The Best Time to Visit Japan

If you love the idea of blossom but not the crowds, it’s worth knowing that the season travels north as spring goes on. Hirosaki Castle in northern Tohoku usually blooms in late April, and Hokkaido follows around early May — so you can still see sakura well after Kyoto’s petals have fallen.

Once Golden Week is over, May is a fine month to explore. The weather is warm without the summer humidity, the countryside has turned a deep, fresh green, and it’s a good time to head somewhere rural like Iiyama, in Nagano prefecture. Around two hours from Tokyo, Iiyama sees very few international visitors. Days here are spent among flowers, forests, and temples, with nights in kominka — traditional farmhouses restored into small, beautifully finished places to stay. We can also arrange for a yamabushi, a mountain monk of the Shugendo tradition, to lead you on a sacred trek into the hills.

Best for: First-time visitors set on seeing sakura who can plan well ahead, or anyone happy to swap blossom for greenery and quieter trains in May.

Summer (June to August): Rain, Festivals, and Mountain Air

Summer tends to get written off as too hot and humid, and in Tokyo and Kyoto in August that’s a fair criticism. The season has more going for it than its reputation suggests, though.

June brings tsuyu, the rainy season, which on most of the mainland runs from early June to mid-July. It rarely rains all day, and the damp gives Kyoto’s moss gardens and temple grounds a softness you won’t see at other times of year. It’s also when hydrangeas flower, filling temple gardens in Kamakura and Kyoto with deep blues and purples. Hokkaido largely escapes the rainy season, which makes it a good alternative in early summer, and by July the lavender fields around Furano are in bloom.

July and August are festival season. Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri takes up the whole of July, with huge wooden floats pulled through the city during its main processions, and towns across the country hold summer matsuri with lanterns, food stalls, and fireworks over rivers and bays. Bear in mind that Obon, in mid-August, is another peak time for domestic travel.

For those who’d rather avoid the heat altogether, higher ground is the answer. The Japanese Alps, the highlands around Nikko, and much of Hokkaido stay several degrees cooler than the cities, and the hiking is excellent once the snow has cleared from the upper trails.

Best for: Festival lovers and keen walkers, or travellers who’d rather avoid spring prices.

Fall (September to November): Foliage and Harvest

Fall is the season our Travel Experts recommend most often to people who assume spring is the only time to go. The autumn leaves — koyo — are every bit as beautiful as the blossom, and the weather is dry and comfortable for walking. Kyoto does get busy, but the season lasts far longer than sakura, so visitors are spread across several weeks rather than squeezed into a few days.

Color arrives first in the Daisetsuzan mountains of Hokkaido in mid-September, then works its way south. Around Nikko, the maples by Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Falls tend to turn in October, while Kyoto and Tokyo usually peak from late November into early December. That timing suits American travellers well, as Thanksgiving week often coincides with some of Kyoto’s best color at temples like Tofuku-ji and Eikan-do, and in the hills around Arashiyama.

Fall is also harvest season, which gives it plenty to offer anyone who travels for food. In September and early October, rice paddies across Niigata and Yamagata turn gold before they’re cut, and the new season’s rice — shinmai — starts appearing on menus. From October, persimmons are strung in long orange rows to dry outside farmhouses. Sake breweries start brewing as the weather cools, and a visit to one in Fushimi, just south of central Kyoto, or in Niigata, known for its crisp, clean sake, adds something different to a city-based trip. Later in the year, yuzu turns up in everything from ponzu to desserts, and around the winter solstice many ryokans float whole yuzu in their baths.

If Kyoto feels too busy in November, head north to the coast. Two hours from the city, Amanohashidate — the “bridge of heaven” — is a pine-covered sandbar stretching across a bay, surrounded by soft blue hills, shrines, and temples. In the nearby fishing village of Ine, wooden boathouses sit right at the water’s edge. One of our Japan specialists, Jihane, described the area as “rich, real, and truly rewarding,” and it’s still largely off the tourist trail. Stay in a ryokan, meet local artisans, and take a boat trip around the bay — and if you visit from November onwards, you’ll arrive in time for snow crab season along this stretch of coast.

