Tokyo: Starting to Change

Since our last autumn color report from Kyoto at the end of October, we kick off November's reports with a first one from Tokyo. Similar to Kyoto, the trees in the metropolis typically start changing their colors from late October to early November and reach their best a few weeks later in late November through to early December.

Today, I visited two popular autumn color spots in Tokyo and found that the trees had just started to take on their autumn colors. It will be a few more weeks before the leaves reach their best viewing.

Icho Namiki is an avenue of ginkgo trees in the Meiji Jingu Gaien Park and a popular autumn color spot in Tokyo. Today, I thought the ginkgo trees looked a little more sparse compared to previous years, but nevertheless, the leaves were starting to take on yellow hues. It expect it to take another couple of weeks before the leaves change completely to their golden best.

Shinjuku Gyoen is a popular park in central Tokyo, which offers visitors plenty of greenery in the city center. The park contains a multitude of trees, offering seasonal foliage like cherry blossoms in spring and autumn colors in fall. Today, I found the leaves that turn colors to still be mostly green with hints of yellows and reds, and expect them to develop more colors over the next few weeks before reaching their best around the end of this month.

Regular day time entry into Shinjuku Gyoen costs 400yen, and the park is open from 9:00 till 17:00. From November 22 to December 3, there is an illumination event, in which some sections of the park will be lit up in the evenings from 18:00 till 22:00 (entry until 21:00). Admission on the day costs 2200 yen on the weekdays and 2600 yen on weekends (purchase in advance through Klook).