With the emperor's abdication at the end of April comes a bumper Golden Week. Including the weekends on either end, there's a 10-day span from April 27 to May 6 where pretty much the entire country will be on holiday, celebrating the end of the Heisei Era (1989-2019) or a moment of rare freedom from the corporate coalface.
If you've not yet booked to leave the country, forget about it. At the time of publication, flights from Tokyo to Hawaii are going for over ¥600,000 return and a trip to a European capital will set you back around ¥300,000.
Luckily, Japan has a bounty of travel opportunities and there's plenty of last-minute Golden Week excitement to be had without breaking the bank.
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