Autumn leaves already? And does too early mean poor viewing?

13 Answers

Best Answer

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  genkidesu

  on Oct 18

  There's color on the mountains in Niigata, but places like Mt. Myoko actually had their first snow over the weekend! I don't know about the autumn leaves theory, but the most beautiful leaves I've seen were the first year we got here, 2013. It was a super hot summer, so maybe there is some truth to it!

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  JapanRamen

  on Oct 19

  In Tokyo, nothing around me has turned red so far. Considering how last week there were a couple of days of T-shirt weather despite being Oct already, I have lost hope in anything that is season-dependent. Instead, I am just going to go enjoy them when I know I can, even if they are not optimal.

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  TonetoEdo

  on Oct 19

  A professional gardener friend says that typhoons can bring a lot of salt air, which affects the quality of autumn leaves. The typhoon last October wrecked a lot of foliage in Chiba and Saitama. I hope this year is a bit more colorful.

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  Kanuba

  on Oct 19

  I just went on a little trip to the mountain area close to Oze national park in Fukushima prefecture and there were only some little spots of bright red and yellow coloured leaves here and there. I've also been told that it's still a little too early and that the colours this year won't be as nice as they usually are due to the rain. Since I saw a lot of damaged and wilted leaves, I guess it's unfortunately true.

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  genkidesuka

  on Oct 20

  There is some information here about the science of leaf changing: https://www.thoughtco.com/how-weather-affects-fall-colors-3443701

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  BigfamJapan

  on Oct 20

  @genkidesuka wow, thank you so much for that

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  BigfamJapan

  on Oct 20

  @genkidesu the only good photos I have (and its only a handful) are from 2011 and 2015 - I only know that thanks to Google photos!! I can't remember what the weather was like those years, but I also can't remember an autumn as poor as this one. This must be the wettest year in Japan for a long time, it feels that way anyhow.

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  BigfamJapan

  on Oct 20

  @JapanRamen yes its been a funny (peculiar) year weather wise. July was surprisingly cool, August hotter than ever and so much rain this Autumn. I am keen to finally get some good Autumn photos so trying to plan but - your right, hard to plan anything that relies on weather and other mitigating factors.

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  BigfamJapan

  on Oct 20

  @TonetoEdo that's very interesting. Yes last year Hagibis really laid ruin to Autumn. Several of the autumn leaf viewing spots around here were closed on account of damage sustained during the typhoon. Hard to believe that was a year ago already!

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  genkidesu

  on Oct 20

  @Saitama I have to dig up my 2013 photos, we went on a trip to Gunma and our photos look like we're standing against a fake background because the colors are so vibrant!! Autumn in Japan is always lovely, but that year really stood out for me.

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  BigfamJapan

  on Oct 20

  @Kanuba sounds like a lovely trip. Funny you should mention about the damaged / wilted leaves - I was just thinking that (so far) I haven't seen many in Saitama this year, but for the last 3 / 4 years I noticed how many there were. Hopefully that's a good sign for this part of Saitama, but then again with the amount of rain there's been I won't be getting my hopes up too much.

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  TonetoEdo

  on Oct 21

  @Saitama We had a close call here in northern Chiba Prefecture during Typhoon Hagibis. Both the Tone and Edo Rivers threatened to run over their banks. Luckily we were spared flooding. When I see autumn leaves in the region, I'll post some photos. Here's hoping that this year's typhoons didn't do too much damage to the trees.

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  BigfamJapan

  on Aug 19

  @genkidesu if we're right with these theories, due to the heat of this summer, we maybe getting some really great autumn leaves this year!

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