St. Patrick’s Day in Ōsukannon 3 | 21

Nagoya's St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Party

It is late March in Nagoya, a day that sits in the narrow space between winter and spring. The wind moving through the covered arcades of Ōsu still has some bite. Jackets are lighter. By early afternoon green hats, scarves, and face paint have started popping up around the giant Maneki-neko statue — the plaza everyone simply calls The Cat.

It is Saturday, March 21, 2026, and Nagoya’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade begins here.

Everyone starts gathering at 12:00 at Maneki-neko Square (まねきねこ広場) inside the Ōsu Kannon shopping district. Irish music and dance get things moving as people assemble — volunteers hand out banners, someone inevitably turns up dressed as St. Patrick, crozier in hand. Groups arrive together: Irish expats, local families, musicians, dancers, and a healthy number of Nagoyans who have simply decided that wearing green for the afternoon sounds like a reasonable plan.

People adjust their costumes, pin shamrocks onto jackets, dig through bags for green scarves they brought to get in the spirit. Coffee drifts out of nearby cafés. The arcade fills with fiddles warming up and, somewhere further along, the low drone of pipes shift in the breeze.

Then the parade sets off at 14:30.

From The Cat, the procession works its way slowly through the covered shopping streets. Banner carriers, musicians, dancers, community groups and snakes slither away at the visage (an extremely rough interpretation) of the saint himself. The arcade is narrow enough that it all feels close — shoppers pause mid-errand to stare, store owners pop outside, the occasional person just falls in behind the procession and keeps walking and become part of the celebration.

Irish flags, handmade signs, kids with green face paint. Someone attempting an enthusiastic but not entirely accurate Irish jig. More alcohol than actual footwork seems suspiciously at play.

The route eventually opens out onto the temple grounds — the covered arcade giving way to the blue of open sky, to the vermilion of Ōsu Kannon suddenly in view. The procession loosens and slows into a mingle. People who haven’t seen each other in months find each other in the crowd. Kids who were toddlers last year are running around unsupervised. Someone produces a can of Chu-hai from a jacket pocket. Someone else has a Guinness that’s been warming since noon. There is a lot of laughing. For a stretch of afternoon in Ōsu, everyone feels a bit Irish — even the accents start to drift.

However St. Patrick got rid of the snakes, it seems to warrant a celebration, a proper night out. So the festivities move on to Kanayama.

After The Parade

A Night of Music and Laughter

Kanayama is a different kind of neighborhood to Ōsu — less arcade and temple, more station interchange and izakaya, the kind of area where the night starts. The venue — Brazil Coffee — sits a few minutes walk from the station. It hides itself on the ground floor of an unremarkable building that gives nothing away from the outside.

Yet inside is another matter. This place is all Showa Charm and dimension shifting realaxation. They have been roasting their own coffee beans here since the early 1970s. It time trips you into the world of wood paneling, warm light, and that distinct the smell of roast coffee, a scent that has worked its way into the fabric, the paneling — imbues the air. It is the vibe that has been thrumbling here over fifty years. During the day this spot is old skool kissaten, the kind that still exists in Nagoya if you know where to look. Yet on certain nights it becomes something else entirely — an intimate live venue where the stage is close, the room fills fast, and the sound embraces you before you find a place to sit or sway.

On the night of March 21st, the lineup opens with Irish folk, shifts to the rhythm of British mod and blues being driven by the siren keys of a Hammond organ. Somewhere toward the end of the night it merges with the edgy knock of Korean garage rock. Though coffee is still available, most people will be drinking something else.

Everyone is here to celebrate.
Community
Music,
A moment of joy.

The Lineup

Roast Pork

Roast Pork (actual band name) have been playing Irish music in Nagoya long enough that most people in the room already know their sets.

