Japanese Culture, Exoteric Japan May in Japan, A wonderous of crowds of people in front of the main temple at Asakusa in Tokyo, Japan

May in Japan begins with the longest continuous string of holidays in Japan called Golden Week! Greenery Day, Children’s Day, Constitution Memorial Day, and Showa Day are all crammed in there together. It is the single biggest travel time outside of the Bon Festival. But there is a lot more going on in May! Come find out more ;-D

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Japan in May Calendar

June 2025

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May in Japan Map of Events and Festivals

Timeline of May in Japan

21 April 2026
25 May 2026
Men riding a log down the mountainside in the Onbashira festival in Nagano.

Onbashira Festival 2022, 2028, 2034 every six years 御柱祭 おんばしらさい(Nagano Prefecture)

Come see grown men riding huge tree trunks down a mountain then stand them up again at the once every six years festival at Suwa shrine in Nagano in April and May. ...

All Day
18-15 Kaminishiyamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0006
View Details
22 April 2026
25 May 2026
Men riding a log down the mountainside in the Onbashira festival in Nagano.

Onbashira Festival 2022, 2028, 2034 every six years 御柱祭 おんばしらさい(Nagano Prefecture)

Come see grown men riding huge tree trunks down a mountain then stand them up again at the once every six years festival at Suwa shrine in Nagano in April and May. ...

All Day
18-15 Kaminishiyamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0006
View Details
23 April 2026
25 May 2026
Men riding a log down the mountainside in the Onbashira festival in Nagano.

Onbashira Festival 2022, 2028, 2034 every six years 御柱祭 おんばしらさい(Nagano Prefecture)

Come see grown men riding huge tree trunks down a mountain then stand them up again at the once every six years festival at Suwa shrine in Nagano in April and May. ...

All Day
18-15 Kaminishiyamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0006
View Details
24 April 2026
25 May 2026
Men riding a log down the mountainside in the Onbashira festival in Nagano.

Onbashira Festival 2022, 2028, 2034 every six years 御柱祭 おんばしらさい(Nagano Prefecture)

Come see grown men riding huge tree trunks down a mountain then stand them up again at the once every six years festival at Suwa shrine in Nagano in April and May. ...

All Day
18-15 Kaminishiyamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0006
View Details
25 April 2026
25 May 2026
Men riding a log down the mountainside in the Onbashira festival in Nagano.

Onbashira Festival 2022, 2028, 2034 every six years 御柱祭 おんばしらさい(Nagano Prefecture)

Come see grown men riding huge tree trunks down a mountain then stand them up again at the once every six years festival at Suwa shrine in Nagano in April and May. ...

All Day
18-15 Kaminishiyamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0006
View Details
26 April 2026
25 May 2026
Men riding a log down the mountainside in the Onbashira festival in Nagano.

Onbashira Festival 2022, 2028, 2034 every six years 御柱祭 おんばしらさい(Nagano Prefecture)

Come see grown men riding huge tree trunks down a mountain then stand them up again at the once every six years festival at Suwa shrine in Nagano in April and May. ...

All Day
18-15 Kaminishiyamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0006
View Details
27 April 2026
25 May 2026
Men riding a log down the mountainside in the Onbashira festival in Nagano.

Onbashira Festival 2022, 2028, 2034 every six years 御柱祭 おんばしらさい(Nagano Prefecture)

Come see grown men riding huge tree trunks down a mountain then stand them up again at the once every six years festival at Suwa shrine in Nagano in April and May. ...

All Day
18-15 Kaminishiyamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0006
View Details
28 April 2026
25 May 2026
Men riding a log down the mountainside in the Onbashira festival in Nagano.

Onbashira Festival 2022, 2028, 2034 every six years 御柱祭 おんばしらさい(Nagano Prefecture)

Come see grown men riding huge tree trunks down a mountain then stand them up again at the once every six years festival at Suwa shrine in Nagano in April and May. ...

All Day
18-15 Kaminishiyamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0006
View Details
29 April 2026
25 May 2026
Men riding a log down the mountainside in the Onbashira festival in Nagano.

Onbashira Festival 2022, 2028, 2034 every six years 御柱祭 おんばしらさい(Nagano Prefecture)

Come see grown men riding huge tree trunks down a mountain then stand them up again at the once every six years festival at Suwa shrine in Nagano in April and May. ...

All Day
18-15 Kaminishiyamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0006
View Details
29 April 2026
05 May 2026
Japanese Culture, Japanese Cultural Calendar, Golden Week Compilation Images, Showa Day, Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day, Children's Day

Golden Week | ゴールデン ウィーク

Golden Week is a series of public holiday all scrunched up together that results in a week of free time in the spring. Its a big time for travel in Japan! ...

All Day
Japan
View Details
29 April 2026
05 May 2026
Actors performing Buddhist moral plays called Mibu Kyōgen near Kyoto.

Mibu Kyōgen 壬生狂言 みぶきょうげん

Mibu Kyōgen are pantomimed Buddhist prothelytizing plays that are performed every Golden Week at Kyoto's Mibu Dera temple in late April and early May. ...

View Details
30 April 2026
25 May 2026
Men riding a log down the mountainside in the Onbashira festival in Nagano.

Onbashira Festival 2022, 2028, 2034 every six years 御柱祭 おんばしらさい(Nagano Prefecture)

Come see grown men riding huge tree trunks down a mountain then stand them up again at the once every six years festival at Suwa shrine in Nagano in April and May. ...

All Day
18-15 Kaminishiyamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0006
View Details
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Photo by Jezael Melgoza on Unsplash
About the Author

Pjechorin

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I have lived and worked with my family in Japan since 2005. For many years I have been interested in the very practical and creative side of Japanese culture. In my free time I travel around, enjoy hiking in the countryside and cities, and just generally seeing and doing new things. This blog is primarily a way for me to focus my energies and record and teach others about what I have learned by experience constructively. I am interested in urban development, and sustainable micro-economics, especially home-economics, and practical things everyday families can do to survive and thrive through these changing times.


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