Kamimizo (Mizono) Daruma Market<\/strong> (\u6e9d\u306e\u3060\u308b\u307e\u5e02, Mizo no daruma-shi<\/em>) in Kanagawa – a historic Daruma doll<\/a> <\/strong>market held at Mizono Hachimangu Shrine in mid-January, where people buy Daruma to wish for success and good fortune in the new year and burn last year’s dolls after their wish came true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lucky bags<\/strong> (\u798f\u888b, Fukubukuro<\/em>) – retailers sell mystery \u201clucky\u201d bags<\/a> of discounted and unknown products at the start of the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coming of Age Day<\/strong> (\u6210\u4eba\u5f0f, Seijin shiki<\/em>) – a national holiday<\/a> where youth celebrate officially becoming adults at the age of 20<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shirakawago light-up event<\/a><\/strong> (\u767d\u5ddd\u90f7\u96ea\u306e\u30e9\u30a4\u30c8\u30a2\u30c3\u30d7, Shirakawag\u014d yuki no raitoappu<\/em>) – the old farmhouses of this famous UNESCO World Heritage site are illuminated for a short time during winter<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Snow festival<\/strong> (\u3055\u3063\u307d\u308d\u96ea\u307e\u3064\u308a<\/span>, Sapporo matsuri<\/em>) – the snow festival<\/a> takes place yearly in Sapporo<\/span> and features large ice sculptures and performances, and is one of the most popular Japanese events among the locals.<\/span> If you’re planning only to spend one year in Japan, this festival shouldn’t be missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Setsubun \u7bc0\u5206<\/strong> – this festival features bean-throwing to scare away evil and to welcome in spring. People normally throw dried soybeans at others wearing demon masks<\/strong> and it is also tradition to eat the same number of beans as your age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plum festivals<\/strong> (\u6885\u796d, ume matsuri<\/em>) – plum blossoms are associated with the start of spring as they are among the first flowers to bloom. Similar to cherry blossom season<\/a>, there are also plum blossom festivals held across Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese New Year<\/a><\/strong> (\u65e7\u6b63\u6708, ky\u016bsh\u014dgatsu<\/em>) – there is a large Chinese population in Japan, so it is only fitting that there be festive celebrations to bring in the new year in Japan\u2019s largest Chinatown, located in Yokohama<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doll Festival<\/strong><\/span> (\u96db\u796d\u308a, <\/span>Hinamatsuri<\/em>) – celebrates the health and happiness of female children (March 3<\/strong>). Often involves families displaying ceramic dolls dressed in ornate dresses. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Anime Japan<\/a> <\/strong>in Tokyo – the main anime industry event and one of the largest anime events in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cherry blossoms<\/strong> (\u685c, Sakura) – <\/em>cherry blossoms are a huge part of Japan\u2019s identity and are synonymous with spring. Every year crowds of people celebrate the season with cherry blossom viewing<\/a> parties and spring-themed food and drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sumo tournament<\/a> <\/strong>(\u5927\u76f8\u64b2\u4e09\u6708\u5834\u6240\u5927\u962a, Oozumou san tsuki basho \u014csaka<\/em>) in Osaka – six sumo tournaments are held each year in Japan and the Osaka one begins in March and lasts for 15 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n White Day <\/strong> (\u30db\u30ef\u30a4\u30c8\u30c7\u30fc) – the Japanese way of celebrating Valentine\u2019s Day is for women to gift to men on February 14 and for men to return the gesture by gifting to women on White Day<\/a> (March 14<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mt Fuji pink moss festival<\/a> <\/strong>(\u5bcc\u58eb\u829d\u685c\u307e\u3064\u308a, Fuji Shibazakura<\/em> matsuri<\/em>) – each year hundreds of thousands of pink moss bloom near the base of Mt Fuji<\/a>. A highly popular spring event that draws large crowds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beppu hot spring festival<\/a> <\/strong>(\u5225\u5e9c\u516b\u6e6f\u6e29\u6cc9\u307e\u3064\u308a, Beppuhatt\u014d onsen matsuri<\/em>) in Kyushu – Beppu has a large number of onsen resources so each year the local community and government put on a festival to give thanks to these resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kamakura festival<\/strong> (\u938c\u5009\u307e\u3064\u308a, Kamakura matsuri<\/em>) – a week-long festival in Kanagawa to welcome in spring, featuring horseback archery<\/strong>, tea ceremonies and performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strawberry picking<\/strong> (\u30a4\u30c1\u30b4\u72e9\u308a, ichigo-gari)<\/em> – spring is one of the best times for strawberry lovers as it\u2019s when you\u2019re able to visit strawberry farms and pick and eat strawberries to your heart\u2019s content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Children\u2019s Day <\/strong>(\u5b50\u4f9b\u306e\u65e5, Kodomo no hi<\/em>) + Golden week <\/b>– Golden Week<\/a> is one of Japan\u2019s busiest holiday seasons due to there being four public holidays within one week. Children\u2019s Day is the final holiday of that week and is a day to celebrate the health