November 2025 events in Tokyo

The Tokyo Biennale returns with an invitation to explore the city through the theme ‘Wander for Wonder’. From October 17 to December 14, the international art festival transforms the capital into a living gallery, bringing together 38 artist groups from seven countries in a city-wide celebration of walking, discovery and creativity.

Taking place across two main venues – Ueno’s 400-year-old Kan’eiji Temple and the Etoile Kaito Living Building – alongside six exhibition areas including Ueno, Kanda, Nihonbashi and Marunouchi, the Biennale blends contemporary art with Tokyo’s deep cultural layers. Installations emerge at temples, across public spaces, in shops and vacant properties, creating a unique urban tapestry of expression and memory.

Curated to be a ‘social dive’, the Biennale encourages visitors to encounter art through movement, echoing the artistic legacies of walking-based practices by figures such as Yoko Ono and Gabriel Orozco. As people stroll through neighbourhoods and engage with their surroundings, each step becomes part of a creative process.

Tokyo Biennale 2025 looks set to be a journey of serendipitous encounters, offering a fresh lens on the city’s untold stories and its vibrant potential for connection through art.

Many of the exhibitions and events at the Tokyo Biennale are free. However, select exhibitions charge entrance fees. For those seeking a comprehensive experience, all-access passes are available for ¥3,000 per adult (or ¥2,500 if purchased in advance) and ¥1,800 for students (advance passes ¥1,500). These passes grant unlimited access to all venues during the festival period.

For a detailed program and more information, visit the Tokyo Biennale’s website.

Tori no Ichi is said to have originated at Asakusa's Otori Shrine and the nearby Juzaisan Chokokuji temple, so you can expect a major spectacle here. This is the biggest Tori no Ichi festival in Tokyo with 800 to 900 booths selling kumade, souvenirs and plenty of food.

The event attracts 700,000 visitors every year and gets very crowded in the evening, so go during the day if you have the chance and snack on some old-school kiri-zansho candy.

The festival is held for 24 hours on November 12 and 24, starting with the first taiko drum sound at 12 midnight (the night of November 11 and 23).

The Tori no Ichi festival at Hanazono Shrine is one of the biggest in the Kanto region. It’s held on two days on November 12 and 24 with some smaller 'warm-up' festivals taking place the night before the main events.

For the occasion, the grounds are decorated with 950 LED lanterns towering over the shrine buildings. On the grounds, you will find stalls selling decorative kumade bamboo rakes, plus plenty of other vendors offering food and festival knick-knacks.

The event takes place from 12 noon to 12 midnight on both days, and the smaller pre-festivals take place on the day before the main event, from 3pm until 12 midnight.

Showa Kinen Park is the most beautiful in autumn, with the maple and ginkgo trees blushing in fiery red and yellow respectively. The ginkgo trees are the first to turn and you can see two boulevards of the golden yellow trees as soon as you enter the park’s Tachikawa gate. These trees are expected to turn full yellow in mid-November. The momiji and kaede trees, however, present their signature vermillion hues a bit later towards the end of November.

During this season, the park stays open after dark, with special light-ups taking place at the Gingko Tree Avenue (near the futsal and basketball courts) and the traditional Japanese Garden from 4.30pm until 8.30pm.

While you can enjoy the light-ups at Gingko Tree Avenue with just the park's regular admission fee (¥450, free for junior high school students and younger), you need an extra ticket to enter the Japanese Garden (advance ticket online ¥1,200, primary and junior high school students ¥600; same-day tickets sold at Komorebi House close to the Japanese Garden ¥1,300, ¥700).

Tickets to enter the Japanese Garden are now available for purchase online, including park admission and Japanese Garden bundle pass for a discounted price of ¥1,600 (¥600).

Admission into the Japanese Garden is waived on October 30 and 31.

Rikugien is one of the best gardens in Tokyo to immerse yourself in beautiful Japanese landscapes. There’s no bad time to see the garden, but we do admit it’s especially picturesque in autumn, when the leaves take on vibrant shades of red and yellow.

From November 28 to December 9, Rikugien stays open until 8.30pm for its annual light-up. The trees in the garden are bathed in golden lights so that the brilliant colours of the changing leaves stand out even more, providing stunning views.

Aside from admiring the autumn foliage, don’t forget to drop by the garden’s dozo (storehouse). Its earthen walls serve as the canvas for a beautiful daily projection show between 6pm and 8.30pm. 

We recommend purchasing illumination tickets online in advance, as they’re limited and available at a discounted price of ¥1,000. The online ticket portal will open in late October. Otherwise, tickets can be purchased at the door for ¥1,200.

The park will close temporarily at 5pm, and reopen at 6pm for the night opening.

Mt Takao is one of the most picturesque destinations in Tokyo to see autumn leaves. And one of the best ways to do that is by taking the scenic cable car ride, which brings you closer to the mountain’s Yakuoin temple. Here you can sample shojin ryori, a traditional Japanese Buddhist vegetarian meal. To secure a lunchtime seat, be sure to book a reservation for two or more people at least two days in advance via phone.

The best time to see the autumn leaves for 2025 is mid to late November, when the foliage around the cable car tracks turns deep orange and red.

