Toni’s Spring 2023 Japan Trip

[Tony Galiani]

Started a thread last year to plan for a trip that didn't happen - hoping for better luck this year!

 

Currently looking at travel to Japan for late May into early June.  Likely Tokyo and Kyoto this time while still hoping to make it to Hokkaido next year.

 

First step in the process - renewing my passport.  It would have expired in October of this year though most countries require at least six months of validity left on a passport for entry.  Since that meant mine would have not been useful past April - or, to be precise, I did not want to test that requirement - I just applied for renewal.  For US Citizens, it is now possible to renew on-line.  It took about an hour to set up my Government Travel account due to a few false starts but I got my account set up earlier today.  You are advised you will be notified when you account is cleared to use within 24 hours and I was pleasantly surprised to get my clearance in only a few hours.  So, my wife took a digital photo as per their specifications.  I then did the application and downloaded the photo which, much to my relief, was accepted, so I paid the fees and am now awaiting my new passport.  The State Department advises standard renewal takes 6 to 9 weeks.  I chose not to go for expedited service or to pay an outside vendor for service assistance and am pretty sure this is a good decision.  BTW - once you hit apply, your current passport is no longer accepted so no Canadian donut runs for the next few months.

 

Ciao,

Tony

[katoftw]

Nice. I am hoping for September. Still waiting for airline prices to come down. Cheaper sale tix aren't advertised yet from Oz.

[Wolf]

Best of luck, I hope your trip will happen this time.

 

We just booked for October, traveling with the Kid (2 years 5 months on date of travel) first time will make a very different Japan experience.

Edited January 30, 2023 by Wolf

[Sean]

5 hours ago, Wolf said:

Best of luck, I hope your trip will happen this time.

 

We just booked for October, traveling with the Kid (2 years 5 months on date of travel) first time will make a very different Japan experience.

That first international flight with a kid that age is a pretty big one. 
 

But its worth it, Japan has a lot of fun things for 2 year olds to do.

[Tony Galiani]

September / October is a great time to go.  We are stuck with May / June due to my wife's work situation.  A bit frustrating for me as it limits airfare shopping a bit but great for her - 10 second daily commute from the bedroom to her computer in the dining room and spending the entire day in pajamas!

Ciao,

Tony

[kuro68000]

Good luck, I hope things work out. I was wondering about September too, due to how holidays at work are done. As you say, it's a good time to go. Good weather, although even in January it was very pleasant and warm enough for me. I'd say the only thing it really lacks is big sales like the New Year ones, which can be pretty serious. Many branches of Hard Off do 20% off everything.

 

May/June you get all the summer activities. I've been in May a few times and it's great, not too hot and humid. Parks are in bloom, it's all very bright. Many places have festivals around that time too. I seem to recall going in June one time, it was a lot more humid.

 

May and September are also Grand Sumo bashou months, if you are into that. It's not too expensive and if you take a portable radio you can listen to commentary in English, or at least you used to be able to.

[Guest]

May - Sept would be pretty miserable IMO, unless your accustom to the heat and humidity.  Even my trip this past November I was wearing short pants many days, as it was still in the 20°C’s.  I’ve only ever been to Japan once in May-Sept and it wasn’t much fun, especially Kyoto (it’s a heat trap).  So since that, I only ever go between late Sept to March, and even then I think even that window is narrowing with climate change.

Edited January 30, 2023 by Bob Martin

[bill937ca]

When does the rainy season start in spring?

 

[Tony Galiani]

I believe the rain season starts toward the end of May and, as I understand it, tends to be more pronounced to the south and west and less pronounced in the north and east with Hokkaido not experiencing it very much.

 

The key thing to remember is that there is no such thing as bad weather - only bad clothes!

 

Ciao,

Tony

[Guest]

I don’t think one can presume anything about the weather any more. Looking at historical charts, March seems to have a statistical uptick in precipitation from the previous month. But Sept/Oct would be considered monsoon months. I’ve been there during a monsoon, no clothes are going to help you when the trains stop running. 😜 I was almost stranded 300km from Tokyo once.

[Sean]

8 hours ago, bill937ca said:

When does the rainy season start in spring?

 

This can be extremely unpredictable.  Usually its in the June-July period, but the start and end can vary quite a bit from year to year.  May is usually pretty safe though and is, along with October, usually the most pleasant month weather wise (extreme summer heat and humidity doesn't arrive until after the rainy season). 

