Christmas time in the Kansai area
Upvote:1
Christmas in Japan is generally a commercial holiday. Expect lots of decorations around shopping streets. All Christmas decorations will get replaced on Dec 25th evening with New Year's ones.
On New Year's Eve there are no public events like fireworks. In major cities at midnight you can visit a Buddhist ceremony of ringing a temple bell (like in Chion-in Temple in Kyoto or Tennoji Temple in Osaka).
New Year on the other hand is a family holiday in Japan and a starting day for visits to shrines. Expect almost no one on the streets, but huge crowds at main shrines (like Inari Taisha or Yasaka Jinja in Kyoto).
In December and January "festivals of lights" will be held in Osaka and Kobe. Streets (trees, buildings, etc.) will be decorated by a large number of lights. For "Kobe Luminarie" prepare a few hours and expect a huge crowd (a few hours of waiting in line).
Some practical information:
Most places of interest to tourists (like museums or castles) will be closed between Dec 29th and Jan 3rd.
If you eat at restaurants, better be prepared for Dec 31st afternoon and Jan 1st. While there is a slight chance you might find an open "family restaurant" (not a family-owned restaurant, but a chain of restaurants of such class) somewhere around major station, but basically all places are closed (McDonald's and Burger King included). On Jan 2nd and 3rd many venues are closed too, but it is much easier to find a place to eat than on Jan 1st.
Public transport runs at night Dec 31-Jan 1st, but during the day trains will run on a holiday schedule (between Osaka and Kyoto they will run every 10 minutes anyway).
Private train companies running between Kobe-Osaka-Kyoto (Hankyu, Hanshin, Keihan) will offer 1-day passes at competitive prices for the first days of January.
Upvote:4
Japan-Guide is my first go-to site for anything Japan. (I'm not associated with them at all, but have used them personally for visits to Japan and found them very useful)
December is a good month for traveling thanks to generally dry weather conditions. Domestic travel activity remains low during the first half of December until the beginning of winter school holidays around December 23. The downsides of a visit in winter are the relatively short days (sunset is around 4:30pm in Tokyo) and the barren state of the vegetation. From around December 29 some tourist attractions close down for the New Year holidays. The ski season starts in December.
Here is a link to Japan's holidays
The relevant bits:
December 23 (national holiday) Emperor's Birthday (tenno no tanjobi): The birthday of the current emperor is always a national holiday. If the emperor changes, the national holiday changes to the birthday date of the new emperor.
December 24-25 Christmas: Christmas is not a national holiday, but it is celebrated by an increasing number of Japanese. More information is available on the Christmas page.
December 31 New Year's Eve (omisoka): December 31 is not a national holiday. More information is available on the New Year page.
And according to the Events page there will not be any major festivals in Late December.
Not sure if you are there for New Years day, but here are the relevant pages:
More post
- 📝 Visa application for housewife
- 📝 What u.s. car insurance is there for my British Land Rover with British plates?
- 📝 Beaches near Amsterdam
- 📝 Indian international student in Canada applying for a US visit visa
- 📝 transfer time from international to other flights in dublin
- 📝 Star Alliance programme with free expiry date extension
- 📝 How to get from Venice to Rijeka, Croatia by sea?
- 📝 Topkapi Palace Tickets
- 📝 Conflicting information about COVID-era international travel to Russia
- 📝 How to get an Indian visa from outside the US?
- 📝 taxis in Rust, Germany
- 📝 Would I be able to enter USA currently?
- 📝 Using a backpack that contains metal strands as a carry-on bag
- 📝 When to summon Uber: travel from Opera to CDG
- 📝 International F1 students applying for Canada to visit relatives
- 📝 Entering China between connecting international arrival and domestic departure
- 📝 When do I go through immigration in Europe from Mallorca to Frankfurt to the USA?
- 📝 No transit visa in London when traveling from Canada - still valid during COVID?
- 📝 If I went to Korea for two weeks and plan to go again am I using the same 90 day allowance?
- 📝 Can I change my dates of travel to the UK after filling out the online form?
- 📝 Airline pricing website with multiple destinations
- 📝 Can I fly from the US to Mexico without a passport?
- 📝 Kruger vs Serengeti
- 📝 El Yunque or "El Junque" National Forest Pronunciation
- 📝 Finding an inexpensive long stopover "anywhere"
- 📝 TAP Portugal LHR to BSB forced shorter return date and had to pay for new return
- 📝 Order of obtaining visas
- 📝 Australia: eVisitor or ETA
- 📝 Do South African citizens need a visa to enter Dubai?
- 📝 Changing terminals at Dallas-Fort Worth airport (DFW)
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Christmas time in the Kansai area
- 📝 Can I enter a Schengen area country for the first time by land? Or does it have to be via flight?
- 📝 Is time spent in the Schengen area on a working visa ignored for the purposes of the 90/180 rule?
- 📝 How do I know how much time was given to me to stay in the USA?
- 📝 When a flights departs in the middle of the winter daylight saving time switch, what is the actual departure time?
- 📝 Visa-free stays involving paid activity in the Schengen Area - how do they work?
- 📝 Tourist activities in the Louisiana bayou swamp area with the recent floods?
- 📝 Is it possible to reset the VWP time counter by visiting a third country after entering Canada from the US?
- 📝 Do I have to leave the Schengen area if I have a short term (C) visa that will expire right before my National Visa (D) officially starts?
- 📝 Can you exit the airport when transiting the Schengen area on a single-entry Schengen visa?
- 📝 Is 5.5 hours enough time at HKG to see anything in the city and what can I do?
- 📝 Can my time in the UK be defined as transit?
- 📝 How exactly is the delay time calculated for the purposes of EU air travel compensation?
- 📝 Can a baby exit Estonia for the first time on an Australian passport?
- 📝 how to calculate the real time spent on road travelling by car
- 📝 Can I currently (June 2020) travel from Israel to the Taba hotel area and return to Israel?
- 📝 At what hour should I arrive at Schiphol for a flight to a destination within the Schengen Area that leaves at 7:00 AM?
- 📝 What time is the daily train from Balykchy on Lake Issyk-Kul to Bishkek?
- 📝 What time does the Tbilisi to Istanbul bus depart?
- 📝 Does an (almost) full passport increase the time you spend at immigration?
- 📝 What to do if you need to fly in the Schengen area and lose your ID card?
- 📝 Schengen area 90 days limit: Can I leave on the 91st day?
- 📝 Traveling in Schengen area before going to the country that my type D visa is for
- 📝 How should I express the end of a period of time I'm allowed to stay in a country so as not to confuse it with visa expiration?
- 📝 When to visit both the Schengen area and the UK, which visa should be obtained first?
- 📝 Can a dual citizen with a Schengen residence permit enter the Schengen area on their second passport?
- 📝 Can two people use a Baden-Württemberg-Ticket at the same time going in different directions?
- 📝 What time of the year is the weather warm enough for camping in Yellowstone National Park?
- 📝 Can I travel within the Schengen area while my Italian residency card is being renewed?
- 📝 Layover in Panama City, how much time do I need to see the canal