I’m thinking of taking a little holiday. To Japan, probably Tokyo and the surrounding area for a couple of weeks. What’s the weather like, and what’s the best time to go?
I don’t do well in heat and humidity. Though I’ll endure it, I’d prefer something either cooler or drier.
As I recall, April is cherry-blossom season. Not to be missed, it is gorgeous everywhere. Weather probably pleasant, but might get a bit cold too. It is humid everywhere in Japan. 
If you can sqeeze it in (and afford it), take the bullet train down to Kyoto and enjoy that beautiful city.
In Tokyo, cherry blossom season starts in March and goes into April. Avoid the first week of May, which is Golden Week, and everyone is traveling, and it is crazy. So middle to late April or middle of May would be good, pleasantly warm (mostly) without being too humid. Too late in May and you start getting into the Plum rain season (misty or heavier rain a lot of the time, well into June). July and August are pretty much impossibly humid (think NYC). Late September and October are cooler and usually dry, except for the occasional typhoon - this is largely a matter of luck. Anyway, typhoons are usually over in a day or two. Winter in Tokyo is cold but mostly dry (most of the snow gets dropped on the Japan Sea side or on the mountains to the North and West).
Good luck, and I hope you enjoy your trip.
eta: we’re going next year in September, but we’re not spending time in Tokyo, instead we’ll be a bit further west on the Pacific coast.
Roddy
Tokyo has, basically, six seasons:
Winter - December, January, February
Spring - March, April, May
Rainy Season - June to mid-July
Summer - mid-July to mid-September
Typhoon Season - mid-September - mid-October
Fall - mid-October to November
Spring or fall are both the ideal. Avoid the summer at all costs. The others aren’t bad, but they aren’t prime vacationing weather.
I largely agree with Sage Rat. I was unfortunately there in Winter (January), and although I still had a good time, I would have enjoyed it much more at a slightly warmer, sunnier time of year. April would be best.
And you didn’t ask, but I want to emphatically agree with KlondikeGeoff. Take the bullet train (‘Shinkansen’) to Kyoto. It’s easy to arrange and not expensive. Kyoto is unmissable, and has all kinds of amazing sights and temples. But the bullet trains themselves are miracles of engineering. Everyone has heard how amazingly fast they are. But no-one tells you how unbelievably smooth and silent they are. It’s a stunning experience, to be enjoying a ride on one of the fastest trains in the world and realise you can barely detect any motion or movement at all.
Oh, I most definitely intend to take a trip on the しんかんせん (shinkansen, or ‘bullet train’. I read somewhere that shinkansen actually means ‘new main line’, but I don’t know how true that is).
So, it looks like last three weeks of April or last two weeks of October/first week of November.
How expensive is Japan in general? Is it Horribly Expensive like England? Are there many youth hostels? Is it expensive to get around?
Shinkansen is not cheap.
Definetely do not go during Summer.
It is not Horribly Expensive. Eat at 7-11 and ramen shops and you will do fine.
Transit isn’t cheap overall.
I have heard that Tokyo and London are reckoned to be two of the most expensive cities either to live in or to visit. Sorry, I don’t have cites to hand to back this up, but I live in London myself and I’ve had many discussions about this sort of thing, over many years, with lots of other travellers, and this opinion keeps cropping up with persuasive consistency.
So, yes, expect it to be on the expensive side. But wherever you go in the world, there are ways of wasting money and ways of saving money and living frugally. Some things are pretty much universal. Ease, speed, comfort, exclusivity, choice and service always cost more than effort, slowness, basics, the common herd, lack of choice and doing it yourself. You make your choices and pay accordingly.
I went to Japan a number of years ago in July. The weather was exactly like it was here in New Jersey, hot and sticky. With the exception of typhoon season, Tokyo weather pretty much mirrors the weather at home in a typical year.
Tokyo may be a little hotter in Summer, which is why their aversion to air conditioning perplexes me. Oh, they have aircon, just not everywhere, like schools and office buildings, and a typical apartment, at least of the friends I visited, doesn’t have central air.
As far as being expensive, yes, Tokyo can be very expensive to visit, especially if you have to live and eat like an American.
As far as accommodations are concerned, if you stay in a ryokan (りょかん、or 旅館 if you want to know the kanji for it) you can save a lot of money during your visit, and many will prepare your meals for you as well.
If you prefer to eat out, typical Japanese fare can be very inexpensive. There are many Ramen or ラメン (yes, Ramen is typically written with katakana) shops in Tokyo, where you can get a very filling meal for the equivalent of approximately six bucks or six hundred yen (roppyakuen, or ろっぴゃくえん, or 六百円 for the kanji). You don’t have to limit yourself to Ramen, as there are many other traditional foods available that are just as easy on the wallet.
Staying at a Hyatt and eating steak every day in Tokyo is a sure way to put a massive strain on your budget.
