Experience the excitement of Awa-Odori as you say good-bye to summer. Koenji Awa-Odori Festival is one of Tokyo’s largest summer street festivals, with over 10,000 dancers and 1.2 million visitors across the two day event on August 24 and 25.
Awa-Odori is originally from the Japanese island of Shikoku and happens around obon, the Japanese summer holiday. Koenji hosts Tokyo’s version of the traditional festival, where odori — traditional Japanese dance and musicians with shamisen, flutes and taiko drums — will parade through the streets of Koenji.
Over 100 dance groups perform at the festival every year. One of the troupes, the Kikusui group, has approximately 90 members ranging from 3 to 65 years old. Men wear happi while women wear yukata and the iconic amigasa woven grass hats that have become symbols of the event.
We recommended using the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line to Shin-Koenji Station to beat the huge crowds that come in through JR Koenji Station on the JR Chuo Line.
