Four National Holidays, 130 Million People, One Week
The sound hits you before the visual — a low roar of suitcase wheels on tile, echoing through Tokyo Station at 6 AM on April 29th. Every shinkansen platform is packed three-deep. Families with matching luggage tags, couples in coordinated spring outfits, salarymen in rare casual clothes looking slightly lost without their suits. This is Golden Week, and Japan is going somewhere.
From April 29 to May 6, 2026, four national holidays stack into a single stretch that most companies extend to a full week off. The result is the country’s longest holiday period — alongside New Year and Obon — and arguably its most chaotic. About 130 million people get time off simultaneously. A significant chunk of them decide to travel on the same day.
The Holidays, Briefly
April 29 — Showa Day (昭和の日). Honors Emperor Hirohito, who reigned from 1926 to 1989. Museums sometimes run special exhibitions. Most people treat it as the starting gun for the week.
May 1–2 are regular weekdays in 2026, but most companies give the whole week off anyway. The ones that don’t see a suspicious spike in paid leave requests.
May 3 — Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日). Commemorates the 1947 constitution. The National Diet building occasionally opens to visitors, though honestly, most people are at the beach by this point.
May 4 — Greenery Day (みどりの日). Appreciate nature. Many national parks waive admission fees. It’s a nice idea, but the parks are so crowded you might appreciate nature more on a random Tuesday in October.
May 5 — Children’s Day (こどもの日). This is the one you’ll notice. Colorful koinobori — carp-shaped windsocks — fly from houses, bridges, and public buildings everywhere. Some riverside installations string hundreds across the water. The Sagami River in Kanagawa is famous for its massive display.
May 6 is a substitute holiday (Monday) since May 5 falls on a Sunday in 2026.
What Actually Happens on the Ground
Let’s be honest about this part.
Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari, which is already busy on a normal weekday, becomes something approaching a theme park queue. Bullet trains sell out on peak routes. Highway traffic jams stretch for 30, 40, sometimes 50 kilometers on the worst stretches. Hotel rates in popular areas double — sometimes triple. I’ve seen business hotels in Kyoto go for ¥35,000 a night during Golden Week that cost ¥9,000 the week before.
But here’s the thing people don’t mention enough: the atmosphere is genuinely different. The whole country shifts into a lighter mood. Parks fill with families doing hanami-style picnics under green canopies (the cherry blossoms are mostly done by late April in central Japan, but the fresh green is arguably more beautiful). Department stores run sales. Street food vendors set up in places they’d never be during normal weeks. There’s a festival energy that’s hard to describe if you haven’t experienced it.
Where to Lean Into It
Tokyo works surprisingly well during Golden Week if you pick your spots. Meiji Shrine holds special ceremonies. Ueno Park has spring festivals. The backstreet izakaya in Shimokitazawa or Koenji are never as crowded as Shibuya Crossing, and the weather is perfect for wandering neighborhoods on foot.
Hiroshima’s Flower Festival runs during Golden Week with parades and food stalls along Peace Boulevard. It’s one of the city’s biggest annual events, and it’s underrated by international visitors.
Kyoto — yes, it’s busy, but Kyoto in late April and early May, when the maple leaves are fresh green and the light is soft, is hard to argue against. Go to the famous temples at 6 AM and you’ll have them nearly to yourself. By 10 AM, different story.
Where to Dodge the Crowds
Tohoku — Northern Honshu gets a fraction of the Golden Week traffic. Cherry blossoms sometimes linger in places like Kakunodate and Hirosaki well into early May. The onsen towns — Nyuto, Ginzan — are the kind of places that make you wonder why everyone else is fighting for space in Kyoto.
Shikoku is the smallest main island and consistently overlooked. The Iya Valley is dramatic. The 88-temple pilgrimage route has sections you can walk in a day for a taste of it. Tourist density is nothing compared to Kansai.
Okinawa — beach season starts in late April. It’s popular with domestic tourists too, but the islands spread people out. The weather is warm, the sea is swimmable, and you’re far enough from the mainland chaos.
Smaller towns across Japan hold local matsuri during Golden Week that you’d never hear about unless you check regional tourism boards. These are worth looking into — they’re where the crowds thin out and the cultural experiences feel unscripted.
Surviving the Logistics
Book early. Two to three months minimum for hotels and shinkansen reserved seats. The JR Pass doesn’t guarantee you a reserved seat — you still need to book individual reservations, and the unreserved cars on popular routes involve standing for hours. If you’re planning to use the pass, buying through KLOOK in advance means you can sort out the exchange before the chaos starts.
Travel on off-peak days. April 29 outbound and May 6 return are the worst. Mid-week or reverse-flow travel (heading into Tokyo when everyone’s leaving) makes a dramatic difference.
Local trains still have seats when shinkansen sell out. They’re slower, obviously, but the scenic routes through countryside can be better than staring at the back of a headrest on a packed bullet train.
Wake up early. This is the single best piece of Golden Week advice. Popular temples at 6 AM versus 10 AM are two completely different experiences. Senso-ji at dawn is peaceful. Senso-ji at noon is a contact sport.
Convenience stores. When every restaurant has a 45-minute wait, 7-Eleven’s onigiri and bento boxes are genuinely good. This isn’t a compromise — Japanese convenience store food is better than sit-down restaurants in most other countries.
Get a pocket Wi-Fi or SIM. Mobile connectivity during Golden Week is almost a necessity — real-time crowd updates, navigation around closures, last-minute reservation changes. AeroBile rents portable Wi-Fi units that you can pick up at the airport, which saves you the hassle of hunting for a SIM card after landing.
Accommodation-wise, if you haven’t booked yet and it’s less than a month out, you’re going to pay a premium regardless. Trip.com and Hotels.com are worth checking for last-minute cancellations — people do change plans, especially if the weather forecast turns.
The Part That’s Hard to Explain
Golden Week Japan is not the Japan of travel brochures. It’s louder, messier, more congested, and significantly more expensive. But it’s also the only time you see certain things: fathers flying kites with their kids on Children’s Day, families in spring kimono visiting ancestral graves, elderly couples strolling through gardens they’ve clearly been visiting together for decades.
The Japanese people are visibly relaxed during Golden Week in a way that’s noticeable if you’ve spent any time here during the regular work grind. There’s laughter in train stations. Salarymen carrying fishing rods. Teenagers in yukata at suburban festivals.
I came back to the hotel on the last night with sunburn on my nose and a phone full of blurry koinobori photos. The elevator had a family with two sleeping kids draped over their parents’ shoulders, still clutching festival candy. Nobody said anything. We all just stood there, tired in that good way.