Japan
9h 50m from Sydney to Tokyo. The lowest mains voltage in the world. Flat pins, and your hair dryer will run weakly or not at all.
- Flight from Sydney
- 9h 50m
- Plug
- Type A / B
- Voltage
- 100V
- Tap water
- Safe to drink
- Currency
- Japanese yen (JPY)
- Time vs Sydney
- -1 hours
- Region
- JP
- Your kit
- Japan Winter
Japan, month by month
Temperatures in Celsius, because you live in Australia. Remember that a northern hemisphere summer is our winter — the reason most packing advice online is upside down for you.
| Month | Season | High / low | What it is like |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Deep winter | 10° / 2° | Cold and dry in Tokyo, deep snow in the north. Peak ski season. |
| February | Deep winter | 11° / 2° | Coldest month. Best snow in Hokkaido and Nagano. |
| March | Early spring | 14° / 5° | Cold start, blossom beginning in the south by late month. |
| April | Cherry blossom | 19° / 10° | The busiest and most expensive weeks of the year. Book months ahead. |
| May | Late spring | 24° / 15° | Arguably the best month — warm, dry, green. |
| June | Rainy season | 26° / 19° | Tsuyu. Humid with long spells of rain; a compact umbrella is standard kit. |
| July | Hot and humid | 30° / 23° | Genuinely oppressive humidity in the cities. Typhoon season begins. |
| August | Peak heat | 31° / 24° | Hottest and most humid month. Typhoon risk real. |
| September | Warm, typhoon risk | 28° / 21° | Still humid, and the peak of typhoon season. |
| October | Autumn | 22° / 15° | Clear, dry, mild. The other best month. |
| November | Autumn colour | 17° / 9° | Cool and beautiful. Momiji season is as busy as blossom in places. |
| December | Early winter | 12° / 4° | Cold, dry and clear. Ski season opening. |
What Australians get wrong about Japan
- Type I to Type A adapters are genuinely hard to find at airports outside Australasia — buy before you go.
- Japan is far colder in winter than most Australians pack for. Tokyo in January sits near zero overnight.
- You carry your own rubbish. Public bins essentially do not exist.
- Shoes come off constantly — at temples, ryokan, some restaurants. Socks without holes, and shoes you can slip off, genuinely matter.
- Cash still matters outside the big chains, and many ATMs reject foreign cards. 7-Eleven ATMs are the reliable ones.