Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025: A Lesson Learned

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Dancers in traditional straw hats and white yukatas perform at the Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025 street festival.

Editor’s Note: This article covers my experience at the Shimokitazawa Awa Odori Festival in 2025. For the most up-to-date information and practical tips, see: A [Shimokitazawa Awa Odori Photography Guide].

It’s summer again, and the Tokyo Awa Odori is back. This time I went to Shimokitazawa. I left the station, and while I was walking to the dance area, I could hear a few taiko drums pounding out a gentle beat for their dancers to warm up to. Occasionally, I could hear a flute. When I got to my usual position, something which proved to be my fatal mistake for the night.

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People were in the wrong place!

The Kyodo Murasakiren (経堂むらさき連) dance group, from a nearby station, was right in front of me. What? That had never happened before. I didn’t get it. It confused me because they always started somewhere else and moved in one direction.

Dancers in pink kimonos and straw hats gather on a crowded Japanese street under glowing paper lanterns at twilight.

An Awa Odori dancer in a straw hat and white yukata performs during the Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025 festival.

A man plays a large traditional drum while performing at the Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025 festival at night.

It didn’t take long for the countdown to start. The ring of the cymbals was the first of the instruments to start. Then it was the beat of taiko. The dancers started to move. They were heading in the wrong direction. I was in the perfect position for Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2024, not 2025!

A dancer in a red happi coat performs with high energy at the Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025 street festival.

A dancer in a pink kimono and straw hat performs on a lantern-lit street for Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025.

Drummers in pink traditional dress perform on a lantern-lit street during Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025.

Why I missed the opening sequence

I panicked a little because Kyodo Murasakiren was one of my favorites. When the Awa Odori starts, every group’s energy state is at its highest level, and I missed it. Missing the opening shot was a fatal mistake as far as I was concerned.

Dancers in pink kimonos and straw hats perform on a lantern-lit street for Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025.

Three women in traditional black dress play bamboo flutes in a crowded Japanese street festival at night.

I thought I knew it all

I assumed they would take the same route they had taken in previous years. I fell into the complacency trap and thought I knew everything. In hindsight, I had made a clear mistake.

Dancers in traditional straw hats and yukatas perform at night for Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025.

A smiling woman in a purple kimono and straw hat dances at night during Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025.

Do you know the old saying, “Make your bed and lie in it”? That applied to me well and truly. I made the best of my situation and got my photos. As each ren (dance group) reaches the end of the route, they head to the start and repeat. You see each group several times a night.

A young girl in a straw hat and yukata dances during the Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025 street festival at night.

A focused man in a blue headband plays a bamboo flute during a traditional Japanese Awa Odori festival at night.

The Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2025 lesson

The simple solution to this is to be proactive and check the website for events before heading out to avoid disappointment. It’s a valuable lesson I hopefully won’t repeat. Still, I got some good photos that I am happy to share with you. And to top things off, a week later I attended the Koenji Awa Odori which also provided a useful lesson for my photography.