Hakata Gion Yamakasa — luxury itineraries and concierge.

Hakata Gion Yamakasa, from an operator's side.

Yamakasa runs for the first half of July and finishes with Oiyama, a timed run through Hakata in which teams carry enormous floats over a set course in the dark of the early morning of 15 July. The decorated standing floats are displayed around the city through the fortnight, so there is content across the whole period. The finale is the reason to be there and the reason it is hard: it starts before daybreak, the route is narrow, and the good vantage points are taken long before the first team moves.

• The finale runs in the small hours, so the day it sits on has to be built backwards from a pre-dawn start rather than around a normal morning.
• The course is narrow and lined with residents who have watched from the same spots for years, which leaves very little comfortable ground for visitors.
• Fukuoka is a business city with limited true luxury inventory, and the festival fortnight competes with ordinary midweek corporate demand.

Basing decides the file.

Hakata and Nakasu keep clients inside walking distance of the course, which is the single decision that makes the finale workable. Tenjin is pleasant and a short ride away on a normal day, but on the morning of the 15th that ride is the difference between watching the race and missing it.

When to start.

Six to nine months for rooms, longer if the file also takes in Kyushu’s onsen ryokan. The festival dates never move, so there is no excuse for a late file other than a late enquiry.