Recommendation: Summer Festivals

1.       Sendai Tanabata Festival (Miyagi Prefecture)

This is one of the summer festivals where you can write your wish on a piece of paper and hang it on the small bamboo trees. It’s also a festival to celebrate the reunion of Hikoboshi and Orihime, a couple who are separated by the milky way and reunited once every year. This festival is also one of the biggest festivals in Tohoku Region. The downtown area is filled with colorful streamers called Fukinagashi, and then the tail part of this streamers or big ornaments are made of colorful origamis (folding paper), as written in https://digjapan.travel/en/blog/id=10643.

(NO ADMISSION FEE)

Source: https://www.hisgo.com/us/destination-japan/miyagi/tanabata_matsuri.html

2.       Akita Kanto Festival (Akita Prefecture)

This is also one of the biggest festivals in Tohoku Region. Its purpose is to banish evil things and summer illness. The main event of this festival is the single bamboo which hold around 46 big lanterns. The bamboo itself weighs 50 kilos, and are balanced on the participant’s hands, foreheads, shoulders, and hips, as written in https://digjapan.travel/en/blog/id=10643. 

(NO ADMISSION FEE)

Source: http://expatsguide.jp/features/festivals-in-japan/akita-kanto-festival/

3.       Aomori Nebuta Festival (Aomori Prefecture)

The last one of the biggest festivals in Tohoku Region. The main event is the big, colorful floats called ‘Ningyo Toro’ (dolls lantern). The floats usually represent a story related to samurai, kabuki, or legends. During the festival, these heavy floats are usually pulled by the dancers, accompanied by Taiko, flutes, and bells, as written in https://digjapan.travel/en/blog/id=10643. 

(NO ADMISSION FEE)
*For those who want to participate as the dancers will have to pay around 4000 yen)*

Source: https://www.en-aomori.com/culture-038.html

References:

https://digjapan.travel/en/blog/id=10643