Japan Autumn Leaves Tracker

Every autumn, the red of the maples travels from north to south. It reaches Hokkaido around late October, Tokyo and Kyoto in late November, and ends in Kagoshima in December. This map follows its journey with the observations of the Japan Meteorological Agency, checked twice a day.

How to read the map

Each dot is a weather station. Red: the maple watched by the station has turned. Orange: expected within two weeks. Green: later. The slider shows the season on any date: before today you see the real observations, after today the dates of a normal year.

The small red leaves are my places, where I went to see the koyo and came back with photos. Click one to open the article.

Why the mountains turn first

The JMA watches a single tree in the garden of each station, right in the city. But the cold arrives earlier up high: in Nikko, the shores of Lake Chuzenji are red by mid-October, while the Tokyo station waits until late November. The map shows how far the season has come, my articles tell you where to go.

Planning an autumn trip? See also my guide to Japan in autumn.