Well, I’m definitely a youth hostel/りょかん/noodle place/public transit kind of guy. (Not sure about my friend who may be coming, but I don’t think the Hyatt is in either of our futures.)
Speaking of which, how expensive is it to get around?
If you’re in Tokyo, you have a lot of options for travel. You can take the bus, and there are many train options. You have the JR line, which includes the Shinkansen, and the Tokyo Metro and Toei subway lines.
When I was in Tokyo I had no need to take the Shikansen, but did take the subway. You can get day passes for one or a combination of train lines and busses if you like. The Tokyo Metro day pass is only about 7 bucks, and a great bargain if you’re going to be hopping the trains all day.
You can also buy subway tickets a trip at a time. For example, you can take a train from Ikebukuro to Shibuya for about $1.75
IME, the buses are going to be (at least) an order of magnitude harder for a gaijin to navigate than is the Metro or Shinkansen. If OP reads JP, of course, that’s a different equation, but buses . . . I’m fairly intrepid, but that’s daunting.
While I hope to load up on enough Japanese to get by by the time I get there, knowing enough kanji to be able to read place names is doubtful. Talking to my friend… He thinks he won’t have enough money by April, so I’m thinking late October now. That’ll give ne more time to learn Japanese as well.
That’s probably wise, as the better your Japanese is when you go the easier it’ll be for you to get around. However, I wouldn’t worry so much about the language barrier, or let that be the deciding factor in scheduling your adventure, if I were you. There are thousands of English teachers in Japan, over 4500 in the JET program alone, many of whom spoke virtually no Japanese when they arrived in Japan and were assigned their schools.
Tokyo is pretty easy to get around in. Yes, there’s a lot of kanji flying around on street, shop, restaurant, shrine, and building signs, more so in less cosmopolitan areas, but you’ll see just as much, or more, romaji, hiragana, and katakana in the shopping districts and hot spots. And many places use furigana to make it easier for the public to understand their products and or services. The average tourist gets around fine without any knowledge of kanji.
ETA: I think I should state the obvious and advise that I’m no Japan or Tokyo expert, and am going by my own, personal experiences when I was there, so YMM very well V.
No, the deciding factor for the schedule is money more than anything.
Spring is gorgeous. April or May (avoiding Golden Week as advised above) would be great. The cherry blossoms are gorgeous, and you can go 花見 *hanami *(flower viewing)–especially fun with Japanese friends where it’s like a big picnic with lots of booze and you can see straight-laced guys in suits staggering around drunk. Summer is insanely hot and humid (caveat: I was there during a record-breaking heat wave, so YMMV a bit), so avoid June/July/August.
Yes, 新幹線 *Shinkansen *is literally “New Trunk Line.”
Tokyo is pretty expensive, but you can find reasonable hotels, hostels, 旅館 ryokan, etc. And finding cheap food is just a matter of looking around. There was a noodle place near my campus in Ichigaya where I’d get lunch a lot of days for 480円, and you can get a lot of not-complete-crap from a コンビニ (convenience store) like 7-11.
You’ll run into a ton of Japanese who have at least a tiny bit of English and will be happy to use every bit of it to help you out. My mom came to visit for a week while I was there, and she got along just fine with nothing but a little sheet I made up for her with phrases like, “Which way is the train station?”
Place names can be a bit of a problem for nagivation–it’s not unusual to have a train or subway map where all the locations are listed with only kanji on the map, but then only kana on the pricing guide… so you can tell what price of ticket to buy, but not what line to get on. I cheated by using my cellphone’s autocomplete function, but since you won’t be there long enough to bother getting a Japanese phone, that won’t work for you. You should be able to find someone to help you, though–especially staff in the larger stations, like Shinjuku.
One bonus is that every station name has its posted in kanji **and **kana **and **romaji on the track itself, so if you’re watching, you can tell where you are even if your Japanese is shaky.
I want to go in spring, but fall looks more likely.
Maybe it will. I’m trying to find out whether my iPhone 3G will work in Japan. 
Well, if you’ll be there for a few weeks, it might be worth it. When I was there (2004), there was only a minimal penalty for ending your cell phone contract early (something like 2000円, which was less than $20 USD when I was there). 'Course I was also there as a student, which may have affected things (e.g., dunno if you could get a phone without an address).
I second Shot From Guns.. Also, most 携帯電話 (literally portable telephone, pronounced keitai denwa, but usually just stated as keitai (けいたい) or 携帯 for the Kanji) in Japan are under contracts with one of the three main companies (DoCoMo, KDDI, and Vodaphone), unless things have changed in the last year or so.
I think you can get a prepaid phone while you’re there, but they may be expensive.
You can use your iPhone wherever there’s a Wi-Fi signal to check email and browse the web, although you’ll have to pay the local access fee. There’s Wi-Fi at Narita.