and happiness of children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ashikaga Flower Park<\/a><\/strong> – the top place to see wisteria flowers. The park is also popular in winter due to its illuminations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hakata Dontaku festival<\/strong> (\u535a\u591a\u3069\u3093\u305f\u304f\u6e2f\u307e\u3064\u308a, Hakata dontaku minato matsuri<\/em>) in Fukuoka – the largest festival during Golden Week featuring extravagant costumes, dancing, and floats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lilac festival<\/strong> in Sapporo<\/a> (\u672d\u5e4c\u30e9\u30a4\u30e9\u30c3\u30af\u796d) – held in Odori Park, where there are about 400 lilac trees, this festival celebrates the coming of spring in the north of Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sanno festival<\/strong> (\u5c71\u738b\u796d, Sann\u014d matsuri<\/em>) in Tokyo – one of the three most famous festivals in Tokyo, taking place on even-numbered years. It features a large parade where portable shrines are carried through central Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hydrangea festival<\/a><\/strong> (\u7d2b\u967d\u82b1\u796d, ajisai matsuri<\/em>) – hydrangeas bloom during Japan\u2019s rainy season<\/a>, so even if the weather\u2019s gloomy there are still, at least, beautiful flowers to look at! Hydrangea festivals take place across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rice planting festival<\/strong> in Osaka<\/a> – Japan is a major rice producer so rice-planting season is pretty important. Rice planting festivals, where rice seedlings are placed into paddies along with dance and music, are found all over Japan, but the Otaue festival in Osaka is the most famous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fussa Firefly festival<\/strong> – around 500 fireflies are released in this city located about an hour west of central Tokyo. A hugely popular event held in the early days of summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n JLPT exam<\/strong> (Tokyo) – the first of two annual Japanese Language Proficiency Tests<\/a> held in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tanabata<\/strong> – a vibrant festival<\/a> that is celebrated countrywide and based on an old Chinese myth. Special features involve writing wishes on colourful pieces of paper and tying them to bamboo decorations, as well as large colourful paper streamers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mt Fuji climbing<\/a> s<\/strong>eason starts – Mt Fuji, Japan\u2019s tallest mountain, is officially open to climbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gion matsuri \u7947\u5712\u796d <\/strong>in Kyoto<\/a> – the most famous festival in Japan with a spectacular procession of floats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obon<\/strong> \u304a\u76c6 <\/strong>– Japanese Buddhist event<\/a> to commemorate one\u2019s ancestors<\/strong>. Often involves people returning to their hometowns and is another significant time of travel in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Summer Sonic<\/a><\/strong> in Osaka – an annual multi-day music festival that takes place at the same time in both Osaka and Chiba, featuring both international and local artists.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshida fire festival<\/a><\/strong> (Yoshida no himatsuri <\/em>\u5409\u7530\u306e\u706b\u796d\u308a) – massive torches lining the city of Fujiyoshida are lit up to celebrate the end of Mt Fuji\u2019s climbing season<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tokyo Game Show<\/strong> – large video game expo held annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri <\/strong>in Osaka \u2013 an exciting festival featuring massive wooden floats (danjiri) <\/strong>pulled at high speeds through the city streets by energetic teams of local volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seiryu-e festival<\/a><\/strong> in Kyoto – a relatively new festival, the Blue Dragon Festival was created to honor Seiryu, one of four god-beasts said to protect Kyoto from misfortune and disaster. Features a procession that includes a large dragon costume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grand Sumo tournament<\/strong> in Tokyo – the second-to-last major sumo tournament of the year held at the Ry\u014dgoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tsukimi \u6708\u898b – <\/strong>also known as the moon viewing festival, (varies by year, late September to early October) is a traditional event where people admire the full autumn moon<\/strong>, often eating tsukimi dango <\/strong>(rice dumplings) and seasonal foods like sweet potatoes and chestnuts.