6 Must-Try Summer Vacation Activities in Japan (According to Anime)

People fill a Tokyo shrine at one of Japan’s Shinto festivals. Julie Fader via Unsplash

Summertime is a season unlike any other. It symbolizes freedom, youth, and fun! Of course, I may be biased since my birthday is in August, but that’s neither here nor there.

Everyone has a favorite summertime activity, no matter where in the world you are, especially the young people in school. Young people in anime are no different! Realizing this, I thought, “How do characters in anime spend their summer season? What summertime activities are unique to them?” And thus began my investigation.

Before we can delve into the specific activities that are popular in the animated world, we must first understand what Japan considers to be summer. That is, on what dates are students let out of school to fully experience summer break along with everyone else? According to Web-Japan.org, summer break in Japan lasts approximately 40 days, compared to the three-month summer break in the United States. While the exact length varies between school districts, summer break in Japan generally lasts from late July until late August.

Given how much shorter summer break is in Japan than in America, Japanese youth presumably consider their summer days precious and thus make an effort to make every single one of those days as meaningful as possible. That goes double in the world of anime, where almost every aspect of daily life is exaggerated to heck and back. Which brings us to our next question—how?

1. Hiking

Considering how hot and humid it gets in Japan during the summer months, strenuous exercise might be the last thing on most people’s minds. However, the trails and hiking facilities on the famous Mount Fuji are only open from late July to early September, so it would be important to seize the opportunity. Not to mention that Japan’s hiking trails and mountains are so breathtaking that many are willing to take the risk of overexertion! Mount Fuji is a popular destination for avid and novice hikers alike due to its ease of accessibility.

Believe it or not, an entire anime exists dedicated to mountain climbing: Encouragement of Climb from 2013. It centers around Aoi Yukimura, a girl with an immense fear of heights who tries to rekindle her love of climbing mountains with the help of her friends.

2. Comiket

If you thought San Diego Comic-Con was big, look at Comic Market, Comiket for short! This two-day dōjinshi convention is held twice yearly, in the summer and winter. Quartz reports that Comiket is the largest fan convention in the whole world, with over 100,000 comic book nerds flocking to Tokyo just for a chance to get in the door.

Naturally, this makes Comiket the perfect backdrop for an episode of anime. The one that first comes to my mind is Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, where Tohru is mistaken for a professional cosplayer while she and Kobayashi are helping Makoto set up his booth.

3. Going to the Beach or Water Park

Let’s move on to something a bit more obvious. Across the globe, people agree that playing in cool water is one of the best ways to beat the heat, and Japan is no different. Almost every single anime series you can think of has had a beach or pool episode. It’s basically a rite of passage at this point. Common activities include swimming, beach volleyball, and a unique little game called suikawari, which involves smashing watermelons with a baseball bat or some other blunt object. It’s very similar to hitting a piñata at a children’s birthday party, except the object you aim for is on the ground instead of suspended in the air, and what you eat is much healthier.

Like I said, there are countless good examples of a beach episode in anime, but my personal favorite is episode ten of Grand Blue. It’s hysterical how quickly things go from sentimentally sweet to shockingly funny in a matter of seconds!

4. Fireworks Displays

Wherever you go in Japan, you’re bound to come across some stunning fireworks displays during the summer months, known in Japanese as hanabi. There are several festivals dedicated solely to these creative and vibrant shows of pyrotechnics! According to Live Japan, the top three most renowned fireworks festivals are located in Akita, Ibaraki, and Niigata.

Fireworks scenes in anime tend to be romantic in nature, such as in the finale of Kaguya-sama, Love is War. When the titular Kaguya Shinomiya thinks she’s missed her chance to watch the fireworks, her crush Miyuki Shirogane comes along and hails a cab for them and the other student council members. Only by the skin of their teeth do they make it to see the jaw-dropping display on time.

5. Summer Festivals

Festivals, or matsuri, are quintessential to Japanese culture and celebrate many things beyond fireworks. Much like beach episodes, it’s not unusual for an anime to spend an episode at a festival. A typical festival will have food stalls, entertainment, and carnival games with prizes to win. They can be religious in nature or celebrations of other traditions. Essentially, it’s not much different than what one would find at a fair in the United States!

My personal favorite anime festival episode is in My Bride Is a Mermaid, where it’s revealed that toadies of San’s family are running most of the events with the intent to kill Nagasumi in comically over-the-top ways.

6. Barbecues

If being out partying all night isn’t one’s cup of tea, then holding a barbecue with family, friends, and work colleagues is always a solid option for the summer. In Japan, people love grilled meat, yakiniku, just as much as Americans do! In fact, Japan has a holiday dedicated to barbecues called Yakiniku Day, which is held on August 29. The menu can consist of a wide variety of meats such as beef, pork, chicken, seafood, and vegetables. But the social aspect of a meal is just as important as cooking the yummy meat: it’s a good opportunity to catch up with friends and loved ones that one may not have seen in a while.

One of the best examples of an anime episode centered around barbecue is in Haikyuu!! In the latter half of the episode, our volleyball boys head back to their training camp to grill up some succulent meat while talking about the upcoming spring tournament.

It’s clear to me that since students in Japan don’t have a long summer vacation, they like to go all out with all the fun things to do to make the most of it. It makes me realize that our time on this earth is precious, and I am grateful to have the reminder to live every day like it’s my last.