Chubu in Autumn

The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route is a 37 kilometre mountain crossing between Toyama and Nagano, over the top of the Tateyama range, linked by six different modes of transport. Its autumn draw is that the colour peaks at different heights across different weeks, so the season stretches over two months as it works its way down. It starts up at Murodo, the highest point at 2,450 metres, from mid to late September, one of the earliest foliage spots in the country. It reaches the Midagahara wetland, a Ramsar listed alpine plateau threaded with boardwalk and dotted with thousands of small ponds, through October. Further down, it reaches Kurobe Dam, the tallest in Japan, by early November. From there you can sometimes catch all three different stages at once, with snow on the peaks, foliage on the slopes and green below. The whole route then closes on the 1st of December and stays shut until spring, so the autumn weeks are the last of it before the snow takes over.

The shuttle bus up to Tatamidaira on Mount Norikura winds up through the foliage from late September into early October, running up the Norikura Echo Line on the Nagano side and the Norikura Skyline on the Gifu side, the two roads meeting at the Tatamidaira plateau, the highest bus stop in Japan at 2,702 metres. Private cars have been banned from both roads since 2003, so buses, taxis and bicycles are the only way up, which keeps the plateau quieter than most alpine spots even on peak autumn weekends. The vegetation around the summit, dwarf pine, larch and low alpine grasses, turns weeks ahead of the lowlands. From the terminal, it's about a ninety minute walk to the Kengamine summit, one of the easiest 3,000 metre peaks in Japan to reach. After that the roads close for the year, at the end of October, and stay shut until spring.

The maples covering Mt. Iimori at Korankei Gorge (香嵐渓) are lit from sunset to 9pm every night from November 1 to 30, with the red and orange leaves above the vermillion Taigetsukyō Bridge and the dark Tomoe River below making the night walk along the gorge one of Aichi's main autumn experiences. The roughly 4,000 maples on the hillside date to 1634 when the 11th priest of Kōjakuji Temple at the foot of the mountain planted the original trees. The Korankei Maple Festival (in its 70th edition in 2025) adds weekend evening events to the standard illumination, including around 1,000 bamboo lanterns lining the path to Kōjakuji Temple, around 800 wishing candles set along the riverbank, and stage performances of taiko drumming and yosakoi dancing on selected days. Entry to the gorge is free. The historic Asuke merchant townscape running alongside the gorge was designated Aichi's first Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 2011 and is worth combining with the gorge in a single visit. From Nagoya, the gorge is reached by Meitetsu train to Toyotashi Station and a Meitetsu Bus to the Korankei stop in around an hour total.

新そば (shin soba) is the first soba made from buckwheat harvested that same autumn, and in Nagano it is treated as an event with a date rather than a product on a shelf. The buckwheat comes in through September and October, and noodles pressed from the new grain have a green tint, a sweeter smell and a softer bite that soba cut from stored flour does not have. Restaurants put a 新そば sign in the window the week they change over, and the good ones tell you which field the grain came from. The preparation to order is ざる (zaru), cold noodles with dipping sauce, because anything hot or heavily sauced buries the thing you came for. Nagano also does 戸隠そば (Togakushi Soba), served in small coiled bundles on a woven bamboo tray, and 高遠そば (Takato Soba), eaten with grated daikon and miso rather than a soy based dip.

Matsutake from Nagano is the reference point the rest of the country is measured against, and 信州まつたけ (Shinshu matsutake) on a menu is doing the same work as a vineyard name on a wine list. The mushrooms push up through red pine forest as the mountains cool in September and October, on a schedule that shifts by weeks from one year to the next. Nagano's treatment leans on the two preparations that keep the aroma intact. These are 土瓶蒸し (dobin mushi), a clear dashi steamed in a small clay teapot with the mushroom, a prawn and a sprig of mitsuba, poured into the lid and drunk before anything is eaten, and 焼き松茸 (yaki matsutake), grilled whole over charcoal and pulled apart by hand rather than cut. Restaurants in the Kiso valley and around Ueda build a whole autumn menu on it and take it off the board by early November.

Chestnuts are harvested through September and October across the highlands of Nagano and Gifu, where the cool nights suit them, and Chubu's distinction is what happens to them afterwards. 栗きんとん (Kuri Kinton) is the regional sweet, steamed chestnut mashed with a little sugar, nothing else added, then twisted in a cloth into a small pointed dome. It belongs to 中津川 (Nakatsugawa) and 恵那 (Ena) in eastern Gifu, where the long established confectioners make it only while the harvest lasts and sell out daily, and each shop's version is slightly different because the only variable is the chestnut. The same towns also make 栗粉餅 (kurikomochi), mochi buried under loose chestnut crumb. 栗ご飯 (Kuri Gohan) is eaten here as everywhere, but the confectionery is what people travel for.