Photos: Sakai Yayoi · CC0 (1, 3, 4) · Yanajin33 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · DVMG · CC BY 3.0
Tenjin Matsuri (24 to 25 July) ends with the funatogyo: about 100 boats process along the Ōkawa from 18:00, followed by about 3,000 fireworks from 19:00. It is the festival of Osaka Tenmangū.
Why it's unique
It is one of Japan's three great festivals, and the river procession of boats is its own, so it is held at country.
What you do is stand on a bridge as the boats carrying the shrine's gods pass below, then stay for the fireworks over the river.
Before you go
The land procession leaves the shrine in the afternoon of the 25th and the boats from about 18:00. Paid riverside seats sell out; locals stand on the bridges at Tenmabashi early.
2027 is the shrine's 1,125th-anniversary grand festival, so expect a larger year.
