Abashiri Okhotsk Drift Ice Festival (あばしりオホーツク流氷まつり)
The small fishing city of Abashiri celebrates the arrival of Okhotsk Sea drift ice with community-made snow and ice sculptures, a Save-the-Ice environmental theme, and evening fireworks on the harbour wharf.
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"Sounkyo's gorge riverbank fills with around 30 illuminated ice sculptures up to 13 metres tall, nightly fireworks, and a community ice shrine, all crafted from the extreme cold of Daisetsuzan National Park."
Sounkyo Onsen Hyobaku Matsuri (層雲峡温泉氷瀑まつり)
"A short-lived phantom village of igloos, an ice bar, and open-air hot-spring baths materialises each winter directly on the frozen surface of pristine Lake Shikaribetsu in Shikaoi Town."
Lake Shikaribetsu Kotan (シカリベツ湖コタン)
"Six hundred glowing pyramid lanterns made from agricultural insulation pulse in time with music on the frozen banks of the Tokachi River in the small onsen town of Otofuke, celebrating the wild swans that overwinter there."
Otofuke Tokachigawa Swan Festival Sairinka (音更町十勝川白鳥祭 彩凜華)
"Around one thousand handmade snow candles crafted by inn and ryokan staff illuminate Jozankei Shrine and the riverside streets of this tiny mountain hot-spring hamlet, which is enveloped in snow throughout the event."
Jozankei Snow Light Road (定山渓雪灯路)
"At the foot of Mount Sanbe, the Tane Kagura Transmission Hall keeps alive an Iwami Kagura tradition embedded in the Japan Heritage site of Sabimeyama Shrine."
Tane Kagura Denshokan Teiki Kouen (多根神楽伝承館 定期公演)
"On the tiny island of Tsuken-jima off the Okinawa coast, men perform a rare circle dance of Chinese origin in traditional summer dress to hand-held drums, a centuries-old communal rite confined almost entirely to this one small island community."
Too Udui Dance
"On a remote island of 1,600 people, over 60 distinct dances performed across seven hamlet stages during Obon include the beloved Kitsune Fox Dance, where children in white fox makeup charm crowds that triple the island's population."
Himeshima Bon Odori
"Youth seinenkai groups carry odaiko and paranku drums through the streets of Yomitan village on all three Obon nights, performing ancestral eisa in the living community tradition rather than on a stage."
Okinawa Obon Eisa Michi-uchi (Village Street Eisa)
"Praying for the five-grain harvest and plentiful fishing from Lake Ogawara, neighbourhood teams in Tohoku-machi's Kamikita district parade hand-made dashi floats to the cry of 'Yare, Yare' along a one-kilometre course in one of Aomori's most community-rooted autumn customs."
Tohoku-machi Aki Matsuri Kamikita (東北町秋まつり上北地区)
"Elegantly costumed dancers in deep sedge hats drift silently through lantern-lit cobblestone streets to mournful kokyu strings in one of Japan's most atmospheric rural autumn customs."
Owara Kaze no Bon (おわら風の盆)