Discover insider tips, travel guides, and inspiring stories for your next adventure in Japan
From July 1 to August 31, 2026, Mercure Fukuoka Munakata Resort & Spa is running a season of cooling summer events, including a day and night outdoor pool, a wind chime-filled "Suzumi Chapel," an ice-cube fortune-telling game, a festival week with vegetable scooping, and two nights of fireworks.
On July 12, Mikuni Port in Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture — known for landing Fukui's Echizen crab and sweet shrimp — turns its regular Sunday morning market into the "Ippon-zuri Fishing Festival," featuring bargain tuna block sales, a yellowtail rice bowl debut, seafood soup, and a live performance by the Mikuni High School Brass Band.
Ants Wedding is offering a new wedding photo plan set inside Tokyo's Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, marking the first time the museum has officially allowed location photo shoots inside the building, with reservations opening July 1, 2026.
Mitsui Garden Hotel Yokohama Minatomirai Premier is offering two limited-availability stay plans that let guests watch the August 24 Minatomirai fireworks from its 20th-floor outdoor terrace or Sky Pool, complete with drinks and food from BAR BELLO GATTI.
A new overnight stay plan at Miyako Hotel Amagasaki pairs a night's stay with shaved ice made from fully ripe strawberries grown at Sasahara Farm, a strawberry farm operating in the middle of the city, offering guests a taste of Amagasaki's urban agriculture.
Monster Strike welcomes new character Aruka, voiced by Azumi Waki, to the Extreme Beast God Festival gacha on July 4, 2026, alongside a Japan national soccer team collaboration and a quote-post campaign.
For two days only, Japanese restaurant Goryori Mukyu in Roppongi Hills is pairing Japanese-style assiette desserts with a tasting of Japanese teas curated by table tea ceremony instructor Naoko Tomita, bringing the spirit of tea ceremony to life through a light, contemporary lens.
mumokuteki cafe KYOTO, a vegan cafe in Nakagyo ward, central Kyoto, has started selling this year's batch of its popular homemade red shiso juice from July 2, available in Hot, Ice, and Soda styles for dine-in or takeout.
On Saturday, August 1, 2026, kakigori specialist Asako Harada personally shaves premium shaved ice at the café 囲炉裏と甘味 gururi inside Nagaragawa Seiryu Hotel in Gifu, reviving a popular event held for the first time in Gifu Prefecture last year.
A talk event by photographer Yuki Ueda comes to Nagoya Minato Tsutaya Books on Sunday, July 12, 2026, marking the release of his latest photo book ARCA この星の物語, featuring landscapes from the Himalayas, Antarctica, Iceland, and beyond.
Nakamachi Hyogaten, a natural ice specialty brand from Matsumoto, Nagano, is collaborating for the first time with Salt Consortium, whose restaurants and cafes in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka have each created their own limited-edition kakigori using the same rare natural ice.
Itsukiri, a retreat in Isumi, Chiba, will host a two-night-only gastronomy event this September pairing its executive chef Ai Kimura with Daiki Horita of Nara's Michelin-starred VILLA COMMUNICO, uniting mountain and coastal terroir in one course alongside a stay built around hot springs and sauna.