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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

Minato Festival

Annual shrine festival featuring traditional performing arts, portable shrine processions, and demonstrations of ancient Minato kiyari songs.

5 May 2027Niigata · Chubu

Festival

Mamada no Jaga Maita

Before the rice-planting season, children parade enormous painted serpents through town while chanting, immersing them in a pond as part of a centuries-old rainmaking ritual.

5 May 2027Tochigi · Kanto

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.

All Events Places

Festival

Minato Festival

Annual shrine festival featuring traditional performing arts, portable shrine processions, and demonstrations of ancient Minato kiyari songs.

5 May 2027Niigata · Chubu

Festival

Mamada no Jaga Maita

Before the rice-planting season, children parade enormous painted serpents through town while chanting, immersing them in a pond as part of a centuries-old rainmaking ritual.

5 May 2027Tochigi · Kanto

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 2027

Yamaguchi · Chugoku

Festival

Otabi Festival

A spring celebration in Komatsu blends Shinto ritual, elaborate festival floats, and children's kabuki performances at two historic shrines.

8–10 May 2027Ishikawa · Chubu

Festival

Kanda Festival

A festival held at Kanda Shrine in Tokyo dating back to the 17th century, featuring processions of participants in Heian-period clothing and sacred ceremonies.

13–15 May 2027Tokyo · Kanto

Festival

Sanja Matsuri

Sanja Matsuri is one of Tokyo's largest traditional festivals, honouring enshrined figures through mikoshi processions and an Intangible Folk Cultural Property ritual dance.

15–17 May 2027Tokyo · Kanto

Festival

Aoi Festival

The Aoi Festival is one of Kyoto's three major annual festivals, dedicated to the northern Kamo shrines, with roots reaching back over 1,400 years and featuring equestrian archery.

15 May 2027Kyoto · Kansai

Festival

Sendai Aoba Festival

A spring festival in Sendai honors feudal lord Date Masamune with ornate floats decorated with scenes from classic literature and theater over two days.

16–17 May 2027Miyagi · Tohoku

Festival

Iwase Hikiyama Festival (The Fighting Floats Festival)

Annual spring festival featuring thirteen ornate floats with elaborate wooden tatemon decorations pulled through streets with traditional music.

17–18 May 2027Toyama · Chubu

Festival

Mikuni Festival (Mikuni Shrine Annual Festival)

A three-century tradition, this Hokuriku festival showcases elaborately decorated floats and honors the maritime heritage of this former port town.

19–21 May 2027Fukui · Chubu

Festival

Himeji Castle Festival

Three-day festival featuring outdoor Noh theatre performances, classical arts, historical pageantry, and family activities across Himeji Castle grounds.

22–24 May 2027Hyogo · Kansai

Festival

Sand Festival at Shirarahama Beach

On the white sands of Shirarahama Beach in Wakayama, teams compete each summer to shape elaborate sculptures using nothing but sand and seawater.

24 May 2027Wakayama · Kansai

Festival

Sanno Festival

Centered at Hie Shrine, this major Toyama festival originated in the Edo period and features a two-day mikoshi procession through the city's parishes.

31 May – 2 Jun 2027Toyama · Chubu

Festival

Fussa Firefly Festival

This festival celebrates Genji fireflies raised by local residents, which can be seen flying near Hotaru Park and along a historic canal in the early summer night.

31 May 2027Tokyo · Kanto

Festival

Lily festival

A scenic park showcases 150,000 lilies in bloom each June, transforming into an illuminated landscape as evening falls.

1–30 Jun 2027Fukui · Chubu

Festival

Tsuzawa Yotaka Andon Festival

Traditional lantern festival in Toyama Prefecture featuring 7-meter-high floats decorated with warrior illustrations that collide in ritualized clashes accompanied by taiko drumming.

5–6 Jun 2027Toyama · Chubu

Festival

Kanazawa Hyakumangoku Festival

Kanazawa's Hyakumangoku Festival honours Lord Maeda Toshiie, whose 1583 entry into the castle established the city, and has grown into a prominent regional cultural event.

5–7 Jun 2027Ishikawa · Chubu

Festival

Shirone Giant Kite Battle

Tracing its roots to an Edo-period crop dispute, this kite battle showcases traditional craftsmanship as teams compete with specially designed flying kites.

5–9 Jun 2027Niigata · Chubu

Shrine

Aoi Aso Shrine

Shrine dedicated to three protective deities founded 1,200 years ago as a guardian of the Hitoyoshi-Kuma basin and Mount Aso region.

Hitoyoshi · Kumamoto

Shrine

Kashima Jingū Shrine

Believed to have been founded in 660 BCE, this ancient shrine in the Kanto region is dedicated to a patron deity of martial arts and historic swordsman school.

Kashima · Ibaraki

Shrine

Izumo Taisha

One of Japan's oldest and most revered Shinto shrines, dedicated to Ōkuninushi no Ōkami, venerated as the deity of nation-building, agriculture, and relationships.

Izumo · Shimane

Shrine

Hie Shrine

A Shinto shrine in Takayama dedicated to Sanno Gongen and serving as the focal point of the Takayama Spring Festival, one of Japan's most beautiful festivals.

Takayama · Gifu

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

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