one does not.
Basing yourself for Yabakei
Nakatsu is the railhead, Beppu and Yufuin are the onsen towns within reach, and everything in this valley is easier with a car.
Arashiyama: the easy one, which is the problem
Arashiyama is the one you can reach without planning. Three separate railways stop there: the Randen tram two minutes from Togetsukyo, Hankyu eight minutes away, and JR’s Sagano Line eleven. Kyoto City’s own advice from Kyoto Station is to take the JR line and specifically warns that the buses get crowded and slow.
That accessibility is the whole difficulty. When this page first went up the 2026 measures had not been agreed; Kyoto City’s Arashiyama traffic working group met on 15 September, and the plan was published on 17 September 2026. Its main dated measures are these.
| 2026 Arashiyama traffic measure | Dates |
|---|---|
| Main regulation days — Nagatsuji-dori northbound one-way plus a pedestrian-only section, and Saga-kaido southbound one-way | Sat 21, Sun 22, Mon 23 (holiday), Sat 28 and Sun 29 November |
| Weekday extension of the Nagatsuji-dori one-way | Mon 16 to Fri 20, and Tue 24 to Fri 27 November |
| Togetsukyo bridge: pedestrians separated from traffic | Not dated in the plan |
| Private-car inflow suppression on Marutamachi-dori; no-stopping measures at the bamboo grove entrance | Not dated in the plan |
Note what the plan does not contain: any times of day. It gives dates and measure types only — no start and finish times, no road sections, no map. Kyoto Prefectural Police, whose notice carries the legal regulation hours, had not listed the November Arashiyama regulation on its page as last updated on 18 September, and it still had not when I checked on 23 September. Last year the city issued its detailed release on 30 September; no publication date has been announced for the 2026 one. Until it appears, treat any regulation hours you find for Arashiyama as unconfirmed for this year.
Two things already have dates and will cost you money. The municipal Arashiyama car park charges its peak rate from 7 October to 10 December, and its whole tariff changes on 1 October 2026: a private car goes from a flat ¥1,040 normal and ¥1,250 peak to ¥1,000 on a weekday and ¥1,500 at weekends and on public holidays in the normal period, and ¥1,500 and ¥2,000 respectively in the peak period. Note that 23 November is a public holiday, so it takes the higher rate. The city says the increase funds its park-and-ride push, which is planned for November with free parking at designated lots in partnership with AEON Mall and Times 24 — but it is marked as planned, and no Arashiyama lot has been named.
Tenryu-ji’s garden opens at 7:30am from 14 to 30 November. Normal opening is 8:30, and the early hour applies at the garden reception only — the buildings keep their usual times. But it runs through the back half of November — and the forecast peak of 24 November sits inside that window. An hour before the standard opening, in a temple whose pond garden is the one most people queue for, is worth building the morning around. Garden entry is ¥500 for high-school students and adults, ¥300 for primary and junior-high pupils. The buildings are ¥300 on top of that, and the Cloud Dragon hall is a separate ¥500.
Two nearby temples widen the day. Hogon-in runs a special autumn opening from 3 October to 6 December, 9 to 5, at ¥700 for the garden; next door, Kogen-ji opens on the same dates at ¥500, and a combined ticket for the two is ¥1,000. Jojakko-ji is open 9 to 5 with last entry at 4:30, and charges ¥600. Neither needs booking. Jojakko-ji bars tripods and monopods, which is worth knowing before you carry one across Kyoto.
On night viewing I can now answer the question this page previously left open. Neither Tenryu-ji nor Jojakko-ji holds one. Tenryu-ji’s published schedule of its 2026 events contains no evening opening between September and December apart from the New Year’s Eve bell, and Jojakko-ji states plainly that it does not run night viewing or illumination. The illuminated options in Arashiyama are Hogon-in, lit from 13 November to 6 December, 17:30 to 20:30 with last entry at 20:00, ¥1,000; and the Arashiyama Bamboo Light-up in the grove itself, 30 September to 8 November, 18:00 to 21:00 with last entry at 20:30, ¥1,500 on the door in cash or ¥2,000 online, free for under-13s. Note the dates against the forecast: the bamboo light-up finishes on 8 November, more than a fortnight before Arashiyama’s forecast peak, so Hogon-in is the only one of the two that overlaps it.
Tenryu-ji’s Cloud Dragon hall is on its daily autumn schedule from 19 September to 6 December, 9:00 to 16:30 with the desk closing at 16:20 — different hours from the garden. Outside that window and the spring one it opens only at weekends and on public holidays.
One scheduling detail if you are coming in late October: Tenryu-ji closes its main buildings until about 11:30 on 29 October and about 12:30 on the 30th, and the Cloud Dragon hall is shut all day on 28 and 29 October and until about 12:45 on the 30th. The garden stays open throughout.
Kyoto in the last week of November
Late November is the busiest stretch of the Kyoto autumn. If your dates are fixed, compare availability and cancellation terms early.
Can you actually see all three in one autumn?
