Click on Tell me more to read about the event, then use the search term plus the year to find out exact dates and times for when you’re traveling
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Wisteria Season
These magnificent beauties continue to bloom into the first week in May. Here’s where to see the best wisteria in Tokyo.
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Childrens’ Day
Childrens’ Day (used to be called Boys’ Day): Fish flags known as koi nobori traditionally fluttered outside the doors of every family with sons, in the hope their children would be like the carp that climbed the waterfall to become a dragon. Now they’re strung in delightfully colorful schools all over Japan in the weeks leading up to May 5th (the actual holiday). Here are the best places to see koi nobori in Tokyo.
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Spring Sumo Tournament
The Tokyo spring sumo tournament runs for 14 days in May. Everyone should see it at least once!
Search term: may sumo tournament tokyo
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Sanja Matsuri
This is one of the largest and most boisterous Shinto festivals in Tokyo! Glittering portable shrines are carried through the streets surrounding Sensō-ji temple for three days on the third weekend in May, some carried by barely-clad men with magnificent tattoos. You’ll be sorry if you don’t join the good citizens of Asakusa to make merry, eat and drink long into the night!
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Design Festa
The best artist/maker market you’ll ever be dazzled by occupies the Big Sight convention center in Odaiba twice a year, for three days in mid-May and another three days in mid-November. I guarantee you won’t leave Design Festa without gifts for everyone on your list and a set of handpainted zombie nesting dolls for yourself.
Search terms: design festa may
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Iris Season
If you love Japanese iris as much as I do, you won’t want to miss the rippling waves of fancy purple varieties at the best iris gardens in Tokyo from the end of May to early June. Some of these venerable gardens have been blooming since they were captured in woodblock prints when the samurai still ruled Japan!
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And here are the other places I take my friends when they come to town
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly e-magazine Japanagram, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
Jonelle Patrick writes about Japan 