February holds the year's lowest average temperatures in every city on this page, yet it is not a quiet month everywhere. Sapporo's Snow Festival, held over roughly the first half of February, fills the city's parks with carved snow and ice for a fortnight and books its hotels out well ahead. Further south, plum blossom is moving up the map behind January's early flowering in Kyushu, and the first hints of the coming cherry season are still eight or nine weeks away.
the weather
The weather
Tokyo's February days average a high of 10.9°C and a low of 2.1°C. Kyoto runs close to the same figures, 10°C by day and 1.6°C overnight, since both cities sit in the same broad climate band despite Kyoto's inland basin sharpening the extremes at either end of the year. Sapporo is a different country: an average high of 0.4°C and a low of -6.2°C, figures from the Japan Meteorological Agency's published climate normals for 1991 to 2020, the thirty-year average against which every year in Japan is still read. Rain follows the same normals: Tokyo averages 56.5 millimetres of precipitation across around 5.4 days with measurable rain in February, while Sapporo's February total, 91.9 millimetres, falls almost entirely as snow.
in season
What is in season
- Sapporo Snow Festival, held over roughly the first half of February.
- Plum blossom (ume) continues its move north, typically reaching Kyoto and Tokyo by late February.
- Setsubun, marking the traditional turn of the season, falls in early February.
- Ski season across Hokkaido and the Japan Alps remains at its deepest.
- Oysters and fugu (pufferfish) are at their best on winter menus.
beyond the three cities
Beyond Tokyo, Kyoto and Sapporo
The same spread holds in February. Kyushu's plum blossom is often at its own peak in early February, weeks ahead of Kyoto's; Okinawa is a subtropical outlier where a light jacket, not a coat, is the norm even at the year's coldest point. Sapporo's Snow Festival exists precisely because the city can rely on deep, settled snow for the whole of February, a certainty no city further south can offer.
closed and crowded
What is closed, and what is crowded
February carries no nationwide closure. The one exception to the quiet is Sapporo itself during the Snow Festival, when the city's hotels are booked out well in advance and its central park is at capacity most evenings. Tokyo and Kyoto stay uncrowded, cold and clear, much as they were in January, and February is, alongside January, one of the two calmest months of the year to visit either city. Opening hours at smaller shops, temples and museums vary enough by day and by property that any single visit is worth confirming the same week, rather than relying on a printed schedule alone.
what to wear
What to wear
The same standard as January: a full winter coat, scarf and gloves for Tokyo and Kyoto, and proper winter boots, thermal layers and a windproof shell for Sapporo, where festival evenings are spent standing outdoors in temperatures well below freezing. Comfortable, easily removed shoes are worth choosing whatever the season, since temples, ryokan and traditional restaurants alike expect shoes off at the door, often several times in a single day.
where the tours run
Where Luxury Japan Travel goes in February
No fixed departure of Luxury Japan Travel's own tours runs in February. As in January, guests travelling this month are directed to the Custom Tour of Japan, built around the dates that suit them, with a minimum length of five nights and no ceiling on the size of the party.
the year
Continue through the year
This page is one of twelve, one for each month of the Japanese year, each reporting the same weather, season and closure detail in its own month and linking both of its neighbours in the sequence. February sits between January and March on that calendar, and the full set is gathered in The Japan Edition's Seasons hub.