As a matter of fact, Japan’s summer is quite annoying. It starts with a gradually increasing humidity and the piercing cry of the cicadas. But why complain when it only lasts for 2 months (July-August) in a year!
On second thoughts, enjoy the festivities that are celebrated all throughout the country like the Fireworks festivals and the Bon Festival Dance. There are thousand of Fireworks festivals or 「花火大会」 (Hanabi Taikai) at every place in Japan. Most of them are hold in every weekend (especially Saturday) during middle of July to middle of August.
Check this link for the Tokyo Schedules of Fireworks Festival 2008. As for the other parts of Japan, click this one (Pasencia na po dahil ito ay nakasulat sa wikang Hapon).
The Bon Festival Dance or 「盆踊り」 (Bon Odori) that accompanies the Buddhist festival 「お盆」 (Obon) or just 「盆」 (Bon), which means welcoming ancestors’ souls and holding a memorial service for the souls. There is a Bon week in August every year, and Bon continues for about a week. Anyway, the dances were originally held to console the departing spirits, but nowadays the original religious meaning has faded and simply enjoyed as entertainment. Local communities hold the Bon-Odori in open public spaces where a platform is built in the center and people dance around it. You don’t have to be a Buddhist to join, wear a ‘yukata’ and join the crowd dancing to the rhythm of Japanese traditional music. At the end of Obon, paper lanterns are lit in the evening and set afloat in rivers to guide the souls back to their heavenly home.
Bon Odori in Hachioji, Tokyo
Before coming to Japan 4 years ago, I have become a bit of a coffee snob so I figured, before coming here, that I would have to learn to live without really good coffee. Indeed, I find myself frequenting Starbucks shops here more than I would like to. That’s because really good coffee shops are not abundant in Japan. However, they can be found, especially in the Tokyo/Saitama area.
