Lock hotels first, then two to four restaurants, then confirm the route runs in one direction. Hotels are the constraint, not restaurants. For cherry blossom or November foliage, start eight to twelve months out. Shinkansen seats cannot be reserved until 30 days before travel, so they are never the urgent item.
First, know which season you are in
Everything below shifts depending on when you are coming. Japan has two seasons that behave completely differently from the rest of the year.
| Period | Pressure | Start booking |
|---|---|---|
| Late March – mid April (blossom) | Extreme | 9–12 months |
| November (autumn foliage) | Extreme | 8–10 months |
| Golden Week (late Apr – early May) | High, domestic | 6 months |
| Obon (mid-August) | High, domestic | 6 months |
| Everything else | Manageable | 3–4 months |
If you are travelling in early April and reading this three months out, some things are already gone. That is worth knowing now rather than in week two of trying.
Six months out
Decide the shape before you book anything
How many cities, in what order, how many nights each. Booking a hotel before this is decided is how people end up with a night in the wrong city and no refund.
Flights — and make them open-jaw
In to Tokyo, out of Osaka Kansai. Usually the same price as a return, and it saves the better part of a day at the end of the trip.
The one or two hotels you actually care about
Ryokan with private onsen baths, and the handful of well-known city hotels, are the genuine bottleneck. A ryokan may have twelve rooms. In November they are gone by spring.
Three months out
This is the productive window, and the one most people miss because it feels early.
One month out
- Shinkansen reserved seats. Reservations open exactly 30 days ahead. Only urgent over public holidays.
- Airport transfers, if you want a car rather than the train.
- Write to your hotel concierges. Two weeks minimum, with two or three specific requests each. This is free and consistently underused.
- Set up an IC card — Suica or Pasmo in Apple Wallet — before you land.
- Check your data plan, or arrange an eSIM.
The week before
- Confirm every reservation in writing, with times.
- Save your hotel addresses in Japanese — taxi drivers cannot read romanised addresses.
- Download offline maps.
- Get some cash. Japan is far more card-friendly than it was, but small restaurants and rural transport are still cash-only.
- Check whether your first hotel accepts a forwarded suitcase from the airport.
What not to book
Just as important as the list above.
- Not every dinner. Three or four fixed meals across two weeks. Japan rewards wandering into somewhere unremarkable-looking more than almost any country, and a full schedule removes that entirely.
- Not day tours in cities. Tokyo and Kyoto are straightforward to navigate independently. Save the guided day for somewhere rural.
- Not intercity travel more than 30 days out. You cannot, and you do not need to.
- Not a hotel for the night you land, more than one city away from the airport. Stay near where you arrive.
If you are inside three months
Do these in order, and stop worrying about the rest.
Coming in the next six months?
If your dates fall in cherry blossom or autumn, the useful window is closing. Send me your dates and I will tell you honestly what is still possible.
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