Osaka Autumn Leaves
A short list, and most of it is outside the city
Osaka isn't a big autumn-leaves city, and this map is short because of it. Six places carry the tag. Keitakuen Garden and Nakanoshima Park are in the city, and Minoo Park and Falls, Nara Park, Koyasan and Arima Onsen are day trips. Colour dates aren't on the official pages checked, so look at each place's own page close to your trip. Keitakuen is closed on Mondays, and Nakanoshima Park is open at all times.
12 places
Late autumn When
The places
Park · Nakanoshima and Kitahama Nakanoshima Park Osaka's first city park, opened in 1891 on a strip of land between the Dojima and Tosabori rivers. It runs about 1.5 km and covers 10.6 hectares, and the rose garden holds roughly 3,700 plants of about 310 varieties.
Park · Tennoji Keitakuen Garden A Japanese garden around a pond inside Tennoji Park, next to the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts. A combined ticket with the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts next door is sold at the garden gate.
Park · Nara Nara Park A park of about 660 hectares across the eastern side of Nara, home to roughly 1,300 wild deer. The deer are a designated national natural treasure and are counted as the divine messengers of Kasuga Taisha.
Day trip · Koyasan Koyasan Koyasan is a sacred mountain of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism in Wakayama, founded by the monk Kobo Daishi at the beginning of the Heian period. Okunoin and Danjo Garan are its two main areas.
Day trip · Minoo Minoo Park and Falls Minoh Falls is a 33 m drop, 5 m wide, in Meiji-no-Mori Minoh Quasi-National Park in the hills north of Osaka. Entry to the park is free and the trail up from Hankyu Minoh Station follows the river.
Day trip · Arima Onsen Arima Onsen An old hot spring town in the hills north of Kobe. Two public baths, Kin no Yu and Gin no Yu, sit in the centre of town.
Park · Tennoji Shitenno-ji Honbo Garden (Gokuraku-jo-do) The paid Japanese garden inside Shitenno-ji, called Gokuraku-jo-do on the temple's own pages. The temple lists it as a separate ticket from the central halls and the treasure hall.
Park · Nara Isuien Garden A stroll garden next to Todai-ji that uses the temple's roofline and the hills behind it as borrowed scenery. The ticket includes the Neiraku Museum.
Park · Himeji Koko-en Garden Nine linked gardens southwest of Himeji Castle, laid out so the castle serves as borrowed scenery. It includes a pond-and-stroll garden and a tea garden with a sukiya-style tea house.
Shrine · Koyasan Kongobuji The head temple of Koyasan Shingon Buddhism, with a rock garden and a main hall that can be toured inside. The Tokugawa family mausoleum is a separate ticket nearby.
Temple · Minoo Katsuoji Temple A hillside temple in Minoo with 80,000 tsubo of grounds, known as a place to pray for victory. The temple sells winning daruma dolls and charms.
Park · Minoo Expo '70 Commemorative Park and Tower of the Sun The park laid out on the 1970 World Expo site, with Taro Okamoto's Tower of the Sun at its centre. The park has a Japanese garden, a natural-culture garden and cycle boats on the Yume no Ike pond.
