In a follow-up statement published on October 8, 2026, Kominato Railway said that full reopening of the Kazusa-Ushiku–Kazusa-Nakano section damaged by Typhoon No. 25 (10 stations, including Yoro-Keikoku Station) is expected to take “six months to more than a year.” That settles it: during Yoro Keikoku’s autumn foliage season (usually at its best from late November to early December), visitors will not be able to reach Yoro-Keikoku Station directly by rail. Meanwhile, the main ryokan of Yoro Keikoku Onsen remain open, and Otaki Town’s estimated settled ADR stood at ¥23,000 in November 2025 (N=10 properties), one of the highest levels of the year. For operators, local governments and tourism businesses, this article uses public information and MetroEngines Research data to lay out (1) the baseline for this year’s foliage season, (2) the lodging stock within 5 km of Yoro-Keikoku Station, (3) the seasonality of room rates, (4) current booking status for the two peak-season Saturdays (November 21 and 28), (5) access routes other than rail, and (6) overflow capacity in surrounding municipalities.

This Year’s Foliage Season Baseline — Peak Timing as Usual, Only the Railway Is Unavailable

First, the baseline. Yoro Keikoku’s autumn colors are among the latest in the Kanto region, with the usual peak from late November to early December (Weathernews “Yoro Keikoku Autumn Leaves”; Walkerplus “Yoro Keikoku Autumn Leaves”). According to “Maruchiba,” the official tourism site of the Chiba Prefectural Tourism Association, the 2026 “Yoro Keikoku Autumn Leaves Light-Up” is scheduled for late November to early December, lit from 17:00 to 21:00, at Awamata Falls, Kengaikyo, the Nakase Promenade (Kyoei Bridge side) and Yama-no-Eki Yoro-Keikoku Kirari (all in Otaki Town), plus Kannon Bridge (Ichihara City). The peak-season Saturdays are November 21 (Sat) and November 28 (Sat); the 21st is the first day of a three-day weekend that runs into Labor Thanksgiving Day (Monday, November 23). This is the only three-day weekend in November’s calendar that follows a Saturday and Sunday, and how that demand peak shows up in prices and inventory at major destinations is compared across seven areas in Nov 2026’s Only Long Weekend Is Nov 21-23: Prices Peak in 4 of 7 Areas.

Transport conditions, however, are very different from a normal year. In 2026, Kominato Railway was hit by disasters three times: Typhoons No. 7 and No. 8 in June, the Chiba heavy rain in August, and Typhoon No. 25 in September (Tetsudo.com, Mynavi News). According to the follow-up statement the company published on October 8 (as quoted by various media), there are 26 damaged sites between Kazusa-Ushiku and Kazusa-Nakano; restoration work began on October 13, and “because there are many work sites and the work is large in scale, we expect it to take six months to more than a year.” NHK reported on October 21 that restoration costs will be at least around ¥500 million. Trains are running on the 8 stations from Goi to Kazusa-Ushiku, while the 10 stations beyond Kazusa-Ushiku (Kazusa-Kawama, Kazusa-Tsurumai, Kazusa-Kubo, Takataki, Satomi, Itabu, Tsukizaki, Kazusa-Okubo, Yoro-Keikoku and Kazusa-Nakano) are suspended all day for the time being.

Note that Kominato Railway’s official website has displayed a maintenance notice since 23:00 on October 21, and at the time of writing (October 24) service information could not be checked directly on the official site. This article therefore relies on the October 8 press release (as quoted by Mynavi News and a local information site), the company’s replacement bus timetable (dated October 20, as quoted by a local information site), NHK (October 21) and Ichihara City’s tourism information (updated October 23), and states each item with the date on which it was confirmed. Sections and reopening dates are not filled in by guesswork.

