Matsuri: Japan’s festivals and when they fall

🏮 Festivals / Matsuri · 165 destinations · 578 activities

A matsuri transforms the town it happens in, and most of them run for two or three days a year. That makes them the most rigid element of a trip: either they line up with your dates or they do not exist for you. Here is what each destination holds and its real window, including the inconvenient detail that for the big ones accommodation sells out months ahead.

The destinations, by real weight

What to do exactly

Kyoto — 37 activities

• Kurama no Hi Matsuri, the fire festival 5 h only 22 Oct

  Fixed date: 22 October, the same day as the Jidai Matsuri, so you have to choose. At around 18:00 the kagaribi are lit in front of every house in the village of Kurama and then teams of men carry torches several metres long along the single street towards Yuki shrine. Admission is free, but the logistics are the real problem: the village is tiny, the Eizan railway is the only practical way in, one-way pedestrian flow is enforced, there are access closures and queues of hours to get back, with the last train very tight. In 2022 it was held in a reduced version and the final carrying up of the mikoshi was dropped; I could not verify whether that part has been fully restored, so check with the shrine or the Sakyo ward office in October. Wear closed shoes, not synthetic clothing, and expect to get back in the small hours.

• Baikasai, open-air tea among the plum trees 2 h only 25 Feb

  Fixed date: 25 February at Kitano Tenmangu, the anniversary of the death of Sugawara no Michizane, with the plum in blossom. Besides the rite, a nodate is set up, an open-air tea ceremony served by geiko and maiko from Kamishichiken, the district next to the shrine. Tickets for the nodate are limited and sell out; I have not been able to verify the price or the sales system for the 2027 edition, so confirm with the shrine in January. Access to the precinct and the market stalls is free.

• Gozan no Okuribi, the mountain bonfires 2 h only 16 Aug

  On the night of 16 August five giant bonfires shaped as characters and figures are lit on the mountains ringing the city, to see off the dead of Obon. The same night of 16 August the Torii-gata at Sagano is also lit and the Arashiyama Toro Nagashi is held, so you have to choose a part of the city: they cannot all be seen from one spot.

• Hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year 2 h only 1-3 Jan

  Fixed dates: 1 to 3 January, with queues from midnight on the 31st. Fushimi Inari Taisha and Yasaka Jinja are Kyoto's two mass focal points and both allow access through the night; Fushimi is right beside JR Inari station, which on those days runs one-way flow and extra services. The visitor figures circulating for Fushimi are around two and a half million people over the three days, but I have not been able to verify them in an official source: worth confirming. The full climb up the Senbon Torii is unworkable on those days; for the mountain circuit you need to come back from 5 or 6 January. The food stalls on the approach to Fushimi run for more days than the official three.

• Kyoto Takigi Noh, noh by torchlight 3 h booking only the first Friday and Saturday of June

  Watch for the change of calendar: up to the 75th edition it was held on fixed dates, 1 and 2 June, but the city council has announced that from the 76th, in 2027, it moves to the first Friday and Saturday of June. In 2026 it was on 1 and 2 June, from 18:00 to 20:30, with doors opening at 17:00, in the outer grounds of Heian Jingu, and with the Rohm Theatre Kyoto as the alternative venue in case of rain. Tickets 4,000 yen general, 3,000 for under-23s and up to 15,000 for the premium seats; advance sales from 1 April at Ticket Pia and Lawson. Each night combines a noh piece from a different school with a kyogen; there are no subtitles, so read the plot beforehand.

