The colour comes down this mountain in three steps, and each one has its own week. The summit ridge near Jizodake turns from the end of September into the first days of October. The Chuo Kogen, the central highland, follows in early October. The hot spring town at the foot waits until late in the month. One mountain, a month of difference between top and bottom.

The central highland is the middle step. From Zao Onsen the Chuo ropeway climbs 1,787 metres of cable in seven and a half minutes and sets you down at Torikabuto station, at an elevation of 1,387 metres. From there it is about a quarter of an hour on foot to Dokkonuma, a small pond held in beech forest, whose water shifts between blue and green depending on where the sun is. A summer chairlift covers part of the walk for anyone who would rather ride.

There are tables and chairs at the water's edge. People eat lunch there, or lie down and sleep, and nobody seems to be in a hurry about any of it. Walk on to the observation deck above Torikabuto and on a clear day the view reaches Chokai and Gassan, with the whole Yamagata basin laid out below.

Come in the first ten days of October and you are standing between two seasons. Above you the show has finished. Below you it has not started. That gap is the reason to be here, and it does not last.