From 19 to 21 September 2026, Otemae Park - the open square directly in front of Himeji Castle - becomes a Taiwanese night market. Thirty-five stands run from 11:00 to 21:00 each day under paper lanterns: food, goods, hands-on booths and cultural corners. Entry is free and you pay stand by stand. The event is organised by the City of Himeji with the cooperation of the Taipei City Government.
WHY THIS ONE IS DIFFERENT
Japanese cities hold a lot of foreign food festivals, and most are local vendors cooking another country's dishes. This one is not. The Taipei Ningxia Night Market Tourism Association is sending five of its own stands, with a shared till of their own at the centre of them. Ningxia is one of the night markets Taipei residents actually use - compact, food-only, open late - and what turns up in Otemae Park is a working section of it rather than a tribute to it.
That shows in what is on the boards. Da chang bao xiao chang, the Taiwanese sausage served inside a larger sticky-rice sausage. Lu rou fan and gua bao. Da ji pai, the fried chicken cutlet the size of a face. Guava juice, hu jiao bing baked against the wall of a drum oven, cong you bing, and douhua in the old style. There is shaved ice made with fruit-juice syrups, taro sweets, and Taiwan Beer to go with the sausages. Between the food stands sit a Taiwanese massage booth, a lantern-decorating workshop, night-market games of the kind Taipei runs on - balloon darts, bottle-standing - and a table where you can try paper-cutting, budaixi glove puppetry and Hakka crafts.
The setting is the other half of it. Himeji Castle is the finest surviving castle in Japan, a UNESCO World Heritage site whose white plaster walls earned it the name Shirasagi-jo, the White Heron Castle. It is also, for most visitors, a two-hour daytime stop between Osaka and Hiroshima - you see it, you photograph it, you get back on the train. This event gives the square below it an evening, with the castle borrowed as the backdrop to a Taiwanese scene.
Two of the booths are not Taiwanese at all. The Himeji Convention and Visitors Bureau runs a workshop for Atarayo no Yumekagami, the winter illumination that lights the avenue and the castle later in the year - so the market doubles as a first look at what Himeji does with its evenings once the lanterns come down. The local private railway has a stand too. It is that kind of event: a city using a borrowed night market to show visitors the rest of itself.
WHY HIMEJI, AND WHY TAIWAN
There is a reason beyond novelty. Taiwan is one of the largest sources of visitors to this part of Japan, and the traffic runs both ways - which is why the event includes cultural booths and PR corners, and why STARLUX Airlines has a stand here. For a Western traveller this is an unusual thing to walk into: two Asian neighbours introducing themselves to each other, in the shadow of a Japanese castle, with nobody performing for a Western audience at all.
The three-day, 11:00 opening also solves a practical problem. Most Japanese festival food appears for a single evening and is gone before you have worked out what to order. Here you can eat at lunchtime, go and see the castle, and come back when the lanterns are lit.
HOW TO VISIT
Free to enter, 11:00 to 21:00 on all three days, no reservation. Bring cash - most stands take it and the Ningxia stalls settle at one shared till. There is no stage programme, so nothing needs timing.
The market goes ahead in light rain and is cancelled only in severe weather. If a typhoon is in the area, the organisers announce the decision at 08:00 on the day, on the official website and on a recorded phone line, +81 79-282-2012.
| Event | Himeji Taiwan Kiko (Himeji Taiwan Travelogue) |
|---|---|
| Dates | 19-21 September 2026, 11:00-21:00 each day |
| Venue | Otemae Park, directly in front of Himeji Castle |
| Scale | 35 stands: food, goods, hands-on booths, cultural PR corners |
| From Taipei | Five stands from the Ningxia Night Market Tourism Association, with a shared till |
| Stage programme | None |
| Admission | Free. Pay at each stand |
| If it rains | Goes ahead in light rain. Cancelled in severe weather; decision announced 08:00 on the day |
| Cancellation line | +81 79-282-2012 (recorded) |
| Organiser | City of Himeji, with the Taipei City Government |
| Enquiries | Himeji City Tourism and Convention Office, +81 79-221-1520 (9:00-17:00) |
| Official Info | sun-tv.co.jp/event/taiwan-himeji/ |
GETTING THERE
Himeji is a Sanyo Shinkansen stop between Osaka and Okayama - about thirty minutes from Shin-Osaka and under an hour from Hiroshima, which makes it one of the easiest World Heritage sites in Japan to reach without a detour. The castle stands at the end of a broad avenue leading straight out of the station's north exit, and Otemae Park is on the same axis: thirteen minutes on foot from JR Himeji Station, eleven from Sanyo Himeji Station, with the castle in front of you the whole way. The organisers ask visitors to come by public transport, as the area gets busy.
Source: Himeji City #WestGoldenRoute #Himeji #HimejiCastle #Nukumori
