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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.

Free when you join

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

Kasedori

This Edo-period Kasedori Festival features performers in bird-shaped straw costumes paraded through Kaminoyama while spectators splash water on them for good fortune.

11 Feb 2027Yamagata · Tohoku

Festival

Daito Ohara Mizukake Festival

Men of unlucky ages run through icy waters in this harsh February ritual that has cleansed misfortune since the devastating Edo-period Great Fire.

11 Feb 2027Iwate · Tohoku

Festival

Namahage Sedo Festival

A renowned winter festival recreates the Namahage tradition where demon-like figures visit shrines and homes, recognized as one of Japan's three strangest festivals.

All Events Places

Festival

Kasedori

This Edo-period Kasedori Festival features performers in bird-shaped straw costumes paraded through Kaminoyama while spectators splash water on them for good fortune.

11 Feb 2027Yamagata · Tohoku

Festival

Daito Ohara Mizukake Festival

Men of unlucky ages run through icy waters in this harsh February ritual that has cleansed misfortune since the devastating Edo-period Great Fire.

11 Feb 2027Iwate · Tohoku

Festival

Namahage Sedo Festival

A renowned winter festival recreates the Namahage tradition where demon-like figures visit shrines and homes, recognized as one of Japan's three strangest festivals.

13–15 Feb 2027

Akita · 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

The Sugita Plum Festival

A winter festival in Yokohama celebrates the legacy of a historic plum grove, with around 100 trees blooming at Myōhōji Temple, reviving centuries of tradition.

14–15 Feb 2027Kanagawa · Kanto

Festival

Hachinohe Enburi Festival

Historic winter celebration over 800 years old marking the end of the cold season with traditional performances and prayers for a bountiful rice harvest.

17–20 Feb 2027Aomori · Tohoku

Festival

Niigata International Animation Film Festival

An international festival brings together animators and creative professionals to showcase diverse animated works across screenings, competitions, and workshops.

20–25 Feb 2027Niigata · Chubu

Festival

Shiozawa Seppu Festival

A winter festival celebrates Edo-period scholar Bokushi Suzuki and the region's textile traditions with a 108-lantern Goma fire ceremony by mountain ascetics.

21 Feb 2027Niigata · Chubu

Festival

Mt. Shinobu Dawn Procession

This Fukushima winter festival features Japan's largest straw sandal, a 12-metre marvel crafted in an Edo-period tradition and carried by volunteer bearers through the city.

21–22 Feb 2027Fukushima · Tohoku

Festival

Yoshino Baigo Plum Blossom Festival

A plum blossom festival in the region's premier plum village draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to view 25,000 trees, now celebrating a decade since their replanting.

21 Feb – 22 Mar 2027Tokyo · Kanto

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 · Chugoku

Festival

Hadaka Matsuri

Historic purification festival where nearly-naked men engage in a spirited struggle to touch the selected Naoi-nin, symbolizing the cleansing of misfortune.

1 Mar 2027Aichi · Chubu

Festival

Starry Lantern Night

An evening celebration on the Rokuroshi Plateau in Fukui features LED sky lanterns against a backdrop of starry skies and fireworks.

7 Mar 2027Fukui · Chubu

Festival

Echigo Yukiwari Road

Spring's arrival is celebrated with delicate alpine flowers that bloom as snow melts across multiple scenic sites in the Echigo region.

7 Mar – 12 Apr 2027Niigata · Chubu

Festival

Urasa Bishamondō Naked Man Festival

A 1,200-year-old midwinter festival features bare-chested men competing to ascend to the temple and offer prayers to the protective deity Bishamonten.

7 Mar 2027Niigata · Chubu

Festival

Niigata Sake no Jin

This festival celebrates Niigata's renowned sake heritage, offering over 500 types of sake, local cuisine, seminars, and stage performances.

7–8 Mar 2027Niigata · Chubu

Festival

Shizukumiya Festival

A spring procession of 22 sake barrel shrines celebrates the completion of new sake and prays for an abundant harvest of the five grains.

15 Mar 2027Gifu · Chubu

Festival

Harvest Festival

A spring fertility rite centered on a symbolic wooden offering features portable shrine processions as communities pray for abundant harvests and prosperity of future generations.

15 Mar 2027Aichi · Chubu

Shrine

Iwasesuwa Shrine

A shrine near Toyama Port dedicated to Takeminakata no Mikoto, with additional enshrinements of Amaterasu Omikami, Oyamakui no Kami, and Daikoku.

Toyama

Shrine

Furukuma Shrine

A Tenman-gu Shrine in Yamaguchi City founded in 1373, it enshrines Sugawara no Michizane and was relocated in 1618 by the Mōri clan.

Yamaguchi

Shrine

Chichibu Shrine

This 2,000-year-old Shinto shrine in Chichibu is known for its 19th century wooden main building with a thatched roof and December Night Festival.

Chichibu · Saitama

Shrine

Atsuta Shrine

A highly revered Nagoya shrine established during Emperor Keikō's reign, it houses the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, one of the three symbols of the Imperial throne.

Nagoya · Aichi

Shrine

Udo-jingū

Built within a seaside cave and painted red, this shrine dedicated to Ugayafukiaezu no Mikoto is believed to grant fertility, safe childbirth, and romantic harmony.

Nichinan · Miyazaki

Shrine

Sanohara Shrine

Shrine honoring Fujiwara Ason Nijo Tamefuyuki, a court noble who died in 1335 during the Battle of Hakone, and son of the waka poet Nijō Tameyo.

Susono · Shizuoka

Shrine

Karasumori Shrine

Inari shrine for prosperity, founded 940 and notably surviving a devastating 1657 fire, tucked among office buildings near Shimbashi Station.

Tokyo

Shrine

Meotogi Shrine Himenomiya

Women's shrine dedicated to matchmaking and marital harmony, paired with a counterpart 2 kilometers away, sacred to traditional fertility worship.

Kofu · Yamanashi

Shrine

Nikko Tosho-gu

Shinto shrine established 1617 to enshrine Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun who ended the Sengoku period and founded 260 years of Edo peace.

Nikko · Tochigi

Shrine

Futarasan Shrine

Guardian shrine of Nikko from the 8th century, honoring three family deities and a prominent figure in mythology revered for love and matchmaking.

Nikko · Tochigi

Shrine

Yamanashi Gokoku Shrine

Shrine honoring over 25,000 military spirits from conflicts spanning the First Sino-Japanese War through the Pacific War, set among 300 cherry trees.

Kofu · Yamanashi

Shrine

Tagata Shrine

This shrine dedicated to fertility and agricultural prosperity enshrines deities rooted in Japan's ancient traditions of harvest blessing and family well-being.

Komaki · Aichi