Koto Ward Citizens Festival

One of the slightly more interesting autumn festivals each year is the Koto Ward Citizens Festival Central Festival at Kiba Park in mid-October.

Originally, the entirety of Kiba Park was taken up by a giant log pond for supplying lumber to Edo. This festival offers a glimpse of some of this heritage with the opportunity to see ‘Kaku Nori’—a form of entertainment developed during the Edo era in which performers balance on floating semi-milled logs. While similar to log rolling, there is a lot more emphasis on balance and tricks—including balancing on top of ladders and boxes placed on the logs. The schedule will be released soon – be sure to check for the log rolling, which usually takes place early-ish on the Sunday morning.

The closest stations to Kiba Park are Kiba on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line and Kiyosumishirakawa Station on the Toei Oedo and Hanzomon Lines.

(Greg Lane)