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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

Kanuma Autumn Festival

An autumn festival held in October with origins tracing to a 1608 rainmaking ritual, featuring 27 ornately carved musical floats from the Edo period.

10–11 Oct 2026Tochigi · Kanto

Festival

Matsushiro Sanada Jumangoku Festival

An autumn parade brings the Warring States period to life with over 250 participants in samurai and historical costumes, honoring the Sanada clan.

10–11 Oct 2026Nagano · Chubu

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.

All Events Places

Festival

Kanuma Autumn Festival

An autumn festival held in October with origins tracing to a 1608 rainmaking ritual, featuring 27 ornately carved musical floats from the Edo period.

10–11 Oct 2026Tochigi · Kanto

Festival

Matsushiro Sanada Jumangoku Festival

An autumn parade brings the Warring States period to life with over 250 participants in samurai and historical costumes, honoring the Sanada clan.

10–11 Oct 2026Nagano · Chubu

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 2026

Okayama · Chugoku

Festival

Mifune Festival

Each October, Kumano Hayatama Taisha holds the Mifune Matsuri, two days of sacred processions culminating in a thrilling fast-boat race on the Kumano River.

15–16 Oct 2026Wakayama · Kansai

Festival

Niihama Taiko Festival

Towering drum-bearing floats parade through Niihama in this October celebration, drawing nearly 200,000 spectators each year.

16–18 Oct 2026Ehime · Shikoku

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 2026Okayama · Chugoku

Festival

Jidai Festival

Kyoto's signature historical reenactment features costumed processions of figures from different Japanese eras traveling from the Imperial Palace to the Heian Shrine.

22 Oct 2026Kyoto · Kansai

Festival

Saga International Balloon Fiesta

Asia's largest hot-air balloon event, where around 100 balloons rise over the Kase River each autumn in a five-day competition and festival.

30 Oct – 3 Nov 2026Saga · Kyushu

Festival

Ikebukuro Halloween Cosplay Festival

A large Halloween cosplay festival centered on Ikebukuro's East Exit features stage performances, parades, and gathering spaces for participants of all ages.

30 Oct – 1 Nov 2026Tokyo · Kanto

Festival

Miyazaki Jingu Grand Festival

Miyazaki's largest celebration honors Emperor Jimmu through a grand autumn procession featuring portable shrines and floats reenacting the legendary emperor's historic journey.

31 Oct – 1 Nov 2026Miyazaki · Kyushu

Festival

Tochigi Float Festival

Tochigi's festival showcases elaborate floats created by neighborhoods, a tradition that flourished in the late 19th century when districts commissioned their own artistic dashi.

1–3 Nov 2026Tochigi · Kanto

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 2026Yamaguchi · Chugoku

Festival

Ohara Festival

Mass dancing in vibrant costumes and powerful taiko drumming celebrate Kagoshima's regional identity in this southern Kyushu autumn festival.

2–3 Nov 2026Kagoshima · Kyushu

Festival

Okawakami Birafu Shrine Autumn Grand Festival

Featuring an Intangible Folk Cultural Property procession, this November festival unites a community through ceremony, dance, and spiritual communion.

3 Nov 2026Kochi · Shikoku

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 2026Yamaguchi · Chugoku

Festival

Oyama Balloon Festival

The Oyama Balloon Festa fills autumn skies with hot air balloons competing in precision flights from dawn, and features illuminated night glows with synchronized fireworks and music.

8–9 Nov 2026Tochigi · Kanto

Festival

Sengoku Chronicle: The Battle of Kawanakajima

Participatory reenactment of a legendary Sengoku-era battle where visitors don authentic armor and join either the Takeda or Uesugi army on the battlefield.

9 Nov 2026Yamanashi · Chubu

Festival

Kaki festival

Persimmons harvested from a shrine tree are distributed among parishioners as part of this harvest celebration.

