January 2026 exceptionally chilly in Japan?
It’s been awfully cold this January in Tokyo. I mean, really cold. A huge cold air mass from Siberia has been sitting over the Sea of Japan and dumped literally tons of snow on that side of the country last week.
Honestly, the weather alone has killed my motivation. As you might know, most buildings in Japan, unless you’re in Hokkaido, are not exactly built with serious insulation in mind. So when it’s cold outside, and somehow still cold inside your apartment. I’ve been feeling half-frozen all day, like I should just hibernate until March… even though my house is supposedly better insulated than average.
At some point I started wondering: is this January really colder than last year, or am I just being overreacting?
So I did a quick fact check.
Below is a graph showing the daily low temperatures in Saitama City (a suburb of Tokyo).
Looking at it, this January isn’t really worse than last year. If anything, it’s about the same. That said, last week was definitely brutal.
So maybe this winter isn’t especially bad overall, but that one stretch of icy days really left an impression.
Anyway, I’m hoping that things start to thaw soon and that spring shows up right on schedule.
2026/01/26 9:57 AM - Tweet Facebook