Kanto in Autumn

The kochia at Hitachi Seaside Park (国営ひたち海浜公園) in Hitachinaka City in Ibaraki Prefecture do not change colour all at once. Across roughly three weeks in October, the 40,000 shrubs covering Miharashi Hill shift from late summer green through orange to deep crimson red, and some people visit twice across the month to catch the difference between the two ends of the transition. The 70 to 80 centimetre rounded plants cover a 2.3 hectare slope that reaches 58 metres above the Pacific Ocean, and on a clear day when the hill is fully red (mid October, around the 17th to 20th in recent years), it stands as a wall of red above the blue Pacific. The lower slopes are planted with around 2.36 million cosmos in full bloom during the same weeks, with buckwheat flowers alongside. After the late October bronze stage, the kochia is harvested in early November to make room for the spring nemophila. The park holds the Kochia Carnival across these weeks, with the kochia, cosmos and buckwheat all out together and food stalls on the hill. The park is around 1 hour 30 minutes from Tokyo on the JR Joban Line Limited Express to Katsuta Station, with adult admission at ¥450.

The autumn colour on Iroha-zaka (いろは坂) does not peak everywhere at the same time. The top of the road around Lake Chuzenji (中禅寺湖) turns in mid October, and the bottom catches up in early November, because the top is much higher and gets cold first. The road has 48 hairpin curves named after the 48 syllables of the old Japanese alphabet, with one road going up the mountain and a separate one coming back down. It is listed as one of Japan's 100 Best Roads. Lake Chuzenji at the top is one of the highest lakes in Japan and is surrounded by forested mountains. Kegon Falls (華厳の滝) is a 97 metre waterfall that starts from where the lake spills out, and is one of Japan's three best known waterfalls. You can look at it for free from the upper platform or pay to take the lift down to get a closer view from below. Weekend autumn traffic on Iroha-zaka can turn a twenty minute drive into a wait of several hours, so you're better off going up early in the morning and heading back down before mid afternoon. Buses run from JR Tobu Nikko Station up to Chuzenji Onsen across the autumn season.

Mount Mitake (御岳山) is a 929 metre mountain in the Okutama area of western Tokyo and has more to do in autumn than the more famous Mount Takao closer to central Tokyo, with an active mountain shrine on the summit, a small village of pilgrim lodgings around the shrine, and a simple waterfall and moss loop trail behind it. The cable car from the base saves the bulk of the climb, leaving a 20 to 30 minute walk through the summit village up to Musashi Mitake Shrine (武蔵御嶽神社), which has been a place of mountain worship for around 2,000 years and is dedicated to a wolf deity (so dogs are welcome at the shrine, and can ride the cable car for ¥120). The maple and other forest trees turn red and gold from late October into mid November. The Rock Garden loop from the shrine drops down through a moss covered forested valley with a stream, passing Nanayo Falls and Ayahiro Falls (the priests' waterfall training site) before climbing back up to the shrine in around an hour and a half. JR Chuo Line trains run from Shinjuku to Ome in around 75 minutes, then the Ome Line to Mitake Station and a short bus to the cable car station.

Chestnuts are an autumn staple across Japan and a large share of them come from Kanto. The harvest runs through September and October, much of it from Ibaraki, which grows close to a quarter of the national crop around 笠間 (Kasama) and the towns next to it. What distinguishes Kanto's chestnut season is that it is an urban one. 栗ご飯 (Kuri Gohan), chestnut rice, is the classic domestic dish, the sweet nuttiness working with the earthy fragrance of new season rice. Then the mont blanc arrives in every patisserie and cafe window in Tokyo through autumn, and 天津甘栗 (tenshin amaguri), chestnuts roasted in hot gravel and sold in paper bags from street stalls, turn up outside stations from October. Gifu turns its chestnuts into confectionery. Kanto eats them out of a bag on the way home.

Sweet potato comes into harvest through autumn across Ibaraki and Chiba, the two largest growing areas in the country, and Kanto's version of the season is a street one. The flesh is dense and sweet and caramelises as it roasts, and 焼き芋 (Yaki Imo), whole potatoes roasted slowly over hot stones, is sold from vans and stalls across Tokyo from the first cold week onwards, usually announced by a recorded call rather than a sign. Varieties matter here. 紅はるか (Beni Haruka) and 紅あずま (Beni Azuma) are the ones on the labels, the first sweeter and wetter, the second drier and more floury. It also goes into tempura, into soups, and into a long list of autumn sweets. Kagoshima grows more of it and turns most of the crop into shochu. Kanto eats it hot out of foil.

Nashi is harvested from late summer into early autumn across Chiba, Ibaraki and Tochigi, all major growing areas, with Chiba the biggest producer in Japan. The fruit is large, crisp and juicy, with a clean sweetness that carries over from the late summer heat into the cooler days of early autumn. It is eaten fresh, and the best of the harvest is sold straight from farm shops and roadside stalls across the growing areas, where the range and freshness on offer are better than what reaches the city markets.