A winter table in Japan is decided in autumn. The houses travelers ask us about most open their books one to three months ahead, which means December 2026 and January 2027 are released between late September and early December, most of them in October. If your trip is fixed, the calendar below matters more than any other part of the planning.
Where things stand on 2 October
If your trip is in December, much of it is already open: houses that book three months ahead released December in September, and houses that book two months ahead released it on 1 October. Houses that book one month ahead, such as Soujiki Nakahigashi, open December on 1 November. January 2027 opens through late October and November, and February from late November. If your December dates already show full online, the telephone and returned seats are what remain. The general rhythm is set out in our reservation calendar guide.
The four ways a book opens
A fixed day, a set number of months ahead. The most common rule. The book opens on a named day, usually the 1st, sometimes the 20th or 25th, for a whole month. Some houses count calendar days; phone houses often count their own first business day, so a closed day moves the release.
A rolling window. Each date opens a fixed distance ahead, two months or ninety days, so there is no single race, only a steady edge that moves forward a day at a time.
The platform drop. Houses on OMAKASE, Ikyu or TableCheck open at a published clock time, and some add account limits, such as one booking per quarter. Beyond the scheduled drops, cancelled seats reappear at no announced hour.
The announced phone day. A few houses post each month’s reception day on Instagram instead of keeping a fixed date. You cannot plan around a date that does not yet exist; you can only watch for the post.
Whatever the door, the online calendar is rarely the whole book. At most small counters the telephone, in Japanese, and returning guests who rebook at the counter take a large share of each month before anything reaches the public. A calendar that shows full is a calendar that shows its online portion.
The opening dates, house by house
All times are Japan Standard Time. Dates are computed from each house’s published rule as of 2 October 2026.
| House | Where | Door | December 2026 | January 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ginza Shinohara | Ginza, Tokyo | OMAKASE | Opened 25 Sep | Sun 25 Oct, 00:00 |
| Higashi‑Azabu Amamoto | Higashi‑Azabu, Tokyo | OMAKASE only | Opened 1 Jul | Opened 1 Oct (January to March) |
| Kiyota | Ginza, Tokyo | Ikyu, or phone | Tue 20 Oct | Fri 20 Nov |
| Torishiki | Meguro, Tokyo | Phone, 17:00–19:00 | Posted on Instagram each month | Posted on Instagram each month |
| Hantei | Nezu, Tokyo | Phone, TableCheck, OpenTable | By phone two months before each date; online about six weeks ahead | By phone two months before each date; online about six weeks ahead |
| Gion Sasaki | Gion, Kyoto | Phone, from 10:00 | Opened 1 Oct | Wed 4 Nov at the earliest |
| Soujiki Nakahigashi | Sakyo, Kyoto | Phone, from 08:00 | Sun 1 Nov | Tue 1 Dec |
| Kikuzushi | Kasuga, Fukuoka | OMAKASE, or phone | Opened 1 Oct, 10:00 | Sun 1 Nov, 10:00 |
| Restaurant Moliere | Sapporo | Phone | Opened early September | Opened from the start of October |
| L'évo | Toga, Toyama | TableCheck, Pocket Concierge | About 90 days before each date | About 90 days before each date |
Reading the table
Tokyo. Ginza Shinohara opens each month three months ahead at midnight on the 25th; January opens at 00:00 on 25 October, which is 11:00 on 24 October in New York, and each OMAKASE account may hold one booking per quarter. Higashi‑Azabu Amamoto opens a whole quarter at once, at noon on the 1st of January, April, July and October regardless of weekday or holiday (January to March opened on 1 October), and the person who books must be the person who attends; our Amamoto guide covers the drop in detail. Kiyota releases on Ikyu on the 20th without a published hour, and is closed Sundays and holidays. Torishiki’s official site speaks of the first business day, but the day is set and posted each month: October 2026 opened on Wednesday 12 August, so watch Instagram rather than the 1st. Our Torishiki guide explains the two‑hour window. At Hantei, a dinner on Saturday 19 December opens on 19 October; call on that day for December weekends. The wider city is covered in how to book restaurants in Tokyo.
Kyoto. Gion Sasaki opens on the first business day of each month for every date through the end of the month two months ahead. December opened on Thursday 1 October. For January, 1 November is a Sunday and 2 November a Monday, both closing days, and 3 November is a national holiday, so the line opens no earlier than Wednesday 4 November; irregular closures can move it again. Soujiki Nakahigashi works one month ahead from 08:00 on the 1st, so December is a November call, and January a call on Tuesday 1 December; the house closes on some Tuesdays, so confirm that date nearer the time. Returning guests there may book up to five months ahead, and cancelled seats sometimes reappear online. More Kyoto rules are in how to book restaurants in Kyoto.
Beyond the two cities. Kikuzushi outside Fukuoka releases two months ahead on OMAKASE at 10:00 on the 1st, and the month goes within minutes. Restaurant Moliere in Sapporo takes January only from the start of October, by phone in Japanese, and asks guests from abroad for their hotel and dates. L'évo in the mountains of Toyama opens each date about 90 days ahead, so the last days of December open in early October, and January dates through October and into early November.
Opening between now and the end of December
A selection of houses with a guide or a page in our collection, all taking bookings in a way we can follow:
- Kiyota, Ginza: Ikyu on 20 October (December) and 20 November (January).
- Ginza Shinohara: OMAKASE at 00:00 on 25 October (January) and 25 November (February).
- Sushi Saito Azabudai: OMAKASE at 00:00 on 1 November (January).
- Harutaka and Hakkoku, Ginza: 1 November for January.
- Kagurazaka Ishikawa: 1 November for February.
- Torioka and Hatou, Tokyo: 1 November for December.
- Honkogetsu, Osaka: by phone from 09:00 on 2 November for January.
- Kikuzushi, Fukuoka: OMAKASE at 10:00 on 1 November for January.
Every house’s next date is on its page in our booking calendar, in your own time zone.
The year‑end weeks
Many restaurants close for several days around the New Year, and each sets its own dates, often announcing them only in autumn. The weeks before Christmas and the last working days of December fill early, since the same release days serve everyone in Japan planning a year‑end dinner. Some houses — including ones we called in Kanazawa in October — decide their New Year opening days only in November, so a date between 29 December and 3 January may not be bookable until then. Treat any date between late December and early January as provisional until the house confirms it is open, and prefer early December or mid‑January if you have the choice.
Being ready on the day
Most release hours are Japanese business hours, which fall overnight across Europe and the Americas. With a free account, you save the houses you want and receive an email the day before, on the morning of release day (08:00 JST) and about 30 minutes before when the opening time is known, in your own time zone; houses that open a little every day come in a weekly summary. Platform bookings such as OMAKASE are personal to the account holder, so the alert is there to put you at the page when it opens. We do not book from your account, but our desk can phone the house and ask; if no seat can be secured, nothing is charged.
For phone‑led houses in our collection, our Tokyo desk makes the call. Requesting is free; when a seat is held, we ask you to approve it, and the booking fee (¥6,000 per seat at a house in our collection, ¥12,000 elsewhere) is charged only if we secure the table and after you approve. Nothing is charged before. If your winter dates are set, send them to the desk before the next release.
