Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
You might want to check hotel prices before deciding. Tokyo can be expensive around NYE weekend, with Christmas less so. However, some hotels don't really start taking reservations until three or four months in advance of arrival, so it can be a bit hard to interpret the availability you might find now.
If you've never been in Asia around this time of year, it can be a bit strange. At least in big cities, you'll find extensive beautiful decorations that can disappear promptly by dawn on the 26th. Christmas Day might not be a national holiday, for instance in Japan IIRC. If you're accustomed to colder climates, Christmas and New Year's in the tropics can seem weird.
Good call. Might be better suited for the Destinations boards, but for a 2 week trip, could we potentially do a few days in Tokyo and then spend more time elsewhere in Japan? Would prefer that over Europe simply because we've been to Europe a ton lately (yes, yes...first world problems and all). Extended family is from SE Asia, so December in the tropics isn't news. But...is Japan really even the "tropics"? I'm used to Singapore/Malaysia...an 8 hour flight south of there.
The dates are firm. We will staying home with family for Christmas as we're gaining a new nephew right around Thanksgiving, but we've been itching for a vacation for a while so trying to get out right after the holidays. I would be worried if someone told me many things will be closed during the Christmas/New Year's week. We're not going especially for the holiday, so if it's just business as usual, that's actually a plus for us.
As Mrs. Lee is telling me to go ahead and book this, it looks like I will be headed to DL.com shortly. Can always redeposit if we figure out the trip won't be what we want it to be (favorite part of being a PM for me).