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2026/09/18

Festival · Okayama · Chugoku

Dogeza Festival

An October festival features a grand procession with a portable shrine led by samurai-clad participants, with local residents bowing in reverence along the streets.

Niimi · 15 Oct 2026

Shrine · Shimane · Chugoku

Mankusen Shrine

Mankusen Shrine in Izumo is said to be the last stop for the gods of Japan before they return home.

Izumo

Festival · Okayama · Chugoku

Bizen Pottery Festival

This pottery festival in Japan's Heritage-certified Bizen production area offers visitors the chance to buy ware and try their hand at the potter's wheel.

Bizen · 17–18 Oct 2026

Area & Points of Interest · Shimane · Chugoku

Inasa-no-Hama

Izumo

Weather

Yamaguchi23°
Okayama22°
Hiroshima23°
Matsue23°
Tottori21°

05:5818:17Yamaguchi

Yen

1 US Dollar¥155
1 Euro¥178.9
1 Singapore Dollar¥121.8
1 Australian Dollar¥110.6

Reference rates · 2026/09/16

Quick poll

Festival

Dogeza Festival

An October festival features a grand procession with a portable shrine led by samurai-clad participants, with local residents bowing in reverence along the streets.

15 Oct 2026Niimi · Okayama

Festival

Bizen Pottery Festival

This pottery festival in Japan's Heritage-certified Bizen production area offers visitors the chance to buy ware and try their hand at the potter's wheel.

17–18 Oct 2026Bizen · Okayama

Festival

Ube Festival

An annual festival celebrating Ube City with parades featuring the Nanban Ondo dance, a contemporary adaptation of traditional mining work songs.

2 Nov 2026Ube · Yamaguchi

Festival

Fox's Wedding - Rice Ear Festival

The Fox's Wedding features a grand procession with white fox bride and groom, rooted in a legend of benevolent spirits said to bring marriage blessings.

3 Nov 2026Kudamatsu · Yamaguchi

Festival

Kurakake Castle Festival

A castle festival features an armored warrior procession, parades, and traditional performances including taiko drumming and Shinto kagura dance.

16 Nov 2026Iwakuni · Yamaguchi

Festival

Kamiari Festival

Once a year the gods of Japan are said to abandon their shrines for Izumo, where a season of quiet rites welcomes, hosts, and finally sends them home again.

18–25 Nov 2026Izumo · Shimane

Festival

Hofu Tenmangu Gojinko-sai Festival (Naked Monk Festival)

This festival honors Tenjin, a tenth-century poet and administrator deified for his integrity, through a ritual dating back over a thousand years.

28 Nov 2026Hofu · Yamaguchi

Festival

Atsukishinmei Festival

Fire-lit pillars adorned with sacred paper stand on beaches as the community performs ceremonial dances twice daily, seeking protection from illness and calamity.

11 Feb 2027Yanai · Yamaguchi

Festival

Saidai-ji Eyo Festival

At this over 500-year-old Okayama festival, men in loincloths compete for a wooden stick, with the victor becoming the 'Lucky Man' and receiving believed year-long blessings.

21 Feb 2027Okayama

Food Fair

Hinase Oyster Festival

A mid-February festival celebrates Hinase's oyster harvest with fresh seafood, barbecue areas, and regional specialties.

22 Feb 2027Bizen · Okayama

Festival

Senteisai festival (Akama-jingu Shrine)

A shrine festival in Shimonoseki honors Emperor Antoku through traditional Shinto rituals, offerings, and cultural performances commemorating the young ruler's tragic death.

2–4 May 2027Yamaguchi

Festival

Shinkawa Market Festival

This downtown festival features food and craft stalls, agricultural products, and family activities rooted in Ube City's late 18th-century market traditions.

5 May 2027Ube · Yamaguchi

Area & Points of Interest

Okunoshima (Rabbit Island)

A small island in the Inland Sea with about a thousand wild rabbits on it, which was the Japanese army's poison gas works until 1945.

Takehara · Hiroshima

Historic Site

Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter

A quarter of white-walled storehouses along a canal in Okayama, built on the rice trade and preserved since the 1960s.

Kurashiki · Okayama

Temple

Shinshoji Zen Temple

A Rinzai Zen temple at Fukuyama with tea houses, moved historic halls, gardens, and one of the largest collections of Hakuin's Zen painting.

Fukuyama · Hiroshima

Park & Garden

Shukkeien Garden

A daimyo garden begun in 1620 in the centre of Hiroshima, destroyed by the atomic bomb and rebuilt over thirty years.

Hiroshima

Park & Garden

Sankeien Garden

A six-hectare strolling garden beside Hiroshima Airport, laid out in three zones that stand for the mountains, the countryside and the sea of Hiroshima.

Mihara · Hiroshima

Mountain

Mount Kurotaki

A 266-metre hill above Tadanoumi in Takehara, half an hour's walk to a view over Okunoshima and the islands of the Seto Inland Sea.

Takehara · Hiroshima

Museum

Irifuneyama Memorial Museum

The restored 1905 residence of the commander of the Kure naval district, with rare gilded leather paper on its walls, and a naval arsenal clock tower.

Kure · Hiroshima