What’s On in Japan This Week

Almost always. Between November and February the city illuminations light nightly, spring brings a flower festival somewhere nearly every week from the plum blossom in February to the wisteria in May, and from July to early September the fireworks and summer matsuri run back to back. The quieter stretches are the rainy weeks of June and the typhoon-prone first half of September.

Look at the organiser’s official page on the morning of the event; that link sits on every event here. Fireworks are the most weather-sensitive: Sumida River moves to the following day, Jidai Matsuri to 23 October, and Kumano’s display waits for a calm sea. Float festivals such as Takayama send their floats back into the storehouses in rain, with the doors left open for viewing.

For the free viewing that most matsuri and fireworks offer, yes, if you arrive early: riverbanks fill by mid-afternoon and parade kerbs by early afternoon. Reserved stands sell out months ahead, so at short notice the alternatives are a weekday visit, a quieter section of the route, or a hotel room facing the water, which occasionally frees up in the final days.