This is hypothetic as I can’t move yet due to my job, however I thought it would be really interesting to hear from people who may know more than me on this:
I live in Osaka and have done for a long time, and every summer just as clockwork as the summer itself I openly complain about the weather. When it’s actually sunny I can weirdly cope but you know how we have these months on end of that weather (obviously during rainy season but also out of it) where it’s stupidly hot, so humid you feel like you’re swimming, and the sky is just a thick grey making you forgot what the sun looked like…
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Me and wife decided if we stay in Japan for good we would like to possibly move somewhere in the country to escape this.
My wife’s parents are in Okayama, so the closer we stay to Okayama the better, though of course to have any real change in climate I understand we would need to move further away. My point is there must be somewhere a little colder without needing to go to Hokkaido?
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Aomori, Niigata and Akita I know are all colder, and Yamagata gets the most snow in all of Japan so they are all candidates, but is there anywhere a little closer that would have a significant drop in heat and humidity in the summer?
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I get this is very vague but honestly we haven’t decided anything so this is merely just to hear your thoughts. Anyone who’s moved and felt a relief from Japan’s summers and felt happy they did so.
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Thank you!
30 comments
?? Is Okasa that different from Tokyo? I’m usually used to blue skies in summer. It’s only ever cloudy if it’s about to piss down.
Be closer to mountains. Yamagata is a nice place.
I also am in love with Kanazawa.
If you don’t want to go North you can always go Up.
Places like Nasukogen in Tochigi is cooler than surrounding areas due to the higher altitude. We’re talking average daytime high of 25C in August at the peak of summer.
It won’t have all the conveniences of big cities obviously but there are options south of Tohoku if you are willing
I heard a lot of people felt better once they moved to Hokkaido or somewhere else more up North, but that might be an issue with your wife’s parents living situation. Personally, if I had to move, I would be living in Shizuoka somewhere close to the beach. At least grey skies are somewhat beautiful when you’re overlooking the sea and Shizuoka has some really nice beaches and nature.
only problems with moving to the inaka/out by the mountains/sea, wherever are all the problems why people leave in the first place: crumbling/rusting infrastructure, dying economies, aging population, lack of access to medical care and social services… add in natural disasters combined with lack of infrastructure and manpower…
unless of course y’all are rich and shit and none of that matters…
Since we are being hypothetical, the best thing is to leave for a month during summer. Pre-trip you are excited about the upcoming trip and post-trip you are excited to be back.
Okayama isn’t called the sunny country for nothing. I highly recommend the place if you’re OK with it being hotter than Osaka and the period of what is called 凪, lack of wind, in the afternoon.
Kita Ward in Kobe is another option. It’s actually a few degrees cooler because it’s in Rokko Mountains, so much so you need winter tires from November.
My family’s from Okayama and I lived there for a period of time. Even if it’s hot, it’s also always sunny, and actually drier than Tokyo or Osaka, so overall feels cooler. Not really an answer, but just saying, Okayama itself isn’t a bad idea.
If you want to avoid snow, Niigata is not the place. Southern Niigata gets 2-3m of snow every winter and even my coastal town gets 1-2m in winter (however, they do an excellent job plowing). Right now it’s 23, cloudy, and rainy. I don’t think it’s as horribly hot or humid as Kansai but still pretty hot and humid in the summer. Still have the “I’m doing nothing but I’m dripping in sweat” season.
Rainy season is grey, that will end soon/has ended. Summer hasn’t kicked off properly yet in Tokyo anyway, wait for the sound of セミ (there are some already). Then the sun will arrive.
Okayama has a lot of sunny clear weather. But, still as hot and humid as Osaka, or at least not noticeably different (at least in urban areas). You could live in an area with decent green and near rivers and it would be much cooler. Depending what you do for work, you may have trouble finding employment though, and on average wages are a lot less than Osaka.
Your only choice for noticeably less heat and humidity is Hokkaido, really.
Rural okayama and Hyogo and Hiroshima up in the mountains might be better, especially on the north side.
Really surprised about the Okayama comments and really interested
I don’t know about the grey skies, but in general anything at higher elevation, or north of the mountain ranges will be cooler, with the tradeoff that it’s freezing in winter, and gets substantial snowfall. Sanda-shi in Hyogo comes to mind. Also, possibly Tottori if you look straight north of Okayama.
Gunma is nice. The northern part has cold winters (but also a ton of hot springs) and mild-ish summers.
The southern part gets humid in the summer but the mountain breezes are incredible and they also block basically all of the snow in the winter.
Top of Ikoma ?
According to heat bulb website, it is cooler than Osaka. So should be most mountainous area with lot of green. Even in lower area, if you manag to find a place not paked with building and with significant amount of airflow and vegetation it should fell better.
For grey sky, no idea where you came from to find Osaka sky anything like grey, so can not help regarding that.
You will most likely need a car and I hope you have no problem with giant bee.
Edit :
Heat bulb website :
[Heat Illness Prevention Information: Current WBGT and Forecast (env.go.jp)](https://www.wbgt.env.go.jp/en/wbgt_data.php?region=07&prefecture=62#0)
I live in Aomori and our skies are grey as hell and we’ve got 90% humidity same as elsewhere 🙁
The summer will be a good few degrees cooler than you’re used to, but once you acclimatise to the area it’ll feel just as icky.
