Nagoya Port Festival on Ume no Hi

As part of our guide for visitors to Nagoya, we present this original photo essay covering the Port Festival in Nagoya, Japan.

For more local events see our list of festivals in Nagoya.

The Nagoya Port Festival, on Ume No Hi

Thee are several festivals and local events in Nagoya. One of the biggest public events of the year is the Nagoya Port Festival (港祭り – called Minato Matsuri). The Port Festival is is a local event that occurs each summer, in mid-July, on the national holiday of Ume no Hi (海の日). The event takes place at the southern end of the city, in Minato-ku, with many events concentrated in the Garden Pier park (near the Port Of Nagoya Public Aquarium).

The Nagoya Port Festival is a massive festival; very large crowds attend the event, and the streets swell with many groups of friends, couples, and families. The itinerary includes a full day of activities, beginning around 1 PM, and culminating with an incredible fireworks show, with explosions and showers of sparks over the harbor.

On any given year as many as 300,000 people may attended the festival. As the population of Nagoya is just about 2.3 million people, that means that the equivalent of over 10% of the population comes together for the local celebration.

With a crowd in the hundreds of thousands, the “location” of the event is a stretch of several blocks of streets and side streets. Most of the foot traffic takes place between Tsukiji-guchi Station and Nagoyako Station, along Egawa-Sen Street. Many of the day’s events begin or end at the southern end of the street, near the water, in the park called Port of Nagoya Garden Pier (ガーデンふ頭臨港緑園).

Along Egawa-Sen Street, thousands of festival goers stroll along, enjoying the day, surveying the hundreds of small booths selling hot food, cool drinks, and other items.

Each year the festival features a full line up of performances including local marching bands and a Kagura dance performance. Later in the day there are concerts, various parades, and more communal dancing. Some of the parading groups have included the Japan Unicycling Association, Nagoya Golden Twirlers, Aichi Sangyo University, Nagoya Tachibana High School, Sea Cadets, Nagoya University of Economics Ichimura Junior High School/Senior High School, and the Uribou Brassters.

It’s hot in Nagoya in July. At 4 PM, just as the strongest part of the heat was subsiding, a group of local taiko drummers assembled in the Garden Pier park. As the performers lined and begin to let loose their percussion, a crowd collected to watch and cheer them on.

As the taiko performance came to an end, one of the biggest parades was kicking off, a few blocks away, on the east side of the neighborhood. Somewhere in the Chidori district of this part of Minato-ku, a series of parade floats, musicians, and other participants gather and begin a slow, musical march. The streets are not completely closed, and local drivers are held up, or directed through, as the police provide crowd control and the floats move along a circular path; first moving west, then north, then west again toward Egawa-Sen, where they turn south toward the Garden Pier park.

The parade proceeds slowly, snaking it’s way through the streets. If you see a float once, you can walk a few blocks, and catch it again as it winds its way toward the crowds, and then moving down Egawa-sen to Garden Pier park.

This parade ends just as the set begins to set.

As the day fades and the crowd anticipates the fireworks, the colored booths light up; the colors intensify as the sky darkens.

The history of the Nagoya Minato Matsuri goes back to 1946. Following World War II, the festival was created to bring joy to a post-war Japan. The fireworks were added in 1948.

The fireworks are the last item on the agenda for the day, and for many may indeed be the highlight of the festivities.

As the show begins, the fireworks will be launched from a barge in the harbor. As the fireworks soar into the air, they can seen from many kilometers away; but the best view may indeed be from the waterfront, past the Garden Pier park, right up against the sea itself.

And then they begin. First that stream of fire, then the pattern spreading across the sky, and then the BOOM of the explosion, coming suddenly, but late – sound trailing light.

The show goes on for some time. Families and friends, gathered low on the ground, watching in unanimous appreciation. So many “oouuus” and “ahhhhhs.” Smiles punctuated by the thunder from above.

Another wholesome, beautiful night in Nagoya.

Getting to the festival takes some time; to get to the Port Festival in Minato ward from Nagoya station takes about 30 minutes. People come from all directions, and collect at the festival all day. Getting there may be the easy part, getting home is harder.

By the time the fireworks near the finale, the crowd may have begun to thin, but is still thick on the streets. Shoulder to shoulder, one hundred thousand people, two hundred thousand people, the streets clogged, impassable.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the whole day is the magical efficiency of the exodus from the Nagoya Port Festival.

Not everyone that comes to the Nagoya Port festival will come via the subway, but many will (and trying to park a car near the festival may be even harder, if not impossible). While you can get to the festival by travelling all the way to Nagoyako Station, as you leave, that station is “exit only.” The police conducting the crowds won’t let you enter that station, and instead, they send you up the street, through the crowd, to Tsukiji-guchi Station.

As you approach the Tsukiji-guchi Station, the city has set up a maze-like collection of barriers to funnel the crowd in an S-like pattern, back and forth, slowly channeling everyone around the back of the station, and down into the subway.

Leaving the festival is not fast, but it was orderly. Amazingly so. This part of Minato-ku is the at the very end of the Meiko line. Somehow, through a miracle of planning and coordination, a never ending stream of trains arrive at this southern-most station, are filled to capacity, and zip off to the north and the city center.

Not fast, but functionally, the efficiency of subway planners drain off the many visitors, and the neighborhood relaxes back to a its everyday, quiet state.

If you’re not in a hurry, it might be a good idea to plan to stay for an hour or more beyond the fireworks, and let most the crowd go before you try to make the trip. If you need to leave earlier, or have tired kids or friends with you, plan to leave before the fireworks begin, or soon after.

Photo Essay: Nagoya Port Festival in Nagoya, Japan

The Nagoya Port Festival, on Ume No Hi

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