Kyoto's summer is hot and humid, but it's also when the city's festival calendar is at its busiest — led by one of Japan's three most famous festivals, running for the better part of a month.
Gion Matsuri
Running throughout July, Gion Matsuri is centred on elaborate wooden floats (yamaboko), some large enough to require dozens of people to pull, built and dismantled by hand each year according to centuries-old methods. The festival's two main procession days, in the middle of the month, draw enormous crowds; the evenings just before each procession (yoiyama), when the floats are lit with lanterns and downtown streets close to traffic, are, for many visitors, the more atmospheric part of the whole event.
Daimonji (Gozan no Okuribi)
In mid-August, five giant bonfires are lit in sequence on hillsides around the city, forming enormous kanji characters and shapes visible across Kyoto — traditionally understood as sending off the spirits of ancestors at the close of Obon, the summer festival honouring the dead. It's a single-evening event, and specific viewing spots along the river and from certain hills get crowded well ahead of the lighting.
Coping with the heat: kawadoko and yukata
Restaurants along the Kamo River and in Kibune set up seasonal outdoor platform seating (kawadoko) directly over or beside the water through summer — a genuinely pleasant way to eat with at least some relief from the heat. Wearing a yukata, the lighter cotton counterpart to a formal kimono, is common at summer festivals and evening outings, and rental shops offer yukata alongside their regular kimono rental in the warmer months.