At any time of year across Japan, you can experience sacred rituals honoring Buddhist or Shinto traditions, rollicking street parades and colorful floats, or local gatherings where families dressed in summer yukata enjoy the summer fireworks or traditional dance. We can arrange participation in a number of matsuri across the country but have particularly strong links with Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri with its 1,200-year heritage and some of the local matsuri in the shita-machi area of Tokyo – a once-in-a-life opportunity to interact with local people and feel a special part of the celebration.