The annual winter-only Sennin Bath opened along the riverbed of Kawayu Onsen in Tanabe, Wakayama, on December 1st, drawing visitors with its open-air pools heated by hot spring water bubbling up naturally from beneath the river. (News On Japan)

The winter tradition of kotatsu-equipped boats has begun in Yanagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, where small hibachi braziers are placed beneath the tables on shared boats as the seasonal service gets underway. (News On Japan)

The Imperial Palace’s Inui Street opened to the public on November 29th, drawing large crowds from across the country who came to enjoy a leisurely walk beneath rows of trees glowing in shades of red and yellow. (News On Japan)

A tour of a traditional Japanese onsen and ryokan in Yufuin Onsen, a small town on Kyushu island in southern Japan. (Gabriel Traveler)

From high above Kyoto, the city’s autumn colors can be seen spreading vividly across the landscape, with trees throughout the area turning a deep, striking red that stands out even from the air. (News On Japan)

Tokyo announced on November 26th that it will overhaul its lodging tax system by replacing the current fixed-rate structure with a uniform tax equivalent to 3% of accommodation fees, a move intended to respond to sharply rising hotel prices. (News On Japan)

Japan’s sleeper trains are enjoying a resurgence as overnight rail travel evolves from simple transportation to a form of tourism. One of the most popular services is JR West’s WEST EXPRESS Ginga, which made its debut in September 2020 and is priced at 12,950 yen, yet has become so sought after that reservations are now extremely difficult to obtain. (News On Japan)

Ski resorts in Japan are stepping up precautions as bear activity remains unusually high this season, prompting operators to introduce emergency alarms, deterrent tools, and additional patrols to protect visitors as winter tourism begins in earnest. (News On Japan)

JR East and PASMO announced on November 25th that they will introduce a new mobile payment function called 'teppay' for their Suica and PASMO smartphone apps, enabling barcode and QR code payments as part of a broader expansion of their digital services. (News On Japan)

Gifu City has unveiled the design for an ultra-luxury viewing boat that will operate during cormorant-fishing cruises on the Nagara River, with construction scheduled to be completed by next season at a cost of roughly 28 million yen. (News On Japan)

Kyoto’s famed autumn foliage reached its peak in late November as crowds gathered at Eikando, a temple with more than a thousand years of history and one of the city’s most celebrated spots for viewing fall colors, with visitors posing for photos along the bridge railings and foreign tourists standing out prominently among them. (News On Japan)

The former JR Fukuchiyama Line track bed along the Mukogawa ravine, now a popular hiking route, has reached peak autumn colors on the trees surrounding the trail as large numbers of hikers visit the area to enjoy the seasonal foliage. (News On Japan)

Hunter Mountain Shiobara, one of the largest ski resorts in the Greater Tokyo area, opened for a limited three-day pre-season run in Nasu-Shiobara on November 23rd after a strong cold front brought earlier-than-expected snowfall to the region. (News On Japan)

The Japanese government is moving to substantially raise fees for residence-related administrative procedures for foreign nationals, aiming to secure stable funding for its foreign resident policy as the number of foreign residents in Japan continues to grow. (News On Japan)

A large bear that appeared in central Akita City on November 19th was captured in numerous videos submitted to ABS Akita Broadcasting, with the footage revealing how it moved through tourist sites, school routes and even the city’s nightlife district before disappearing from view. (News On Japan)

Excavation work at the site of a long-lost lecture hall north of the Great Buddha Hall at Todaiji has revealed the scale of its foundation, confirming that the structure, when first built in the Nara period, was second only to the Great Buddha Hall in size. (News On Japan)

Sapporo’s winter sports season officially arrived as Sapporo Kokusai Ski Resort in Minami Ward opened on November 21st, welcoming skiers to a handful of summit-area courses that were cleared for the first runs of the season. With fresh snowfall earlier this week, the resort opened 10 days earlier than in 2024, drawing visitors who had been waiting since morning for the first lift to start. (News On Japan)

A coordinated police crackdown on pedal-equipped electric bikes known as mopeds was carried out in Osaka’s Minami district, where traffic violations involving the increasingly popular vehicles have been spreading. (News On Japan)

Osaka City’s proposal to halt new applications for so-called special-zone minpaku at the end of May next year has been approved by the government as noise, waste management issues, and other disturbances continue to draw complaints from local communities. (News On Japan)

Workers began cutting bamboo along the famous Arashiyama Bamboo Grove in Kyoto on November 19th as the city moved to halt a surge in graffiti damage that has spread across the popular tourist path, where at least 350 stalks have already been defaced. (News On Japan)