Maebashi Hatsuichi Daruma Festival
Daruma make for one of the most traditional Japanese festivals you're likely to see at this event.
Daruma make for one of the most traditional Japanese festivals you're likely to see at this event.
Join in this noisy and raucous festival as people knock on wooden boards to get the attention of a lucky God.
See dozens of loincloth-clad men and boys doused in very cold water as they compete in teams for banknotes.
Put some heat into your winter and New Year with this steamy (in more ways than one!) festival.
Teams race to be the first to reach the shrine and onlookers also push to touch the special charms of this shrine.
Warm up a chilly night with candlelight and your favorite songs from Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi.
A traditional Japanese New Years' festival to bring you some luck.
See an entire mountainside in Nara go up in flames as fireworks are launched behind it.
Warm up a chilly night with candlelight and your favorite songs from Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi.
Instead of bean-throwing, you toss joss sticks into a fire at this traditional Setsubun Festival.
An amazing chance to see a remote, snow-covered thatched village illuminated with hundreds of lanterns.
Setsubun at Yasaka Shrine's is unusual because it features geiko, geisha from Kyoto.
A steamy festival in the depths of the freezing winter
Watch the magical sight of of dozens of paper balloons adorning the night sky.
It gets very, very cold in the far north of Hokkaido, so what better place to have a festival with giant carved ice sculptures?
Chow down on cheap oysters at one of the most beautiful spots in Japan.
A festival in which locals dress up as demons and scare the bejesus out of young children.