To me the best part of spending summer in Japan was all the matsuris I was able to attend. In all my previous travels, I had generally avoided visiting during the summer months to steer clear of the heat. However, this time I didn’t have much of a choice but to spend my summer here. At least this gave me a chance to pull out my yukata and enjoy all the summer festivities in Japan. =)

One of the first matsuris I attended was one at Tsuruma Park. The last time I visited the park was during hanami, so it was definitely interesting going in a different season. It was still very crowded inside and the line ups were especially long by the vendors, but it was nowhere near as busy during the cherry blossoms. However, I did notice there were tons of people walking around with their smart phones in their hands. It was only afterwards that I realized everyone was chasing Pokémon around the fountain because the one inside Tsuruma Park is shaped like a pokeball. Lol

Another matsuri I went to with my colleagues from my English school was the Osu Summer Festival. It was another stifling hot day and I couldn’t bear to change into my yukata after work, so I went in my normal clothes. The festival was held just before the Obon holiday, so it was very lively with the bon dancing and the taiko drumming. The main highlight were the tezutsu hanabi, which are handheld fireworks. I don’t know how to describe it other than having a sparkler in your hand but 1000x the strength. Good thing they left it to the professionals. Hehe.

The last matsuri I went to was the Kariya Wansaka Festival. Originally I made plans to meet with my friends at Kariya Station, then take the free shuttle buses to Kariya City General Athletic Park. However, there must have been too many people cause the buses were completely full even though we arrived well before the last bus was scheduled to depart. We ended up having to take the train to Anjo, then switching to a local line and walking 15 minutes before we reached the grounds. It was insane the amount of trouble we had to go through just to get there!

However it was definitely worth the trip because the park where the festival was held was HUGE. There were lines and lines of vendors selling all sorts of foods like karaage and takoyaki. I ended up grabbing a tamago senbei with bacon and cheese inside. It was sooo amazing! But the real highlight of the night was the fireworks show. In Canada it’s pretty typical for a show to last 15-20 minutes max, but in Japan they generally last one hour. Fireworks were lit from two sides of the field, so when one end finished the other side would start almost seamlessly. I was super happy that they even coordinated music to the ending, cause they played Arashi’s Ai wo Sakebe. =D

The last part of the night was grabbing dinner at St. Vino by Kariya Station with my friends. It was such an amazing end to the night! It doesn’t really feel like summer in Japan until you go to at least one or three matsuris!