The best things to do in Kyoto in May 2026

Kyoto Night Market was launched in June last year as a new evening attraction to help spread out the crowds in the city. Since then, the market has seen its popularity grow steadily, with its previous event on March 29 attracting a record 28,000 visitors.

This month, the night market returns for its 13th edition on Tuesday May 5, which is a Golden Week holiday. It will again be held at Ohigashi-san Plaza in front of the majestic Higashi Honganji Temple, less than 10 minutes’ walk from Kyoto Station.

From 3pm to 10pm, the plaza will come alive with a host of food trucks and booths. You can enjoy local street food and seasonal treats, and shop for artisanal crafts and souvenirs. For this special May edition, there will even be a paper plane challenge (3pm–6pm), with winners receiving gift vouchers of up to ¥3,000.

Beyond food and shopping, the night market also offers live entertainment and cultural experiences. Highlights include ninja shows as well as music and street performances...

A historic Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto dating back to 1605, Kodaiji only opens for special night visits twice a year. This spring, the serene grounds will host a projection mapping showcase complete with synchronised illumination and immersive 3D sound.

The digital effects are more than just flashy graphics. The narrative-driven multimedia show celebrates the friendship of two historical figures: Matsu (Hoshun-in), wife of prominent samurai Maeda Toshiie, and Nene (Kita-no-Mandokoro), who established this temple to pray for the soul of her husband, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the great unifiers of Japan.

The projection mapping show unfolds at Hashintei Garden in front of the Abbot’s Hall, next to a gorgeous weeping cherry tree that’s about 100 years old.

One of Kyoto's three great annual festivals, the grand Aoi Matsuri (sometimes also called the Kamo Festival) boasts a storied history stretching back 1,500 years. It even predates the establishment of Kyoto as the Imperial Capital in 794. The main highlight of the festival, held every year on May 15, is an elaborate procession in which more than 500 participants embark on a ceremonial walk from the Kyoto Imperial Palace to Shimogamo Shrine and onwards to Kamigamo Shrine. 

Dressed in traditional costumes inspired by the Heian Period (794–1185), participants are led by the Saio, the year's honorary high priestess carried atop a palanquin, on an 8km route through the city. The procession also features massive flower installations, beautifully adorned ox carts, men on horseback and women in exquisite kimono. Look closely at the attire and decorations, and you'll spot the recurring motif of hollyhock leaves – known as 'aoi' in Japanese – from which the festival gets its name.

You can catch the parade at all three locations, as well as along the streets of the festival route. For the best experience, paid seats are available at the Kyoto Imperial Palace and Shimogamo Shrine, priced from ¥5,000 to ¥20,000. They include a guidebook as well as live commentary in Japanese, English and Chinese...

Now in its 14th edition, the annual Kyotographie has consistently highlighted pressing issues through photography while showcasing revolutionary ideas that push this versatile medium in unexpected directions. For 2026, the international photography festival’s theme ‘Edge’ feels especially poignant, not just in describing photography but also the state of the world today.

Here, ‘edge’ can refer to the border between opposing forces, a state of tension, or a tipping point of transition. Conceptually, the theme draws on photography’s precarious position on the fringes, often straddling the line between art and documentary, and, with the rise of new technologies such as generative AI, between truth and fiction.

This sense of division, whether it is uncertainty or possibility, is reflected in the works of 13 photographers from eight countries. Here, the featured works address a wide range of subjects including marginalised communities and overlooked places as seen through the lens of colonisation and territorial disputes, the fraught relationship between humans and nature, and conditions of urban decline. Alongside these, you’ll also find exhibitions that focus on experimental approaches to photography, highlighting new ideas and techniques in image-making...

Read our review of Kyotographie 2026 here.

Founded in 1236, the Rinzai sect head temple Tofukuji is especially stunning in autumn, when its gardens are ablaze with fiery red momiji foliage. This summer, however, the beloved Zen Buddhist temple is offering a new way to experience its tranquil grounds through a special night opening.

With its immersive light-ups, Zen Night Tofukuji may seem like just another temple illumination, a trend that has been growing across Japan in recent years. But it's more than that. As with previous editions at Kyoto's Kenninji Temple (2024) and Kamakura's Kenchoji Temple (2025), this year’s event will also incorporate neuro music into its mix of sound, light and spatial installations to create a much more sensorial experience befitting the temple's meditative atmosphere.

For the uninitiated, neuro music can enhance or suppress specific brainwave frequencies to help sharpen concentration or, in this case, induce deep relaxation. Visitors at Zen Night Tofukuji can experience this firsthand at the Neuro Music Zazen Sound Meditation in the temple's Zen Hall, which is the oldest and largest of its kind in Japan.

Other highlights include the illumination of the iconic Tsutenkyo Bridge, which overlooks more than 1,000 lush maple trees, and the dreamy transformation of Hojo Garden's Zen landscape into a sea of clouds...