Yoshiwara Gion Festival

This festival is held on the second Saturday and Sunday in June every year and apparently has been taking place for the past 250 years. It's a pretty big event for Fuji City. The main street in Yoshiwara (Yoshiwarahoncho) is completely transformed as floats and mobile shrines are pulled by colorfully dressed Fuji City denizens and the sound of drums and flutes takes over. It's fantastic to see your solemn neighbors letting loose and drinking beer in the streets. And of course, the usual matsuri fare of fried foods on sticks is available for purchase.






Here's a short video of the fun. Seriously, this is the liveliest I've ever seen the locals of this city.

Acoustic bar

Check out this little bar if you're interested in meeting locals and if you think watching middle aged salarymen jamming classic rock and blues sounds like fun. Beers are 500 yen and there's usually a free live show on the second Tuesday of every month. Because it's so small, you'll end up talking to people. The bar mastaa is one of the sweetest guys you'll ever meet.

Acoustic is just around the corner from Fuji City Hall. Click here for a map.

Cafe Sofarii

Located on Yoshiwarahoncho, very close to Yoshiwara Chuo bus station. The cafe owner lived in Hawaii for a while so there's usually a lot of relaxing island music in the background as well as unique world music tracks. They have live music shows sometimes, as well as hula dancing.

An entire wall of books includes a fair amount of English reading material. Overall, great worn, cosy cafe feel. Fantastic deserts and coffee. There's also a selection of wines. Food is mostly pasta, soups and sandwiches. Prices are about mid range - lunch will cost around 1500 yen and dinner 2000 yen.

Here is the exact location and here is their website (in Japanese).

Koln Jazz Club

Some of the best Japanese and international jazz and blues artists stop by this place from time to time. It was a nice surprise to find it really. There's always a show on Saturday night. It will cost you 1500 yen plus a drink for a local act or more if it's something special. There are live shows during the week sometimes too.
There is a decent drink list and food menu. The mastaa of the joint is friendly and a baddass on bass. It's become my regular Saturday night spot for these reasons and because the music is always soulful. More than that, you can't beat the vibe. You can't help but feel relaxed in a room full of jazz lovers. No snootiness.

Koln is about a 15 minute walk from Yoshiwarahoncho Station on the Gakunan Line (transfer at Yoshiwara Station on the JR). Alternatively, you can get off at the Yoshiwarahoncho bus stop. Here is a map.

And here is the house band doing a cover of Jimmy Reed's Big Boss Man at last week's blues night. The poor audio does no justice to how they actually sound.