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festivals (Page 5)

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

Oona McGee
Jul 20, 2016
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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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Japan
(festivals • Fushimi Inari • Fushimi Inari Taisha • Kyoto • shinto • shrines • tourism • tourist spots • travel)

Cats appear at Japan’s famous Tanabata Festival in Sendai this summer

Oona McGee
Jul 6, 2016

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

Japan
(animals • cats • cute • cute pets • festivals • Japanese festivals • Matsuri • pets • Sendai • Sendai Tanabata Festival • Tanabata)

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

Oona McGee
Jun 20, 2016

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.

Culture, Food & Drink, Japan
(celebrations • ceremonies • culture • cultures • festivals • mochi • tradition • video • world's best)

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

Master Blaster
Jun 15, 2016

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.

Culture, Japan
(culture • festivals • holidays • money • Obon • Obondama • otoshidama)

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

Oona McGee
Jun 11, 2016

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!

Culture, Entertainment, Japan
(cool • cute • festivals • Nagano • Onbashira • rides • Suwa Onbashira Festival • VR)

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

Oona McGee
May 22, 2016

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

Culture, Entertainment, Japan
(aquariums • cool • Edo • festivals • goldfish • Sumida Aquarium • summer • summer festivals • Tokyo Skytree)

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

Oona McGee
May 18, 2016

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

Culture, Japan
(festivals • flowers • Mt. Fuji • places to visit in Japan • sakura • Shibazakura • tourist spots • travel • Yamanashi)

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

Krista Rogers
May 14, 2016

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

Culture, Japan
(100 Soundscapes of Japan • environment • festivals • nature)

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

Casey Baseel
May 6, 2016

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

Culture, Japan
(alcohol • conveneince stores • crazy • culture • festivals • funny • Nagano • Onbashira • sake)

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

Scott Wilson
Apr 5, 2016

Celebrating important events with fun, colossal terror!

Japan
(art • awesome • cool • festivals • portable shrines • Tokyo University of the Arts)

The phalluses are in full bloom at this year’s Kanamara Festival【Photos】

SoraNews24
Apr 4, 2016

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

Japan
(festival • festivals • Kanamara • Kanamara Festival • Matsuri • penis • penis festival • phallus • phallus festival)

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

Jamie Koide
Feb 4, 2016

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!

Japan
(events • festivals • Japanese folklore • masks • Tokyo • Tokyo Mask Festival)

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

Mike
Oct 11, 2015

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.

Japan
(cats • culture • festivals • Tokyo • travel)

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

KK Miller
Oct 9, 2015

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?

Europe, Japan
(Awa Odori • culture • dance • festivals • france • paris)

Gundam portable shrine appears at local Japanese festival【Photos】

Jamie Koide
Sep 24, 2015

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.

Japan
(anime • festivals • floats • Japanese tradition • mikoshi • Mobile Suit Gundam • Shiobara Onsen • Tochigi Prefecture • Zaku)

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

Casey Baseel
Sep 8, 2015

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.

Japan
(Aomori • awesome • beautiful • culture • festivals • Street View)

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

Amy Chavez
Jul 21, 2015

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.

Japan
(bugs • culture • festivals • insects • Japan • mushiokuri • Saito Sanemori)

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

Mike
Jul 6, 2015

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.

Japan
(Aomori • festivals • movies • Nebuta Festival • sci-fi • Star Wars)

The most crowded place in Tokyo? Might be the Kanda Matsuri festival, but it’s still awesome

Casey Baseel
May 13, 2015

Even in a city as packed with people as Tokyo, some places, and times, are more crowded than others. So when and where can you find the largest, densest mass of humanity? Some would say the Yamanote loop line during the morning rush hour. Others would vote for Shibuya’s scramble crosswalk intersection on a Saturday night.

But before you go awarding the crown to either of those two candidates, take a look at the massive crowds that came out for the Kanda Matsuri festival last weekend.

Japan
(Akihabara • culture • festivals • Kanda • mikoshi • shinto • shrines)

Burn baby burn! The Shinto inferno of Japan’s Dondo Yaki ceremony

Casey Baseel
Jan 22, 2015

When entering the grounds of a Shinto shrine in Japan, it’s customary to first stop by the water basin near the gate and rinse your hands, and sometimes your mouth, in order to cleanse them. Water isn’t the only classical element held to have purifying properties in Shintoism, though, since the same can be said about fire.

Obviously, worshippers aren’t called upon to put fire on their palms or inside their mouths. Instead, Shinto priests light pyres of charms and decorations during the Dondo Yaki ceremony, with the towering blazes regularly reaching 15 meters (49.2 feet) into the air.