Best for: Returning visitors, food travellers, and photographers, or anyone who’d like Kyoto’s temples with the added draw of the harvest.

Winter (December to February): The Season Our Team Keeps Recommending

December is a relaxed, festive month to be in Japan. Cities put up winter illuminations, restaurants fill with end-of-year bonenkai parties, and onsen come into their own. After a day of exploring, sitting in an outdoor bath while snow settles on the rocks around you is hard to beat.

Festive travel does suit a slower pace, though. Around New Year, families gather at home, many shops, restaurants, and some attractions close for several days, and shrines fill for hatsumode — the first shrine visit of the year. It’s a wonderful time to see in the New Year at a ryokan, but if you’d prefer a fuller itinerary, late November, January and February, or later in the spring are worth considering instead.

January and February are the quietest months of the year for international visitors, and our team would argue they’re among the most rewarding. Temples that are crowded in spring and fall feel calm again, prices are often lower, and the dry, clear air makes this the best time of year for views of Mount Fuji.

Carolyn’s February in Japan

Head of Product, Carolyn, traveled through Tokyo and Kyoto with her husband and two children in February, when the crowds had thinned. On their first morning, they woke at Aman Tokyo to views across the city to the snow-capped peak of Mount Fuji, and they saw it again from the bullet train to Kyoto, rising above the countryside under clear blue skies.

In Kyoto, they woke to bamboo dusted with snow and a breakfast of homemade tofu, grilled fish, and fresh yuzu juice. Their guide, Tammy, then took them to Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, its gold-leaf walls lightly covered in snow. Tammy told them that in more than a hundred visits, it was only the second time she’d seen the temple like that.

The rest of the trip moved at an easy pace, from a private tea ceremony on tatami mats to a treasure hunt through local shops for Japanese sweets with their food guide, Sue.

February is also plum blossom season. Ume flower several weeks before the cherry trees and come with their own traditions — from umeshu (plum liqueur) and umeboshi (pickled plums) to plum-themed sweets, drinks, and festivals. They’re best enjoyed in a shrine or landscaped garden. In Kyoto, Kitano Tenmangu’s plum garden holds its Baikasai festival on February 25 each year, with an open-air tea ceremony beneath the trees. From Tokyo, Yushima Tenjin shrine and the gardens of Kairakuen in Mito — an easy day trip from the city — are lovely places to see them.

Further north, Hokkaido offers superb powder skiing at resorts like Niseko and Furano, and the Sapporo Snow Festival fills the city with enormous snow and ice sculptures for around a week in early February.

Best for: Travellers who’d like a calmer Japan, families looking for snow and hands-on culture, and anyone who wants plum blossom without the cherry blossom crowds.

Okinawa: Japan on a Different Calendar

Okinawa is easy to overlook when planning around the mainland’s seasons, which is a shame, because it follows a calendar of its own. Spread across around 160 subtropical islands, it’s where Japanese travellers go to unwind — beaches, bistros and bars, Ryukyuan music and dance, Uechi-ryu karate (karate itself originated here), and glasses of awamori, the islands’ own rice spirit.

Winter here is mild rather than hot, and it’s when Okinawa has its own cherry blossom. The deep pink kanhizakura flowers from late January into February, weeks ahead of anywhere else in Japan. For the beach, spring (from April) and fall (from October, as typhoon season winds down) are the best times to visit, and a few days on the islands pairs well with a mainland trip in either season.

Best for: Adding warmth and a slower pace to a mainland trip, or seeing blossom in January.

Japan Month by Month

Finding Your Moment

There’s no wrong time to visit Japan, but there is a right time for you — and it may not be the one you first had in mind. Whether you’d like help deciding when to travel or already have dates and want to make the most of them, our Japan Travel Experts know the country season by season, from which Kyoto temples stay quiet in February to the seats on the bullet train with the best view of Mount Fuji.

Talk to our Japan Travel Experts