Ideas of places to go:
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)
