The best things to do in Tokyo this weekend

For 11 months of every year, Nezu Shrine doesn't attract all that much attention from the outside world. Then spring rolls around, and its remarkable crop of azaleas burst into bloom. The shrine precincts are home to some 3,000 azalea plants – roughly 100 varieties in total, including rare breeds such as the black karafune flower – and has to find space for at least as many flower aficionados during the month-long Bunkyo Tsutsuji Matsuri. 

Another highlight of Nezu Shrine is its red torii gate tunnel, similar to the ones at Kyoto's Fushimi Inari Shrine but in a much smaller scale.

Tokyo’s Kameido Tenjin Shrine is famous for its wisteria flowers, and with good reason – the shrine has over 50 wisteria trees, which usually reach their flowering peak between late April and early May. 

This annual festival features a handful of food stalls and an evening light up from sunset until 9pm. The purple blooms also look quite stunning during the day when you can get a spectacular view of Tokyo Skytree in the background. The shrine is in the shitamachi (downtown) district of Tokyo, so while you’re here, make sure to take a stroll around the area to explore the old-fashioned local shops and eateries.

To check the current flowering status, visit the shrine's Instagram.

Asakusa Yabusame initially started as a New Year’s tradition at Asakusa Shrine during the Edo period (1603-1867), but this horse-riding archery event was revived as a festival in 1983.

The day starts out with the kusajishi archery at 11.45am, where several men wearing formal samurai court robe and traditional head gear compete in aiming at a 110cm-tall deer-shaped target from about 20 metres away. This event is free to watch and doesn't require tickets.

Unfortunately, tickets for the main yabusame archery event are sold out. This show, which starts at 1pm, features archers in traditional samurai hunting costumes aiming at targets while riding on a horse.

Held in Nagoya, Kyoto and Tokyo, this fully vegan festival is a welcome celebration in meat-mad Japan. Expect a strong line-up of around 80 stalls at Kiba Park, which will sell veggie burgers, curries, burritos, doughnuts, soft-serve ice cream and plenty more.

Every food stall will list the ingredients used (in Japanese), so you can be 100 percent sure that no animal was harmed or involved in the process of making your meal.

The colourful Children’s Day koinobori carp streamers are an annual sight at Tokyo Tower, and this year you can see them at the main entrance from March 20 through Golden Week until May 6. There are 333 streamers set-up here, signifying the 333m height of the iconic tower. 

Among the 333 streamers, there's one that's not a carp – see if you can spot the sanma (pacific saury) nobori. This unique inclusion is Tokyo Tower's way of sending hope to the region affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

As this display is held right outside the tower on the ground level, you don't need a ticket to see this joyous sight.

Though cherry blossom is almost coming to an end, Kamakura is gearing up for another surge in visitors this month for the annual spring festival at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine. The Kamakura Matsuri centres around the second and third Sundays of April: head there on April 14 to watch a parade along the avenue running up to the shrine (11am start), followed in the afternoon by a dance performance of Shizuka no Mai, a reenactment of a well-known episode from 12th century Japan (from 3pm).

On April 21, make your way to either the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine or the Kamakura Daibutsuden Kotokuin grounds to enjoy an outdoor Nodate tea ceremony, taking place from 10 am to 3 pm. Known also as the Nogake or Fusube tea ceremony, Nodate is an ancient practice usually held in spring or summer, emphasising hospitality in pleasant weather. A programme of outdoor performances will be held so you will have something to watch as you sip on freshly whisked matcha.  

Head up to Ibaraki's Hitachi Seaside Park from mid-April to early May and see a whopping 5.3 million 'baby blue eyes' – also known as nemophila – flowers in full bloom. The hilly grounds span 3.5 hectares and are almost completely covered with the little blue blossoms, making for a pretty spectacular sight.

The blooms are usually at their best from mid- to late April, but they are still a magnificent sight if you catch them a bit earlier or even right after peak bloom. According to this year's forecast, the flowers will be in their full glory between April 18 to 27.

