Japan in August, Festivals and Fireworks
From Tokyo to Nagasaki, Festivals and Fireworks are Spectacular
Jul 29, 2009
Every week-end, somewhere in Japan, there is a festival. As hotels and ryokans have lists of what is on in their area it is not difficult to find the nearest one. Here are just a few of the main ones for August.
7th – 9th August: Summer Sonic, Tokyo Japan and Osaka Japan
This is Japan’s answer to the pop festivals that take place in Europe. It started in 2000 when the line-up was mostly rock and punk. The venues are split between Chiba (outside Tokyo) and Osaka with a few smaller venues in between, and the bands swap venues for the two days of the festival.
The line-up for 2009 promises Beyonce, Ne-Yo, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Little Boots, The Ting Tings and many more.
Tokyo Japan Bay Fireworks Festival 22nd August 7 p.m.
Almost every weekend through August and September, in Tokyo and other cities and towns, there will be large firework displays, but the biggest and best is the Tokyo Bay Festival on 22nd August. However, most cities and towns will have their own festivals, all worth seeing.
Many of the firework displays in Japan are a competition between rival pyrotechnic groups and the result is an incredible variety of fireworks, not just in colours and patterns, but with characters from Japanese animation. Hotels and ryokan can advise on firework festivals in the area.
2nd – 6th August – Nebuta Matsuri, Aomori
These large illuminated papier-mache dummies representing historical figures (or Kabuki characters) date back to the early 9th century when General Tamuramaro had them created to frighten the enemy. They are call ‘Nebuta’ and are pulled through the streets on carriages while people dressed in colourful, traditional costumes, dance around them to the music of bamboo flutes and drums.
The wooden-base Nebuta floats are covered with beautifully coloured Japanese paper, lit from inside with hundreds of light bulbs. The people of the town are involved in the building of these floats which can take an entire year.
3rd – 6th August: Kanto Matsuri, Akita
Insomniacs need not attend this festival as the original purpose was to ward of sleepiness before harvesting commenced lest it interfered with the work. The name Kanto means an array of many candle-lit lanterns hung on a bamboo frame made to resemble a glowing ear of rice.
The Kanto are made from 10m bamboo poles with 9 cross poles. From this 46 lanterns are hung, each kanto weighing approximately 60 kg. During the Akita Festival, 160 of these Kantos are paraded through the streets of the city by young men who perform impossible feats of balance, shifting the Kanto around from their foreheads to their shoulders to their backs at speed. As with most Festivals, bamboo flutes and loud drumming accompanies the procession helped by the whoops and cheers of the onlookers.
6th August – Peace Ceremony, Hiroshima
The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima at 8.15 a.m. on 6th August 1945, and to commemorate the occasion every year the Bell of Peace rings out and sirens throughout the city of Hiroshima go off at the same time and on the same date. The minute’s silence which follows is observed throughout the country – and indeed in many other parts of the world. In the evening, the Ota River is ablaze with thousands of lanterns set adrift by the people gathered to say prayers for world peace.
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