Weekly note

Niseko in January

okbusy · worth considering · the coolest month of the year

The year in Niseko

Tap a month for its page

  1. Niseko in January: ok, busy
  2. Niseko in February: ok, busy
  3. Niseko in March: sweet spot
  4. Niseko in April: ok
  5. Niseko in May: good
  6. Niseko in June: sweet spot
  7. Niseko in July: sweet spot
  8. Niseko in August: ok
  9. Niseko in September: sweet spot
  10. Niseko in October: ok
  11. Niseko in November: avoid
  12. Niseko in December: avoid
  • Sweet spot
  • Good
  • OK
  • Avoid
  • Busy
January at Niseko is -3°C by day and -10°C at night, with 20 rainy days and about 4 hours of sun a day. Busier than usual.

The numbers

Daily high-3°C
Nightly low-10°C
Feels like, afternoon-7°C
Rainy days, 1 mm or more20 · 132 mm
Humidity84%
Sunshine4.0 h/day
Daylight9.4 h/day
Crowds65 / 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 Hirafu, the village at Niseko United's foot: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

How busy it gets

January: busy. Busiest from December to February; quietest in April, May, June, July and September.

Public holidays in January

Holidays crowd a place out and push fares up around them; they count toward the crowd score above.

Niseko in pictures

What to pack

  • A proper coat, hat and gloves: nights average -10°C.
  • Rain gear you will actually use: about 20 rainy days and 132 mm.
  • Humidity averages 84%; 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. Everything for Japan: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

On arrival in Niseko: the apps, paying, getting around, tipping and the emergency numbers.

January elsewhere

In January from

The other months at Niseko

← December · All twelve months at Niseko · February →

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