Planning to go to Takayama during the spring matsuri in 2023. The festival is April 14-15 every year and currently debating on if we should devote April 13-15 or 13-16 to Takayama. Main questions to decide between the extra day are:
1. Are shops and their famous sale distilleries open and available during the matsuri or should we plan on trying to hit them the day before?
2. Any significant differences in the festival between the two days where we should attend it both days?
3. I’ve visited Takayama before 18 years ago and definitely want visit the Hida folk village again. Currently that is our plan for the 13th but any issues you know of with visiting the site during the festival?
Thank you all and hope our travels to this beautiful country get to resume soon!
7 comments
In general I do not think that festival will have a negative impact on attractions, if anything, they will want to be open as there is a lot of tourist that would be in town around that time.
You can read a bit more about the festival, but there seems to be some things that are unique to each day while other only happen one day, so it might depend on what you want to do. [https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5909.html](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5909.html)
I heard that the festival is quite popular and that you should book hotel months in advance, otherwise you will likely have to stay in a neighboring town.
Ahhh I loved Takayama. Is there official word on when they open up again for tourism? Once they green light it I’m buying tickets ASAP. I would like to hope you would be good by then!
Their tourism group has a pretty active social media presence in English. You could send them a message on FB or email them and I’m sure they’d be happy to give up to date answers to your questions. Spring 2022 was the first time they held the festival in 3 years so any answers you get from past visitors will be going back to spring/fall 2019 or earlier.
– [Visit Hida Takayama (FB)](https://www.facebook.com/Visit.Hidatakayama)
– [Visit Hida Takayama Website](https://www.hida.jp/english/)
LI went to the autumn festival, but I’m pretty sure the spring festival is about the same except it takes place in the other half of town (centered around another shrine).
Everything’s open during the festival. And as usual with Japanese festivals, there are different things on the program each day, but they’re similar.
Don’t miss the puppet plays (karakuri) and the Hida beef (in Japan, it’s about as famous as Kobe beef). Go out of your way to eat houba miso, a local specialty dish.
I wish I’d spent more time in Takayama. There’s loads to see and do there. Hida folk village you mentioned was incredible. There’s an art museum that had a Hokusai exhibition on when I was there. Really cool building too
We went to Takayama for the spring matsuri in 2019 and stayed overnight on the 14th, unfortunately, the weather wasn’t good so they called off the procession. They still had the mikoshi on display and the festival stalls in the evening.
We managed to get to the Hida folk village easily on the morning of the 15th, so no issue visiting the site during the festival.
As has previously been said, it gets very busy with tourists so book early – we stayed at Hida Takayama Park City. Also trains to and from Hida-Takayama station were very busy and we were glad we reserved our seats as soon as we exchanged our JR pass about a week earlier.
My husband and I loved Takayama! Be sure to book very early – a year in advance if you’re able – as the nice midrange hotels fill up very quickly.
I recommend planning to be available both days for the parade. The spring weather can be quite unpredictable. If it’s raining they won’t bring out the floats, but they may the next day if the weather is good.
Restaurants and tourist shops were all open. There were also lots of festival stalls with matsuri food available. Some stores were not open: I remember trying to find a dry cleaner/tailor to fix a broken zipper and neither I nor my hotel could find anyone who was open.
I’d email your hotel regarding the folk village and bus transport on the day of the festival. It’s possible the bus schedules are amended during the festival. The hotel shouldn’t have any issue figuring that out.
Also if you’re into goshuin, there are lots of cool shrines and temples there! They also have a special stamp that’s only available the day of the festival.