Originally Posted by
The _Banking_Scot
Hi,
I have booked a couple of weeks off at the start of May 2023 and planning on going back to Japan
I have just remembered that the first week is golden week.
I was wondering how bad it will be at these places ( would travel by shinkansen and reserve seats )
April 30- arrive Japan
Nagasaki 2 or 3 days
Hiroshima 3 or 4 days ( inc a trip to Miyajima for the torii gate
Himeji Castle ( overnight)
Kyoto ( was thinking starting here on 6th May at the end of golden week for 3 or 4 days
Osaka ( then fly out from Osaka on 11/12 May)
Will avoid Tokyo this trip unless a really good fare appeared ( and planning a Dec 2023 trip anyway). Might skip Nagasaki for more days elsewhere.
Are these doable please or likely to be so crowded it is better to avoid them ?
Thanks
TBS
Yes, you should expect it to be busy. GW is April 28/29 to May 7/8.
The past 3 Golden Weeks in Japan have been heavily muted due to Covid, so there is a bit of pent up demand that may go beyond the "normal" crowdedness that any GW creates. Add on to it foreign tourists, including people from China., which should be even more open by then.
So start booking now if you haven't already (though if you can delay a week, that would be way way better).
In the past year or two, JR has some new online reservation systems (in English) for advance purchase (done separately for JR East, JR Central, JR West, etc), and there are also some private companies that have been set up to do this. I haven't used any yet, but as far as I understand, they still have the one-month-in-advance reservation limit. A private company may somehow be able to get around this to sell farther in advance (maybe as a registered travel agency?), but I think directly through JR the one month rule still stands. If so, then its gonna be rough securing your Shinkansen tickets for that time. Good luck!