Japan April trip - how bad is the crowd?

Hi all, I'm new here and planning a Tokyo/Kyoto trip in April.

I heard stories of massive crowds in the Cherry Blossom season/early April, how bad is the situation in Tokyo, Kyoto and maybe Osaka? I'm not a fan of crowds and worry about getting seats in restaurants/trains.

Would it be advisable to go on late April like 17th before Golden week? Will the crowd be lesser? I will be only spending 7 days there.
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated!

If you want to see cherry blossoms, you'll need to put up with crowds around the blossom sights. However, getting seats in restaurants is rarely a problem as there are so many options, and many travellers are locals who return home in the evenings. I didn't notice trains to be any more crowded during April than when I visited in November.

If you go in late April, the blossoms will be over.

Depends where you go. Tokyo and Kyoto are both quite large and there are places with more or fewer people depending on your choices.

Thank you guys for the replies. I don't really like the idea of squeezing through crowds in the attraction sites/blossom sights. I'm thinking to go on a later date to avoid it even if I miss the cherry blossom period. Will it be lesser crowd in late April?

Cherry tree parks in small residential areas have no crowd at all. Just visit any school and you can walk under beautiful trees along the street, because cherry blossoms are related to schooling. It's just the major spots that are overly crowded, and this is only mainly on the best weekends.

So you should either put up with the crowd to experience the most major spots, or you can easily avoid the crowd by dealing with places that most non-tourists enjoy, or places that are un-cherry-blossom.

I heard stories of massive crowds in the Cherry Blossom season/early April, how bad is the situation in Tokyo, Kyoto and maybe Osaka?

Cherry Blossom time is peak season, so expect a big crowd in main tourist destinations. Japan is getting so popular, foreign visitors are increasing dramatically each year. The crowd is just getting bigger. However, if you are visiting during that time, be more concerned about the accommodation. You need to reserve early, or else guarantee a " dilemma"

As others have said the major sites will be crowded but unless you want to picnic under the blossoms you will be fine. I don't often post links to my own stuff but here is a (not very good) video I shot handheld at Ueno park in 2014 mid morning during the peak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOy90pQjyTo you can use to gauge crowd levels I would suggest you look at peoples photo's and videos to get an idea of how busy places are. I wouldnt worry, the crowds are part of it and these are Japanese crowds. I wouldn't go late April as the blossoms will be well past peak by then. I would also book accommodation asap.

Thank you everyone for the information, appreciate it.

I'm thinking to spend like 4-5 days in Kyoto, will be doing the regular tourist thing and visit temples and other attraction sites. But seems like almost every popular spots will be swarming with crowds, made it kind of impossible to enjoy a stroll in a leisurely manner haha.

So how's the crowd situation in like late April before golden week? I might go on a later date even if I miss the cherry blossom period.

Thank you once again.

Still very crowded in Kyoto at the major attractions. But, there are a lot of places that don't make the top-X list of many people and are still very worthwhile visiting.

Go to Kyoto for temples/shrines/culture/attractions, but maybe go somewhere else for cherry blossom.

So how's the crowd situation in like late April before golden week?

I have made regular visit to Japan in the past 15 years.
I was there again mid April, May and early June this year. I noticed that main tourist spots were getting more crowded each year. There are many places will always be less crowded; but you may not be able to avoid certain places when visiting Japan, eg., airports, stations, and certainly most popular tourist attractions.
Visitors coming to Japan have increased dramatically in the past years: 2001 ( full year) 4,771,555; 2009 ( full year) 6,789,658; 2016 ( Jan to Oct ) already 20,113,000.
Those "leisurely day" were voluntarily gone. So, don't be deter by the crowd, take it as travelling experience, enjoy the visit regardless.

To give you some example, I went to Tokyo-Kyoto on 3rd week of March until early April. Firstly, there's very long queue at immigration (Narita around 2-3pm). The queue at JR office to exchange rail pass was snaking several folds outside the office. The next day when heading to Kyoto, the trains were fully booked in the morning and we can only board the 1pm train. In Kyoto, the cherry blossom was not even in peak, but whenever there's 1 tree with full flowers, it was a long queue to take turn taking picture.

Departing from Tokyo, the arrival hall was completely packed with people and departure hall has very long queue for the check in counter. It was not even at the peak of cherry blossom, and I can almost sure that those crowd at the arrival hall were heading to Kyoto.