Friday Five Outdoor / Nature

5 Things to Do in Summer in Japan

7 August 2015

We’re smack in the middle of summer right now, and while I despise the scorching heat and stifling humidity, it is undeniable that there are some activities that summer is perfect for.

So for this week’s Friday Five, I will share some of my favorite things to do in summer in Japan!

1. Lavender farms

In Furano, Hokkaido

Although there are many flowers in bloom during summer, the most outstanding of the lot is surely lavender!

Most people will associate lavender to Hokkaido, but Gunma has a Tambara Lavendar Park too! It’s an easier location to reach for tourists visiting Tokyo.

Read about our lavender farms visit in Hokkaido here.

And a heads up: Lavender fields don’t smell of lavender. There is no smell unless you deliberately go pat the flowers to smell them. Surprise, surprise!

2. Festivals

At the Itabashi+Toda Fireworks Festival

To me, 花火大会 (fireworks festivals) are a staple every summer. I will try to make it to at least one festival every year! [click here to read my first festival]

There are hundreds of fireworks festivals held in Japan during the year, but a good bulk of them occur during summer. The big fireworks festivals have fireworks going off for at least an hour non-stop, and also have many stalls set up near the venue.

Here is a list of fireworks festivals in Tokyo.

Apart from fireworks festivals, there are also many other cultural festivals such as Omikkoshi. The JNTO website lists all some of the more major festivals in Japan here.

3. Water activities

Splashing around in Hokkaido. They look so happy to be in the water!

There’s no better way to cool off than to hit the waters!

Anything goes, be it the beach, water theme park, bodyboarding or rafting!

All water places are usually extremely crowded during summer because it’s one of the few months in the year that people can play in the water!

4. Aerial activities

The sky is falling.
No wait, actually it’s me that’s falling…

Of course, the sunny weather also means it’s good to take things to the sky!

Awesome video that Fu made!

We’ve done skydiving and paragliding, but there’s still more to do like hot air balloon rides!

No hangliding for me though, since I had a harrowing experience with it in Texas >:(

5. Camping

This is the only item in the list that we haven’t done yet, but we’re hoping to rectify it this year. We’ve already bought a tent a few days ago!

Some resources to help with finding campsites:

Addendum: Mount Fuji is also open for climbing during summer, which I suppose would interest quite a few people. It’s not in the list above because I have absolutely zero interest in climbing Mount Fuji. Mount Fuji is magnificent and splendid, AWAY FROM THE MOUNTAIN. It’s flippin’ ugly when you’re ON the mountain! Just dirt and gravel ALL THE WAY UP. And it’s not exactly an easy trek. So… nah. I’ll pass. I would climb a neighboring mountain to view Mount Fuji though!

6 Comments

  • Reply nico 8 August 2015 at 3:18 am

    camping! bear grylls style!

    • Reply Rin 9 August 2015 at 12:49 pm

      LOL! For one night, mayyyybe…

  • Reply Akshat 8 August 2015 at 10:26 pm

    That skydiving experience! :)

    really want to camping and rafting! :-|

    • Reply Rin 9 August 2015 at 12:39 pm

      Did you just re-watch the video multiple times? (cause I did, haha)

      Rafting is fun! I’ll let you know about camping, but I suspect it will be as well :D

  • Reply Ly 16 September 2016 at 10:38 am

    Wow on the sky diving part! That takes GUTS!! There’s a time in my life that I thought I was adventurous enough and just a few years ago, I went hiking on some rocky place in Nevada. I followed some friends up the rocks, but never actually turned around to see how far I went. When I actually DID turned around. People below looks like tiny ants and I almost peed myself . . . So, I sat there for 15 minutes, then got myself together to crawl back down. Yeah, not very adventurous as I thought! BUT, it was still a good experience. Nice to see you try out all the thrilling activities though!!! =D

    • Reply Rin 22 September 2016 at 2:43 pm

      Heh, I like trying new things, thrilling and otherwise :D
      Haha, at least you managed to get back down. Maybe next time just don’t look down!

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