Yes, if you have about four and a half weeks and you go in the right order. No, on any normal holiday.
The plans below use Weathernews’ dates.
Two weeks in November
Take Yabakei around the 15th and Arashiyama around the 24th. They are nine days and one shinkansen apart, and both sit in the second half of the month. Nikko will already have turned.
Two weeks from late October
Start at Nikko’s forecast start on 23 October and a fortnight ends about 6 November, nine days before Yabakei’s. Start in the first days of November instead and you catch Nikko late in its window — Weathernews has leaves starting to fall on the Irohazaka from about 8 November — and reach Yabakei around the 15th. Either way, Arashiyama is not forecast to start until about the 24th, so expect to leave before Kyoto turns.
One week, anywhere
Pick one. They are four and a half weeks and the length of the country apart, and a week spent connecting them is a week not spent anywhere.
If you only pick one
Arashiyama for a first visit to Japan, Nikko if you are driving and can start early, Yabakei if you have been to Kyoto before and want a day that feels unvisited.
If you are booking for any of these three dates. Booking.com says its Late Escape Deals start from 15 per cent off, on stays between 1 October 2026 and 7 January 2027 — a window that contains all three of the peaks above. It says the discount applies at participating properties worldwide and comes off the price before taxes and charges, and that bookings can be made until 7 January 2027.
Worth knowing what it is not: a deal on every property, or a Japan-specific sale. The page it opens on is Booking’s global deals page — Tokyo properties do appear there, but you will still be filtering down to Nikko, Nakatsu or Kyoto yourself. And a discount badge is not the same as the best price: check the total with taxes and fees, and the cancellation terms, against whatever else you were considering. Open the Late Escape deals page.
Still waiting on 2026 details
Answered since first publication. Arashiyama’s 2026 traffic measures were published on 17 September and are in the table above. On night viewing: as of 23 September, Tenryu-ji’s published autumn 2026 schedule lists none, and Jojakko-ji’s own FAQ says it does not currently hold night viewing or illumination; Hogon-in and the bamboo grove do. And I could not find a “Yabakei foliage festival” in the Nakatsu City and tourism association pages I checked on 23 September, so I have removed the reference rather than keep chasing dates for it.
Still unpublished as of 23 September 2026: the times of day for the Arashiyama regulations; the 2026 Hisashi-momiji illumination period, which in 2025 ran 1 November to 1 December, 17:00 to 21:00, free, and whose announcement came in mid-October that year; and the Arashiyama park-and-ride details, which last year were released on 15 and 22 October.
Not fixed figures at all: Tobu’s limited-express fare varies by train, and the second leg of the Nakatsu to Hitome-Hakkei bus journey has no published fare. Neither is a number I can print.
The Japan Weather Association publishes its own forecasts on tenki.jp (Japanese). Weathernews published its second forecast on 8 October, and the Weathernews dates quoted here now use it; its third is planned for late October.
Questions people ask
What are Japan’s three great autumn foliage spots?
Arashiyama in Kyoto, Nikko in Tochigi and Yabakei in Oita. There is no official designation behind the phrase — no ministry or agency awards it, and no origin is traceable. Oita Prefecture and Nakatsu City use it on their official sites; Kyoto City and the Nikko Tourism Association do not.
When do they peak in 2026?
In its second forecast, on 8 October 2026, Weathernews has the Irohazaka in Nikko beginning its peak around 23 October (31 October in its first, on 3 September), Shin-Yabakei around 15 November and Arashiyama around 24 November, and it expects spots that usually peak from late October onward to be later than average in many places because of a warm autumn. Weathernews plans a third forecast for late October.
Is the Akechidaira Ropeway open in autumn 2026?
No. It stopped running after business on 15 January 2026 for a rebuild, and the operator plans to reopen in September 2027. That means it is closed for the whole of the 2026 foliage season. Kegon Falls and its elevator are unaffected.
How bad is the Irohazaka traffic really?
The Nikko Tourism Association says the climb takes about twenty minutes normally, two to three hours in foliage season, and that a six-hour jam has occurred on a long weekend. Weekends are worst from 9am to 3pm. Staying overnight in Nikko and driving up early is the practical fix.
Can I reach Yabakei without a car?
On a weekday, yes but slowly. The journey needs a transfer at Kakisaka, and the onward leg to Shin-Yabakei runs on weekdays only — four arrivals a day, three departures back. Nakatsu to Kakisaka is ¥970; I could not confirm the onward fare from the published timetables. At weekends there is no bus to Shin-Yabakei at all. Hon-Yabakei, where Ao-no-Domon is, has a roughly hourly bus at about ¥700, and a round-trip taxi there is quoted at about ¥10,000.
What time does Tenryu-ji open during the autumn peak?
From 14 to 30 November 2026 the garden opens at 7:30am instead of the usual 8:30, through the garden reception only. Entry is ¥500 for high-school age and above and ¥300 for primary and junior-high pupils, with the temple buildings ¥300 extra.
Is Ao-no-Domon open?