Lodging Stock — 8 Properties and 186 Rooms Within 5 km of Yoro-Keikoku Station, 4 Properties and 83 Rooms Operating

Yoro Keikoku Onsen straddles Otaki Town and Ichihara City on either side of the Yoro River. Counting the lodging stock around Yoro-Keikoku Station (Ichihara City), there are 8 properties with 10 or more rooms, totaling 186 rooms, within a 5 km radius; of these, 4 properties with 83 rooms were “operating,” with selling prices confirmed on major booking sites in the most recent 3 months (August–October 2026) (MetroEngines Research tabulation, as of October 24, 2026). Counting the same radius around Awamata Falls (Otaki Town) captures the same 8 properties and 186 rooms, so the 5 km zones around the station and the falls form essentially one market. Narrowing to a 3 km radius gives 6 listed properties with 130 rooms, of which 3 properties with 50 rooms are operating; the onsen town’s inns are concentrated along the Yoro River 1–1.5 km from the station.

By type, ryokan account for 6 properties and 113 rooms (4 properties and 83 rooms operating); the rest are one campground (50 rooms) and one glamping site (23 rooms). All 8 are small properties with 50 rooms or fewer, and the largest ryokan has just 33 rooms. In other words, even in years when the railway ran normally, the number of rooms the area can host on a foliage-season weekend tops out at around 100, and lodging demand here is structurally designed to flow out to surrounding municipalities.

Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research (as of October 2026). Properties with 10 or more rooms, excluding leisure hotels

Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research. Circle size indicates room count. The dashed line marks a 5 km radius from Yoro-Keikoku Station

On operating status, a local information site that compiled public information from Ichihara City and the Otaki Town Tourism Association as of October 23 reports that inns including Takimien, Yoro Onsen Kuroyu no Yado Sagawa, Onsen Ryokan Kawanoya, Keikoku Bettei Mochinoki and SHINRA YORO VALLEY, as well as Yama-no-Eki Yoro-Keikoku Kirari, are operating normally, while Tsurunoya and Kiyomoto on the Ichihara City side plan to reopen on October 30. The Yoro-Keikoku Station tourist information center reopens on November 14, and no reopening date has been set for the station’s footbath. MetroEngines Research observations also confirm that the main ryokan listed above were selling November stays on major booking sites as of October 23.

Rate Seasonality — November–December Is Otaki Town’s High-Rate Band; November 2025 Was +12.7% YoY

Next, rates. Otaki Town’s estimated settled ADR was ¥17,000 in October 2025 (N=10 properties), compared with ¥23,000 in November and ¥24,100 in December (both N=10): the foliage season through year-end forms the high-rate band of the year. Year over year, November 2025 was +12.7% (November 2024: ¥20,400, N=9) and December 2025 was +21.8% (December 2024: ¥19,800, N=9), meaning foliage-season rates have stepped up for two consecutive years. September 2026, the most recent settled month, came in at ¥21,700 (N=9), +18.2% YoY, so the upward trend continues.

On the other hand, the figures for October–December 2026 are estimates based on listed price levels at the time of the survey (October ¥16,600, November ¥18,400, December ¥16,200; N=8–9) and will change as the stay dates approach. In 2025, too, the settled October figure was below the prior year, yet November stepped up sharply, so foliage-season rates tend to be set by last-minute demand. This year, with rail access unavailable, the mix of guests arriving by car or bus may change, and whether November’s settled figure lands near last year’s level needs to be read together with the booking progress discussed below.

Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research. Otaki Town estimated settled ADR (tax-excluded equivalent), N=8–10 properties. October–December 2026 are estimates based on listed price levels at the time of the survey

For comparison, here are foliage-season rates in surrounding municipalities. Estimated settled ADR in November 2025 was ¥19,900 in Katsuura City (N=12, +21.1% YoY), ¥20,600 in Kamogawa City (N=31, +9.3%), ¥9,100 in Kimitsu City (N=9) and ¥6,400 in Ichihara City (N=22, +3.0%). Otaki Town’s ¥23,000 is higher than the overflow areas on the Uchibo and Sotobo coasts, showing that Yoro Keikoku’s inns can command a premium for the experience of “seeing the autumn colors right in front of you.” Note that Ichihara City is dominated by business hotels around Goi Station, so its level is different and cannot be compared on the same axis as Yoro Keikoku’s inns.

Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research. November estimated settled ADR (tax-excluded equivalent) by municipality. N=Otaki Town 9–10, Katsuura City 12, Kamogawa City 31–34, Kimitsu City 9, Ichihara City 22–23 properties

This Year’s Booking Progress — Current Status for November 21 and 28 (as of October 23)

So how full are this year’s peak-season Saturdays right now? At the time of writing, November 21 (Sat) is 28 days out and November 28 (Sat) is 35 days out; both are interim readings before the peak booking window. We therefore avoid claims such as “sold out” or “excess demand” and present the data as the observed trend in remaining rooms. A snapshot taken on October 9 that tracked ryokan in five prefectures, including Kyoto, Nagano and Tochigi, for the same November 21–23 three-day weekend is summarized in Nov 21-23 Foliage Weekend: Kyoto Ryokan 18% Rooms Left, Nagano 32%, and the Otaki Town figures in this article can be read as the Chiba edition of that interim reading.

Across the 12 covered properties / 101 rooms in Otaki Town (major booking site listing basis), the November 21 stay had 54 rooms remaining and occupancy (OTA-listed inventory basis, estimated) of 46.5% at 45 days out (observed October 7), progressing to 35 rooms remaining and 65.3% at 30 days out (observed October 22). That works out to 19 rooms taken up in 15 days. The November 28 stay had 57 rooms remaining (43.6%) at 45 days out (observed October 14) and 47 rooms remaining (53.5%) at 37 days out (observed October 22); compared at the same 37-day point, the 21st also had 47 rooms remaining (53.5%), so the two Saturdays have moved at almost the same pace so far.

For reference, across all ryokan in Chiba Prefecture (76 covered properties / 1,898 rooms), the November 21 stay had 257 rooms remaining (86.5%) at 30 days out, and the November 28 stay (75 properties / 1,885 rooms) had 628 rooms remaining (66.7%) at 37 days out. Otaki Town has a larger share of rooms remaining than the prefecture’s ryokan average, which suggests capacity to host foliage-season guests still remains. In a year without rail access, the key move for inns is how they guide car and bus travelers to fill that capacity.

Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research. Otaki Town, 12 covered properties / 101 rooms (major booking site listing basis). Remaining rooms from LT45 to LT30 (November 21 stay) and LT45 to LT37 (November 28 stay)

The table below also shows remaining rooms by property, with the observation date. Coverage is limited to Otaki Town properties that list at least 30% of their total rooms on major booking sites: for the November 21 stay, 14 of the 15 properties with inventory observations were covered, and 14 properties were also covered for the November 28 stay (41 properties in the town were subject to inventory observation). Of these, the 7 properties whose total rooms and remaining rooms can be read as room counts are listed individually, and the 7 small inns and whole-house rentals with 1–2 rooms are grouped together.

Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research. Only properties listing at least 30% of total rooms on major booking sites. 14 properties covered for the November 21 stay and 14 for the November 28 stay (of the 15 properties with inventory observations, those with public allocations below 30% are excluded). “—” means not covered for that date. “0 remaining” means no listed inventory at the time of observation and does not mean the whole property is fully booked

Three things stand out. First, the riverside ryokan along the Yoro River have narrowed remaining rooms for November 21 to 20–30% of their total rooms, so demand for the first day of the three-day weekend is clearly coming in even with the railway suspended. Second, the small inns and whole-house rentals with 1–2 rooms all show 0 remaining for the 21st, suggesting that guests planning to arrive by car moved first. Third, for November 28, Takimien, Sagawa, Kawanoya and Otaki Resort Hotel have more rooms remaining than for the 21st (Resort View Otaki and Tenryuso have fewer for the 28th), so capacity remains on the second Saturday. For inns, it is worth preparing “plans with car and highway bus access guidance” built around the 28th. Note that for some of the whole-house rentals the last observation dates from late August to early October, and any inventory that returned after that has not been observed.