Along with the flowers, the park has gone all-out with blue food and drink for you to enjoy during your visit. Sample blue ramune-soda-flavoured soft cream served with nemophila-shaped cookies, pretty blue lemonade, lattes and even a blue-tinged curry ramen. While you're at it, pick up a few souvenirs to take home with you including nemophila macarons, cookies and jewellery featuring the flower of the season. 

The park is home to various other spring flowers, too, including daffodils and tulips, which also bloom between April and May.

The annual Fuji Shibazakura Festival is returning this spring with a staggering 500,000 pink, purple and white blooms from April 13 to May 26. With its seemingly endless fields of shibazakura (pink moss) and view of majestic Mt Fuji on the horizon, it's no wonder that this annual spring festival out at Lake Motosu in Yamanashi typically attracts hordes of Tokyoites over Golden Week. 

In addition to the eight kinds of shibazakura, you’ll get to see other colourful blooms like cherry blossoms, grape hyacinth, poppy anemone and forsythia. While you’re here, it’s also worth checking out the adjacent Peter Rabbit-themed English Garden, decorated with around 300 kinds of plants as well as figurines of the characters from the storybook. 

One of the best ways to get here is by highway bus. A round-trip ticket including festival entry fee starts from ¥7,800, with the bus departing from Bus Terminal Shinjuku, Mark City Shibuya, Futakotamagawa Rise and Tokyo Station. It takes you directly to the Fuji Shibazakura Festival in around two and a half hours. We recommend making reservations in advance because seats can fill up quickly during spring.

Otherwise, you can opt for the two-hour-long Limited Express Fuji Excursion train from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko Station, and hop on the Fuji Shibazakura liner shuttle bus for another 50 minutes to get to the venue.

If you’re craving some Taiwanese food this spring, then drop by Tokyo Skytree Town for its Taiwan Festival. Head over to the fourth floor of Sky Arena until May 26 to feast on Taiwanese food throughout the day. There are several stalls offering popular Taiwanese cuisine such as lu rou fan (braised pork over rice) and da ji pai fried chicken.

You can also shop for Taiwanese goods and even enjoy massages and fortune telling. The dining area is decorated with red lanterns to give it a Taiwanese night market feel.

Tachikawa's Showa Kinen Park isn't content with merely hyping sakura: its Flower Festival takes place over three months and celebrates the blooms of tulips (in April), poppies and rapeseeds (May) and water lilies (May), of course in addition to the cherry blossoms in March and April.

2024 marks a special milestone for Showa Kinen Park, as the massive green space is celebrating its 40th anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, park officials will be planting a staggering 1.8 million nemophila plants, which will turn into a gorgeous sea of blue once they bloom. 

Along with flower-viewing, the park will be hosting a number of floral-themed events, and dedicated photo spots will be set up on the premises. Photo sessions will include time to take pics among the park’s 250,000 colourful tulips without crowds in the background, while a special spot will allow you to capture the nemophila accented with soap bubbles.

Launched in 2012, Tokyo Rainbow Pride has grown into the largest and most diverse Pride celebration in Japan, always offering a fantastic opportunity to be a part of the country’s journey towards a more equal future​​. The 2024 edition is themed ‘Not giving up till change happens’ and will be jam-packed with educational seminars, late-night parties, social gatherings and, of course, the ever-growing Rainbow Pride Parade and Festival, bringing together people from all walks of life.​​

This year’s Pride Festival will be held in Yoyogi Park over the weekend of April 19 to 21, with the parade set to take over Shibuya and Harajuku on April 21 from 1pm, starting and ending at the Yoyogi 2nd National Gymnasium. Registration for the parade will be open on the day at the same venue (look for the registration booth). We expect this year’s procession to be the biggest and most jubilant yet, as 2024 marks 30 years since Japan’s inaugural Pride parade was organised by a few hundred brave pioneers.  

