Japan in Autumn

About this book

Autumn Japan is a season you can taste by day and watch by night — new rice and matsutake, chestnuts and fatty returning bonito, float festivals of thanksgiving, and above it all the harvest moon, honoured with pampas grass, dumplings and a second moon that only Japan keeps. Two hundred autumn-only festivals, flavours, moon-viewing traditions and experiences in one uniform, practical format: 60 autumn festivals and cultural events, 60 harvest flavours and autumn foods, 40 moon-viewing and autumn-night traditions, and 40 experiences, crafts and markets you join with your hands. Every entry gives the typical window, the place, what makes it possible only in autumn, and how to plan around it.

Nagasaki Kunchi and the Takayama floats. Murakami's salmon, Tamba's chestnuts, hiyaoroshi sake released from its summer sleep. The moon doubled in Daikakuji's ancient pond, the moon platform at Katsura, the thirteenth-night moon with its chestnuts and beans. Mashiko's pottery market, grape picking in Katsunuma, new soba in Togakushi. Every window is given honestly as the typical year, and every entry carries its check date — because autumn is harvest and weather, and a good guide says so.

Companion to Matsuri (the festivals themselves, across the year), Japan Through the Year (annual customs), Hanami & Momiji (blossom and autumn-leaf viewing spots) and Japan in Winter and Japan in Summer (winter- and summer-only experiences): those books cover what Japan celebrates and where it watches the leaves. This one covers what autumn itself brings to the table and the sky.

Written and created in Japan by Japanese author Aki Wakamatsu. Published by Takikawa TOKOTOKO Kids LLC, a Japanese publisher in Hokkaido, Japan. Authentic Japanese content, carefully made in Japan — not mass-produced.