Takayama Festival (高山祭) has been one of the oldest running festivals in Japan. The festival offers a unique experience of Japanese culture with its articulated performance of puppet dolls during the day and a parade of intricately designed festival floats that goes through the night. Along with Gion Festival in Kyoto and the Chichibu Yomatsuri in Saitama, it is known as one of the three most beautiful festivals in the country. 

With a goal to create hands-on learning opportunities for students and volunteers to develop real-world skills in event and project management, while simultaneously building a platform for local voices to share their stories, Dr. Joe Hug founded TEDxInnovationU.

For two weeks, from March 1 to 14, the historic temple becomes the stage for one of Japan’s oldest living traditions: the Omizutori Festival (お水取り). This ceremony has been held every single year since 752. That’s more than 1,270 years of continuous history.

If you’ve travelled to Kyoto in the past decade, you may have noticed that at certain times of the year, a soft warm glow lights up temples across the city as it welcomes the night. That’s Hanatouro.

When people hear the word “Chinatown,” most people would immediately think of Yokohama. But did you know there is also a strong Chinese influence further south in Kyushu? Yes, you can find it in the heart of Nagasaki Prefecture.

While we are all familiar with cherry blossoms, did you know that there are more than 600 varieties (The Gate).  There are 10 types of cherry blossom trees that grow naturally in Japan, among them are the Kawazu cherry blossoms. The discovery of these cherry blossoms less than 70 years ago led to the creation of the famous Kawazu cherry blossom festival.

The Harbin Ice Festival and the Quebec Winter Carnival are among the most famous winter festivals in the world. But did you know that Japan also hosts one of the largest snow festivals on the planet? Held on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, the Sapporo Snow Festival (さっぽろ雪まつり) welcomes over two million visitors from Japan and abroad every year and rivals its famous counterparts in China and Canada in both scale and spectacle.

A certified Japanese night view heritage and a major event in Tochigi, the Yunishigawa Onsen Kamakura festival is worth adding to your winter itinerary.  According to the official tourism website for Nikko city, Yunishigawa Onsen, the location of the Kamakura festival, has a history that spans more than 800 years. With deep ties to the Taira clan, the Today, we will dive into that history as well as the origins of the famous Kamakura festival.