Guide · Akihabara

Part of: What to Book Before Your Tokyo Trip (2026)

What Should You Pack for Japan? A Month-by-Month List Built From the Actual Climate Data

Pack for the month, not for "Japan," because Tokyo's average daily high swings from about 10°C in January to about 31°C in August — a bigger spread than most visitors expect from a single city. The four things every month needs regardless of season are shoes you can slip off one-handed, a small bag for rubbish you will be carrying around, a coin purse, and one layer more than the forecast suggests, because buildings are heated and cooled harder than the street. Everything else follows from the temperature and the rain.

Most packing lists for Japan are written from memory. This one is built from the Japan Meteorological Agency's published 30-year normals for Tokyo, which is the number a local would use if you asked them what a given month is like. The numbers are below; what follows is what they mean for your bag.

What is the weather actually like, month by month?

Tokyo has four distinct seasons with a long, humid summer and a short, dry winter. The coldest month averages a daily high near 10°C and a low near 1°C; the hottest averages 31°C and 24°C. The wettest months are September and October, not the famous June rainy season. Snow is rare in the city and rarely settles. Those four facts decide almost everything you pack.

Two things in that table surprise people. September and October are the wettest months of the year in Tokyo, well ahead of June — the rainy season gets the reputation, but autumn gets the water. And the daily range in spring and autumn is around 8 to 10 degrees, which is the real argument for layers rather than any single heavy item.

What should you pack for summer in Japan?

For June, July and August: the thinnest clothing you own, a hand towel, and a plan for sweat. Average humidity in Tokyo runs around three quarters through July and August, which means 31°C feels considerably worse than 31°C somewhere dry. Pack fewer, lighter items and do laundry rather than carrying a week of clothes. A compact umbrella earns its space every one of those months.

The hand towel is the one non-obvious item. Many public toilets have no hand dryer and no paper, and everyone carries a small folded towel for exactly this — it doubles as the thing you mop your face with. You will see them sold everywhere the moment you start looking.

Also worth knowing: indoor spaces are air-conditioned hard. Going from an August street into a shop is a 10-degree drop, and a very thin long-sleeved layer that packs to nothing is more useful in summer than in spring.

• June — 26°C high, and the wet season. Umbrella, quick-drying clothes, shoes you don't mind soaking.
• July — 30°C high, humidity around 76%. Thinnest possible clothing, hand towel, refillable bottle.
• August — the hottest month, 31°C average high. Treat midday as indoor time; plan outdoor walking for morning and evening.

What should you pack for autumn in Japan?

For September, October and November: layers plus rain gear, in that order. September and October are the two wettest months on the calendar, and September still averages a 27.5°C high, so early autumn is summer clothing with an umbrella permanently attached. November is the month the packing list flips — a 16.7°C high with an 8.8°C low means a proper jacket for the evening and shirtsleeves at lunchtime.

Autumn is also typhoon season, which for a traveller usually means a day of very heavy rain and disrupted trains rather than anything dramatic. The practical preparation is flexible plans and waterproof shoes, not special equipment.

• September — still hot, and the wettest month of the year at 224.9 mm. Summer clothes, serious umbrella.
• October — 22°C high, 14.8°C low, 234.8 mm of rain. The best month for walking, if you accept getting rained on.
• November — 16.7°C high, 8.8°C low, and the driest autumn month. Jacket, light scarf, no umbrella panic.

What should you pack for winter in Japan?

For December, January and February: a warm coat and very little else that is special. Tokyo winter is cold but dry — under 60 mm of rain a month — with daily highs around 10 to 12°C and lows just above freezing. Snow that settles is uncommon in the city. Layers beat bulk, because trains and shops are heated hard and you will be taking the coat off constantly.

The thing that catches visitors is the gap between outside and inside. A heavy coat over a heavy jumper means you overheat on every train. A coat over a thin layer, carried rather than worn indoors, is the local pattern.

If you are heading to the mountains or the north of the country, none of the above applies — that is a genuinely snowy climate and a different packing list entirely.

• December — 12°C high, 3.8°C low, driest month of the year. Coat, gloves optional.
• January — coldest month, 9.8°C high and 1.2°C low. Coat, gloves, something for your ears.
• February — near-identical to January, slightly milder. Same list.

What should you pack for spring in Japan?