Access Routes Other Than Rail — What Inns Should Put on Their Access Pages

This year, with no rail access to Yoro-Keikoku Station, how much business inns lose depends on whether their booking and access pages can show concretely “how to get here.” The routes and current conditions that could be confirmed from public information are summarized below, with confirmation dates. Times and fares change, so inn guidance should always state the “confirmation date” alongside the official source to check.

Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from public information from Kominato Railway, Isumi Railway, Ichihara City, Otaki Town and Chiba Prefecture, and the summary by a local information site (Jimoharu)

In short, this year Yoro Keikoku offers two options: “drive in from the Otaki Town side,” or “take the train from Goi to Kazusa-Ushiku, then the replacement bus (weekdays and some Saturdays only).” As of October 24, it has not been announced whether the Saturday replacement bus will run on the peak days of November 21 and 28. For inns, clearly stating pick-up conditions (whether pick-up is available from Kazusa-Ushiku Station and highway bus stops, and at what times) is the most direct way to avoid losing rail travelers. In addition, the town road closure information published by Otaki Town (updated October 2; the Nakano-Otaki, Otaki-jo, Kamishiki and Oitsu lines, among others) and the passable sections of walking trails (the Nakase Promenade for about 400 m from the Kyoei Bridge side; the waterfall trail turns back at the 100 m point from the Awamata Falls side; Umegase Valley is closed to entry) are also worth posting, with dates, in inn guidance.

Overflow Capacity Nearby — Katsuura, Kamogawa, Kimitsu and Central Ichihara as Lodging Options for Foliage Visitors

Once Yoro Keikoku’s roughly 100 rooms are filled, where do foliage visitors stay? Comparing booking progress for the same November 21 stay across surrounding municipalities, occupancy (OTA-listed inventory basis, estimated) in Katsuura City (16 covered properties / 365 rooms) rose from 70.7% at 45 days out to 77.8% at 30 days out, and in Kamogawa City (39 properties / 1,099 rooms) from 76.1% to 85.6%. Ichihara City (17 properties / 781 rooms), centered on business and city hotels around Goi Station, was at 93.6% at 45 days out and 97.6% at 30 days out, with the first day of the three-day weekend well taken up. Kimitsu City does not meet the threshold for the number of covered properties, so no curve can be shown.

For the November 28 stay, occupancy at 37 days out was 74.6% in Katsuura City (17 properties / 366 rooms), 64.6% in Kamogawa City, 62.4% in Ichihara City and 53.5% in Otaki Town. Every municipality has more room to spare than for the 21st, so on the second Saturday it is entirely feasible not only to stay at Yoro Keikoku’s inns but also to stay in Katsuura or Kamogawa on the Sotobo coast and visit Yoro Keikoku as a day trip. On rates as well, Katsuura and Kamogawa are around ¥20,000 in November, about ¥2,400–3,100 below Yoro Keikoku, Kimitsu is in the ¥9,000 range and central Ichihara in the ¥6,000 range, so options for every budget line up in a band. The structure in which Chiba Prefecture’s room stock is skewed toward Urayasu and Narita, with thin supply on the Boso side, is laid out in 43% of Chiba’s 75,065 Rooms Sit in 25 Disaster-Relief Municipalities, which broke down the prefecture’s 75,065 rooms at the time of the August heavy rain.

Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research. Occupancy is an estimate on an OTA-listed inventory basis (observed October 22). November 2026 ADR is an estimate based on listed price levels at the time of the survey

Source: Compiled by the HotelBank Editorial Team from MetroEngines Research. November 21 (Sat) stay, occupancy from LT45 to LT30 (OTA-listed inventory basis, estimated). Coverage: Otaki Town 12 properties / 101 rooms, Katsuura City 16 properties / 365 rooms, Kamogawa City 39 properties / 1,099 rooms, Ichihara City 17 properties / 781 rooms

There are opportunities on the overflow side too. For inns in Katsuura and Kamogawa, Yoro Keikoku’s foliage is a day-trip destination within an hour by car; if they set up a flow of “see the Yoro Keikoku light-up (17:00–21:00), then come back,” a foliage plan with a later dinner time becomes viable. Business hotels in central Ichihara can make their role clear simply by posting guidance timed to the weekday replacement bus (5 runs a day), positioning themselves as the night-before or night-after base for rail travelers transferring to Kominato Railway at Goi Station. Kimitsu City, home to Kameyama Onsen, can be positioned as a waypoint for car travelers coming from the Ken-O and Tateyama expressways and heading around to the Otaki Town side.

Implications for Operators and Local Governments — Lead with “Here’s How to Get Here,” Not “You Can’t Get Here”

To sum up, Yoro Keikoku’s foliage season has the usual peak timing and the usual rate seasonality; the only thing that has changed is how visitors get there. Otaki Town’s estimated settled ADR for November 2025 was +12.7% YoY, and the value of the foliage itself has not declined. What inns can do comes down to three things. First, put “By car, enter from the Otaki Town side (Ken-O Expressway, Ichihara-Tsurumai IC)” and “By rail, as far as Kazusa-Ushiku; the replacement bus runs on weekdays only” at the top of the booking page, with the confirmation date. Second, state pick-up conditions from Kazusa-Ushiku Station and highway bus stops, and catch rail travelers with pick-up service. Third, build around November 28 (Sat), which still has rooms to spare, by setting dinner times that fit the light-up hours and preparing plans aimed at the second Saturday.

For local governments and tourism associations, whether the Saturday replacement bus runs on the peak Saturdays (November 21 and 28) will determine how well they can host visitors who come by rail. As of October 24, the announced Saturday service runs only through November 7, and as soon as a decision on service during the foliage season is made, inns and the tourism association should be ready to communicate it with the same dates and the same wording. In addition, combining the November 14 reopening of the Yoro-Keikoku Station tourist information center, the light-up schedules at Kannon Bridge and Awamata Falls, and the passable sections of the walking trails into a single guide, published in a form that inns can link to directly from their booking pages, is probably the most efficient way to ease foliage visitors’ concerns. Full reopening of the railway is said to require six months to more than a year, but if inns and the community keep leading with “here’s how to get here,” this foliage season can be handled well, overflow areas included.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can I see the 2026 Yoro Keikoku autumn leaves by train?
A. As of October 24, the Kominato Railway section between Kazusa-Ushiku and Kazusa-Nakano (including Yoro-Keikoku Station) is suspended for the time being, and you cannot reach Yoro-Keikoku Station by train. Trains are running between Goi and Kazusa-Ushiku, and beyond Kazusa-Ushiku a replacement bus runs to just short of Yoro-Keikoku Station on weekdays (and on the Saturdays of October 24, October 31 and November 7). Replacement bus service on the peak Saturdays (November 21 and 28) has not been announced.

Q. Are the inns at Yoro Keikoku Onsen open?
A. According to public information as of October 23, inns including Takimien, Sagawa, Kawanoya, Mochinoki and SHINRA YORO VALLEY are operating normally, and Tsurunoya and Kiyomoto on the Ichihara City side plan to reopen on October 30. Please check pick-up conditions directly with each inn.

Q. What route should I take by car?
A. According to Ichihara City’s information updated October 23, Prefectural Road 81 on the Ichihara City side is closed near Ishigami, so the recommended route is to enter from the Otaki Town side via National Routes 297 and 465 from Ichihara-Tsurumai IC on the Ken-O Expressway. Paid parking lots are available on the Otaki Town side (Watanabe Parking, Awamata Falls Parking, Keikoku Parking and others).