Next edition — Nov 7, 2026 (CONFIRMED)
Crowd size — 650,000 at the 2025 edition · 94th (1 November 2025)
The Tsuchiura All-Japan Fireworks Competition is a judged contest, not a show: on the first Saturday of November, makers from across Japan fire their entries over the Sakura River from 17:30 to 20:00 in three divisions, for the Prime Minister's Prize. About 20,000 shells, 650,000 spectators in 2025, and every paid seat sold by an August lottery.
How the date is set — The first Saturday of November — 1 November in 2025, 7 November in 2026, confirmed by the organiser on 29 May. The competition starts at 17:30 and is planned to end at 20:00. Rain does not stop it; storm-class weather moves it to the following Saturday (14 November in 2026), and if that day fails too the edition is cancelled.
How often it runs — Every year since 1925, with a wartime break; cancelled in 2020 and 2021, and again in 2024, when a typhoon forecast stopped it the day before and no make-up date could be staffed.
Goes first — Saturday 7 November — the only night. The town's hotels sell it as a dedicated plan on their own sites, each on its own date.
Act by — 16 September 2026, noon: that is when Route Inn Tsuchiura, the town's biggest hotel with 209 rooms, opens the night on its own site, first come. Bells Inn sold its rooms from 15 June. After those two dates, what is left in town is cancellations.
Route Inn Tsuchiura's own notice of 21 July 2026: the fireworks night is sold as a dedicated plan from 16 September at 12:00, on the official site only, prepaid by card and not by lottery — ¥15,000 for a single up to ¥34,000 for a twin — with resale forbidden under its terms. Bells Inn Tsuchiura opened the same night on 15 June at 10:00, again on its own site only, no phone or email. The organiser's FAQ says only that each hotel sets its own start date.
ホテルルートイン土浦 — “2026年土浦全国花火競技大会期間のご宿泊受付についてご案内” — https://www.route-inn.co.jp/hotel_list/ibaraki/index_hotel_id_673/ (read 2026-09-10)
Sold out doesn't have to be the end. Plans change, and cancelled rooms come back to Rakuten Travel right up to the night itself — catching that chance is exactly what this vacancy-watching app is for.
Watch the rooms — free, no account
It began in 1925, when the head priest of Shinryu-ji temple, Akimoto Baiho, paid for a display on the shore of Lake Kasumigaura out of his own pocket — a memorial for the airmen of the Kasumigaura naval air station who had died in service, and a lift for a town flattened by the slump that followed the Great Kanto Earthquake. It has been on the Sakura River since 1971, and since 2000 the overall winner takes home the Prime Minister's Prize.
The three divisions are the evening's grammar. A 10号玉 is a 30 cm shell that climbs 330 metres and opens 300 metres wide; the starmines are fired from 22 positions of 40 metres each, one maker to a position; the creative division is seven 5号玉 shells shaped into letters, characters and whatever else a maker can draw on the sky. In 2025 — the hundredth year, with about 20,000 shells and 650,000 people on the banks — the Prime Minister's Prize went to Nomura Fireworks, from Ibaraki itself.
Tsuchiura's tourism association lists 15 member hotels and inns, and the organiser's FAQ says none of them sees the fireworks from a room — and that the office does not broker rooms. Each hotel opens 7 November on its own site on its own date: Bells Inn on 15 June, Route Inn — 209 rooms, the biggest in town — on 16 September at noon, prepaid, no resale.
So the decision is which station on the Joban Line you sleep at, and which train gets you back to it. What appears on booking sites is that overflow — Ushiku, Mito, Tokyo — and a cancelled room in town when a plan changes. Catching that room is the chance a vacancy watch can find for you.
You watch. It is a contest between licensed fireworks makers — the 2025 Prime Minister's Prize went to Nomura Fireworks of Ibaraki — and the public's part is a seat: a lottery-sold paid seat, or a place on public ground outside the paid blocks. Nothing is sold on the day and there is no counter.
土浦全国花火競技大会実行委員会 (organiser) — “第95回 有料観覧席販売（席種・価格・抽選日程）” — https://www.tsuchiura-hanabi.jp/page/page000298.html (read 2026-09-10)
Watching for free — There is no organised free area. The organiser sells seats, closes the river channel between 学園大橋 and 土浦橋 from 15:00 to 21:00, and its page for people without a ticket was still 'in preparation' on 10 September 2026. Free viewing is from streets, bridges and open ground beyond the paid blocks.
How hard it actually is — Tsuchiura is a small city with a short hotel list — the tourism association names 15 member properties — and the organiser's FAQ answers the view question flatly: no hotel or inn in town sees the fireworks from a room. Those hotels sell 7 November through their own sites on fixed dates, prepaid. What reaches booking sites is the rest of the Joban Line — Ushiku, Mito, and Tokyo itself, 45 to 70 minutes away — and those rooms come and go.
What a night costs — Route Inn Tsuchiura's fireworks-night plan runs from ¥15,000 for a single to ¥34,000 for a comfort twin, prepaid, with a cancellation charge that starts at 20% a month out (7 October) and reaches 80% three days before.
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