There’s also the downside of our frankly horrendous winters, where for 4 months everything closes several hours earlier, there’s no major entertainment, walking becomes literally life threatening (healthy people die every year from falling snow piles, slipping on the ice, and being hit by vehicles sliding off the untreated roads), driving becomes extra risky, and public transport journeys triple in time.
If you’re big into events and concerts and such, much of that never visits us. Nationwide tours more often than not skip the prefecture entirely. Living here means committing to travelling several hours south to do anything that isn’t nature, history, or drinking related.
We also have the worst health in the country thanks to the rough winters, below average incomes, and the boredom of the populace. Several of my Japanese friends here often lament having to travel hours and use up entire weekends just to see specialists for health issues.
Now, that’s not to say there isn’t good stuff here. The natural beauty is breathtaking (we have some of the country’s favourite views), winter sports here are second to none, and the seafood scene is pretty damn great. Just keep in mind that the grass is very much not greener here…
…it’s frozen.
I was in Nagano for awhile and though it definitely is cooler than Osaka for longer (it had low 20+ degrees weather until midway into June) after that the temperature became on par with Osaka. That isn’t accounting for the urban heat island effect though, and also winters are brutal.
>Aomori, Niigata and Akita
Ahaha, ahahahaha.
Akita, while a wonderful place to live most of the time, has on average the most cloudy days of any place in the country. Its like.. 274 days a year its grey. Living here really tests me sometimes.
Not to mention, humidity doesnt really drop that much, the southern cities of Yokote and Yuzawa are often 32 + degrees in the summer with a humidex of 90ish. Its literally hell. Akita city, is also pretty humid in the summer since its surrounded by rice patties and is a natural lowland.
Aomori and Niigata are pretty much the same (anywhere on the Japan Sea or surrounded by mountains is like that)
If you want to stay around Okayama/Osaka there isn’t really any way to escape the humidity. You can go live on a mountain and it will be a bit cooler but not much. Pretty much goes for the whole country though.
The only real solution is to move somewhere where its not as humid. mid July until mid September is usually the worst so if money and/or kids aren’t a problem you could look into vacation homes if you want to live around Okayama/Osaka the rest of the year.
Have you looked at Tsuruga in Fukui? It’s about two hours away by train from Kyoto and seems to be a little cooler than Osaka. I visited recently because it was about the furthest I could get with my Kansai area jr pass and absolutely loved it-
https://preview.redd.it/rpkekjqk5i8b1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=937a9474622369e648c5a8ef4a3c8775cd20778f
All the main streets are covered like this and it’s super pretty- It’s by the mountains, but it’s in a valley by the ocean, so idk how much it benefits from the mountain coolness. Maybe I just loved it and am looking for any excuse to talk about it-
I’m in Yamaguchi City, on the south side (between the shinkansen and the airport). It’s further south than Tokyo and Osaka but right on the coast, so summer feels much more livable. We had a few days with complete snow coverage this winter, but the climate is warm enough that agriculture continues year-round (in other words – real snow, but it isn’t that cold).
It’s less than 30 minutes to both the airport and the shinkansen, and walking distance to the beach and the mountains. Property is cheap, and if you’re moving from Kantou the local government offers some grants (I got 1M JPY) to encourage relocation.
Definitely recommend it!
Near Osaka too was in okinawa for travel end of may almost not a freaking day of blue sky since I came back
And the rain…
Every year same situation can’t stand no more I’m using this summer to try various places (next up Miyazaki next week) and in a couple of years max I’m out of Kansai I hope
I’ll be following this post closely
Tokyo is same right now
Ishigakii i would say.
Even southern kyushu, although more tropical style heat,sill has the relentless grey for most of the summer
You either need to be up high in elevation or far North in latitude.
Move to Hokkaido
Hummm afaik you’ll have this problem to some degree everywhere in Japan. The japanese humid summer and rainy season are notorious.
I went to Miyakojima and Okinawa 3 weeks ago for 3 days and in the last day (just as the rainy season was starting) it was raining and humid as hell.
At least it was warm enough that almost no one was too bothered by it (except me that got my socks completely wet 😩).
The other two days it was good actually, and although it was quite hot and humid, at least the sky was only partially cloudy.
I also live in Osaka btw
Hida? Weather is great right now. Blue skies after rain
I live in Takasaki,Gunma, which is also very hot and humid. But (when I had a car) I would sometimes go for a drive to Karuizawa, just over the Nagano border. It’s a 45 minute drive or so from my place. As I drove I would watch the temperature change on my dashboard temp gauge. One day I saw it change by 6 degree celsius in like 20 minutes.
This was summer though, when it was like 40 degrees in takasaki. I don’t know about rainy season though. Google says its only 2 degrees cooler than here right now.
And I hear its expensive there. It’s also a tourist town. People come up from tokyo in the summer, and I think there’s not much going on in the winter.
But on hot summer days here I fantasize about moving there.