Golden Week concentrates public holidays and domestic travel demand near the start of May.

JNTO describes mild weather in May: wisteria viewing can run from mid-April into mid-May, and northern Tohoku and Hokkaido may still carry late cherry blossom.

What To Watch

Plan around Golden Week first. Then look for wisteria gardens, late sakura in the north, clear hiking days, and gardens moving from blossom season into early summer green.

Hanafuda Lens

May is the iris suit. The four cards are the eight-plank bridge, a plain ribbon, and two iris chaff cards.

How We Know

This page uses JNTO for May weather, wisteria, and late northern cherry-blossom context, plus the Cabinet Office for public-holiday framing around Golden Week. Nintendo Museum supplies the Hanafuda month structure, and Koi-Koi supplies the exact card face used in the hero image.

The Iris Suit

May's Hanafuda suit is Iris: four exact Koi-Koi card faces in the site deck, shown here without redraws or substitution.

May Hanafuda card: Iris, Eight-plank bridge, Animal/Object
Eight-plank bridgeAnimal/Object
May Hanafuda card: Iris, Plain ribbon, Ribbon
Plain ribbonRibbon
May Hanafuda card: Iris, Iris chaff, Chaff
Iris chaffChaff
May Hanafuda card: Iris, Iris chaff, Chaff
Iris chaffChaff

Sources

  1. Japan in May, Japan National Tourism Organization. Accessed 2026-09-02. Used for Golden Week, wisteria-viewing, late northern cherry blossom, and mild-weather framing.
  2. National Holidays for 2026 and 2027, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. Accessed 2026-09-01. Used for Japan's September 2026 public holidays and holiday-law notes.
  3. Try Playing Hanafuda!, Nintendo Museum. Accessed 2026-09-01. Used for the 48-card, 12-month Hanafuda structure and Nintendo Museum workshop context.