Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
July
When the rainy season ends in late June or early July, the heat cranks up and it can be very hot and humid. Still, if
you don't mind sweating a bit, travel is perfectly possible.
Gion Matsuri
Perhaps the most renowned Japanese festival, this month-long celebration (peaking on 17
July) covers myriad events. Yoi-yama is held on 16 July, when more than 200,000 people
throng the Shijō-Karasuma area in Downtown Kyoto, and reaches a climax on the 17th,
with a Yamaboko-junkō parade of magnificent floats. On the three evenings preceding the
17th, people gather on Shijō-dōri, many dressed in beautiful summer kimono, to look at the
floats and carouse from one street stall to the next.
