Best things to do in summer in Japan

Summer in much of Japan is hot and can be unrelentingly humid, but it’s also the season for top festivals, mass folk dancing, mountain hikes, and enjoying a cold beer on a city rooftop. If you’re travelling in Japan between June and September, carry a fan and make the most of these summertime experiences.

Festivals and fireworks

It is difficult to travel in Japan during summer and not find yourself caught up in a matsuri (festival) of some sort. In cities and towns across the country, floats are paraded, people get kitted out in their colourful yukata (cotton kimono), food stalls cram the streets, fireworks explode, and the beer and sake flows.
Among the summer big-hitters are Kyoto’s famous Gion Matsuri, which runs for the whole month of July; and Osaka’s Tenjin Matsuri, on 24 and 25 July. In Northern Honshū there are unusual feats of strength – from 3 to 6 August people balance long bamboo poles strung with lanterns on their heads and shoulders for the Akita Kantō Matsuri. On Miyajima there is a centuries-old ceremony of traditional music in boats for Kangen-sai  on 1 August. And on the island of Sado-ga-shima from 21 to 23 August, the Kodō Drummers wow music lovers at the Earth Celebration.

In late July and August, fireworks dazzle the skies all over Japan. In the capital, the big one is the Sumida-gawa Fireworks Festival  on the last Saturday in July. In Ōtsu, Japan’s largest lake forms a mirror for the Biwa-ko Great Fireworks Festival  on 7 August. Or go west to see fireworks light up the Kanmon Straits  separating Honshū and Kyūshū on 13 August.

Dance the Bon-odori

Many events happen in mid-August during O-bon, the festival for honouring one’s ancestral spirits. It’s a time when the whole country takes a holiday: families get together in their home towns, graves are tended, lanterns are lit and – perhaps most interesting for visitors – the traditional Bon-odori (Bon dance) is performed. Bon-odori is a type of folk dance, involving a series of simple repeated arm and hand movements, steps and claps, sometimes incorporating a fan or a towel.