Festival nights, fireworks, deep green mountains and the sea.
These are the places the prefecture pages name for this season. Each one links to its own page, with opening times, prices and a MAP button.
Pick the season first, then the place.
| Prefecture | June – August |
|---|---|
| Aichi | Wet in June. Everything indoors is air-conditioned. |
| Akita | Cool and green. The Kanto lantern festival is in the first week of August. |
| Aomori | Cool and green. The gorge is at its best in June, and the Nebuta festival is 2–7 August. |
| Chiba | Humid. The southern beaches are the closest surf to Tokyo, and busy in August. |
| Ehime | Wet in June. Hot for cycling in August — start at first light or ride in the evening. |
| Fukui | Wet in June. The monastery forest and the museum are both cool in August. |
| Fukuoka | Rainy in June, and humid after that. The Yamakasa festival fills the city in July. |
| Fukushima | Cool in the Aizu basin, and the ponds are at their most vivid in strong light. |
| Gifu | Wet in June. The Gujo dance runs through August, all night on four of those nights. |
| Gunma | Wet in June. Kusatsu sits at 1,200 metres and stays cool through August — a hot-spring town you can bear in summer. |
| Hiroshima | Wet in June, then hot. The 6th of August is the anniversary, and the city is full. |
| Hokkaido | No rainy season. June is clear and cool; lavender is July; August is the warmest and busiest. |
| Hyogo | Wet in June. Kobe stays a little cooler than Osaka because of the sea breeze. |
| Ibaraki | Wet in June, hot after. The coast is cooler than inland, and the beaches are quiet. |
| Ishikawa | Wet in June. Humid in August, but the tea-house streets are shaded and cool early. |
| Iwate | Cool for Japan. The gorge and the cave are both comfortable in August, and the coast is clear. |
| Kagawa | Little rain, but hot. The art islands are busiest now; go on a weekday if you can. |
| Kagoshima | Very wet in June, especially on Yakushima. Hot and bright in July and August. |
| Kanagawa | Hydrangea in the June rain is the local sight. Hot in August, and the beaches are busy. |
| Kochi | The heaviest rain in Japan falls here in June. Hot and bright after, and the river is for swimming. |
| Kumamoto | The caldera rim is cool, and horses graze there. |
| Kyoto | Wet in June, then genuinely hot and still — Kyoto sits in a basin. Temples are quietest at 08:00. |
| Mie | Wet in June. Hot on the coast, and the sea is warm from July. |
| Miyagi | Cool summers. The Tanabata festival fills the city with paper decorations in early August. |
| Miyazaki | Heavy rain in June. Hot and bright after that, and the sea is warm into September. |
| Nagano | The coolest summer in central Japan. Rainy in June, then clear mountain weather. |
| Nagasaki | The wettest part of Japan in June. August is humid, and the anniversary falls on the 9th. |
| Nara | Wet in June, hot in August. The temple halls are cool and shaded. |
| Niigata | Wet in June, hot in August, and the rice is green to the horizon. |
| Oita | Wet in June. The mountains stay cooler than the coast through August. |
| Okayama | Less rain than anywhere else in Japan, but hot. White peaches ripen from July. |
| Okinawa | Bright, and the sea is warm. |
| Osaka | Everything indoors and underground is air-conditioned. |
| Saga | Wet in June. Balloons fill the sky over Saga city at the end of the season in some years. |
| Saitama | Wet in June, hot in August. The river gorge is where people go to cool down. |
| Shiga | Wet in June. The lake is used for swimming and sailing in August. |
| Shimane | Wet in June, humid after. The mine and the forest paths stay cool. |
| Shizuoka | Wet in June. Warm sea on Izu from July, and the mountain is usually hidden. |
| Tochigi | Wet in June. The lake at 1,270 metres is much cooler than Tokyo in August — a genuine escape. |
| Tokushima | Wet in June. The festival fills the city from the 12th to the 15th of August — book early. |
| Tokyo | Hydrangea in the temple gardens, and river fireworks in July and August. |
| Tottori | The sand reaches 60°C in the afternoon |
| Toyama | Wet in June. Clear mountain air in August, and the bay is at its calmest. |
| Wakayama | Heavy rain in June, and this is one of the wettest parts of Japan. Koyasan stays cool in August. |
| Yamagata | Cherries are picked in June and sold everywhere. Cool in the mountains, hot in the basin — Yamagata records some of Japan’s highest temperatures. |
| Yamaguchi | Wet in June. The cave is the coolest place in the prefecture in August. |
| Yamanashi | The mountain is hidden most days. The climbing season is July to early September, on the Shizuoka and Yamanashi trails. |
