Name: WHEN TO VISIT JAPAN (and when NOT to!) ? seasons, dates, advice | japan travel guide
Uploaded: 2024-07-09T03:12:09.000Z
Duration: 12 min 36 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

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I'm going to save you from making a huge mistake on your Japan trip.

To-infinitive

You do not want to come to Japan during this week at all.

I've been living in Japan for five years now.

And today I want to talk about the seasons, the holidays that you want to avoid, that you want to be here for.

Because even if you just look at a calendar, there's going to be a lot of things that aren't on it and holidays that really aren't reflected on the calendar.

So today let's go ahead and talk about it.

We are actually going to start in 2023 for the New Year's holiday.

So New Year's in Japan is treated basically the same way Christmas is in like America where I'm from.

People stay at home with their families, that kind of thing.

So from December 28th, I'd say, is when companies start letting their employees off for New Year's vacation.

And most places are going to stay closed through the 3rd and then reopen on the 4th.

So it is basically a week that you're going to have to be careful for.

You're going to have to look up hours for everything you do.

A lot is closed, seriously, especially in the countryside.

But really the main days you want to be most careful on are going to be the 31st.

Things are going to start closing up earlier on this day usually.

And then the 1st, a lot of things, they're just, they're going to be closed.

So you really need to be careful with your planning.

So I'd recommend coming during this holiday if you want to like experience the New Year's holiday tradition, the atmosphere, visiting shrines, etc.

Or if you want to partake in what is kind of my specialty, Lucky Bags.

So if you don't know, I've made a ton of videos about Lucky Bags.

I've been on Japanese TV talking about Lucky Bags.

I don't know how else to describe it other than like it's Japanese Black Friday.

So a lot of malls and such will be open on the 1st for these, but some don't open until the 2nd or even the 3rd.

But in general, in Tokyo, a lot do open on the 1st to sell these Lucky Bags.

I wouldn't really recommend it for your first trip unless you really like the Lucky Bags, just because the planning, it gets a lot more complicated.

So this is really the first big holiday period I want you to be careful of.

There is going to be another even worse holiday period.

But first, I want to talk about three day weekends.

So here in January, we can see we have coming of age day.

Always look these up in advance because these three day weekends are when a lot of Japanese people are going to travel.

Everything's going to be more crowded, even in the city, you know, shopping, etc.

So if possible, I would really try to avoid them.

But it's not like you need to totally replan your trip.

However, I would like to say a warning now in the beginning, everything in Japan on weekends, like everywhere, it's going to be a lot more crowded than it will be on weekdays, especially for like things like museums, malls, famous temples, etc.

Even restaurants, you should really try to make reservations for on the weekend if you can.

But yeah, basically we have winter in January and then in February, it's also winter.

But it doesn't really snow much in Japan from like Tokyo going down south.

So if you want to see it, you need to go north.

We've got two three day weekends, which is going to be pretty awesome for me, not for you because I work here.

But one thing I want to mention about February is if you want to see cherry blossoms, there is actually one type called Kawazu Sakura, which does start blooming in February towards the end, middle end, at least in Tokyo.

So you need to look up a calendar like a month in advance, basically, of your trip to see what is probably going to be blooming during your time.

If you want to check out cherry blossoms or tulips or sunflowers, anything, there are these calendars out there, especially for cherry blossoms.

And in general, my main dates, I'm going to say, are going to be for Tokyo and south.

But the farther north you go, especially to Hokkaido, the flower dates, they're going to be totally different.

So, for example, now in March, we are in cherry blossom season.

I know in anime it kind of looks like April, but because of climate change, it is now basically mid-March.

In Tokyo, where the most famous variety of cherry blossoms, the Soumeiyoshino, start to bloom.

So in these blooming periods, I would like to note there's going to be basically the beginning, the middle, and the end.

You want to be here for the middle if you can.

Again, please look up a cherry blossom calendar.

I can't tell you the exact dates right now because they really change every year.

But I think this past year, the full bloom period was about March 20th or so, for reference in the Tokyo area.

And then I think they basically all fall off the trees by April.

They're really only bloom for like two weeks.

However, like in Hokkaido and such, they're not going to actually start blooming until much later, until sometime around like mid-April or even May, I think.

So if you're willing to travel to see them, you can do it, probably.

But yeah, basically spring, I think, is probably, it's the most popular time of year to visit Japan.

The cherry blossoms really are beautiful.

And I do recommend it, despite it might be a little more crowded.

Just make your reservations for hotels a little bit earlier than you otherwise would.

But yeah, basically from mid-March to mid-end of April is what I'd recommend.

And as you can see, no three-day holidays in April for most of it, until we hit second worst time of year.

No, the most worst, the worst time of year to visit Japan.

So see, this is not really reflected in the calendar accurately.

Because you see here from Showa Day on the 29th until the 6th, Children's Day.

So even though there is a break in holidays here, most people take it off or companies just give it off.

You have the worst week to travel in Japan.

Seriously, hotels, airfare, trains, they're going to be a lot of money.