The month of May will see many backpackers forking out for a trip to Tokyo in time for the Sanja Matsuri festival.
More than 1.5 million revelers are expected to turn up to the Sanja Matsuri festival, Japan's answer to Mardi Gras, to celebrate the founding of the Asakusa district's oldest Sensoji Buddhist temple.
A favourite among the
gap year travel contingent, attending this year's three-day event is free for visitors and is hotly anticipated to achieve the unique energetic atmosphere of previous celebrations.
Taking place on the third weekend of May, tourists in Tokyo should try and catch a glimpse of the spectacular final day procession when the tonne-weight Asakusa Mikoshi shrines are paraded through the streets.
Sanja Matsuri is also one of the best events to get a prolonged glimpse at Tokyo's historic and mysterious cultural practices, including geishas, musicians and dancers.
It is also one of the only chances to see Yakuza gangsters openly displaying their famed body tattoos in what is ordinarily a forbidden practice.
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