For March, April and May: layers and a light rain jacket. Spring has the widest daily temperature range of the year — April averages a 19.4°C high against a 9.8°C low — so one outfit will not cover a full day. Rain climbs steadily through the season, from 116 mm in March to nearly 140 mm in May. Cherry blossom season sits at the cold end of this, in late March and early April, and is colder than the photographs suggest.

• March — 14.2°C high, 5.0°C low. Still winter in the evening. Coat you can carry.
• April — the classic layers month. Shirt, jumper, light jacket, all three used in one day.
• May — 23.6°C high, the most comfortable month on the list. Light clothing plus one warm layer.

What do you need regardless of the month?

Four things: shoes that come off without hands, a small bag for your own rubbish, a coin purse, and more cash than you think. Shoes come off at temples, some restaurants, many guesthouses and every home — laces will make you dread this by day three. Public bins are genuinely rare, so whatever you buy on the street travels with you until your hotel.

The cash point needs care, because it has changed. Card acceptance in cities is now broad and an IC transit card covers most small transactions, but small independent places remain cash-only and cash is still the safe default for a day out — the current state of play is in do you need cash in Japan, and ATMs that take foreign cards covers where to get it. Coins accumulate fast, which is why a coin purse is on this list at all.

The bin situation genuinely surprises people; why Japan has no bins explains the reason and the workaround. And on shoes, taking your shoes off in Japan covers where it is expected, including the places visitors do not anticipate.

What should you leave at home?

A large suitcase you intend to drag onto trains, a week of clothing, and a travel adapter you have not checked. Japan's plugs are the two flat-pin type at 100V, so many visitors need no adapter at all and some need only a simple one. Coin lockers and same-day luggage forwarding mean you do not need to carry your bag around, so pack for portability rather than for self-sufficiency.

On the luggage point specifically: moving a large case between hotels is a solved problem here. Luggage forwarding sends your bag ahead overnight, and station lockers and storage handle the gap on arrival and departure days. Packing light is not about carrying less; it is about the stairs at older stations.

One more to leave behind: a rigid itinerary in the wet months. In September and October, the sensible plan has an indoor option attached to every outdoor day.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a single worst month to visit? August, if you dislike heat — 31.3°C average highs with high humidity is genuinely hard work outdoors. Nothing about it is dangerous, but the walking-around parts of a trip get shorter.

Do I need an umbrella or a rain jacket? An umbrella. Clear plastic ones are sold everywhere for very little, they are the local default, and a hood is unpleasant in humid rain. A rain jacket is for the mountains.

How much cash should I carry per day? Enough for meals and small purchases, with cards for anything larger. The amount depends on your day, but the principle is that no shop will turn down cash and a meaningful minority still turn down cards.

Will my phone work? Only with a local data plan of some kind. eSIM versus pocket Wi-Fi covers the choice, and it is worth settling before you fly rather than at the airport.

What about tattoos and onsen? That is a real constraint on what you can do rather than what you pack, and the rules vary by facility — onsen etiquette and tattoos has the current picture.

Does this apply outside Tokyo? Roughly, for the Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka corridor, which runs a little warmer in the south. The north and the mountains are a different climate with real snow, and Okinawa is subtropical. The table above is Tokyo specifically.

When is the best month overall? May and November come out best on the numbers — comfortable temperatures and the least rain of their seasons. If you are planning around Akihabara specifically, the best time to visit breaks the year down by crowds as well as weather.

Pack for the month, not for the country

The single biggest packing mistake visitors make is treating Japan as one climate. A bag that works in August is useless in January, and the two are the same city. Start from the row in the table that matches your dates, add the four all-season items, and leave the rest of the space for what you buy here.

About the author. I am Yuuki, a Japanese teacher and Akihabara anime tour guide based in Tokyo. I run private anime tours in Akihabara, rated 4.96★ on Airbnb across 171 reviews, and I have walked the same streets in every month on this list. I also teach Japanese one-on-one online as an italki Top 1% teacher, 5.0★ across 358 reviews.

Yuuki runs private anime tours in Akihabara — see the Akihabara tour, or book a Japanese trial lesson before you fly.

Sources: All temperature and rainfall figures are the Japan Meteorological Agency's 1991–2020 climate normals for the Tokyo observation station, retrieved from the agency's past weather data service. Humidity figures are from the same table. Packing observations are the author's own, from living and guiding in Tokyo.