Most mountains give you autumn on the way up. Hachimantai gives it to you on the way down. This is a broad volcanic plateau straddling the border of Iwate and Akita, and driving the Aspite Line you pass through the seasons in reverse: broadleaf woods, then wind-killed stands of Maries fir, then the top, which holds around fifteen degrees even in high summer. Cold that steady moves the calendar. The colour begins in late September, when the rest of the country is still in shirtsleeves.

The grass colours of the Gozaisho marsh turn first—brown and rust across the wetland floor, partway up the road, usually from late September into early October. After that the colour moves down through the trees. The same drive gives you a different week depending on where you stop the car.

Hachimannuma, the largest pond on the plateau, is ringed by alpine plants that flower in relay from snowmelt through summer. The name is old: Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, sent north by the imperial court in the ninth century, is said to have dedicated the place to the deity Hachiman.

The walking paths near the summit are paved, and the summit car park sits at 1,540 metres, so the high ground here is reachable without a climb. Wear something warm anyway. When you come down, the open-air baths at Toshichi Onsen are on the same road, and there is no single viewpoint to queue for—the plateau is the view, and it is large enough to absorb everyone on it.