Rikugien Autumn Nighttime Illumination

Autumn colors have finally reached the Tokyo area and with it the special nighttime illuminations at gardens such as Rikugien. Enjoy the autumn colors bathed in lights!

This year, the summer in Japan was longer than usual and even now – end of November/early December – daytime temperature can reach up 16 degrees celsius. The trees in Tokyo’s park have almost reach their full peak though.

I’ve been to a previous nighttime illumination event at Rikugien before all the way back in 2008. While the park is the same, other things changed. Back then I lamented on how I forgot to bring a tripod. This year, even if I had brought one, I wouldn’t have been able to set it up. The place was crowded.

As usual for events in Japan, Rikugien had an online ticket sale via their partner website Asoview. You booked a very generous time slot – mine was 6pm to 7.30pm – and paid 900 Yen via credit card. It was also possible to pay at the door for 1100 Yen, and the lines were long on a Sunday evening.

Rikugien crowds

Crowd management is of course somewhat of a speciality of Japan, and the online ticket buyers quickly progress to the park. Inside, plenty of staff were continuously shouting instructions to stay on one side for photos and walk on the other one.

Rikugien has a few well defined photo spots that would attract the crowds, the area at the large central pond for example. The garden’s dozo (storehouse) on the other hand was less popular, despite the beautiful projection show.

Since it’s dark and there’s no space to set up a tripod, I used a variety of settings on my camera and phone. I shot raw photos most of the time for later editing. Using a smartphone is nowadays not as a bad of a choice as it was in 2008. Back then, my phone of choice was the iPhone 3G where the inclusion of the camera was an afterthought.

Is Rikugien worth it?

My favorite shots were not near the pond, but in calmer areas. Look for reflections of autumn colors in the water!

I spent about one hour in the garden and it’ll like be some time until my next nighttime visit. There’s not an abundance of autumn colors and unlike at the big parks, you can hardly avoid the crowd here.

The nighttime event is still open until December 4. Closest station to the garden is Komagome on the Yamanote and Nanboku lines.