To pedestrians, yes — it reopened on 1 April 2026 after the repairs finished in March. Vehicles are still prohibited, and the vehicle closure was extended again after a fresh rockfall was found in August 2026. The tunnel was cut by hand in the 1700s and funded by tolls of four mon per person, which is why it is often called Japan’s first toll road.
What are the Arashiyama traffic restrictions in November 2026?
Kyoto City published the plan on 17 September 2026. The main regulation days are 21, 22, 23, 28 and 29 November, when Nagatsuji-dori runs one-way northbound with a pedestrian-only section and Saga-kaido runs one-way southbound. The Nagatsuji-dori one-way also applies on the weekdays of 16 to 20 and 24 to 27 November. No times of day have been published yet, and Kyoto Prefectural Police had not listed the regulation as of 18 September, so treat any hours you see as last year’s until the detailed release appears.
Is there a road closure on the Irohazaka in autumn 2026?
No Irohazaka closure is announced in the prefecture’s congestion plan. Tochigi Prefecture’s 2026 plan contains one traffic regulation: a trial ban on right turns at the Futarabashi-mae junction by Lake Chuzenji on 31 October and 1 November, 8am to 3pm, cancelled in bad weather. Otherwise there are free temporary car parks on seven dates, live cameras on seven dates, and a request to travel off-peak. There is no park-and-ride and no shuttle bus, and the Akechidaira prefectural car park is open this year after being closed for a trial in 2025.
Sources
The primary sources behind every figure above
- 2026 peak dates and the national outlook: Weathernews, second foliage forecast, released 8 October 2026, including its Kanto-Koshin, Kinki and Kyushu forecast maps, and its spot pages for Ryuzu Falls, Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Falls, checked 10 October 2026; first forecast, 3 September 2026.
- Japan Weather Association, spot pages on tenki.jp for Irohazaka and Kegon Falls, Ryuzu Falls and Lake Chuzenji (Japanese); TBS News Dig’s report from Ryuzu Falls, 2 October 2026.
- The two rankings discussed under the label: the Japan Weather Association’s 2026 popularity ranking of foliage destinations, compiled from 2024 visitor data, and Yomiuri Ryoko’s ten-spot autumn list.
- Irohazaka curves, height gain, congestion figures and local peak range: Nikko Tourism Association.
- Akechidaira Ropeway suspension and reopening plan: Nikko Kotsu, the operator.
- Kegon Falls elevator hours, fares and specifications: Kegon Falls Elevator official site.
- Nikko passes and Asakusa journey time: Tobu Railway.
- Yabakei area definitions, bus frequency, fares and taxi estimate: Nakatsu-Yabakei Tourism Association.
- Hitome-Hakkei peak range, illumination and car park; Ao-no-Domon reopening and history: Nakatsu City.
- Use of the three-great phrase: Oita Prefecture tourism (Japanese and English) and Nakatsu City.
- Arashiyama peak range, station walking times and transport advice: Kyoto City and Kyoto City Tourism Association.
- The 2026 Arashiyama traffic measures, regulation dates and car-park tariff: Kyoto City, “Promoting the balance of resident life and tourism — autumn 2026 measures”, published 17 September 2026 (the Arashiyama slide is on p.10 of the linked PDF), and the 1 September notice convening the 61st Arashiyama traffic working group. Regulation hours: Kyoto Prefectural Police temporary traffic regulations, page last updated 18 September 2026, checked 23 September 2026.
- The 2026 Nikko congestion measures, temporary car parks and congestion-camera dates: Tochigi Prefecture, autumn 2026 congestion plan for the Nikko and Nasu areas, published 15 September 2026, and the prefecture’s Nikko congestion information site. Congestion timing advice: Nikko Tourism Association.
- The Kegon Falls discharge increase from 0.3 to 1.0 cubic metres per second: the operator’s notice of 23 September 2026 and Tochigi Prefecture’s live river page.
- Arashiyama night viewing: Tenryu-ji’s 2026 schedule of special openings and events, Jojakko-ji’s own FAQ, and Kyoto City Tourism Association listings for Hogon-in, Kogen-ji and the Arashiyama Bamboo Light-up.
- Yabakei bus timetables and fares: Daiko Hokubu Bus and Kusu Kanko Bus. Sightseeing-coach suspension: Oita Kotsu. The August 2026 Ao-no-Domon rockfall: Nakatsu City.
- Tenryu-ji hours, early November opening, fees and closure dates: Tenryu-ji. Hogon-in and Jojakko-ji: their own listings.
More autumn on Hidden Japan Gems: Japan in November 2026 covers the month Yabakei and Arashiyama fall in, and Japan in October 2026 the month Nikko turns. Autumn leaves in September is for anyone arriving before any of this starts. Kyushu autumn without the guidebooks goes further into the region Yabakei sits in, and the Kawaguchiko autumn leaves festival is the Mount Fuji alternative. If you are still deciding when to come at all, twelve months compared and how many days you need are the places to start.
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