• Mibu Kyogen, the silent theatre of Mibu-dera 2.5 h only 2-3 February, 29 April to 5 May and the October long weekend

  Wordless Buddhist pantomime, accompanied only by gong, drum and flute, in the Dainenbutsu-do of Mibu-dera, a building listed as an Important Cultural Property. Three windows a year: setsubun, on 2 and 3 February from 17:00 to 20:00 with a performance every hour and free admission; the big spring run from 29 April to 5 May, fixed dates, from 13:00 to 17:30 and with a night session on the last day; and the October long weekend that includes Sports Day, 3 days, from 13:00 to 17:30, which in 2026 fell on 10, 11 and 12 October. Outside setsubun it costs 1,000 yen for adults and 500 for junior and senior high school students. There is no booking and no numbered seating: tickets on the day and open seating. Photography is banned. The repertoire runs to 30 pieces and the most famous, Horakuwari, always opens the run by smashing hundreds of clay plates. Designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1976, the first in the prefecture.

Tokyo — 27 activities

• Kanda Matsuri: the odd-year hon-matsuri 6 h only the weekend closest to 15 May

  One of Edo's three great festivals, held in full ONLY in odd years: on Saturday a procession of nearly a thousand people covers thirty kilometres through Kanda, Nihonbashi and Marunouchi; on Sunday more than two hundred mikoshi enter the shrine. Even years bring the kage-matsuri, a reduced, near-internal version.

• Fukagawa Hachiman Matsuri, the water festival 5 h only around 15 August

  In the hon-matsuri, fifty-four neighbourhood mikoshi parade together while the crowd drenches the bearers with buckets and hoses as a purification rite. The big one is EVERY THREE YEARS: 2026 was one, the next is 2029. You will end up soaked, and soaking spectators is not part of the rite.

• Sanno Matsuri at Hie Shrine: the even-year hon-matsuri 5 h only 7-17 Jun

  Festival of the shrine that guarded Edo Castle, with the Shinko-sai procession of some three hundred participants in court dress crossing the financial district over nine hours. Even years only: 2026 ran 7 to 17 June and the next big one is 2028.

• Awa Odori of Koenji 4 h only the last weekend of August

  The largest awa dance festival outside Tokushima: 10,000 dancers and close to a million spectators in streets five metres wide, on the last weekend of August. There are paid stands and free stretches, and the stations jam solid once it ends.

• Boro-ichi in Setagaya 3 h only 15-16 December and 15-16 January

  A market licensed since 1578 and an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Tokyo, set up on only four days a year: 15 and 16 December and 15 and 16 January, from nine to eight. 700 stalls of cloth, plants and tools, and freshly pounded daikan mochi.

• Comiket at Tokyo Big Sight 6 h booking lottery only mid-August and late December

  The largest fanzine market in the world, with hundreds of thousands of attendees and a cosplay area, in August and in late December. A paid wristband is needed for each day, there are queues before dawn, extreme heat in summer, and no photography outside the cosplay area.

Nagoya — 14 activities

• Asuke: four floats and two hundred matchlocks 5 h only the second Saturday and Sunday of October

  The annual festival of Asuke Hachimangu, in the village of Asuke, and what sets it apart is not the four floats from the Nishimachi, Shinmachi, Honmachi and Tamachi districts but the noise: a corps of two hundred matchlock guns firing blank powder, on the Saturday through the districts from sunrise to sunset and on the Sunday inside the precinct. They warn that the report is considerable and that ear plugs are advisable. On Sunday afternoon, with the floats already hauled into the grounds, comes the bonten-nage, and here the sources do not agree: one says a bonten hung from the tip of a bamboo pole is thrown before the altar, another that it is a bamboo tube fought over. Afterwards the floats are hung with lanterns and return to their districts across the bridge. There is also bo-no-te, the farmers' martial art of this area. The shrine's honden, of 1466, has been a national Important Cultural Property since 27 May 1907, and that is the place's serious credential, because the festival itself carries no designation in any source consulted. It falls on the second Saturday and Sunday of October: the 10th and 11th in 2026, the 11th and 12th in 2025. Free to attend. Mind the logistics: Asuke has no railway and you come by bus from Toyota-shi station, about fifty minutes, and the sources disagree on whether there is parking. And no, it does not coincide with the maples of Korankei, which are a November thing.

