Starting this Saturday 06-Feb and running through Valentine’s Day, Sunday 14-Feb, the huge Zenkoji Temple in Nagano City will be lit up in Olympic colors. It’s all part of the Zenkoji Lantern Festival, with the illumination scheduled to take place each night from 6 to 9pm. This is the 7th year of the festival. Our family tries to go every year. Zenkoji is impressive with its size and spirituality on a normal day — the illumination makes it even more special.
Zenkoji Lit Up in Olympic Colors
Then in spring, Zenkoji will host a very special guest: the Dalai Lama from Tibet. He is scheduled to give a talk on 20-June (Sun) at the Big Hat Olympic site. Tickets will apparently go on sale on 01-March.
So come the coming week to see Zenkoji lit up, and come again in June to hear the Dalai Lama talk!
Click here for info on the Lantern Festival
Click here for info on the Dalai Lama’s visit.
Tags: event, February, illumination, June, Zenkoji
Please advise on how tickets can be purchased for the Dalai Lama visit
Patrick: Updated info (in Japanese language, only) at http://www.zenkoji.jp/2010lecture/index.html. Tickets went on sale on March 1st.
-Tyler
Hello, thank you for sharing so much wonderful information on the Nagano area. We will be in Japan in February next year and plan to visit the Nagano area to visit especially the snow monkeys and Zenkoji. I would like to time our visit at the time of the illumination festival. Are you able to tell me the dates for the 2011 festival, I haven’t been able to find them on the internet as unfortunately I am not able to read Japanese. Toni.