── weather · tokyo in january
Tokyo's January weather and daylight
The averages: high 9.8°C (50°F), low 1.2°C (34°F), mean 5.4°C (42°F). Rain 59.7 mm for the month, 193 hours of sunshine (the sunniest month of the winter), average humidity 51%, and about 4 cm of snow. Early mornings are often near freezing, and heavy snow is rare.
Daylight: the sun rises at 6:50am and sets at 4:38pm on 1 January. By 15 January it sets at 4:51pm, and by 31 January sunrise is 6:42am and sunset 5:07pm. Plan museums and shopping for late afternoon, and outdoor sights for the morning.
What to pack: a warm coat, layers, gloves and a hat for the evenings, and lip balm and hand cream, because the air is very dry. Trains, shops and restaurants are well heated, so layers you can take off are better than one very heavy jumper.
Sources: Japan Meteorological Agency 1991-2020 normals for Tokyo; sunrise and sunset for Tokyo from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan's 2027 tables.
── 1-3 january
What's open and closed from 1 to 3 January
From 1 to 3 January Tokyo is on its New Year holiday. On the night of 31 December and over these three days, millions of people make hatsumode, the first shrine or temple visit of the year. Meiji Jingu, Senso-ji and the other big shrines are at their busiest of the year, with long queues to pray, new charms and fortunes for sale and food stalls outside. You're welcome to join in. None of the shrines publishes queue times, but as general advice, early morning and after dark on the 2nd or 3rd tend to be calmer, and a visit any time in the first week of January still counts. Where to go and how to pray are in our hatsumode guide.
Open: the shrines and temples. Most convenience stores (some branches shorten their hours). Chains, hotel restaurants and the restaurants in big stations and malls are the safest bets for a meal. The Tokyo National Museum in Ueno is closed from 26 to 31 December 2026 and opens on 1 January 2027 from noon to 8pm. Tokyo Skytree opens from 8am on 1 January, after its sunrise session. Trains run, on holiday timetables; last year Tokyo Metro ran its Saturday-and-holiday timetable from 30 December to 3 January.
Closed: banks from 31 December to 3 January, and most offices. The Imperial Palace East Gardens from 28 December to 3 January. Shinjuku Gyoen from 29 December to 3 January; it's also closed on Mondays, so it doesn't reopen until Tuesday 5 January. In Ryogoku, the Ryogoku Edo NOREN restaurant building is closed on 1 and 2 January. The Sumida Hokusai Museum is closed from 27 December to 1 January but is open on 2 and 3 January 2027, during its 10th-anniversary exhibition (16 December to 28 February).
Mixed: many small independent restaurants, bars and shops close for a few days around New Year. Most places post their New Year hours on their own sites in December, so check before you plan a day around one. For eating out late after the shrine crowds, see late-night food in Tokyo.
── sales · fukubukuro
New Year sales and fukubukuro
Tokyo's department stores open the year with their New Year first sales (hatsuuri), and the famous part is the fukubukuro, or lucky bag: a sealed bag of goods worth more than its price, from clothes and homewares to food. Takashimaya describes queues at its fukubukuro counters as a New Year fixture, with luxury bags and experience bags as its headline in-store offers. On Takashimaya's online store, most bags show what's inside.
The 2027 in-store sale dates aren't announced yet. Check the store's own site in December before you go. Takashimaya's online store is already selling its 2027 fukubukuro, releasing new brands on set dates (the next are 25 November and 9 December 2026, and 3 January 2027) until 10am on 31 January 2027. Some bags are delivered before the New Year and others from 3 January.
Tax refunds changed on 1 November 2026. Japan's tax-free shopping for visitors is now a refund: you pay the full price including 10% consumption tax, show your passport, and get the tax back from the shop after customs confirms at the airport that the goods are leaving Japan. You need to spend at least ¥5,000 before tax in one shop on one day. Bring your passport to the sales.
For where to shop the rest of the month, see our Ginza guide, our Shinjuku guide and vintage shopping in Tokyo.
── 6 january
The firefighters' New Year parade (Dezome-shiki)
The Tokyo Fire Department's New Year review, the Dezome-shiki, is on Wednesday 6 January 2027 from 10am, at a new venue this year: the Tokyo Rinkai Disaster Prevention Park in Ariake (3-8-35 Ariake, Koto City). The programme includes a parade of fire engines, firefighting demonstrations and the Edo Fire Brigade Preservation Society's traditional ladder-top acrobatics (hashigo-nori). Reception at the ceremony venue closes at 10:30am.
Ceremony seats are reserved and given out by lottery, online or by postcard, for up to four people per application, and applications must arrive by 9 November 2026; there's no waiting list. The fire department's exhibition next door at Ariake Garden (2-1-8 Ariake) is free, with no ticket.
── 11 january
Coming of Age Day: Monday 11 January 2027
Coming of Age Day (Seijin no Hi) is a national holiday on the second Monday of January, which in 2027 is 11 January. Tokyo's wards hold their ceremonies for local young adults that day. These aren't public events: Minato City's, for example, is at the Tokyo Prince Hotel for residents born between 2 April 2006 and 1 April 2007, by registration only. What a visitor sees is the city around them: young people in formal kimono and suits at shrines, stations and photo studios through the day.
Because it's a holiday, it makes 9 to 11 January a three-day weekend. Expect weekend crowds at the big sights, holiday prices at the sumo, and holiday opening rules: places that normally close on Mondays, such as the Tokyo National Museum and the Imperial Palace East Gardens, open on the 11th and close on Tuesday 12 January instead, and Shinjuku Gyoen does the same.
── illuminations
The winter illuminations still running in January
The Christmas-only displays, including Roppongi Hills' Keyakizaka, end on 25 December. Confirmed for January: the Marunouchi Illumination, 4pm to 11pm until 14 February 2027 (free), and Yomiuriland's Jewellumination, a theme-park light show in Inagi, in Tokyo's western suburbs, which runs to 4 April 2027 on the days and hours set by the park's calendar (park entry ¥1,800 for adults at the gate, ¥1,600 online).
Not announced yet: Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi hasn't announced its 2026-27 lights on its own site. Last year its garden light walk ran until 23 February 2026, free, with an outdoor ice rink to the same date.
── when to go
Crowds and prices in January
These are general patterns and my own advice, not published figures. The first days of January are Japan's main family holiday and one of its busiest travel periods, so trains out of Tokyo and the hot-spring towns fill up and hotels are at holiday prices; book early if you're coming for New Year. From about the second week, once the holiday and the 9-11 January long weekend are over, I'd expect a calmer city and easier hotel prices than over New Year, so that's when I'd book. For December and February as well, see Tokyo in winter; for the rest of the year, the best time to visit Tokyo.
January's dry, sunny weather also makes it a good month to try for Mount Fuji, from the city's observation decks or on a day trip; see the best day trips from Tokyo. On cold evenings, the best ramen in Tokyo and the best izakaya in Tokyo are where the city warms up, and the best museums in Tokyo fill the dark late afternoons.
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