Autumn’s northern loop — foliage, festivals’ home, and Seoul one-ways
Click any port for the full plan: what fits your hours, what to book, what's a walk.
The turnaround city
The bookend capital
Mt. Fuji's port
The morning-market port
The festival port
The Kyoto gateway
The Pacific port
Two heavyweights, one day
The volcano's port
The walking port
Plus Akita, Kanazawa, Sakaiminato, Sendai, Nagoya, Busan, Jeju and Incheon depending on direction.
Aomori’s Nebuta museum sits on the waterfront and Hakodate clusters around its station — keep tour money for Akita’s samurai town of Kakunodate, which genuinely needs wheels.
October–December gives the year’s clearest Mt. Fuji odds. On your Shimizu day, be on deck early — the mountain fades as mornings warm.
Seoul one-ways mean flying into one country and out of another — price flights before you book the fare, not after.
From October to December 2026, Jade runs 9–14-night itineraries between Yokohama/Tokyo and Seoul (Incheon), plus a 14-night Japan circle — combining the northern ports (Hakodate, Aomori, Akita, Kanazawa, Sakaiminato) with Kobe, Kochi, Hiroshima, Kagoshima, Nagasaki and Shimizu.
PORT OF JAPAN