Area Guide - NipponStays (Page 3)

Kiroro

Kiroro Lift Lines and Wind Holds: When to Ski

Kiroro lift lines peak at the Nagamine No.2 approach and clear out noon-13:00. When the gondola holds for wind, here's where to ski instead.

Kiroro

Kiroro Powder Guide: Powder Ride and First Tracks

Kiroro powder guide: Powder Ride inside the ropes, the Asari side snow, and the +¥1,000 early gondola ticket most English guides miss.

Kiroro

Kiroro Snow Season: When to Go (2026-27)

When to ski Kiroro: opening/closing dates, the New Year lift caveat, the January-February powder window, and why wind decides more than the calendar.

Kiroro

Kiroro Ski Resort Guide: Nagamine, Yoichi, Asari, Center

Kiroro ski resort guide to its four zones — Nagamine, Yoichi, Asari and Center — with terrain, season timing, wind holds and where to stay.

A three-storey pagoda and temple hall standing above red maples, with a city spread out below

Japan

Autumn Leaves in Japan: 2 Months, North to South

Japan's autumn is not a month. It is a nine-week wave from Hokkaido in September to Kyushu in December — and where each region lands.

The stone approach to Nanzen-ji's sanmon on an autumn morning, maples turning on both sides

Kyoto

Where to Stay in Kyoto for Autumn Leaves: 3 Bases

The constraint is not which temple you want to see — it is what time you can be at the gate. Three Kyoto bases for three different autumn trips.

Nanzen-ji's sanmon gate backlit by low morning sun, with maples turning red beside it

Kyoto

Kyoto Autumn Leaves: Be at the Gate by 8:40, Not 9:00

We were at Nanzen-ji's sanmon at 8:37 in late November — and a dozen people were already there. What an early start in Kyoto actually buys you.

The Takano River at Yase with mist on the wooded hillside behind and maples along both banks

Kyoto

Kyoto's Autumn Leaves in the Rain: Go North Instead

Rain is not a lost day in Kyoto — it changes where you should be. Walk-through temples lose most of their value; places you look out from get better.

Ryoan-ji's dry rock garden: white raked gravel with rocks and moss, an earth wall behind, a red maple above it

Kyoto

Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji, Ninna-ji: 2h30, Going Backwards

Start at Ninna-ji and finish at the Golden Pavilion. We walked all three, visits included, in two and a half hours: 09:56, 10:53, 12:28.

A maple canopy at Ruriko-in seen from below, pink and orange leaves layered against green

Kyoto

Ruriko-in Autumn 2026: Two Windows With No Booking

Ruriko-in's peak autumn weeks are a postal lottery that closed in August. The other 50 open days need no booking at all.

Bronze statue of Inoue Masaru in a Western suit on a tall granite pedestal, with the Marunouchi office towers of Tokyo Statio

Japan

Koiwai Farm: The Name Is Three Men, and One of Them Built Japan's Railways

Koiwai Farm is named after Ono, Iwasaki and Inoue Masaru, father of Japan's railways. The 1891 founding story, plus hours, admission and access.

Bronze statue of Inoue Masaru in a Western suit on a tall granite pedestal at the Marunouchi plaza of Tokyo Station

Japan

Inoue Masaru, the Man Whose Statue Stands at Tokyo Station

Who is the statue on Tokyo Station's Marunouchi plaza? Inoue Masaru, father of Japanese railways: melted down in 1944, back on the plaza since December 2017.