• Owari Tsushima Tenno Matsuri, the lantern boats 4 h only the fourth weekend of July

  On the Saturday night of the fourth weekend of July (in 2026, the 25th, from 18:00), five barges covered in paper lanterns sail across the Tenno river pond in front of Tsushima shrine: each carries a half-dome of three hundred and sixty-five lights, one for every day of the year, and a mast of twelve, one per month. The next morning at 9:10 the same boats go out stripped down and carrying doll figures instead. It is on the UNESCO list; twenty-five minutes from Nagoya on the Meitetsu and then fifteen on foot.

• The Miya Matsuri: four floats that go into the sea, when they do 5 h only two days in late October; the sources disagree on the rule

  It is written Mitani and read Miya, and what makes it singular is that the floats go into the sea. Four of them, each hauled by some two hundred men, come down to Miya beach on the Sunday at about a quarter to eleven, advance some four hundred metres through the shallows and come out again in a quarter of an hour. The town has six districts: four field a float, one brings out a sacred boat and another two mikoshi, and the festival moves between two shrines, Hakken to the west and Wakamiya to the east. But come forewarned, which is why this entry promises nothing: in 2026 the sea crossing WAS CANCELLED. The official notice speaks not of safety in the abstract but of something very concrete: sand laid before Obon had piled up at the exit ramp and, after repeated levelling, a safe run could not be assured. The rest of the programme went ahead. And it is not the first time: the sea crossing vanished after 1960, when the shore was filled in, and did not return until 1995. Before counting on it, confirm it. The festival is dated to 1696, though that is tradition and the earliest document mentioning it is from 1712, and it has been a municipal intangible folk cultural property since 1961. The dates have no reliable rule either: one source says the third Saturday and Sunday of October, but in 2026 it fell on the 24th and 25th, which is the fourth.

• The Toba fire: two two-tonne torches and an augury 4 h only the second Sunday of February; if it rains it moves to the Monday

  Two torches five metres tall and two tonnes each, of kaya thatch over sixty green bamboo poles, carried some twenty metres by between a hundred and a hundred and fifty parishioners. At eight in the evening they are lit, and the men of the village's two districts, Fukuji and Kenji, go into the fire to pull out the sacred trunk and the twelve ropes that stand for the months of the year, and to offer them at the altar before the other side does. Each district sends one kami-otoko, aged twenty-five, and locally the men who cling to the frame and shake it are called cats, for the posture and the shape of the hood. Earlier, at three in the afternoon, they go down to purify themselves in the sea: a kilometre at a run to the shore and in up to the neck, in February. What burns is an augury, not a show: plenty of smoke means a rainy year, bamboo cracking loudly means thunder, and if Fukuji wins a good harvest is expected in the hills, while if Kenji wins drought or upheaval are feared. It used to fall on the seventh day of the first lunar month and since 1970 it is the second Sunday of February. Free to watch, but saving a spot is not allowed: anything left on the ground before seven in the morning is removed by shrine staff. An Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property since 6 February 2004. Get off at Mikawa-Toba on the Meitetsu Gamagori line, then ten minutes on foot; there is no parking in the precinct. No one publishes a finishing time, so check the journey back before you go.

• Toyota's Koromo festival: eight floats and a storm of paper 5 h only the third Sunday of October and the Saturday before

  Toyota is not only the factory: the old town brings out eight floats of four or five tonnes and nearly six metres, one per district, and parades them through a storm of coloured paper thrown down from above to shouts of oisa. The confetti is not an imported flourish but began as a gesture of purification, in place of salt, added to the leading float, the hanaguruma. Saturday is the shigaku, with the floats going round the districts and, at seven in the evening, the shichido-mairi: people from the eight districts circle the grounds of Koromo Shrine seven times with lanterns. Sunday is the honraku: at ten the floats charge into the precinct one by one, at four they are pulled out, and at the junction in front of the bank they take leave of one another in what is called here the weeping parting. At night there are fireworks on the bank of the Yahagi river. The eight floats are designated tangible folk cultural property by both the prefecture and the city, though no source gives the year. It is one of the three great festivals of Mikawa, with those of Chiryu and Asuke. And this has to be said: in 2022 a float reversing killed a man who was holding the steering beam. In bad weather the float run may be called off, decided each morning and announced on the festival website. It is a ten-minute walk from Toyota-shi station, but both days bring road closures and bus diversions, and the shrine car park is shut.

