Kanie: Sunari Festival, Views and Hot Springs

For families looking to bring together different interests, Kanie offers several distinct reasons to visit: free rental bicycles for shopping and exploring, the Sunari Festival with festival boats and a ritual, an observation tower with views to the east and west, and the Owari Onsen Tokai Center. When choosing a holiday rental, you can first consider whether you would most like to get to know Kanie through exploring the town, culture, scenery, or hot springs.

Explore Kanie by Rental Bicycle

Free rental bicycles are available at four locations in Kanie. They can be used for shopping, sightseeing, and exploring the town. You can return the bicycles to any rental location; when you rent one, you will be told which return locations are available. This makes the service useful for getting around as well as for exploring the town by bike. If you plan to use this option, the return location is a practical detail you can confirm when you rent the bicycle.

Sunari Festival: A River Festival and Ritual

The Sunari Festival is a river festival held in Sunari, a northern district of Kanie. It is celebrated as a festival of the Tomiyoshi Takehaya and Hakken shrines. Its events include festival boats and the Miyoshi reed-offering ritual. The festival therefore centers on the river, the named shrines, and a specific ritual. For travelers interested in regional culture, it offers a tangible connection between festival tradition and place.

The associated ceremonies span from the appointment of the child in July through dismantling in October, lasting about 100 days. This timeframe is the basis for the name “100-Day Festival.” In December 2016, the Sunari Festival was added to the Intangible Cultural Heritage list as one of 33 festivals in UNESCO’s “Yama, Hoko, Yatai” festival tradition. The festival can thus be considered both through its local components and through its place in this named cultural tradition.

See the Town and Mountains from the Observation Tower

Saya River Sogokouen Park in Kanie has a 13-meter-high observation tower. From there, you can see Nagoya’s cityscape to the east and the Yoro and Suzuka mountain ranges to the west. The two views offer different perspectives: on one side is the cityscape, and on the other, the mountain scenery. If you are interested in both urban views and mountains during your trip, the tower provides a clear vantage point for taking in the contrast.

Owari Onsen and Its Springs

The Owari Onsen Tokai Center in Kanie draws one hot spring and one cold spring from a depth of 1,200 meters. It uses them for its bathing facilities without adding water, in a 100% spring-water flow-through system. The center is also the only hot spring facility in Aichi Prefecture selected for Japan’s 100 Famous Hot Springs. If hot springs are a key part of your travel interests, this is a distinct, specifically described aspect of Kanie, alongside its festival tradition and views.

More Destinations

If you would like to include more destinations in your plans: Ōbu, Iwakura, Komaki, Seto, Nagoya, Chita District, Okazaki and Kariya.

Back to the main travel overview: Aichi Prefecture.