Nozawa Onsen Dosojin Fire Festival (野沢温泉道祖神火祭り)

"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)

"The melancholic kokyu strings and measured Mugiya dance fill the silk-weaving town of Johana on a single autumn Sunday, with a dance competition at the historic Zentokuji Temple precinct."

Johana Mugiya Festival (城端むぎや祭)

"Thirteen ornate hikiyama floats parade through the old port quarter of Shinminato on the Toyama coast in a 370-year-old autumn festival of Hojozu Hachimangu Shrine."

Shinminato Hikiyama Festival (新湊曳山まつり)

"Shirakawa Hachimangu's harvest festival, held among the gassho-zukuri thatched farmhouses of Ogimachi hamlet since at least the early Edo period, distributes shrine-brewed unfiltered doburoku sake to all who come, alongside lion dances and ancestral folk songs."

Doburoku Matsuri (どぶろく祭) at Shirakawa Hachimangu Shrine

"The Hatoya district's turn in Shirakawa-go's rolling harvest-festival sequence brings mikoshi processions, shishimai lion dance, and cups of the shrine's own hand-brewed doburoku to a hamlet tucked beside the Sho River gorge."

Doburoku Matsuri (どぶろく祭) at Hatoya Hachimangu Shrine

"The closing leg of Shirakawa-go's five-day relay of rice-harvest thanksgivings, held at Iijima Hachimangu beside the Michi-no-Eki Shirakawa-go rest stop, where each hamlet's distinct dance style sets it apart from the other shrine gatherings."

Doburoku Matsuri (どぶろく祭) at Iijima Hachimangu Shrine

"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)