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The First-Timer's Japan Guide16-page PDF, in your welcome email.

The First-Timer's Japan Guide

Guides, places, and what's on across Japan, written at street level.

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Festival

Gion Festival

A month-long Kyoto festival centered on Yasaka Jinja Shrine features sacred rituals, food stalls, illuminated floats, and culminates in a grand procession and parade.

1–31 Jul 2027Kyoto · Kansai

Festival

Hakata Gion Yamakasa

Teams parade towering floats through Fukuoka in this seven-century-old festival, competing to navigate the course fastest while traditional music and crowds fill the streets.

1–15 Jul 2027Fukuoka · Kyushu

Festival

The 74th Shonan Hiratsuka Tanabata Festival

The 74th edition of a summer festival known for elaborate street decorations and featuring the Tanabata Dance Thousand-Person Parade on its opening day.

Festival

Gion Festival

A month-long Kyoto festival centered on Yasaka Jinja Shrine features sacred rituals, food stalls, illuminated floats, and culminates in a grand procession and parade.

1–31 Jul 2027Kyoto · Kansai

Festival

Hakata Gion Yamakasa

Teams parade towering floats through Fukuoka in this seven-century-old festival, competing to navigate the course fastest while traditional music and crowds fill the streets.

1–15 Jul 2027Fukuoka · Kyushu

Festival

The 74th Shonan Hiratsuka Tanabata Festival

The 74th edition of a summer festival known for elaborate street decorations and featuring the Tanabata Dance Thousand-Person Parade on its opening day.

3–5 Jul 2027

Kanagawa · Kanto

Festival

Abare Festival

Illuminated lanterns parade through coastal Ushitsu in a celebration rooted in legend, featuring frenzied rituals to honor spiritual protection from epidemics.

3–4 Jul 2027Ishikawa · Chubu

Festival

Doronko Festival

This agricultural ritual held in rice paddies since 1881 celebrates the completion of planting through symbolic mud-covered performances invoking divine blessing for harvest.

5 Jul 2027Ehime · Shikoku

Festival

Sawara Grand Festival

Every July in Sawara, ten seven-metre floats crowned with giant dolls are spun through the streets of a preserved Edo-period merchant town, grazing the eaves.

10–12 Jul 2027Chiba · Kanto

Festival

Ikukunitama Matsuri

One of Osaka's three great summer festivals features a grand procession from the shrine to Osaka Castle with gold and silver portable shrines.

11–12 Jul 2027Osaka · Kansai

Festival

Nachi Fire Festival

One of Japan's three great fire festivals, where giant torches purify the path to Nachi Waterfall at a sacred Kumano shrine each 14 July.

14 Jul 2027Wakayama · Kansai

Festival

Toyohashi Gion Festival

Held annually in Toyohashi, Aichi, the Gion Festival combines tezutsu hand-held fireworks with the Yoritomo Procession, and dates back to the Edo period.

17–19 Jul 2027Aichi · Chubu

Festival

SURF JAM FESTIVAL

Surf Jam Festival celebrates four days of beach culture at Ohara Beach in Chiba, with live reggae, funk, and punk performances, plus DJ sets in a premier surfing destination.

17–20 Jul 2027Chiba · Kanto

Festival

Shirahama Ama Festival

Every July at the tip of the Boso Peninsula, close to a hundred diving women in white carry burning torches into the dark sea beneath the Nojimazaki lighthouse.

18–19 Jul 2027Chiba · Kanto

Festival

Koiji Fire Festival

Coastal festival where young men shoulder ornate floats representing lovers and wade into the sea before Benten Island as fireworks burst overhead and ceremonial fires illuminate.

19 Jul 2027Ishikawa · Chubu

Festival

Chichibu Kawase Matsuri

The summer counterpart to Chichibu's famous winter festival, held in July, where children take central roles as musicians and performers on decorated floats.

19–20 Jul 2027Saitama · Kanto

Festival

Tsuchizaki Shinmeisha Shrine Annual Celebration And The Float Festival

Elaborate floats and traditional performances honor this port town's spiritual guardian, a shrine established in 1620 by local leaders.

20–21 Jul 2027Akita · Tohoku

Festival

Uwajima Ushi-Oni Festival

This summer festival in Ehime features giant ushi-oni floats depicting fearsome bull and demon faces, paraded through the streets with traditional music and chants.

22–24 Jul 2027Ehime · Shikoku

Festival

Yamaage Festival

Karasuyama's largest festival combines a nationally designated folk performance tradition with outdoor Kabuki dance, organized rotationally by six local districts.

24–26 Jul 2027Tochigi · Kanto

Festival

Moka Summer Festival

Moka Summer Festival honors Kojin, the god of fire and hearth, with over 20 mikoshi and festival floats paraded through the city during a three-day summer celebration.

24–26 Jul 2027Tochigi · Kanto

Festival

Osaka Tenjin Festival

A month-long summer festival centered on Osaka Tenmangu Shrine honors the deity Sugawara no Michizane with evening boat processions and fireworks on July 25.

24–25 Jul 2027Osaka · Kansai