Travel plans/Winter 2014

Ideas of places to go

1) Here is a list of winter festivals in Japan during the time we will be there including:

• Hachinohe Enburi folk festival and dance (Aomori February 17-20)
• A whole series of drift ice festivals in Hokkaido
• Yuki doro snow lantern festival (February 8-11)
• Namahage Sedo child scaring festival (Akita Feburary 7-9)
• Akita Inukko snow dog sculpture festival (Akita Feburary 8-9)
• Yokote snow festival with kamakura and bonden (Akita February 15-17)
• Wave Artists at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum (Tokyo February 19-March 7)
• Amakusa Festival of Food (Amakusa February 15-16)
• 8th Tenmatenjin Umeshu Convention (Osaka February 15-23)
• Tokamachi Snow Festival (Niigata February 14-16) including "giant snow sculptures and stage performances; and the Nakasato Setsugen Carnival, in which a local ski resort is covered in candles to create a surreal, beautiful scene; and the Muko-nage Festival, where young men who have married during the past year are thrown into snowdrifts."
• Kite-flying contest at Tsuda no Matsubara (Kagawa February 9)
• Uesugi Snow Lantern Festival (Yamagata February 7-9)

2) Yokai town (Tottori Sakaiminato)

The government of Japan maintains this list of important intangible folk cultural properties. Several refer to events that occur during our window. One is the Rokugō Kamakura (六郷のカマクラ行事) in Akita on February 11-15. Another is the Mona Satoimo Festival (茂名の里芋祭) which is a kind of potato festival in Chiba on February 19-22. Also, if you like oni, there is the Oni Festival of Toyohashi Shinmei Shrine (豊橋神明社の鬼祭) on February 10-11 and the Spring Hoe Festival of Higoshi Shinmei Shrine (樋越神明宮の春鍬祭) on February 11.

To do

• Watch kabuki
• Watch sumo
• Onsen (hot spring)