• Tsushima in autumn: sixteen floats with automata, and not the UNESCO one 5 h only the first Sunday of October and the Saturday before, which can fall in September

  First things first, because the confusion is guaranteed: Tsushima has two big festivals and this is not the famous one. The July festival, with lantern boats on the river, is the one on the UNESCO list; this autumn one is not. It is worth it all the same: sixteen floats from four districts, every one carrying wooden automata, which perform in turn before the gate of Tsushima Shrine, plus a score of kagura going round the town. The move to watch is called kurumakiri: the front wheels are lifted and the whole float is spun on the spot. It is not an old festival in the usual sense: the floats are, some from the early eighteenth century, but what is gathered into a single festival are four separate district celebrations, brought together in 1926 to mark the shrine being raised in rank. The rule for the date has a catch worth reading carefully: it is the first Sunday of October and the day before, so the Saturday can fall on 30 September. In 2026 it was the 3rd and 4th of October. It is a fifteen-minute walk from Tsushima station, one kilometre, and those days bring traffic jams. No source consulted publishes a heritage designation for the autumn festival, a price, attendance figures, or what happens if it rains.

Fukuoka — 14 activities

• Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival 3 h must-see only 1-15 Jul

  A centuries-old July festival, recognized as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, in which teams carry huge decorated floats and run barefoot through the streets of Hakata at dawn on the 15th.

• Hakata Dontaku 3.5 h only 3-4 May

  On 3 and 4 May, a parade of some 30,000 participants clacking wooden rice spoons, descended from the Matsubayashi of 1179. It is the Japanese festival with the largest audience of the whole Golden Week, with more than two million spectators.

• Old Hakata light-up walk 3 h only from 31 October to 3 November

  For four nights a year, fourteen temples and shrines in the old town open from 17:30 to 21:00 with their gardens lit, among them Shofukuji, Tochoji, Myorakuji, Ryuguji and Kushida, which the rest of the year shut at dusk. The combined ticket costs 2,450 yen (1,950 if bought months ahead) and is good for one entry to each paying site; children up to junior high get in free with an adult. In 2026 it runs from 31 October to 3 November.

• The kazariyama floats of the Yamakasa 2 h only 1-14 Jul

  From 1 to 14 July fourteen decorated floats over ten metres tall go up across the city, made by the same craftsmen who make Hakata dolls: one in Tenjin, one at Canal City, one at the station, one at Kushida Shrine. They are not the ones raced on the 15th, which are far lower; these stand still, are free to see at any hour and are lit at night. The front face tells a scene from history and the back, more often than not, a manga or a figure in the news.

• Hakata Okunchi 2 h only 23-24 Oct

  Kushida Shrine's autumn festival, on 23 and 24 October, far less known than the Yamakasa and for that reason far calmer: a procession with an ox-drawn cart, children in court dress, a brass band and a chrysanthemum display in the grounds. It is free and gives a sense of how the shrine is lived outside July, when the district is not swamped with cameras.

• Hakozaki-gu Shrine 0.75 h

  One of Japan's three great Hachiman shrines, with the 'surrender of the enemy country' plaque tied to the Mongol invasions. It hosts the Hojoya in September and the Tamaseseri in January.