Throughout the duration of the festival, you can also look forward to a host of free events at Kiyotaki Station, the cable car stop at the base of Mt Takao, including musical and dance performances by local university students. While details are yet to be announced for 2025, check the event's English website for the latest updates.

As is the case every year, the base of Mt Takao will be crowded in autumn, so it’s best to arrive via public transport.

Kanagawa-born, NYC-based Aki Sasamoto’s decompartmentalised artistic practice explores performance, sculpture, dance, and any other medium conducive to the expression of her ideas. At the intersection of visual and performing arts, her work involves collaborating with musicians, choreographers, scientists and academics, and she often takes on multiple roles: performer and sculptor, but also professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Sculpture at Yale University.

In her work, Sasamoto constantly reflects on the design and configuration of sculptures and devices that she uses as scores during improvised performances within immersive installations. As she describes it, her creative process is akin to fishing: she ‘casts a net and waits for a perfect alignment of events’, letting several elements float before grasping the connections by relating them to seemingly foreign references.

On from August 23 to November 24, ‘Aki Sasamoto’s Life Laboratory’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo explores the interplay between sculptural creation and performance that has characterised the artist’s work for two decades. From landmark early works to more recent creations that emphasise kinetic elements, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of Sasamoto’s journey and unique approach, where the boundaries between artistic disciplines blur in favour of captivating hybrid expression.

Though he died at just 37, Vincent van Gogh left behind a body of work that revolutionised modern art; an oeuvre celebrated for its swirling brushstrokes, bold colours and raw emotional force. Yet the Dutch master’s legacy is shaped as much by his turbulent life as by his luminous canvases, and this narrative of suffering and passion continues to captivate audiences around the world.

With ‘A Renewal of Passion’, the Pola Museum of Art in Hakone presents its first-ever exhibition dedicated to the post-Impressionist painter. Running until November 30, the display features key works from the museum’s own collection alongside historical and contemporary responses to Van Gogh’s art, highlighting how his fervent creativity has inspired generations of artists across continents and eras.

The show emphasises Van Gogh’s influence in Japan, where his deeply personal style resonated as early as the Meiji era (1868–1912), and highlights modern reinterpretations by artists such as Yasumasa Morimura and Fiona Tan. Composed of paintings, installations and archival materials, the exhibition offers a poignant meditation on the enduring power of Van Gogh’s vision in a changing world.

Classical elegance and Mediterranean heritage meet daring innovation in the artisanal jewellery of Bulgari, the Rome-based luxury house that’s become synonymous with exceptional craftsmanship over its 140-year history.

This show, the brand’s largest in Japan and its first in a decade, offers an opulent journey through nearly 350 pieces of jewellery and contemporary art. Its name a portmanteau of the Greek words kalos (beautiful) and eidos (form), the show presents a kaleidoscopic narrative where colour is both the medium and the message. It showcases Bulgari’s use of hues as a hallmark of its innovation, from the postwar ‘chromatic revolution’ in gemstones to the vibrant combinations that define the brand’s legacy today.

Divided into three thematic chapters, the exhibition explores colour through scientific, cultural and sensory lenses. Contemporary artists Mariko Mori, Lara Favaretto and Akiko Nakayama offer personal meditations on the theme, while scenography by architect Kazuyo Sejima and design studio Formafantasma unites Roman grandeur with Japanese minimalism.

From November 14 to January 12, Tokyo City View will be hosting 'All of Evangelion', an art exhibition to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the beloved Evangelion franchise. 

As its name suggests, the exhibition will span the entirety of Evangelion's decades-long history, featuring everything from original cels and drawings from the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series to never-before-seen digital materials from the Rebuild of Evangelion films.

Keep an eye on the official 'All of Evangelion' website for updates.

Pop art impresario Andy Warhol (1928–1987) blurred the boundaries between high culture and mass consumption, transforming everyday objects and the faces of celebrities into icons of contemporary art. His fascination with fame, beauty and repetition made him both a mirror of his age and a relentless critic of it, leaving behind a body of work that continues to resonate in today’s image-saturated culture.

Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo’s ‘Serial Portraits’ showcase is part of the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s Hors-les-murs program, which brings highlights from its Paris collection to audiences worldwide. This free exhibition focuses on Warhol’s radical reinvention of portraiture, from his playful photo booth experiments in the early 1960s to the spectral self-portraits he made shortly before his death.

Highlights like the Self-Portraits series (1977–1986) are displayed alongside both celebrated and lesser-known works to offer insight into Warhol’s evolving exploration of identity, celebrity and the endless possibilities of repetition. By juxtaposing iconic images with hidden gems, the exhibition reveals how Warhol turned portraiture into a stage for both personal reflection and cultural critique.

Every year, hordes of Tokyoites make the exodus out of town to classic autumn leaf watching spots like Kamakura, Nikko and Hakone. However, for those with no time to travel, there are plenty of gardens, parks and museums right here in the city to get your koyo fill from mid-to-late November. Here are our top picks of nightly light-ups, historic retreats and lesser-known viewing locations, all in or close to Tokyo. And for particularly energetic foliage-watchers, we recommend these scenic bike routes and these highlight hikes.