When to go to Japan: the seasons, honestly

Spring: blossom, and more than blossom

Cherry blossom in Japan isn't a single event but a wave that moves from south to north. In Okinawa early varieties flower in winter; in Tokyo and Kyoto the peak usually falls in late March or early April; in Hokkaido not until late April or May. Exact dates shift by a week or more from year to year, and the peak in any one place is brief.

It's the loveliest and busiest time in Japan. Parks fill with picnics under the trees, the famous paths in Kyoto are crowded by mid-morning, and rooms in the most popular cities need booking well ahead. If blossom is the reason for the trip, we'd suggest a route that crosses several latitudes, which improves the odds of catching it somewhere even if the season shifts.

Spring isn't only cherries, either. April and May bring days mild enough for long walks, the first green rice shoots in mountain valleys and, by late May, a calmer country. For travellers from Lithuania it has another appeal: after our long winter, Japan's warm, bright spring feels like summer arriving a season early.

Early summer: the rain that turns everything green

In June and early July most of the country enters the rainy season, known as tsuyu. It isn't constant downpour but frequent grey skies, humidity and wet days alternating with dry ones. Many travellers take it as a reason not to go. We see it differently.

This is when Japan is at its greenest: Kyoto's moss gardens look freshly washed, the cedar forests of the Kumano Kodo smell of damp earth, and hydrangeas flower in temple gardens, some of which are known for little else. There are fewer visitors than in spring, and rain heard from under a roof, on a ryokan veranda with a cup of tea, has a calm of its own. Hokkaido usually has no marked rainy season, so June there is often lovely.

In practice it calls for a flexible plan: dry days for mountain trails, wet days for museums, craft workshops and food. A good umbrella, sold in every convenience store in Japan, and waterproof shoes are worth more here than a perfect forecast.

High summer: heat, festivals and mountains

Late July and August are usually hot and very humid in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka – heat that tires even those who cope easily with a southern European summer. It's also school-holiday season in many countries, Lithuania included, so families often have little choice.

Summer in Japan works if you rearrange the route. In the cities, early mornings and late evenings, with the heat of the day spent in a museum or by a pool. And shift more of the trip up and north: in the Japanese Alps, the Kamikochi valley or Hokkaido's farmland, days are far cooler and evenings fresh. Summer is festival season, too: the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto in July, and in August summer festivals and fireworks over rivers across the country.

Late summer and early autumn also bring typhoon season. Many trips never feel it, but a storm can disrupt flights or ferries for a few days, particularly in the south and Okinawa, so a spare day in an August or September route is well spent.

There's no bad season in Japan, only a route that doesn't suit it.

Autumn: colour that comes down from the mountains

Autumn colour, momiji, moves the opposite way to blossom: from north to south, and from the mountains down into the valleys. In Hokkaido and the high mountains the maples can turn from late September or October; in Kyoto and Tokyo the peak usually falls in the second half of November and sometimes runs into early December. As in spring, exact timing changes every year.

To our eyes, autumn is one of Japan's strongest seasons. Skies are often clear and dry, days still warm and evenings cool, and the food turns to chestnuts, mushrooms and new-crop rice. October, before the colour peaks, is a good compromise: the summer heat has gone and the crowds haven't yet arrived. In November Kyoto is as busy as in spring, so book early and see the most famous places at first light.

For Lithuanian travellers, autumn has one more thing in its favour: a trip in November means a couple of weeks of light and warmth just as the darkest part of the year begins at home.

Winter: snow, hot springs and empty gardens

Winter in Japan is often, unfairly, overlooked. On the Pacific side, around Tokyo and Kyoto, December to February usually brings dry, clear weather and blue skies: cold, but not bitter. Temple gardens are empty, the light is low and golden, and a hot-pot dinner or a soak in hot-spring water takes on a different meaning on a cold evening.

On the Japan Sea side and in Hokkaido winter is another world: heavy snow that has made Niseko and other resorts famous among skiers, the snow-covered farmhouses of Shirakawa-go, and eastern Hokkaido, where red-crowned cranes can often be watched dancing near Kushiro. The Sapporo Snow Festival in February draws large crowds, so rooms need planning early. Snow sometimes disrupts mountain roads and trains, so a winter route, like a summer one, needs a little slack.

Winter Japan can seem an odd choice for Lithuanians – we have cold at home. But a clear, sunny January in Kyoto, or Hokkaido's snow with a hot spring at the end of the day, is a very different winter from our grey December.

Japan's calendar, seen from Lithuania

The theoretically best season doesn't always match when you can actually leave, so it's worth looking at Japan's year through your own calendar.

If you can take leave freely, the strongest windows are October and May: both avoid the worst crowds, both are mild, and October stretches our shortening autumn a little further. With school-age children it's usually summer, and then Japan is best planned 'from the top down': more Hokkaido, mountains and coast, fewer hot cities at midday. If you're looking for light in our darkest months, November in Kyoto or January with Tokyo's clear skies and Hokkaido's snow are a real tonic, each in its own way.

One more detail that's easy to miss: in Japan, holidays fill trains and hotels because of Japanese travellers, not foreign ones. So even in a quiet season it's worth checking your dates against local long weekends.

So when? Our short answer

• A first trip combining cities and countryside: October to early November, or mid-April to May, avoiding Golden Week.
• Blossom: late March to early April, with a multi-region route and flexible dates.
• Autumn colour in Kyoto: the second half of November, with rooms booked early.
• Mountain walking and the Kumano Kodo: spring and autumn; in summer, the higher Alps.
• Families in the school holidays: summer, but with Hokkaido or the mountains rather than hot cities.
• Quiet, hot springs and snow: January and February.

Whichever season you choose, allow for the time difference: flying east via a European hub, most people take longer to adjust to Japan, so keep the first day or two light, whatever the month. How many days to give Japan in the first place is a separate question, and one we've answered in its own piece.

Tell us which face of Japan draws you most – in blossom, in green, in flame or under snow – and when you're able to travel. We'll start shaping a route that suits that season from there.