Autumn officially starts in October, and it is the season Tokyo does best. The heat is gone, the light is lower, and the city is at its most walkable for about eight weeks.
Most visitors spend those weeks in Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Asakusa. Those are good places, but the neighbourhoods that Tokyo residents actually spend their autumn weekends in are quieter, smaller, and usually one or two stops away from where the crowds are. Here are four of them.
Kagurazaka
Central Tokyo • Iidabashi or Kagurazaka Station
A century ago this was one of Tokyo’s geisha districts, and the street plan never changed: a main slope lined with shops, and behind it a web of stone-paved alleys too narrow for cars, with restaurants behind wooden doors that don’t announce themselves. It also has an odd French streak from a language institute that has been here since the 1950s, so the bakeries are unusually good.
The time to come is about 5pm, when the lanterns come on and the alleys are cool. It is 15 minutes from Tokyo Station on the Tozai Line.
Yoyogi-Uehara
West Tokyo • Yoyogi-Uehara Station
Two stops from Shibuya on the Odakyu Line, it is a different city. This is a low-rise residential neighbourhood where the restaurants are in converted houses, the bakeries have queues at 8am, and the only landmark is Tokyo Camii, the largest mosque (and Turkish Cultural Center) in Japan, which is open to visitors and quietly beautiful inside.
There is nothing to see in the guidebook sense. That is the point. You come here to walk slowly, eat well, and feel for an afternoon like you live in Tokyo.
Nakameguro
Southwest Tokyo • Nakameguro Station
You may have seen this one: for two weeks every spring, the Meguro River is lined with cherry blossoms and about a million people, and the photographs go everywhere. Then the crowds leave, and for the other fifty weeks it is a canal-side neighbourhood of small shops, second-hand bookstores, and restaurants in the streets behind the river.
Autumn is the better season to walk it, and it has one particular reason to come now: fugu (pufferfish). In practice, it is a mild, clean white fish that is served eight ways in a single evening: thin sashimi, grilled, fried, in a hot pot, and finished as rice porridge in the broth. Pufferfish season opens in October. Sashimi in general is of excellent quality this time of year.
Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
East Tokyo • Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station
The east side of the river is the old side of Tokyo, and this neighbourhood is where it turned into something new. The warehouses that once stored lumber are now coffee roasteries, and it is generally agreed to be the best coffee district in the country. Blue Bottle chose it for their first shop outside America for that reason.
The reason to come in autumn is Kiyosumi Garden, a 19th-century stroll garden with a pond, stepping stones, and maples that turn in the second half of November. It is one of the least crowded gardens of its quality in the city. The Museum of Contemporary Art is a ten-minute walk beyond it, and Kuramae, the craft district, is two stops north on the same line if you want to make a day of it.
This is a Tokyo neighbourhood for wandering, especially in autumn. The route that works is a cappuccino at Allpress (located in a converted timber warehouse), then a pastry from Bakery SASA, then a set lunch at Little Tokyo, a café located next to the local bathhouse. All three are within 10 minutes of the garden.
Tips for your trip
If you only have one free afternoon in Tokyo, Kagurazaka is the easiest to reach and the most atmospheric after dark in autumn. If you have a full day, Kiyosumi-Shirakawa and Kuramae together make the best one. None of the four places above are the kind you want to arrive in with a suitcase. JAL’s Same-day Delivery Service sends your bags from the airport straight to your hotel, at ¥4,500 per suitcase (max. 180cm / 30kg), with no reservation needed. You drop off at the JAL ABC counter in the arrival lobby.
Many fugu restaurants switch to their winter menus on October 1, and the fish is at its best from now until February. If it has been on your list, this is the window. The city of Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture is famous as the hometown and production centre of fugu, but if you can’t get there, you can try them safely at any restaurant in Tokyo with a licensed fugu chef.
On November 1, tax-free shopping in Japan changes from a discount at the register to a refund claimed at the airport. If your trip is in October and you have serious shopping planned, that timing works in your favour. If it is in November, it is worth reading up on the refund process before you go.
