Погода: Кобе, апрель

April in Osaka is the blossom month with a deadline attached. Regulars put the season from the end of March to about mid-April and are blunt that by the 15th to the 22nd you have missed it in the city; Mount Yoshino in Nara is the day trip they send late arrivals on. The temperatures they give - 10 to 20C - bracket our row's 11.9C nights and 21C days, and the packing follows from that: layers, long sleeves over a t-shirt, a jumper or light jacket for the evening, and no need for a proper coat. The item they insist on is a rain jacket, because April here is wet - our row carries 137.3mm across 9.8 days. The record: 8.9 hours of sun, humidity 72 percent and AQI 70.

Forum posters consistently rate November as one of the best, most settled months to visit the Kobe and wider Kansai region, describing it as more reliable than the fickle weather of spring. Posters cite temperatures around 19C in late November, expected to drop into the low-to-mid teens by mid-December, with a light jacket or cardigan enough for daytime and a jumper plus a light quilted jacket sufficient for chilly evenings. Posters consistently name the last week of November, from around the 23rd, as a fairly safe bet for peak autumn foliage (koyo) around Kobe, Kyoto and Osaka, though posters note an unusually warm year can push the best colors into early December instead. Posters generally rate November as an excellent, comfortable time to visit Kobe.

Forum posters call May one of Japan's nicest months overall - warm, generally pre-rainy-season, though occasional rain still happens even before the wet season proper arrives (typically starting June 7-10 in nearby Osaka/Kyoto, though one notably early year saw the Kansai region's rainy season begin in mid-May, three weeks ahead of normal). The standard packing advice reflects that uncertainty: everything from short sleeves to a light jacket and a folding rain parka. The reward for visiting in May-June is called genuinely spectacular - deep green foliage, iris blooms and hydrangeas turning sublime shades of blue across the region's gardens and temples.