Watch this to know when to AVOID coming to Japan and when the best times of year are for travel!
After living in Japan for five years, the importance surrounding the contrast of the different seasons has rubbed off on me 🤧 So now I’m here today to tell you what the best times of year I think are to visit Japan and the ones you ABSOLUTELY should avoid if possible!! There are a lot of holidays not reflected on the calendar so it’s very easy for tourists to accidentally come during a bad time of year and as a result their trip isn’t as good…don’t get me wrong, if your trip happens to be in one of the bad times of year to visit, you will still have a great time, but everything will…require more planning, let’s say 💦
What do you think? Let me know if there are any more times you’d like to mention down below or let me how your trip to Japan was and what time of year you’ve visited in if you’ve come before!!
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WHEN TO VISIT JAPAN (and when NOT to!) 🍡 seasons, dates, advice | japan travel guide
38 Comments
I AM BACK!!!! 😤 Sorry I was busy playing Baldur's Gate 3 and getting sick 🙂
ADDITIONAL TIP! There are many types of cherry blossoms that bloom at different times in Spring!! Four main ones, in order of blooming, are: kawazu, shidare, somei yoshino, and yae ✍ Please look these up if you are concerned you will miss the blossoms in spring!!
ALSO, it is truly amazing I totally forgot to mention Obon even though I literally filmed this during Obon like omg HOW!!!!!!
In 2019 I was in Tokyo end of may to beginning of june, was quite ok I guess, not too hot, just one really rainy day.
Autumn is a wonderful time of the year , when the weather is not so cold, everything is so colorful. Best of all, food is prepared according to this season. Sanma fish is delcious in Fall season.
thank you for all the info! this video was super helpful for me! i'll be visiting from a couple weeks before christmas all the way to a little after valentine's day. it's safe to say i'm looking forward to it😅
Thanks for explaining! We enjoy visiting Japan in winter, summer, and fall (we avoid the major holidays). Our next trip will be my first time to visit during cherry blossom season 🌸. I'm very excited!
We just came back from Japan. Spent the 1st 3 weeks of August there. Yes it was hot and humid, but there are always shops etc with aircon😊. We had the best time despite the heat.
Hello Allison! Do you hit the slopes at all? ⛷🏂 I will be there from mid December 23 to Mid Feb 24, any insights on crowds and accessibility to trains and Accommodation etc?
Keep up the sick content!
Thanks for the video! Im planning to go their in the future and this video helped. 👌😉
Great Travel Time Tips for Japan!. I would love to see Tokyo in November/December, when everything is lighted up! I'm with you on forget about summer in Japan(too hot & humid!). Thanks again Allison!
Well I'm coming tomorrow so let's goooo 😂 Let's see if this was a mistake
Lmao of course I came to see you guys during Golden week… But I wanted to make sure we could hang out without work in the way!
I'm going to japan for the first time as a backpacker for 2.5 months from December to mid February, I have everything sorted pretty much and think I'll be fine. My only concern is new years, I'm in akita because of the Namahage festival but just am not sure what to do about food, I have the facilities to cook so should I be buying groceries for the week or would I be able to find food that isn't McDonald's or kfc?
Lovely video and I agree with November for visiting. Do you know when schools break up for end of year and when school holidays are? 😊
This was very informative, thanks!
I visited Japan in May this year, avoided Golden Week, and I was very happy with my decision, because for the whole trip the weather was lovely, not cold, but not too hot either (between 18C and 30C I think), and mostly sunny (spent 2 weeks in Tokyo area and it rained only for like 3 or 4 days) 🙂
I have gone twice – once in mid to late January and once in mid November to early December. Both were really nice times, but the November-December trip definitely had the best weather and events available. One of the hotels in Kyoto had a board in the lobby where they would update the color changing leaves forecast for each day and a list of places to best view them, it was very cool! With our January trip, some places seemed to have "winter hours" so there were fewer options during our time there (not super impactful but does add some limitations). The benefit of January was that there weren't as many other tourists and it seemed less crowded in many areas. I am from Wisconsin (north/midwest USA) so the winter was much more mild than we're used to, but others coming from warmer regions may not like the cold/possibility of snow as much.
As my son gets older we're going to have to figure out school schedules and not pulling him out of class for too much, so this is very helpful for what to avoid! Thank you for the video 🙂
I plan on going mid Oct in 2024. Im so excited. Do you have any recommendations? Also, whats the weather like then?
My husband and I are going to Tokyo for two weeks starting October 22 this year, and I'm so excited!
How about going to Disneyland on Dec 24 /25? Anyone who has an idea if these days are so hectic at the park? 😢 Thank you!
