Misty Imperial Palace Grounds

The Winter is coming but still the autumn lingers for a little while longer. I took these photos last year from a very misty Imperial Palace outer grounds, with the ground strewn with fallen red leaves and the mist covering most of the pine trees near the grand office buildings of Marunouchi. I hope you have the chance to go out and see the majestic autumn colors around Tokyo this weekend – despite the forecasted rainy weather!

Foggy Autumn Day – Marunouchi

The autumn if firmly here and it has been a wet and cold one so far. Unusually so. Still, there is a lot of charm to the Japanese autumn, not least of which are the lovely autumn fogs we sometimes get settling over this city literally built on water. I took these photos on one foggy afternoon last autumn, in between the Imperial Palace and Marunouchi, Tokyo’s financial and business district above others.

Autumn Leaves at the Ushiku Daibutsu Statue

Autumn is here and the red leaves viewing season has started! Japanese love nothing more than the changing of the seasons so they take their autumn tree viewing almost as seriously as with the cherry blossom viewings in the spring. There are even companies organizing commercial bus tours to the best places to see the nature of Japan in its autumn glory! I took these photos at the great Ushiku Daibutsu statue in Ibaraki Prefecture last year.

Okutama – Hikawa and Tamagawa Meeting

Not far from Okutama Station in Tokyo’s westernmost Nishitama-Gun (Nishitama County), the furtherest west you can go in Tokyo by train, is a lovely little spot in the river where the mighty Tamagawa (well, not up here, but later on the river will become huge) is joined by the tiny Hikawa. I love these placid little rivers where you can actually go down and enjoy the waters and the polished river rocks. A hanging bridge allows you to cross easily from the tiny town on the north bank. There is not much to see or do here but if you are overdosing on concrete and the urban jungle of Tokyo, welcome out to the proper forests of Okutama!