Low tourist season?

[greentangel]

Does Japan have a low tourist season? And are prices any cheaper during that time?

[JonB]

Hotel prices do vary greatly and to some extent so do air fairs.

If you can avoid certain times of the year then there are usually good deals available. Definitely try and avoid travelling:

1. New Years - 28/29 Dec ~ 4/5 January
2. Golden Week - 29 Apr ~ 5 May (this year 6 May)
3. Obon - around 2nd week in August

These times all trains and planes will be packed and the highways will have 50~100 km traffic queues out of Tokyo at the start and back in at the end. Hotel prices will also go up at this time though usually 1 & 3 are family orientated.

Hotel prices will also go up at certain times due to demand of various factors - local festivals, cherry blosson (now) and autumn red leave (November ish)

Japanese schools start back in 8th April so I guess mid April will be cheaper and a good time to travel weather wise. All the new grads will be starting their new jobs next week so the Tokyo trains will be packed for a week or so with all the new shiney black suites - after that it dies down when they go on to training.

Really low I guess would be June & July - rainy season...

Hope that helps

[greentangel]

Thats great. Thanks. It is really different from American Low season. June and July are usually so busy for traveling.

[carlocol]

I travelled in Japan at end of October. Many places seemed quite quiet, or OK, but the tourist spots in Kyoto and Tokyo seemed very crowded.

Some friends visited Kyoto at end of January/start of February and told me that the same places were very quiet - as you'd expect since the weather is much colder and less friendly.


Cheers
C

[josiah]

my personal recommendation; don't go in august!
its really really really hot and you'll be drenched in sweat!
but if you like that feeling or the heat,
then go in august!

[sashimidimsum7250]

When I was in Nagoya last year in Sept., It was pretty hot and humid as well. I wasn't used to it, and there were days when I would sweat even when I was just standing still.

But I did a lot of walking, so imagine how much more sweat that produced. Ok, don't!

Learned quite quickly that I needed to carry one of those personal towels/napkins/handkerchief to wipe off the sweat.

[punisher]

The airfare dropped like a rock recently, but only for a 2 week window.
My wife has always said that the best time to go is the last week of May. Sure enough that is when the price dropped. It is right before festival, and most people still have kids in school in the US.

The weather along the Northwest coast was bearutiful, 75-80 during the day.

Didn't see many tourists either. Can't imagine a more convinient time to go.

[thomasz]

Wow. I am looking forward the low trip. Thank the post.