My wife and I made it to the Amon falls in Oct and the foliage was at its best. The beech leaves were in all different hues of red and yellow. The walk along the stream to the falls on a sunny fall day was wonderful. Unfortunately you can only get to the first fall as the second and third falls are blocked from rock slides. There is a sign board and map in Japanese at the beginning of the trail with the UNESCO sign.

To get there we rented a car from Sendai as car rentals in Japan is cheap vs train tickets for two people. The tolls on the other hand were terrible. It cost 7000 yen to drive from Sendai to Hirosaki. You can also see Hurazami along the way.

For non native speakers, GPS is crucial and the way is to program is to punch in telephone numbers. In Hirosaki I went to the city hall and info center to get telephone numbers for Amon village and I was all set. One hour drive from Hirosaki.