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Photo by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Kyoto in January
ok · worth considering · the coolest month of the year, the driest month of the year
The year in Kyoto
Tap a month for its page
- JanJKyoto in January: ok
- FebFKyoto in February: ok
- MarMKyoto in March: ok, busy
- AprAKyoto in April: good, busy
- MayMKyoto in May: sweet spot
- JunJKyoto in June: sweet spot
- JulJKyoto in July: ok
- AugAKyoto in August: ok
- SepSKyoto in September: sweet spot
- OctOKyoto in October: ok
- NovNKyoto in November: good
- DecDKyoto in December: ok
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
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Flights from
Flights
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Where are you flying from? Choose your city for its flights and fares.
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Where to stay
Book direct
Luxury
Things to do
Car hire
Rent direct
Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
Mobile data (eSIM)
Your own plan's EU roaming may already cover this.
Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.
The numbers
| Daily high | 8°C |
|---|---|
| Nightly low | -1°C |
| Feels like, afternoon | 4°C |
| Rainy days, 1 mm or more | 4 · 46 mm |
| Humidity | 75% |
| Sunshine | 7.3 h/day |
| Daylight | 10.1 h/day |
| Crowds | 80 / 100, higher is quieter |
Ten-year averages for this calendar month. A rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts it. The model these figures come from drizzles more than a rain gauge, the more so the warmer the month, so its days count from 2 mm, rising to 5 mm in the hottest.
Weather read at Gion: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
How busy it gets
Public holidays in January
Holidays crowd a place out and push fares up around them; they count toward the crowd score above.
Kyoto in pictures
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Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Martin Falbisoner, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Martin Falbisoner, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What to pack
- A proper coat, hat and gloves: nights average -1°C.
- Humidity averages 75%; breathable fabrics dry faster.
Each line is a threshold over the ten-year figures above, not advice from anywhere else.
Before you go
Type A and B plugs at 100 V. Drives on the left. The currency is the Yen. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise normal security precautions. US State Department: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions. Everything for Japan: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
On arrival in Kyoto: the apps, paying, getting around, tipping and the emergency numbers.
January elsewhere
In January from
The other months at Kyoto
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