My current itinerary has me arriving at KIX on June 6 and departing NRT on the 16th. I see that June has the highest average rainfall for many locations the southern half. Highest month is July in Tohoku. I was all over Japan at the end of May a couple of years ago and the weather was fine.

What is the normal pattern of rain in June? I'm hoping that the accurate answer is that the rain usually starts in the middle of the month and rains in buckets in the second half of June.

My initial plan is to spend my time in central Japan (Himeji and Takayama are on my list). I plan to go to Nagasaki some day and would really like to return to Kyushu and spend most or all of my time there, but I think June would not be the time for it. Would like to return to Tazawako some day too.

I was looking into that timeframe as well. I'm actually leaving the 6th of June. At any rate, weather.com's stat shows June to have some of the highest rainfall. However, the stats only show a cummlative average over several years. I couldn't find data just from last years rainfall. It would be a bummer if it rained during your entire trip. But I don't you'll be able to get a good estimate probably until 2-1 week prior to your departure. Just cross your fingers right now.

Like you experienced, May is absolutely lovely in terms of weather. June may be rainier...but OK I think. We live in Kanazawa which is one of the rainiest cities in Japan - in 9 years, June has been fine. Areas more to the south may be rainier in June...but we've travelled about a bit in June and had lovely weather...not too hot yet, not too humid yet.

My photo of the lake in Kenrokuen shows blue sky on May 31, 2002. Same in the photo of Nagoya castle the next day.

All I have to do is flip my itinerary so that I stop over in Japan and then go to Bali. My plan was to go to Bali first based solely on the fodors.com recommendation, but I see that temps and rain averages are quite similar between May and June in Bali.

We were in Japan the first two weeks in June 3 years ago. Arrived in Tokyo, hot & humid. Nikko- very rainy and cool, then Kyoto- hot, but not unbearably so. Takayama was lovely and warm. Nagoya next- hot and humid, but still sunny. Last 3 days on Tokyo were miserably hot and humid, but no rain.

Everyone kept saying, this isn't bad at all, just see in a few weeks how hot it will be!!

Head for the hills is my advice in the Summer.

I wonder if it will be as humid as the Miami summers I had to endure for a few years. Anything above 85% is uncomfortable. Humidity + Japan never crossed my mine. I was so concerned about rain that the heat didn't cross my mine. The data only displayed rainfall averages and heat index, but nothing on humidity. Now I can at least plan to pack the appropriate wardrobes. Thanks for the tip.