November is when Japan's autumn colour reaches its own national peak, Kyoto's temple gardens and Tokyo's parks typically turning in the middle to last weeks of the month, a season Luxury Japan Travel's Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan is built directly against. Its single 2026 departure, 23 November to 4 December, is sold out, with no 2027 date yet ruled, so none is shown here or invented.
the weather
The weather
Tokyo's November days average a high of 16.7°C and a low of 8.8°C. Kyoto runs close to the same figures, 17.3°C by day and 8.4°C overnight, since both cities sit in the same broad climate band despite Kyoto's inland basin sharpening the extremes at either end of the year. Sapporo is a different country: an average high of 8.7°C and a low of 1.6°C, figures from the Japan Meteorological Agency's published climate normals for 1991 to 2020, the thirty-year average against which every year in Japan is still read. Rain follows the same normals: Tokyo averages 96.3 millimetres of precipitation across around 5.9 days with measurable rain in November, while Sapporo's own November total is 113.8 millimetres, mostly as rain by this point in the year.
in season
What is in season
- Autumn colour reaches its national peak in Kyoto and Tokyo, typically mid to late November.
- Shichi-Go-San, the traditional festival for children aged three, five and seven, is marked on 15 November.
- Persimmons (kaki) are at their best on autumn menus.
- Illuminations begin at gardens and temples as the colour peaks.
- Koyasan and Nikko's own colour typically peaks slightly ahead of Kyoto, in the first half of the month.
beyond the three cities
Beyond Tokyo, Kyoto and Sapporo
Kyoto's colour typically peaks slightly behind Tokyo's and well behind Koyasan and Nikko, both usually at their best in the first half of November. Kyushu, at the southern end of the country, is often not at its own peak until early December, the same lag that let the sold-out Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan run as late into the season as it did.
closed and crowded
What is closed, and what is crowded
November is the country's second most visited month after April. Kyoto's principal temples, Tofuku-ji and Eikan-do among them, are at their busiest in the last two weeks of the month, and hotel rooms across the old capital are booked out well ahead of the peak, a pattern that has held every year the colour has been tracked. Opening hours at smaller shops, temples and museums vary enough by day and by property that any single visit is worth confirming the same week, rather than relying on a printed schedule alone.
what to wear
What to wear
A warm coat by the month's end, particularly in the north and in the evenings, layered over lighter clothing for milder afternoons. The swing between a cold morning and a comparatively mild midday is wide enough in November to make layers the more useful choice over one heavy coat. Comfortable, easily removed shoes are worth choosing whatever the season, since temples, ryokan and traditional restaurants alike expect shoes off at the door, often several times in a single day.
where the tours run
Where Luxury Japan Travel goes in November
The Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan's only 2026 departure, 23 November to 4 December, is sold out. No 2027 date has been ruled, so none is stated here. Guests wishing to travel to Japan's autumn colour season in November, on their own dates, are directed to the Custom Tour of Japan, with a minimum length of five nights and no ceiling on party size; the season's dated tracking, region by region, is set out in full in the Autumn Colour Forecast 2026.
the year
Continue through the year
This page is one of twelve, one for each month of the Japanese year, each reporting the same weather, season and closure detail in its own month and linking both of its neighbours in the sequence. November sits between October and December on that calendar, and the full set is gathered in The Japan Edition's Seasons hub.