Fall in Japan

For a southern Californian, fall just means that the ocean water gets too cold to surf without a wetsuit, and shorts are replaced with sweatpants after the sun goes down. So imagine my delight when I explored Japan in October, where everything, everywhere, was all about the season. Real trees changing real colors! And real festivals celebrating a real change of season, in a part of the world where fall simply won’t go unnoticed. From Nikko and Kurashiki, here is my montage to autumn in Japan.