[kuro68000]

Climate change does seem to have made predicting the weather somewhat difficult. Even by Tokyo standards I think this January was very mild.

 

I've had dust storms and typhoons, fortunately only for one day. I was there in March 2011 too, fortunately not really affected by the earthquake/tsunami, although the nuclear plant worries were an issue.

 

I think you just have to take your chances with Japan, especially these days. Or head north, the weather seems to be calmer there, just loads of snow in the winter.

[chadbag]

On 1/30/2023 at 5:55 AM, Sean said:

That first international flight with a kid that age is a pretty big one. 
 

But its worth it, Japan has a lot of fun things for 2 year olds to do.

 

yep.  Our first trip was when our son was 8 months and that was interesting.  It worked well but tested everyone's patience.  My daughter was 18 or 19 months old on her first trip and we missed our flight out and got rerouted through Hawaii.  The plane from Hawaii to KIX was mostly full of Japanese and my daughter was hungry and shouted out loud multiple times "Oppai Oppai" to get mom's attention.  Lots of mild laughter and smiles on that plane!

 

[chadbag]

We have to go when school allows and the US school year for our area is mid August through end of May.  My daughter's school has a longer Christmas break than most schools so we usually go then, but otherwise, like in 2019, we went end of July through mid August.  I concur that it is very hot and humid.  We went to Hokkaido in August in 2019 and it was more pleasant there than in Osaka or Tokyo area.  Because of the High School swim season my daughter doesn't want us to go in December next time so we're looking at late summer 2024.  

 

The first several times we were in Japan (2000s) it was September and hot and humid...  Because my kids were in online schools as when in the first grades we could go in September or even October and that was better than early September.   That is one reason we changed to going in December (and they switched to brick and mortar schools and had more stringent schedules).  We've been once in April.

 

I'm looking forward to when my daughter is out of HS and we have the possibilities of a bit more latitude in scheduling.

[JR East]

Hi, 

 

As my old mother (92,5... and at 92 o.5 is a significant decimal) would like to see Japan again (last trip in 2010), I've decided to take one week off to bring her to Japan from April 1st-9th. I know that's short but there is no other timeframe that combine good weather (meaning not terribly warm like summer & not terribly cold like winter), calm project period (as Project manager ...) and quite close (as oncez more, 92.5 ...). All the trip will be done by train, having the hotel nearby the train station for her not to walk a lot with her small lugage (I'll carry the bigger one). The idea is to show her something she did not visit before. 

 

We'll land at Kansai at 08:30 and go directly to Himeji where we have the first night. Day 2  is Miyajima (arriving at noon for her to see it at day & night), sleeping on Miyajima island, Day 3 is travelling to Kinosaki Onsen & sleeping in a Ryokan (she loved that last time). Day 4/5 is Kyoto (currently 2 overnights at Kyoto) then day 6/7  is Osaka for a flight back home to land on Sunday in Paris. 

 

This option allow us to ride the Aoniyoshi train from Kyoto to Osaka

 

https://www.kintetsu.co.jp/foreign/english/aoniyoshi/

 

Another option, with one night in Kyoto & one night in Nara will offer us the capability to ride the Aoniyoshi train (Kyoto to Kintestsu Nara) then the day after the Hinotori - boarding at Yamato-Yagi with a short commute from Nara. I've to check if that's not too much for my mother (she's walking without cane and has more or less no glasses since her eyes operation in late 2022, so that she's in very good health condition for a 92,5 years-old lady as ... she's absolutely not overweigthed too). 

 

Looking to that, I hope to ride the Ltd. Exp. Kinosaki and mybe to shoot the KTR somewhere

 

 

 

 

[Tony Galiani]

Well, I am impressed - I have been worried about aging out of travel if/when I reach my 80's so very pleased to read about you and your mom's travel plans.  Hope you both have a great trip.

 

I am waiting for my wife to confirm her time away from work so I can book a June trip to Japan.  Found airfares that are tolerable and with only one stop through good US airports avoiding the pain of places like Newark or Atlanta.  Hopefully the fares won't rise before I can buy the tickets.

 

Also looking for April in Paris - so I can walk around the city humming that tune - visiting the places Hemingway wrote about and Greece in late June (though fares are pretty awful at this point).

