[Staff Interview] Aomori Nebuta Festival Tickets: A Reliable Reserved Seating Service for First-Time Visitors

I handle inbound reservation responses, tour material arrangements, and product registration at Holiday Travel. Previously, I worked at a major travel company for over ten years, where I was involved in various operations including bus tour planning and arrangements, JR procedures, and serving as on-site staff at events nationwide.

I'm pleased to help you with that.

The Nebuta Festival has paid reserved seating areas with chairs lined up along the streets where the nebuta floats parade. We sell entrance tickets for these seats.

While you can watch the nebuta from the streets without tickets, it gets extremely crowded, and depending on the time and location, it can be difficult to see clearly. With reserved seating, you can sit comfortably and enjoy the festival, making for a much more pleasant experience.

We started selling tickets in 2024, and thankfully, many customers purchased them. Both last year and this year, we sold out the expected number of tickets. I can really feel the high demand, and we're preparing to offer even more tickets to customers next year.

We've received comments like "The service was polite and clear" and "Being able to see the nebuta and fireworks up close made for wonderful memories." I feel that being able to watch the festival comfortably from guaranteed seating provides great value for our customers.

That's correct, Nebuta Festival tickets are traditional paper tickets. After customers purchase tickets online, some OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) ask customers to input their hotel address or home address in Japan at the time of booking. When this information isn't provided, we contact customers via email to ask for the ticket delivery address.

Yes. Once tickets arrive at our office, we mail them to customers' hotels or Japanese addresses several days before the festival, ensuring they reach customers in time.

While overseas shipping is difficult due to postage costs, we try to be as flexible as possible by offering alternatives like pickup at our Tokyo office or hand delivery by staff when circumstances require it.

Most customers use hotel delivery, but we once hand-delivered tickets to cruise passengers who didn't have fixed accommodations. Our staff went to a café near Yokohama Port to hand over the tickets, and the customer was very relieved because they had been worried about whether they would receive them safely.

Since we handle tickets for many customers, I'm careful to avoid shipping errors. We email customers tracking numbers and seat numbers to ensure they can receive their tickets with confidence.

That's right. As a small additional service, we don't just send tickets alone - we create translated materials in English, Chinese, Korean, and other languages from the organizers' guidelines and send them with the tickets. We include notes on precautions and tips for enjoying the festival to help customers understand everything clearly.

We also handle email correspondence in customers' languages. While translation is easy these days, we try to minimize customers' burden by providing support in their language as much as possible, approaching ticket sales with a caring attitude.

From next year onward, we're considering revising our delivery methods, including potentially setting up rental space in Aomori where we could hand-deliver tickets to all customers.

If we can make this happen, customers would be able to receive their tickets with certainty on the day of the event, eliminating worries like "I wonder if they've arrived at my hotel?" Plus, being able to meet customers directly would be wonderful for us too.

Previously, an overseas customer was staying at a hotel where the staff couldn't understand English, and they were anxious about ticket delivery. When we contacted the hotel directly in Japanese to explain about the ticket delivery, the customer praised our "excellent customer service."

Exactly. By stepping in to provide just a bit of support between customers and hotels, we can resolve language-related anxieties. I want customers to enjoy the festival with peace of mind.

Aomori in early August reaches temperatures around 30°C (86°F) and is very humid, so heat protection is essential. I recommend bringing hats, sunglasses, and water. Please note that umbrellas cannot be used in the reserved seating area, so this is especially important.

Also, if it rains, you'll need to wear rain gear instead of using an umbrella, so it's good to bring that along. You can purchase cold drinks and cooling goods at Japanese convenience stores.

The venue gets very crowded, so I recommend arriving early to find and confirm your seat location. The highlights of the Nebuta Festival are definitely the beauty of the large nebuta floats and the dynamic dancing of the haneto dancers. There are also opportunities for spectators to participate, letting you experience Aomori's traditional culture up close.

This year we started sales in late April. The busiest period is about two months before the festival in June. Since many international customers plan their trips well in advance, I think purchasing tickets early ensures availability and avoids sell-outs.

That's right. Weekend tickets and the special tickets for the final day that combine fireworks with nebuta's maritime parade are especially popular and sell out quickly, so we're looking to secure more inventory next year.

The Nebuta Festival is a traditional Japanese festival with incredible scale. The beautiful nebuta floats and joyful haneto dancers create truly dynamic scenes that let you see, hear, and feel Japanese culture with your whole being. I definitely want you to experience it in person!

We provide full support to ensure customers can receive their tickets reliably according to their circumstances, so please feel confident in leaving it to us.