@！#！￥@#~~What Japan discharges is nuclear leakage polluted water, or nuclear polluted water, not nuclear wastewater. Nuclear waste water is discharged in all normal operating nuclear power plants, scientific research installations, and nuclear-powered ships in the ocean. They are the pipeline cooling water of nuclear reactors, which have been treated and have not been irradiated; nuclear leakage polluted water is caused by leakage accidents After that, it is injected into the nuclear reactor, and the water that is irradiated and polluted by a large dose of nuclear fuel is equivalent to a strong radiation source. Fukushima nuclear polluted water contains more than 60 types of radionuclides, such as tritium, carbon-14, iodine-129, etc. Many of these radionuclides have no effective treatment technology, but Japan has been making "the problem is only the tritium element" misleading. At present, about 100 tons of nuclear-contaminated water is newly produced every day, and it is estimated that it will take as long as 30 years to discharge it into the ocean. After the nuclear sewage entered the sea, the seawater showed two colors. Within 57 days from the date of discharge, radioactive materials will spread to most of the Pacific Ocean. Three years later, the United States and Canada on the other side of the Pacific Ocean will be affected by nuclear pollution, and 10 years later it will spread to the global ocean.
I visited Japan from april 10 till may 9 in 2019. Yes this included golden week (with the changing of the Emperor) all in Tokyo. It was not that bad, we expected more people to be honest. Too bad the Japanese do not "celebrate" a new emperor 😮, would have been wilde.
Hey @Allison I have a question I will be arriving in Japan on Monday, May 6 of 2024. Is that still considered golden week? Is it for the whole week
Hope you are feeling better. Me and my sister are visiting for the first time in November *2023, super excited to taste all the autumn foods and see the trees! Thank you for the vid
Coming in October for my birthday and I’m so hype. Don’t know if I should do Kyushu or Hokkaido though.
Be there next month for MotoGP race and tour around
Thank you for your detail information. It's really right. I (a Japanese)don't like summer too. And I'd like to add to information. Between after golden week to the middle of June, new green leaves are very beautiful. Especially, at Kyoto. This period is other best season for sightseeing though rainy sometimes.
Made the mistake of coming to japan a couple days ago… and i'll never be back in summer. EVER lmao.
Nice vlog Alison. I would like to ask you. if I can get an e-sim card at the airport. For a phone without a sim slot. Is it possible to use that in Japan ?
I recently got back from a 3 week trip to Japan over the end of July and early August. My partner is a teacher so if we want to go for any decent length of time (and Japan is a long way from the UK!) we have to go during the summer holidays.
It was very hot and humid everywhere (although Koyasan and Hakone were bearable being in the hills) but well worth it and I wouldn't have shortened it for anything. Also I think being summer meant some of the tourist places were slightly less crowded than they can be in spring and Autumn/fall.
We knew it was going to be hot so we made sure to plan
1. Hotels with air con – as long as I can sleep I can usually cope with most things
2. Not trying to speed-tourist and do everything. We planned a slow-paced itinerary without too much travel and without trying to do too much in one day
3. Drink lots of a water – more than you expect (Japan really need to up its water-bottle filling game – seem everyone just buys bottled drinks but the tap water is drinkable and that's much better for the environment!)
4. Nip into shops whenever needed for some much needed air-con
It was a great trip!
Went end of april and it was hot😅
I’ll be visiting Tokyo October 10 -22 ! So excited
We’ll be going to Nagano to see some snow monkeys 😁
Nicely presented travel info about Japan.
Gonna be in Japan the first two weeks of December! Super excited 🎉
I’ve visited Japan a few times, usually in late October/ early November. In my experience it’s a great time to go (just maybe avoid places like Shibuya on Halloween if you hate crowds). I also went specifically to experience New Years and while that was fun, it really was a pain in the butt. It was my 3rd trip so I had already seen a lot already, but even just finding places to eat or shop or get a coffee was a real hassle on the 1st and 2nd of January. As she said in the video, maybe worth experiencing once, but not on your first trip.
I visited Tokyo during both from the start to the end of Golden Week. Honestly, it isn't as bad as many videos make it out to be. I booked my flights and hotels about 7-8 months in advance and the prices were not inflated yet. Malls and restaurants were similar to a weekend crowd in Tokyo and will have lines, but if you dont want to wait, you can always visit the other hundreds of restaurants in the area. Also, if you love to shop, malls and shops have many discounts on offer as a 'golden week sale'. We avoided the theme parks as they are always busy regardless what month or day you go.
My brother and I are travelling to Japan on November and we seriously cannot wait.
Has been on my list for years!!!❤
Summer is Tokyo has been almost unbearably hot and humid this summer! Lucky me for moving here right at the start of the warm season 😂 Apparently it didn’t used to be this hot in previous years?
Greetings , Allison… Thank you so much for your review and recommendations. My wife and are are both seniors… All of our previous traveling has been to Europe, especially Italy. Honestly, Japan is the only Asian country that interests me ( culture, history , bonsai😀)So we booked a guided tour of Japan through a reputable company 2024, June 21-July 6. ( Tokyo, Hakone/Fugi, Kanazawa, Kyoto… in that order). It is the only time we can travel, and it might be our only chance at Japan. I know we will have to deal with rain and heat, but we are hoping that we will avoid extremes, including crowds. What do you think? ciao, John