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

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

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

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

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:

• Japan National Tourist Assocation
• Japan Auto Camping Federation (Japanese)
• Outdoor Square (Japanese)

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!