Kawagoe — 9 activities

• Hikkawase, the night duel of festival floats 3 h only the third Sunday of October and the Saturday before

  Two floats meet head-on at a junction, rotate their upper platforms to face each other, and their musicians compete on flute and drum until one gives way. It is the heart of the festival, at night only, on 17 and 18 October 2026. They weigh tonnes and are moved by neighbourhood teams: never cross in front of one, and do not climb onto doorways.

• Glass wind chimes at Hikawa Shrine 1.5 h only late June to early September

  The Enmusubi Furin hangs some two thousand Edo glass wind chimes along a shrine corridor and lights the adjoining river at night. In 2026 it ran 27 June to 6 September and it is among the most photographed events in Saitama, with the queues that implies: keep moving, do not camp in the corridor.

• Daruma market on 3 January at Kita-in 2 h only 3 Jan

  The Hatsu-Daishi on 3 January fills the Kita-in grounds with daruma stalls and with people coming to return last year's and buy a bigger one. Kawagoe draws more people that day than on 1 January.

• Hikawa Shrine of Kawagoe 1 h

  A Shinto shrine over a thousand years old, famous for its good-luck rituals for love and for its summer wind chime (furin) festival.

• Kawagoe Festival (Kawagoe Matsuri) 4 h only the third Sunday of October and the Saturday before

  This is not simply a float festival: it is the annual festival of Hikawa Shrine, and the two were separated more recently than you would think. Until 1996 everything fell on 14 and 15 October; from 1997 only the float procession moved to the third Sunday of October and the day before - in 2026, the 17th and 18th - while the shrine's reisai is still held on the 14th. Mind that, because anyone arriving on the 14th looking for floats will not find them. And note the rule carefully: it is the third SUNDAY and the day before, which is not always the third Saturday. The state designated it an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property on 21 February 2005, under the name Kawagoe Hikawa-sai no dashi gyoji, and in 2016 it joined the UNESCO list, though not on its own: it falls within the collective listing of the yama, hoko and yatai float festivals. Twenty-nine floats are recognised and not all of them come out: each neighbourhood decides at its own assembly whether to bring its float. Rain does not stop it, but fewer floats appear.

• Summer festival of the hundred thousand lanterns 3 h only the last weekend of July

  The Hyakumanto Natsu Matsuri was held on 25 and 26 July 2026 and began in the 19th century in memory of the feudal lord of Kawagoe. It is the residents' festival, with the road closed from 4pm to 9pm between Honkawagoe and Satsunoji.

Nara — 11 activities

• Bugaku and kagura at Kasuga Taisha 1.5 h

  Kasuga Taisha preserves an unbroken lineage of bugaku, the court dance imported from the continent in the 8th century, and performs it on several dates through the year, with the Kasuga Wakamiya On-Matsuri in December as the great occasion. This is the music and dance the Nara court heard, played on the spot it was written for.

• Mantoro, the 3,000 lanterns of Kasuga 2 h only Setsubun (3 February) and 14-15 August

  Three nights a year - the day of Setsubun, which falls on 2 or 3 February depending on the year, and 14 and 15 August - the roughly three thousand lanterns of Kasuga shrine are lit at once among the forest: some two thousand stone ones set along the paths and some thousand hung from the eaves of the cloister. None of the sources consulted says what metal the hanging ones are made of.

• Omizutori at Nigatsu-do 2 h only 1-14 Mar

  From 1 to 14 March, monks run along the temple gallery with giant torches throwing sparks over the crowd: a ritual that has not been interrupted for a single year since 752.

