Common questions
Japan has four sharply drawn seasons.
Autumn, from late October to late November, is as good as spring, and books up just as fast. Clear skies, 15 to 20°C (59 to 68°F), and maples that turn red from north to south over about 6 weeks.
Winter is dry and bright in Tokyo and Kyoto alike, cold but rarely wet, and it is the season for onsen, the hot-spring baths, where you bathe outdoors in 40°C (104°F) water, sometimes in the snow.
Spring is mild, but it concentrates the world's demand on the 3 weeks of cherry blossom, with the prices that implies. Once Golden Week ends on May 5, fares fall back while the weather stays excellent until the rainy season arrives in early June.
Summer comes with a warning. June brings tsuyu, the rainy season, and July and August reach 35°C (95°F) at 80 percent humidity. It is not a deal-breaker (empty temples in the rain have their charm, and it is fireworks season), but you want to know before you book.
Booking as early as you can doesn't bring the fare down: a ticket bought 6 months ahead is almost never a bargain.
Fares climb sharply in the last few weeks before departure, and buying very early buys you choice, not savings. The "How it moves" block shows every day whether a drop is settling in for your dates.
In the busy periods it's where you stay that sets the calendar: a ryokan (a traditional inn) in Kyoto in late November or over Golden Week gets booked the day sales open, about 6 months ahead, while the plane ticket can still wait.
British Airways and Japan Airlines both fly Heathrow to Tokyo Haneda without a stop, in around 12 hours. All Nippon Airways serves the route too. Gatwick has no nonstop service to Japan at all, which is why a Gatwick fare is always a connection.
That short list matters for the price. With 2 or 3 carriers on a route there is little competition, and nonstop fares from London move slowly and stay high compared with what one connection costs.
We cannot answer that with numbers, and we would rather say so than guess. Our fare records come from a cache that reflects what people actually search for, and it holds almost nothing for Manchester, Edinburgh or Birmingham to Japan.
In practice you will be connecting anyway, either through London or through a European or Gulf hub. Comparing a Manchester fare against a London one plus a domestic connection is worth doing yourself before you commit.
Haneda sits about 15 kilometers from central Tokyo, some 30 minutes by monorail or on the Keikyu line, for a few hundred yen. Narita is around 60 kilometers out: an hour on the Narita Express and about ¥3,000 (about £14).
Most nonstop flights from London now land at Haneda.
