festivals (Page 4)

Step into a magical spirit world at the Motomiya Festival at Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto

The Kyoto shrine famous for thousands of vermilion torii gates will spirit you away to a mystical world of beauty this weekend at its famous annual night-time festival.
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Cats appear at Japan’s famous Tanabata Festival in Sendai this summer

The huge streamer decorations that draw crowds from all around Japan will now feature adorable cat characters created by an anime artist.

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The fastest mochi maker in Japan reveals secrets of his technique【Video】

The man who kneads rice at incredible speeds of three hits per second lets us into his world and tells us why he lives for making mochi.

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Traditional Japanese holiday gets boost with an injection of cold hard cash

A lesser-known Yamagata Prefecture custom may just be what Obon needs to stave off invasive species of the holiday kingdom like Halloween, Christmas, and Easter.

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New attraction lets you relive the thrill of Japan’s deadly log-riding festival

It’s known as one of the nation’s top three most bizarre festivals and has resulted in deaths when it’s held every six years, but now you can experience the ride first-hand at any time of year!

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New Edo Goldfish Wonderland to open at Tokyo Skytree this summer for a limited time

With lanterns, cocktails and one thousand unusual goldfish, this is the coolest place to hang out in your yukata this summer.

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14 tips for visiting the Mt Fuji Shibazakura Festival, where beautiful “lawn sakura” blossom

With its stunning scenery and fragrant beauty, this is one spring festival you don’t want to miss!

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The 100 Soundscapes of Japan: A list of Japan’s greatest natural, cultural, and industrial sounds

“The 100 what??” That was our initial reaction too, but the official list is just what it sounds like!

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Crazy convenience store photo shows the secret ingredient powering ancient Japanese festival

Tradition and community are great, but there’s one more thing this Nagano celebration gets a boost from.

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Students at Tokyo University of the Arts create amazing festival shrines of giant monsters 【Pics】

Celebrating important events with fun, colossal terror!

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Cloudy skies can’t keep these symbols of fertility down! Note: This post may not be safe for your workplace.

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Tokyo Mask Festival invites visitors to put on a new face and join the masquerade

Author Victor Hugo once said, “Virtue has a veil, vice a mask,” but what if Japanese, contemporary, and fetish masks are your vice? You’ll want to check out Tokyo Mask Festival Vol. 2!

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Introducing the delightfully strange “Bakeneko Festival,” full of kitty cosplayers

The bakeneko (“monstrous cat”) is but one of the many, many yokai of Japanese folklore. For centuries, Japanese people suspected that cats held mystical powers – due, it appears, both to cats’ aloof behavior and to the animals’ yokai-like physical features, such as their slit eyes and ability to move around silently. Even today, some elderly Japanese folks still harbor superstitions about cats.

One ability of the bakeneko, legend has it, is the ability to walk around on two legs (which we’ve actually seen demonstrated in real-life), which makes the yokai a fairly easy choice for cosplay. In fact, there’s a whole festival dedicated to bakeneko celebration and cosplay! And, before you ask, yes, of course we’re going to it.

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Japan’s biggest Obon dance festival makes its international debut in Paris

There are many different reasons to visit Japan, but something that should be on everyone’s bucket list are the matsuri, or festivals. Summer is a big time for festivals, especially in August when the Obon festival is held, during which many people travel back to their hometowns in order to honor their family and ancestors. With so many families together in their hometowns, it is the perfect time for a matsuri full of songs, dancing, and long-standing traditions.

One of the biggest Obon celebrtions in all of Japan is the Awa Odori festival in Tokushima Prefecture, which over a million people attend each year. The dancers who are dressed in their traditional clothing and musicians that pound out the beat in tune with your heart are truly a sight to behold, but if you can’t experience the traditional festival in Japan, why not try to bring it to your country as one French journalist did?

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Gundam portable shrine appears at local Japanese festival【Photos】

Another festival season and summer is coming to an end. The dragonflies are out and the days are getting shorter, which means fall will soon be upon us.

But before the fireworks fizzle away and the festival food stalls have packed up for good this year, one area in Japan decided to go out with a bang and surprise festival-goers with superb portable shrine, or mikoshi, recreations of some of Japan’s most popular characters, including one famous red mobile suit from the anime classic Gundam.

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Google Street View now lets you tour the glowing samurai, dragons of the Nebuta Matsuri festival

Just about every community in Japan puts on a local festival in the summer, but few are as spectacular as Aomori City’s Nebuta Matsuri. For almost a solid week, gigantic floats topped by lanterns shaped like samurai and dragons are paraded through the streets, accompanied by dancers and musicians.

But while Aomori is one of the largest cities in the largely rural Tohoku region of Japan, its relatively remote location in the northeastern corner of the country’s main island of Honshu means not everyone can make it out to see the festivities in-person. As long as you’ve got an Internet connection, though, you can get a taste of the fun with Google’s awesome Nebuta Matsuri Street View that lets you see the amazing floats even closer-up than spectators standing on the sidewalks the towering works of art are carried by.

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Bon dances have been a Japanese tradition for centuries, but one neighborhood’s stopped the music

At this time of year, if I’m walking around town in the evening, I’ll often hear rousing taiko drums and joyful traditional music. Believe it or not, this isn’t an impromptu concert put on by the revelers that always greet my arrival wherever I go, but the sound of a bon dance, (“bon odori” in Japanese).

Part of the summer Obon festivities, bon dances have been held for centuries, and have a spiritual significance in some localities. Even where they’re held for purely festive reasons, they’re a way of fostering a sense of community and preserving cultural heritage.

But while to most Japanese people the sound of bon odori music brings a welcome and warm rush of nostalgic summer memories, one neighborhood in Japan performs its dance with no music at all, and it’s not because all of the dancers have innately perfect rhythm.

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The Force is with the famous Nebuta Festival this year, as Star Wars floats make an appearance

Every year from August 2 to 7, giant illuminated floats of Japanese warriors are paraded through the streets of Aomori City, in the northern-most prefecture on Japan’s main island of Honshu, for the famous Nebuta Festival. Counted as one of the three biggest festivals in Japan, it attracts up to three million visitors each year, but this year, some new, out-of-this-world warriors made an appearance at the festival.

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Better than mosquito repellent – The most eco-friendly (and spiritual) way to repel pests in Japan

There’s no need to use toxic substances to kill off unwanted insects in Japan, because there’s a much more eco-friendly method they’ve been using for hundreds of years. Although it may not be scientifically proven, many people feel this is still the best way to get rid of everything from garden aphids to mosquitoes. And if the method has endured for centuries, it must be at least somewhat effective right?

This uniquely Japanese insect repellent is far cheaper than commercial insecticides, easier to implement, and you only have to use it once a year in spring or early summer. And the best part? It involves Japanese sake!

What’s the secret? We’ll let you know after the jump.

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Aomori’s fabled Nebuta Festival 2015 to feature Star Wars floats

Aomori Prefecture’s legendary Nebuta Festival – which takes place in early August every year – has always been one of those big festivals on my Japan bucket list.

Even though the festival is one of the prestigious few festivals to receive the staggeringly long designation of Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan, we’re willing to bet the festival is largely overlooked by Western visitors. This is, probably, largely due to Aomori’s fairly remote location; it’s a real pain to get to from Tokyo, Osaka or any of the other major cities outside of Sapporo.

But then, what if that wasn’t the biggest reason foreigners aren’t totally aware of this great festival? What if the real reason was the festival’s lack of Star Wars characters?

Luckily, whether or not that’s the real case, that sore lack of Star Wars characters at the Aomori Nebuta Festival is going to change this year.

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