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The week the country goes on holiday at the same time, then the month the tea industry quietly stops sleeping. Golden Week traffic on the Tomei Expressway and 88th-night tea-picking happen the same fortnight, which is the kind of split personality May has.
May 2026
Dates for 2026
May 1
Apr 29 - May 5 · National holiday
Four national holidays clustered in seven days: Shōwa Day (Apr 29), Constitution Memorial Day (May 3), Greenery Day (May 4), Children's Day (May 5). Airlines and shinkansen book out months in advance, the Tōmei Expressway moves at walking pace, and hotels in tourist cities run peak-season pricing. Locals who can take the full week off either travel overseas or stay home entirely.
Apr 29 - May 5 · National holiday
Four national holidays clustered in seven days: Shōwa Day (Apr 29), Constitution Memorial Day (May 3), Greenery Day (May 4), Children's Day (May 5). Airlines and shinkansen book out months in advance, the Tōmei Expressway moves at walking pace, and hotels in tourist cities run peak-season pricing. Locals who can take the full week off either travel overseas or stay home entirely.
May 5 · National holiday
Children's Day, historically Boy's Day (tango no sekku, still the formal name). Families with sons display kabuto warrior helmets and gogatsu-ningyō samurai dolls indoors, hang koinobori carp streamers outside, and eat kashiwa-mochi (mochi wrapped in oak leaf) or chimaki (sweet rice in bamboo leaf). The kabuto display is the visible one — black lacquer and gold metalwork on a red-felt stand.
Early-mid May · Seasonal food
The first sencha harvest of the year, picked around the 88th day after the lunar spring (hachijūhachiya, roughly May 2). The leaves are softer, the flavor cleaner and sweeter than later harvests. Uji (Kyoto) and Shizuoka send the named lots; Yame in Fukuoka gets the gyokuro recognition. Specialty tea shops put the new-harvest packaging up front, sometimes with the picking date printed on it.
2nd Sunday of May · Modern / imported
Mother's Day. Imported but fully landed — carnations (the symbol flower, traditionally red) sell out the day before, florists run pre-order systems weeks ahead. The default gift is flowers; a meal out, a department-store gift box of seasonal sweets, or a handwritten note all count.