<\/strong> Temples and shrines hold special moon-viewing and dango-making events across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jidai matsuri \u6642\u4ee3\u796d<\/strong> – takes place on the foundation day of Kyoto and features a large parade showing off costumes from almost every period of Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nada fighting festival<\/a><\/strong> \u7058\u306e\u3051\u3093\u304b\u796d\u308a<\/strong> in Hyogo \u2013 a fierce and spirited festival where local male participants smash large portable shrines (mikoshi) against each other<\/strong> to show strength, dominance, and courage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bakeneko parade<\/strong> in Kagurazaka and Kawasaki parade<\/strong>\u00a0– part of Halloween festivities, the Bakeneko parade sees participants dressing up in cat-related gear<\/strong> to parade down one of Tokyo\u2019s poshest neighborhoods. The Kawasaki parade is the most famous Halloween event in Japan, where participants and spectators number in the 100,000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mt Takao festival<\/strong> and Momijigari \u7d05\u8449\u72e9\u308a<\/strong> (autumn leaves viewing) – November is the month for autumn leaves watching<\/a> and for those in Tokyo, Mt Takao is one of the most popular places to experience the changing of the seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kyushu Grand Sumo tournament<\/strong> in Fukuoka – part of the six annual major sumo tournaments that take place across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asakusa Tori no ichi<\/a><\/strong> in Tokyo – held at a number of shrines and temples on set days to welcome prosperity, health and good fortune in business. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n JLPT<\/strong> – the second JLPT exam to take place in Japan each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Illuminations<\/strong><\/a> – a signature of winter across Japan, many public and open spaces, as well as businesses, set up lights and effects to bring the sparkle to otherwise dark and cold winter nights. The romantic atmosphere makes it one of the popular Japanese events for couples to attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mochi-tsuki \u9905\u3064\u304d<\/strong> – there is a long period of eating mochi, or stick rice cake, for New Years, so it\u2019s tradition for many households to start mochi-tsuki, or the pounding of rice to<\/strong> make mochi<\/strong>, around the start of the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan ski season start<\/strong> – Japan is famed for the high quality of its powder snow and December will see the start of many crowds of both Japanese and foreign snow lovers descending on ski resorts<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n NHK K\u014dhaku Uta Gassen NHK\u7d05\u767d\u6b4c\u5408\u6226<\/strong> (on Japanese tv<\/a>, 31st evening) – annual live show broadcast by Japan\u2019s public broadcaster NHK. The show divides the year\u2019s most popular music artists into red (females) and white (male) who perform and the judges and audience decide which group performed better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of whether you\u2019re only spending one year, or less, in Japan or staying for much longer, being bored is simply not a possibility with so many popular Japanese events going on all the time! <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re ready to visit Japan and want in on the festive fun of popular Japanese events throughout the year, why not join a Study Trip<\/a> learn Japanese, and make unforgettable memories with new friends along the way? Contact<\/a> Go! Go! Nihon to get started and learn more about study trips in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a country that loves celebrations, there is certainly no shortage of popular Japanese events and festivals to enjoy over the course of one year in Japan. Read on to find out about some of our favorites! January New Year shrine visit (\u521d\u8a63, Hatsum\u014dde)- the first visit to a temple or shrine for the new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":163614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[401],"tags":[680,662,685],"class_list":["post-26873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-japan","tag-study-in-japan","tag-things-to-do","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26873"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186329,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26873\/revisions\/186329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Japanese](\"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Japanese-plum-blossom-ume.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFebruary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
March<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
April<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Koinobori](\"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Koi-fish-streamers-for-childrens-day.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMay<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
June<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/tanabata-festival-people.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nJuly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
August<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Sumo](\"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Sumo-tournament-in-Tokyo.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSeptember<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
October<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
November<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/ski-in-Japan.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDecember<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Want to join popular Japanese events?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n