VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

San Jose or Tokyo?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose San Jose for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’s own page.

Choose Tokyo for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. San Jose 30, Tokyo 40: Tokyo leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 53 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Tokyo 68: San Jose leads by 4 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 7 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 30 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 68 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 51 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Tokyo 48: Tokyo leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose and Tokyo.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseTokyo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseTokyo
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation25 m6 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseTokyo
City population1,013,24014,264,798
People per km²2,1676,501
Museums within 10 km19192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose or Tokyo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.