• Todai-ji's three August nights, and which one is free 2 h only from 13 to 15 August

  On 15 August, from seven to half past nine in the evening, Todai-ji lines some two thousand five hundred lanterns along the path to the Great Buddha: this is the Manto Kuyo-e, the offering of ten thousand lights. But the detail almost nobody mentions concerns the nights before. On the 13th and 14th there is night viewing from seven to nine and it is FREE, whereas on the night of the 15th, the lantern night, the usual admission is charged. And on all three nights the kanso-mado is opened, the latticed window in the facade through which the Great Buddha's face can be seen from the approach without entering the hall: at night, lit from within, it is the image you remember. Do not confuse this with the Mantoro at Kasuga shrine, which is a different thing in a different place. Nor is it true that the window opens only twice a year: Nara tourism says it is several times, among them the small hours of 1 January. On the 13th at seven there is also a memorial service and numbers may be limited. Neither of the two sources consulted publishes the 2027 dates, but these are fixed.

• Kasuga Wakamiya On-Matsuri 4 h only 15-18 Dec

  From 15 to 18 December, a period procession and ancient performing arts held without interruption since 1136, Intangible Cultural Heritage.

• Koriyama castle ruins and their cherry trees 1.5 h

  There is no keep, but there are walls, moats and the donjon platform turned into a viewpoint, all free to enter: gravestones and even an upside-down Buddhist statue were reused in the masonry and are signposted. About a thousand cherry trees cover it in late March, and during the Oshiro Matsuri (24 March to 7 April in 2026) there are night illuminations, a costume parade and a goldfish show.

Yokohama — 12 activities

• Christmas Around the World in the Yamate houses 3 h only 1-25 Dec

  From 1 to 25 December each of the seven Yamate houses is decorated after the Christmas of a different country by local florists and designers, with occasional concerts. Entry to all of them is free; on Fridays and Saturdays they stay open until 18:00, and the Italian Garden sets out a candle garden at dusk on one evening around the 20th. It is also the time of year with the longest queue at Berrick Hall.

• Mitama Matsuri and bon odori at Soji-ji 3 h only 17-19 Jul

  From 17 to 19 July the great Soto Zen monastery in Tsurumi holds a three-evening bon odori on its forecourt, 17:30 to 20:30, with the monks themselves dancing in the circle and thousands of lanterns offered by the Kokaramon gate. It began in memory of the victims of the 1945 Yokohama air raid and the 1963 Tsurumi rail disaster, and it is still a neighbourhood affair: free, with food stalls and tens of thousands of locals. Five minutes from Tsurumi station.

• Noge Daidogei, the street performers' festival 3 h only one weekend in mid-April

  On a weekend in mid-April the drinking district of Noge turns into a stage: jugglers, mime artists, acrobats and music at twenty-odd spots across Noge, Sakuragicho and Miyakobashi street. It is free, performers pass the hat, and the 2026 edition was the 51st, on 18 and 19 April. Families come in numbers and the area becomes impossible by mid-afternoon.

• A hundred thousand tulips in Yokohama Park 1.5 h only 25 Mar - 20 Apr

  The park around the baseball stadium fills with more than a hundred thousand tulips from late March to mid-April, and in the first days of April the flower fair adds stalls and display beds in Yamashita Park and along Nihon-odori as well. It is all free and outdoors, and it is the most central flower outing in the city: two minutes from Kannai and from Chinatown.

• Kanazawa Matsuri fireworks from the beach 3 h only one Saturday in late August

  Around 3,500 fireworks over the bay on a Saturday in late August, watched from the sand of Umi-no-Koen, the city's only beach: it is Yokohama's most informal fireworks night and the only one you can watch barefoot. It is free, it is cancelled in bad weather, and Seaside Line trains leave packed afterwards. The 2026 edition was the 52nd, on 22 August.

• Kanbaikai: plum blossom at Sankeien 2 h only 7 Feb - 3 Mar

  Around five hundred plum trees bloom in waves from early February to the first days of March, among them the sprawling garyobai and the green-calyx ryokugakubai donated by Shanghai in 1977. During Kanbaikai there is free barley tea on weekends from 10:00 to 15:30 and a plum bonsai show in mid-February; only the regular garden admission applies.