The band formed in 2004 as the house band at Bumphy’s, the Irish pub in Ikeshita that was a fixture of the city’s East End expat scene before it closed. The name was given to them by Bumphy’s owner, the late Robert Lou (R.I.P), and it stuck. Their sets pull from Irish traditional music and Paddy Beat pub songs — the kind meant to be played loudly, sung along with, and occasionally shouted over a pint. Or three.

The Absolude, feat. Bryn Barklam

The Absolude have been working the Japanese mod circuit since 2003 — tight guitars, Hammond organ, the sharp-edged rhythm and blues of the British mod era.

For this show they’re joined by Bryn Barklam, who came up in the London acid jazz scene in the 1990s playing Hammond with Mother Earth, a band built around the intersection of soul, jazz-funk, and mod.

Cha Cha (Cha Seung-woo / 차승우)

In the Korean rock film Go Go 70s, Cha Seung-woo played Mansik — guitarist in a band navigating the Seoul underground scene of the 1970s.

In real life he came up playing punk with No Brain, one of the bands that shaped Korea’s modern underground, then shifted toward the garage rock and blues end of things with The Moonshiners. He’s performing as Cha Cha. A Korean garage-rock actor on a St. Patrick’s night bill in Nagoya is another extra worth showing up for.

Brian Cullen

Brian Cullen has been playing around Nagoya long enough that he’s become part of the furniture (well... a bar stool anyway! (lol Cart) — which is meant as a compliment.

Singer-guitarist, songwriter, Brian handles Irish folk masterfully, his accent gives credibility to pub standards. He delivers the kind of sets where people come in as strangers leave knowing the place a bit better. He turns up regularly at bars, small venues, and community events across the city. Brian is the sort of musician who shows up — not because there’s a big crowd to impress but because the night needs music.

Banna Beag

Nagoya’s Irish music circle, organizers of regular sessions in parks and pubs around the city.

Fiddles, whistles, guitars, bodhráns. They also run beginner-friendly slow sessions for anyone who wants to learn. On a night like this, they’re the connective tissue between the parade and the party.

The Details

Nagoya St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Date: Sat, Mar. 21, 2026
Opening ceremony: 12:00
Parade start: 14:30
Location:
Ōsu Kannon Shopping Arcade
Gathering point:
Maneki-neko Square
(まねきねこ広場)

Access

Ōsu Kannon Station
Tsurumai Line — T01 (Exit 2)
Walk south along Ōsu Kannon-dori for about 2 minutes. The temple and arcade entrance will appear directly ahead. Maneki-neko Square is a short walk inside the arcade. Look for the big waving cat.

Kamimaezu Station
Meijo Line — M03 / Tsurumai Line — T09 (Exit 8)
Walk west along Ōsu Shopping Street for about 5 minutes toward Ōsu Kannon Temple. Maneki-neko Square is inside the arcade just before the temple area.

MAP

The After Party

Nagoya Saint Patrick's Day Double Header
Start: 19:00
Ticket: ¥3,000
(includes one drink)

Brazil Coffee
Kanayama Cosmo Building 1F,
4-6-22 Kanayama
Naka-ku, Nagoya

Tel: (052) 321-5223

Access

Kanayama Station
Subway Meijo Line — M01 / Subway Meiko Line — E01 / JR Chūō Line / Meitetsu Nagoya Line
Exit: North Exit (地下鉄北口)

Walk north about 3–4 minutes. Brazil Coffee is on the first floor of Kanayama Cosmo Building.

From the Parade (Ōsu / Kamimaezu)
From Kamimaezu Station (Meijo Line — M03), take the clockwise Meijo Line to Kanayama (M01). About 7 minutes, 3 stops. Exit North Exit and walk 3–4 minutes.

From Ōsu Kannon Station (Tsurumai Line — T01)
Take the Tsurumai Line toward Fushimi, change at Kamimaezu (T09) to the Meijo Line, continue to Kanayama (M01). About 10–12 minutes total.

MAP

Nagoya Subway Map

Check out our guide to using the Nagoya Subway:
https://www.nagoyabuzz.com/using-the-nagoya-subway/