Tokyo: Approaching Peak

About a week after my previous Tokyo report, I visited some more spots in the city to find that some of the autumn colors had reached their peak while others had not.

Namely, many of the maple trees in more shaded areas were still very green, while ones in the sun were becoming quite vibrant. On the other hand, most of the ginkgo I saw around the city were at their peak or close to it.

I expect the peak of the season to last into the second week of December, while a lot of the maple colors should stay around until mid December.

My first stop was to one of Japan's oldest (and prettiest) landscape gardens, Koishikawa Korakuen. Even from the entrance at the West Gate, I could see that the colors were going to be vibrant, as a few red and yellow maples welcomed me in. The most vibrant colors were on the north side of the central pond, Daisensui, though there were also some pretty scenes at the Oi-gawa River and Uchi-Niwa. However, a lot of the maple trees still had some green to them, and the Maple Grove seemed to get a lot more shade, so was almost entirely still green. I expect them to come into color in about a week from now.

Next I headed to the Imperial Palace East Gardens. The gardens here are less dramatic than others, as there are fewer vibrant trees like the maple and ginkgo. But there were some pops of color here and there, with some rusty yellows and oranges throughout.

A popular spot on this unseasonably warm autumn day was Shinjuku Gyoen. The information desk had some seasonal maps outlining good spots for seeing some of the colors. It seemed like a pretty perfect day to visit for the colors overall, as there is such a large variety of trees around the park. But many of the Japanese maples were still green, particularly at Maple Hill, where I do not expect the peak of the season to be reached for another 1-2 weeks.

The final spot I visited was Meiji Jingu Gaien Ginkgo Avenue. Since my visit last week, most of the trees are now completely yellow. A few of the trees were still green, but winds were sending some of the leaves to the ground, so I expect from next week the trees will begin to visibly lose their leaves. This time I was also able to see the night-time illumination, which is held every evening from November 23 to December 1 between 16:30 and 19:30.