 

Ciao,

Tony

[JR East]

3 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

Well, I am impressed - I have been worried about aging out of travel if/when I reach my 80's so very pleased to read about you and your mom's travel plans.  Hope you both have a great trip.

 

I am waiting for my wife to confirm her time away from work so I can book a June trip to Japan.  Found airfares that are tolerable and with only one stop through good US airports avoiding the pain of places like Newark or Atlanta.  Hopefully the fares won't rise before I can buy the tickets.

 

Also looking for April in Paris - so I can walk around the city humming that tune - visiting the places Hemingway wrote about and Greece in late June (though fares are pretty awful at this point).

 

Ciao,

Tony

Ping me in personal message. I’ll be happy if I can have a beer with you, and perhaps more. I’m living in Paris close subburb 

[Tony Galiani]

Started looking a fares and found some (sort of reasonable) fares to Japan at the end of May.  Stunned by fares to Europe where I see US$3K for economy.  Schedules are pretty poor for me both for Japan and Europe - I guess I got spoiled pre 2019.  Both for Europe and Japan my options for only one stop travel are limited.  At least I am seeing options for connections through some of the smaller airports so may be able to avoid Newark or Atlanta.  Time will tell.

 

In the meantime, I have been working on where to go and what to see - which is a lot more fun than looking for airfares!

 

Ciao,

Tony

[MeTheSwede]

I can't stay away any longer... In April it's time for this Swede to revisit Japan (provided the world can remain somewhat normal until then). As my past visits have all been in July, I'm sure it will feel a bit weird not having to think about heat stroke prevention and having to put on clothes to keep warm.  🙂

 

Details are to be hammered out, but I plan on mostly hanging out in the Tokyo area.

[ED75-775]

On 2/14/2023 at 7:14 AM, MeTheSwede said:

I can't stay away any longer... In April it's time for this Swede to revisit Japan (provided the world can remain somewhat normal until then). As my past visits have all been in July, I'm sure it will feel a bit weird not having to think about heat stroke prevention and having to put on clothes to keep warm.  🙂

 

Details are to be hammered out, but I plan on mostly hanging out in the Tokyo area.

Ditto myself. I was planning to go again in May 2020 but as can be imagined, things went very badly wrong globally, and that plan got wrecked really quickly. So, with things looking to be settling down somewhat in Japan, it seems like a good time to get planning again. Prices from Christchurch are still a little higher than I'd like, but realistically I don't think that will change for some time.

 

Last time in 2019 I stuck with Tokyo-Nagoya-Kyoto with only brief trips away from these areas (Omiya - twice because my camera failed and I went back to take more photos, Yokohama, Kobe, Hakata/Moji and the Yamaguchi Line); this year, I want to be a bit more adventurous and try a bit more, maybe stay down in Kyushu or Hiroshima for a little bit so I can do more train-y stuff. Definitely I want to ride the SL Hitoyoshi before it goes out of service at EOFY 23, and there's plenty of attraction in chasing older tram types in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

 

Now, I just need to stop spending money on train books, model trains, and other train-related stuff so I can go ride trains, take photos of trains, etc. etc.... life goals.😂

 

Alastair

[kuro68000]

May is a wonderful time to go if you like parks and such.

[Raicho485]

Used to live in Japan over years. 
i would say April with Sakura time and autumn might be good time to visit.

Highly recommend to avoid summer time unless you can stand heatstroke over 35c with humidity…  and typhoon. 

 

Kinda regret I miss Hida kiha 85 replacing new train soon but plan to take Yakumo 381 series and Sunrise express this April. 

381 series.. probably replacing new one next year. Final limited express existing since JNR era. Yes I am sometimes a nori-tetsu (love to take trains). 

[Sean]

April-May is really the best time to visit Japan (October-November would be second place).  The weather is perfect (low-mid 20s), rainy season hasn't started yet, the trees have leaves on them, it can't be beat.  

 

If possible its  best to try to avoid the Golden Week (first week of May) since that is when everybody in Japan travels domestically and hotels are booked solid, the Shinkansen is packed, etc.  

 

 

[JR East]

17 hours ago, Raicho485 said:

Used to live in Japan over years. 
i would say April with Sakura time and autumn might be good time to visit.

 

 

I'm fully with you

 

One of the most beautiful castle I shot at Anami

 

 

JM. 

[Raicho485]

Himeji castle!!!!

Not too far from JR Himeji station.