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

So hey guys, welcome back.

If you're new here, my name is Allison.

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.

So I want to jump right in.

I'm going to go over the 2024 calendar.

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.

And that like everything's closed.

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.

A lot of museums, things like that.

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.

You're going to have to look it up.

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

Sorry, retail employees.

Yeah, 28th through 3rd.

Be careful.

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.

So these are like three day weekends.

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.

If it's on one of these days, it's fine.

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.

It's just how it is.

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

It's just kind of cold.

If you want to see snow, that's great.

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.

And then we are in February.

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.

Flowers and things are very volatile.

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.

People are really into them.

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

It's basically kind of all the same.

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.

Yes, it starts in March.

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.

This is the full bloom.

They're going to look really good.

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.

So be careful.

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.

And it's for a good reason.

The weather is quite nice.

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.

And you should be okay.

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.

A little week called Golden Week.

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

Like it is, but it's not.

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

This is Golden Week.

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.

It's crazy.

It's so expensive.

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

And they're going to book out really fast.

Like sometimes months in advance.

Everywhere you go is going to be super crowded.

Kyoto, forget it, it's going to be insane.

Just any kind of tourist destination, it's going to be a lot of people.

Even Tokyo will be a lot, a lot of people.

So really whatever you do, I really would not travel to Japan on this week.

If you can help it, just because you're going to be competing with basically the whole country of Japan for domestic tourism.

In addition to the international tourists that are already coming.

Like I cannot emphasize enough how difficult it is to travel.

Especially on trains.

You have to book the bullet trains like a month in advance, at least.

It's wild.

The rest of May, however, after that, it's pretty good.

It's fine.

You can come.

Hydrangeas do start around end of May.

And those will bloom until about mid end of June.

However, June is the start of rainy season in Japan.

So it's just going to rain a lot more.

It's not ideal, but it is better than what is to come, in my opinion.

It just, it depends what you want to do.

It depends if you like the rain or not.

But yeah, I do expect that.

And then June is basically the transition from spring into summer, which really is going to start like in full force from July.

So as rainy season ends, the sun comes out and it is hot.

I am from Florida.

Born and raised is hot.

It's about the same, but it's worse because especially in Tokyo, it's all concrete.

You're probably not going to be in a car with AC.

You're going to be walking in the sun and there's not a lot of shade.

There's not a lot of trees in cities here.

So honestly, it feels much worse to me.

The humidity is very high, especially from August-ish.

Summer, I wouldn't recommend visiting.

Really.

The only really redeemable thing about coming here in the summer is to see summer festivals, which I just made a whole video on summer.

So just go watch that for more.

But yeah, summer festivals are a huge deal here and the fireworks festivals.

There's like a festival like almost every day in Tokyo from like the end of July to mid August.

However, what a lot of people don't realize is that festivals are actually year round.

You can find festivals in almost every week somewhere in Japan.

Now, the main other times to find festivals outside of summer are going to be around the spring equinox and then the autumn one or even later in autumn.

Really, there's not that many in winter.

There are some, especially up north.

But like spring, fall, there are festivals.

You can look them up.

The Takeyama one, for example, very famous, very nice.

But moving on.

August.

It's hot.

It's hot.

It's hot.

I don't recommend it.

September.

Honestly, it's still hot until maybe the end of September, mid September.

Depends on the year.

But what you want to be careful about in September is there's also a holiday called

Silver Week, inspired by May's Golden Week.

What Silver Week is, is as you can see, it's two back to back three day weekends.

It is not nearly as bad as Golden Week.

Nowhere near it to me.

If possible, don't come here in this time, which is from about the 14th until the 23rd.

But it's not the end of the world.

Just be careful on the three day weekends.

It'll be more crowded everywhere.

But like people don't usually take off these four days as much.

And then we are in October.

Finally, we're in fall.

Finally, the weather is tolerable again.

I personally really like October.

I think the Halloween decorations are kind of fun in Tokyo.

I think October is a perfectly fine time of year to visit.

And we've got the fall food, which is very good to me.

However, the fall leaves are not really going to start.

It depends again on the year and the place.

But in general, you're just going to start seeing them at the very end of October in

Tokyo.

And then they're kind of actually going to be all the way through like Christmas.

Honestly, November, early December, best time of year to see fall leaves in Tokyo.

Again, differs if you're coming in October and you want to see fall leaves go up north as you know, winter starts earlier.

There's basically like two big types of fall leaves here.

There's Momiji, which are like red leaves.

And in Tokyo, I'd say these really peak in November.

But then there's also Ginkgo leaves, which are like really pretty yellow trees.

And they're like, I love them.

I've never seen one in America.

And these are going to be at the very end of November in Tokyo.

Again, please look up a calendar for the region you're going to be visiting because it varies.

Personally, November, I think would be my favorite month to visit Japan outside of March because you have the fall leaves.

The weather's quite nice to me.

I think the temperature is also pretty good, probably around 15 degrees Celsius to 10, maybe.

I don't know.

I think November is just nice because November is also when they start the Christmas decorations and the illuminations.

Like they put lights all over Tokyo.

It's very nice.

As the years go by, the Christmas spirit gets like more and more intense here.

Well, it's like commercial, but it's fun to look at and I like it.