Mini-Trip Report in case it helps someone avoid disappointment.
Just tried to go to Osaka aquarium today, May 4th at 2pm and it was an estimated 4 hour wait to get inside. I never even considered it would take that long. Every guide I saw said it would be very busy and crowded during golden week but that you only needed to allocate 2-3 hours for the entire excursion.
Not posting this to complain, I just felt like I tried looking up info about the aquarium and would have liked to have seen a warning about the wait times being several hours long. So I’m posting to report that is the case for anyone else trying to look into it.
The very kind staff also said they expect similar crowds tomorrow all day.
I, and my group, planned our vacation poorly wish we did Osaka and Kyoto last week and Tokyo this week. Our fault .
33 comments
My family isn’t planning our Osaka trip till next week.. we are purposely avoiding this whole Golden Week.. Japan is crowded enough as it is, i would never want to get in line during a holiday where they are all off work.. geesh. Sorry OP
Went to a popular onigiri restaurant (onigiri bongo) 2 days ago and the wait was 4 hours. Pokemon center was 90 minutes wait in skytree, Golden week is insane. Was here in 2018 end of may and the pokemon centers were deserted, just a handful of tourist
I’ve visited the Osaka aquarium 2nd week of the April.
There were no queue when I’ve entered but by the time we left waiting time on the entrance said 60min.
That’s the weekend of non busy period!
I would recommend anyone to pre-purchase the ticket with allocated entry time, so you do not wait outside.
Golden week is the worst. Sorry OP.
For many Japanese, this is the first golden week that they are venturing out and traveling since before Covid, and of course tourists are flocking to Japan with pent up fervor, so things are especially crowded and crazy this year
Yep, just avoid everything in any major city during Golden Week. We drove to Miyazaki and even popular but remote road station we stopped at had an hour wait. The lunch was well worth it, but added a total of 2 hours to the drive as it took an hour to eat it as well.
Luckily Miyazaki is nice and relaxing, off of many tourists radars.
Yeah, unfortunately any place popular with families is going to be hit extra hard during Golden Week. All the kids are out of school and all of us parents have to think of things to do with them!
>wish we did Osaka and Kyoto last week and Tokyo this week
To be fair anything family oriented will be just as full in Tokyo.
The queue to get inside Osaka Castle looked at least 3 hours long, however walking around outside was beautiful regardless!
I would say avoid the Aquariam tbh. It was horribly busy and loud when I went and I really couldn’t enjoy it. The penguins there seemed sad as well 🙁 felt like a waste of a day tbh
That sounds insane. I went there in mid April and didn’t even need to queue. It’s not even that good tbh.
Everywhere is crowded in japan. Went to Korea town here in shin-Okubo in Tokyo and I could barely move haha it was so packed. I wanted to go to fujikawaguchiko but all train and bus tickets had no reservations left. Luckily I love here so I. An just plan after golden week is over. Traveling around golden week just expect a lot of crowds and long waits for everything .
Honestly I’m currently in the Gifu area and it’s been mostly chill.
Shirakawago there was a line that made my bus 30 min late but nothing major and it was a pleasant walk.
Avoid kids stuff and you’ll be fine.
Stations are a bit more busy but I never had any major issue with my travels during this week and the good thing is that there are a lot of fun activities around the cities I’ve been this week
yeah Golden Week really is another level.
We went to the aqaurium this past Monday, but at 5pm. No line to get in and wasn’t crowded at all. It was a pleasant surprise!
We got into Osaka today from Kobe, and before that, Hiroshima. (Our Japan time started in Fukuoka.Day tripped to Nagasaki twice.) The whole time was calm. We were able to get Hanshin Tigers tickets yesterday. It was packed and it felt like we were the only foreigners there. Today was crazy busy, though. Osaka Station and the metro were bananas. The line at Osaka Castle was laughably long. With rain in the forecast this weekend, I’m hoping the aquaium isn’t still crazy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is.
Yeah, was in Ueno park today and there was a lot of people around because of golden week, museum and zoo were likely quite full, luckily I was just passing by.
Most likely due to 2020 when covid happened, which put a lot of people wanting to visit Japan to a halt until now and visiting Japan isn’t as strict as before when people needed to provide negative covid test results multiple times.
I usually travel to Japan around Spring and Autumn before covid, the crowd wasn’t as crazy like now.
I’ll be visiting Japan next week, got two weeks vacation.
Back in February I specifically planned this trip for *after* Golden Week because I know how crazy busy it is.
Is Golden Week just the week of the holidays or do the weeks before and after also experience crazy crowd levels?
Wow!! I went last Friday and just walked in, no wait at all. On the other hand, we’re in Kyoto now and it’s absolutely insane.
Oof, I went during summer break in August. No wait but still super crowded from all the kids out of school. You can barely see the tanks let alone have a moment of peace watching them.
4 hour wait? What’s the normal wait time outside of Golden Week?
I’m so happy I went the weeks before golden week.
I went to Senso-ji today and holy moly, it was so crowded you could barely walk there
did you have timed tickets already or were just trying to do a walk in to the aquarium?
Well I mean the guides didn’t lie. They where probably talking about the excursion only. Not the wait times to get in, that’s impossible to know.
I went about a month ago, it was honestly a bit of a let down. It was so packed it was hard to actually see anything, and it’s promoted as Japan’s biggest aquarium, which it is, but I didn’t realise it was mostly just one big tank that you saw over and over again from different floors.
I definitely would not want to be waiting for 4 hours to see it.
I’m headed there on the 22nd so I’ll get to miss the big lines I hope!
Yah. Apparently haneda is now a local tourist attraction. I’m not sure if 80 percent of the people there today had any plans to travel. Pretty douchy to clog restaurants intended for people actually traveling. Like every fucken family with kids decided hey, let’s go to the airport today. Fuck me.
visited the Osaka Acquarium 2 weeks ago – arrived 2 hours before it closed and it was pretty much empty.
tbh the acquarium was disappointing. Yes it was big, but the pools for bigger animals like seals and dolphins seemed way too small. Also, compared to other acquariums like Monterey Bay and Vancouver, many of the exhibits seemed bare bones – the main tank with the whale sharks was completely bare. There wasn’t even any sand on the bottom.
I don’t understand why any foreign tourists would want to visit Japan during Golden Week. Feels like you’re making your trip a lot more stressful than it needs to be. At least cherry blossom season has the cherry blossoms themselves to justify braving the crowds and paying high prices.
I support this human abuse in compensation for the animal abuse going on inside