Japan Summer 2025 – Part 1: Kyoto’s Gion Festival

This summer, I spent several weeks in Japan, revisiting familiar places, exploring new ones, and most importantly, spending time with family. There was so much to take in—from festivals and architecture to ocean views and countless good meals—that I’ve decided to share the trip here as a small blog series. This first post begins in Kyoto, where I landed just in time for the city’s most famous celebration, the Gion Festival.

I arrived in Japan just in time for the Gion Festival, one of the three biggest festivals in the country. Since I grew up in the neighborhood, it has always been special to me. Even after 16 hours of traveling overseas, I couldn’t resist wandering through the streets with my son to take it all in.

As a child, the days leading up to the festival were just as exciting as the event itself. Walking past the enormous floats being built on my way to school filled me with anticipation. I remember watching the boys in my class being let out of lessons early to practice festival music for the floats—a tradition open only to them at the time—and feeling a mix of envy and admiration. On the festival nights, I would slip into my yukata, meet up with friends, and spend my allowance on street food and games. Those evenings were among the few times I was allowed to be out after dark, which made the glow of lanterns, the rhythm of flutes and drums, and the bustle of the streets all the more magical.

Sharing the festival with my son this year felt like weaving my own childhood memories into his, passing along a piece of Kyoto’s summer spirit to the next generation.

Here’s a short video with snippets from my evening stroll through the festival.

This is the first in a small series of posts from my summer in Japan. Next up, I’ll take you along to the Osaka Expo.