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The month's best festivals, exhibitions, and pop-ups in Japan, in one email. Free, monthly.

Free when you joinThe First-Timer's Japan Guide, our 16-page PDF, in your welcome email.

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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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All Events Places

Festival

Hanamaki Festival

This centuries-old festival features over 100 mikoshi shrines and floats, with the Shishi-Odori deer dance and sacred Kagura-Gongenmai performance.

11–13 Sep 2026Iwate · Tohoku

Festival

Morioka Fall Festival

One of Iwate's most enduring celebrations, this autumn festival originated as prayers for harvest, now featuring ornate floats and traditional parades.

14–16 Sep 2026Iwate · Tohoku

Festival

Kuji Autumn Festival

This over 650-year-old festival in a northern mountain town expresses gratitude for the harvest while praying for protection from disaster and the arrival of good fortune.

All Events Places

Festival

Hanamaki Festival

This centuries-old festival features over 100 mikoshi shrines and floats, with the Shishi-Odori deer dance and sacred Kagura-Gongenmai performance.

11–13 Sep 2026Iwate · Tohoku

Festival

Morioka Fall Festival

One of Iwate's most enduring celebrations, this autumn festival originated as prayers for harvest, now featuring ornate floats and traditional parades.

14–16 Sep 2026Iwate · Tohoku

Festival

Kuji Autumn Festival

This over 650-year-old festival in a northern mountain town expresses gratitude for the harvest while praying for protection from disaster and the arrival of good fortune.

19–21 Sep 2026

Iwate · Tohoku

Festival

Okuma Kabuto Festival

Nanao's festival honors samurai heritage through a dramatic parade of locals dressed in full armor and helmets, accompanied by traditional music and dance performances.

20 Sep 2026Ishikawa · Chubu

Festival

Dontosai Festival

An annual winter ritual in Sendai features the ceremonial burning of New Year decorations followed by a sacred pilgrimage procession in traditional attire.

14 Jan 2027Miyagi · Tohoku

Festival

Uesugi Snow Lantern Festival

A two-day winter festival in snowy Yonezawa transforming Matsugasaki Park into a landscape of 300 snow lanterns and 3,000 snow lamps lit by candlelight.

14–15 Feb 2027Yamagata · Tohoku

Festival

Hifuri Shinji Fire Swinging Ritual

Each spring at Aso Shrine, priests perform the Hifuri Shinji fire-swinging ritual, a mesmerizing ceremony rooted in ancient agricultural tradition.

23 Mar 2027Kumamoto · Kyushu

Festival

Kanamara Matsuri "Festival of the Steel Phallus"

An annual Shinto festival at Kanayama Shrine in Kawasaki featuring distinctive phallic imagery in decorations and parades while raising funds for HIV research.

5 Apr 2027Kanagawa · Kanto

Festival

Nagano Gion Festival

The Nagano Gion Festival celebrates Susanoo-no-Mikoto, the deity of storms and protection, through mikoshi processions at Yasaka Shrine near historic Zenkoji temple.

6 Jun 2027Nagano · Chubu

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

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

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