Summer Festivals in Japan
It's a little around this time of the month when we started planning out our little adventure last year to the Tohoku area. We were giddy since my friend and I both knew that the trip would be a departure from our past trips that mostly revolved in visiting shrines and temples, museums, and famous tourist spots. This time we've decided to see the three big summer festivals Tohoku boasts of, the 竿燈祭り (Kanto Matsuri) in Akita, the ねぶた祭り (Nebuta Matsuri) in Aomori and the 七夕祭り (Tanabata Matsuri) in Miyagi. Choosing our summer destination was fairly easy, but it was rather difficult to decide where we should first head off. The festivals were held at three separate locations across three different prefectures at overlapping dates so prudent planning was crucial since we were traveling on a 青春18きっぷ (Seishun 18-kippu), which is very cheap and cheap entails time consuming train rides (this trip took about 60 hours if you calculate the rides collectively). We did our research and figured that it was most convenient to go to Akita, then Aomori, and finally to Sendai. We've purchased train tickets, made hotel reservations, printed out maps and train schedules. We also checked out blogs for previous travelers' advice for satisfying gastronomic experiences and what to expect during the festivals. With all these planned out, we were definitely set!
Summer Festivals in Japan
It's a little around this time of the month when we started planning out our little adventure last year to the Tohoku area. We were giddy since my friend and I both knew that the trip would be a departure from our past trips that mostly revolved in visiting shrines and temples, museums, and famous tourist spots. This time we've decided to see the three big summer festivals Tohoku boasts of, the 竿燈祭り (Kanto Matsuri) in Akita, the ねぶた祭り (Nebuta Matsuri) in Aomori and the 七夕祭り (Tanabata Matsuri) in Miyagi. Choosing our summer destination was fairly easy, but it was rather difficult to decide where we should first head off. The festivals were held at three separate locations across three different prefectures at overlapping dates so prudent planning was crucial since we were traveling on a 青春18きっぷ (Seishun 18-kippu), which is very cheap and cheap entails time consuming train rides (this trip took about 60 hours if you calculate the rides collectively). We did our research and figured that it was most convenient to go to Akita, then Aomori, and finally to Sendai. We've purchased train tickets, made hotel reservations, printed out maps and train schedules. We also checked out blogs for previous travelers' advice for satisfying gastronomic experiences and what to expect during the festivals. With all these planned out, we were definitely set!