Japan travel tips

Best time to visit Japan

Every guide's best months, checked against its own thirty-year rainfall: a filled month is recommended, a hatched one has over 250 mm of rain. Most of Japan agrees on Apr, May, Oct, Nov.

PlaceJFMAMJJASONDIn words
TokyoMarch to May (cherry blossoms), October to NovemberMarch to May (cherry blossoms), October to November
KyotoLate March to April for cherry blossom, November for autumn colourLate March to April for cherry blossom, November for autumn colour
OsakaMarch to May, and October to November (August is 34°C and humid)March to May, and October to November (August is 34°C and humid)
HiroshimaMarch to May, and October to November — the rainy season and high summer are both humidMarch to May, and October to November — the rainy season and high summer are both humid
NaraOctober to November, and April — the deer park is busy all year and the middle of the day is the crushOctober to November, and April — the deer park is busy all year and the middle of the day is the crush
HakoneMay, and October to November for the leaves — the summer is humid and the mountain hides in cloudMay, and October to November for the leaves — the summer is humid and the mountain hides in cloud
SapporoDecember to February for snow, and June to September for the only comfortable summer in JapanDecember to February for snow, and June to September for the only comfortable summer in Japan
KanazawaApril to May, and October to November (winter is grey and wet, summer is humid)April to May, and October to November (winter is grey and wet, summer is humid)
OkinawaApril to May, and October to November — the rainy season covers the start of summer and the typhoons cover the rest of itApril to May, and October to November — the rainy season covers the start of summer and the typhoons cover the rest of it
TakayamaOctober to November, and April to May — the winter is beautiful and cold enough to need bootsOctober to November, and April to May — the winter is beautiful and cold enough to need boots
NikkoOctober for the leaves, and May to June — the high season weekends jam the one road up to the lakeOctober for the leaves, and May to June — the high season weekends jam the one road up to the lake

best month · over 250 mm · the letters are the months, January to December.

The guides in Japan

people gathered outside buildings and vehiclesTokyoJapanWhere ancient tradition meets neon-lit futurepagoda surrounded by treesKyotoJapanA thousand temples and the old soul of JapanThe illuminated billboards of Dotonbori in Osaka, including the Glico running manOsakaJapanJapan's kitchen, and the one city where people talk to strangersThe orange Itsukushima Shrine torii gate standing in the water at Hatsukaichi, JapanHiroshimaJapanA city rebuilt around the one building it left standing, and a floating gate an hour awayDeer grazing on pavement with people in backgroundNaraJapanThe first permanent capital, with the biggest bronze Buddha in the world and twelve hundred deer that bow for a biscuitMount Fuji rising above a dark lake at night in Fujinomiya, JapanHakoneJapanHot springs in a volcanic caldera, with Fuji across the lake on the mornings it shows itselfvehicles on roadSapporoJapanDeep snow, beer brewed since 1876, and the best powder skiing in the world an hour awaywhite houseKanazawaJapanA garden three hundred years in the making, gold leaf on everything, and a samurai district that survived the warFuruzamami Beach in Zamami Island (Okinawa) in Japan.OkinawaJapanA subtropical chain with its own kingdom, its own language and the clearest water in Japana narrow street in an asian city with snow on the groundTakayamaJapanA merchant town of dark wood in the Japanese Alps, an hour from thatched villages under deep snowA building that has a lot of carvings on itNikkoJapanA shogun’s mausoleum buried in cedar forest, with waterfalls and a marshland plateau above it