14 Nov 2026Ishikawa · Chubu

Shrine

Jozankei Shrine

A Shinto shrine in Sapporo's Jozankei hot spring resort area, dedicated to the god of hot springs and healing, surrounded by nature and autumn foliage.

Sapporo · Hokkaido

Shrine

Kumano Hongu Taisha

Kumano Hongu Taisha, heart of the Kumano Sanzan, traces its origins to before Emperor Jinmu – where legend says three moons descended to found the shrine.

Tanabe · Wakayama

Shrine

Kumano Hayatama Taisha

In Shingu, Wakayama, Kumano Hayatama Taisha stands as one of the three grand Kumano shrines – a "land of rebirth" where pilgrims have sought renewal for centuries.

Shingu · Wakayama

Shrine

Takataki Shrine

A shrine in Ichihara with an unusual tradition: expectant mothers borrow a small purse left unstitched at the base, for an easy birth.

Ichihara · Chiba

Shrine

Keihin Fushimi Inari Shrine

A small, charming Inari shrine in Kawasaki, guarded by 108 stone foxes and ringed with Fuji lava – a postwar branch of Kyoto's Fushimi Inari.

Kawasaki · Kanagawa

Shrine

Kumano Shrine (Kawagoe)

Founded in 1590 in Kawagoe, Kumano Shrine honours the Kumano deities and the yatagarasu crow, drawing visitors seeking fortune, love, and protection.

Kawagoe · Saitama

Shrine

Kumano Taisha

Kumano Taisha, Izumo's "birthplace of fire", holds sacred hikiriusu and hikirigine fire-drills, a startling rice-cake ritual, and Susanoo's comb festival for Princess Inada.

Matsue · Shimane

Shrine

Kumano Nachi Taisha

One of the three grand shrines of Kumano, beside Japan's tallest waterfall – and spiritual home of the Yatagarasu, the three-legged crow on Japan's football crest.

Wakayama

Shrine

Itsukushima Shrine

The floating shrine of Miyajima, built out over a tidal cove, with its great vermilion torii standing in the sea off the sacred island.

Hatsukaichi · Hiroshima

Shrine

Motonosumi Shrine

A clifftop shrine on the Nagato coast where 123 red torii run down to the Sea of Japan, with an offering box perched high on the entrance gate.

Nagato · Yamaguchi

Shrine

Inage Shrine

A thousand-year-old shrine in central Kawasaki dedicated to victory and harmony, and home to the Kawasaki Sanno Festival.

Kawasaki · Kanagawa

Shrine

Hakone Shrine

Hakone Shrine, Motohakone, Hakone, Kanagawa, was founded in 757 on the shores of Lake Ashi and is known for its Heiwa no Torii, a red torii gate standing in the lake.

Hakone · Kanagawa

Shrine

Takeda Shrine

This shrine honors Takeda Shingen, a Sengoku-period general remembered for both military prowess and regional development in the domain he ruled.

Kofu · Yamanashi

Shrine

Yoshida Shrine

Yoshida Shrine in Toyohashi, Aichi, dates to 1124, stood within Yoshida Castle under its lords, and is known as the birthplace of tezutsu hand-held fireworks.

Toyohashi · Aichi

Shrine

Akama Shrine

Shinto shrine honoring Antoku, an emperor who died during the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185, with a gate designed after the legendary underwater palace of the Dragon God.

Shimonoseki · Yamaguchi

Shrine

Maebashi Tōshō-gū

This shrine honors Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first military leader of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and was established in 1624.

Maebashi · Gunma

Shrine

Tomioka Hachiman Shrine

Tokyo's largest Hachiman shrine, established in 1627, holds historical significance as the birthplace of Kanjin-zumō, a precursor to modern Grand Sumo.

Tokyo

Temple

Saijo Inari

Saijo Inari is a 1,200-year-old Buddhist temple and one of Japan's three great Inari sites, preserving a rare form of Shinto-Buddhist syncretic worship.

Okayama