Miyajima — 7 activities

• Kangensai festival on lantern-lit boats 5 h only day 17 of the 6th lunar month

  One of Japan's three great water festivals: boats carrying gagaku court music cross the bay by night from the shrine. It follows the lunar calendar, the 17th day of the sixth month, so the date shifts each year between July and August.

• Chinkasai, the New Year's Eve torches 2 h only 31 Dec

  On 31 December the locals drag huge burning torches along the beach in front of the torii to ask for protection against fire. After the Reikado fire in May 2026 it carries a particular weight.

• Hiwatari-shiki, walking on embers at Daisho-in 2 h only 15 April and 15 November

  The yamabushi cross a bed of embers barefoot on 15 April and 15 November; afterwards the public can cross free of charge. It is among the most intense things that happen on the island.

• Miyajima Kaki Matsuri, the oyster festival 2 h only one weekend in February

  On one weekend in February, grills and pots of oyster soup are set up beside the pier at token prices. It is the best excuse to visit the island in low season.

• Momotesai, spring bugaku dances 2 h only 16-18 Apr

  From 16 to 18 April, the court dances that tradition attributes to Taira no Kiyomori are performed on the shrine's raised stage, with a different programme each day.

• Tamatorisai, the fight for the sacred ball in the sea 2 h only late August

  Dozens of men in loincloths compete in the water for a wooden ball hung in front of the shrine. The date depends on the tide, normally a weekend in late August. It is a religious rite: photograph it from the shore, without going into the water.

What only happens on specific dates

• Okera Mairi, the year-end fire at Yasaka Kyoto 31 Dec - 1 Jan
• Hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year Kyoto 1-3 Jan
• Toka Ebisu, the five days of the god of commerce Kyoto 8-12 Jan
• Musha Shinji, ritual archery at Kamigamo Kyoto 16 Jan
• Boro-ichi in Setagaya Tokyo 15-16 December and 15-16 January
• Tamaseseri at Hakozaki-gu Fukuoka 3 Jan
• Toka Ebisu Fukuoka 8-11 Jan
• Daruma market on 3 January at Kita-in Kawagoe 3 Jan
• Ooyamato: the arrows of 4 January and the deity that sailed on the Yamato Nara 4 January and 1 April
• Wakakusa Yamayaki (Burning of Mt. Wakakusa) Nara the fourth Saturday of January
• Chinese New Year in Chinatown Yokohama Lunar New Year (late January to February)
• Ennen no Mai on the night of 20 January Hiraizumi 20 Jan
• White Illumination and the Munich market Sapporo 20 Nov - 14 Mar
• Watching the Hakone Ekiden turn at Lake Ashi Hakone 2-3 Jan
• Nagasaki Lantern Festival Nagasaki two weeks for Chinese New Year
• Dontosai at Osaki Hachimangu Sendai 14 Jan
• Tsumekizaki Narcissus Festival Shimoda 20 Dec - 31 Jan
• Beppu Art Month and Art Fair Beppu Beppu autumn (September-November) and a fair in late January
• Plum blossom at Atami Baien Atami 10 Jan - 8 Mar
• Dobekko Festival Tono Saturdays from late November to February
• Yunishigawa snow hut festival Kinugawa Onsen late January to early March
• Kinugawa demon festival Kinugawa Onsen late January to late February
• Sairinka light and sound show at Tokachigawa Tokachi (Obihiro) late January to mid-February
• Obihiro Ice Festival Tokachi (Obihiro) three days in late January
• Yoroi Toshikoshi, seeing out the year in armour Ashikaga Flower Park around Setsubun (early February)
• Toka Ebisu at Imamiya Ebisu Shrine Osaka 9-11 Jan
• Authentic yokagura in the hamlets Takachiho Gorge late November to early February
• Winter fireworks Echigo-Yuzawa from New Year's Eve to late March
• Ame-ichi, the candy market Matsumoto the second weekend of January
• New Year daruma market Takasaki 6-7 Jan

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