Japan's autumn begins somewhere in the middle of September, and it begins here. Murodo sits at 2,450 metres on the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, a chain of cable cars, buses and ropeways that crosses the Northern Alps from Toyama to Nagano, and the plateau it lands on is ringed by the Tateyama peaks.

The route's own figures give two windows rather than one. Murodo peaks from mid-September to early October. The section from Daikanbo down to Kurobedaira peaks from early to mid-October. The same ticket, on the same day, will show you a finished autumn at the top and one still arriving a thousand metres below.

Tateyama has been a sacred mountain since the Heian period, and the whole massif lies within Chubu-Sangaku National Park.

Because nothing tall grows at this height, the colour is close to the ground: rowan going red, and the low creeping alpine plants turning with it, spread over rock and volcanic soil rather than held up in a canopy. Most people know this route for the snow corridor, the wall of cleared snow standing several metres high in spring—a different season and, honestly, a different landscape. If you only know the photographs of the snow, the autumn version will not look like the same place. Some say it is the better half.