Page 33 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Tokyo

T OK Y O THROUGH THE Y EAR  31

Average daily hours of sunshine
Sunshine Chart
Hours Hours The amount of
10 10 sunshine per month
in Tokyo does not
8 8
vary greatly, even
6 6 in the winter months.
Winters can see
4 4 temperatures drop
to freezing but the
2 2 clear skies are rarely
disturbed by rain
0 0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec or snow.

Sumidagawa Hanabi Takai (last
Sat in Jul). A fireworks display on
the Sumida river near Asakusa.
The river turns into a sheet of
red, green, and violet as lantern-
lit boats take to the water.
August
O-Bon (Festival of the Dead,
mid-Aug). Family members
return home at a time when,
according to a Buddhist belief,
the spirits also return to earth.
Ancestral graves are visited and
tended, and there are joyful
Bon-Odori dances and festivals.
Koenji Awa Odori (late Aug).
Thousands of participants
gather along Koenji’s main
street to join in the amusing
Fool’s Dance.
Spectacular fireworks display on the Sumida River Samba Festival (last Sat in
Aug). Dancers from Rio join
Sanno-Sai (mid-Jun). In a festival local samba devotees along
Summer that dates back to the founding Asakusa’s Kaminarimon-dori,
When restaurants serve of Edo, locals in historical for an event that draws over
shaved ice, cold noodles, costumes take out processions half a million spectators.
and glasses of chilled barley of mikoshi, accompanied by
tea you know the humid music and dancing at Hie Shrine.
summer days are upon the
city. The clammy June rains July
can seem relentless. In August, Asagao Ichi (Morning Glory
as people return to their Fair, Jul 6–8). Dozens of mer-
hometowns to celebrate chants set up stalls outside
O-Bon, the city is pleasantly Iriya Kishibojin temple to sell
quiet. Specta cular firework flowers associated with the
festivals along the banks of the horti cultural tastes of the
Sumida and Edo rivers during Edo era.
the O-Bon festival add a splash Tanabata Matsuri (Star
of vivid color to the season. Festival, Jul 7). Based on a
Chinese legend; this is said to
June be the only day when two stars
Iris Viewing (early to mid-Jun). can meet as lovers across the
The iris garden in the grounds Milky Way. Branches of bamboo
of Meiji-jingu shrine and are decorated with paper
at the Horikiri Iris Garden, streamers inscribed with
Katsushika ward, offer the scribbled wishes, sometimes Vibrantly costumed dancer at the
best viewing. in the form of poetry. Samba Festival

030-033_EW_Tokyo.indd 31 12/09/16 11:27 am