The programme of talks and seminars on Yoyogi Park’s Pride Stage will kick off at 3pm on Friday April 19 with a panel discussion featuring pioneers of the Pride movement in Japan, including 92-year-old gay activist Teishiro Minami, who was the driving force behind that first Pride parade back in 1994. This unique historical recap will be followed by a discussion on marriage equality organised in collaboration with the Marriage For All Japan activist nonprofit.

As for the weekend’s entertainment, you can expect appearances by pop singer Kiyotaka Tendo aka Ki-Yo, TikTok phenom Zeropuri, rapper and singer-songwriter Chanmina, veteran entertainers Maki Ohguro and Michiko Shimizu, and many more. If you’re attending together with children, make sure to check out the Rainbow Stage at Yoyogi Park’s Keyaki Namiki promenade, where a kid-friendly programme of workshops and shows will take place on Saturday and Sunday. A dedicated kids’ space will be set up next to the stage.

The festival will feature an appropriately diverse array of food and drink stalls along with booths set up by the many corporations, organisations and community groups sponsoring the event. You’ll also find special Japan Pride 30th and Japan Pride Network booths that should make interesting viewing for anyone curious about the history and present of the nation’s Pride movement.

Keep the Pride celebrations going all night long this weekend at the official after-party of the annual Tokyo Rainbow Pride Parade in Shibuya. Tokyo Carnival is sponsored by Aisotope Lounge, who will be taking over the Cutup Studio event space in the basement of Shibuya Tower Records so that Pride participants won't have to shuttle over to Shinjuku's LGBTQ+ district of Nichome immediately after Sunday's parade draws to a close.

The line-up of performers includes Tokyo's top drag queens and go-go dancers by the likes of Tsubako Uzushiwo, Sasha B Savannah and Makey, who will be dancing to tracks courtesy of local DJs including Ko Kimura and DJ Masao. The party will kick off at 5pm and run until 10.30pm, with admission set at ¥2,500 (includes one drink ticket). Pride Parade marchers can flash their wristbands at the door for a ¥500 discount. 

Come over to Ebisu and join us for Time Out Café & Diner's 15th anniversary celebration this month. This party will span four live music nights between April 19 and May 5, with a host of local artists performing an eclectic mix of genres. The opening night, for instance, will feature singer and record producer Tofubeats, as well as Harashima ‘Domannaka’ Sorayoshi.

On April 20, singer-songwriter Satomoka will take the stage with Gusokumuzu – a four-person band that’s been making waves in the J-pop scene since their debut last year. The next day, April 21, features a hip-hop heavy line-up with acts like Japanese band C.O.S.A., rapper Campanella, In-d and Issugi. 

To wrap things up on May 5, there will be a minimal disco house night featuring the familiar faces of the NF crew, including Keiichi Ejima (Sakanaction/NF) and Shotaro Aoyama (Hyogu/NF), plus YonYon, Dr. Pay, and Samo (Fullhouse). It's a golden opportunity for one last dance during Golden Week.

Tickets for the opening night are available for ¥1,500 at the door, but you'll get a discount if you show up before 9pm.  Tickets for April 20, April 21 and May 5 are available for booking online, with discounts available for those who purchase in advance.

The sixth edition of Flower and Light Movement is taking place at Toneri Park in Adachi this year. The park has around 1,000 cherry blossom trees as well as a field of baby blue eyes (nemophila), both of which will be illuminated from 6pm to 9pm.

Ukima Park in Itabashi (about 50 minutes away) is also taking part in the Flower and Light Movement event.

Yokohama’s premier celebration of the arts takes place every three years. Themed ‘Wild Grass: Our Lives’, the 2024 edition will centre on the Yokohama Museum of Art, the Former Daiichi Bank Yokohama Branch, and BankART Kaiko, as well as a wide variety of venues around the city, welcoming an international lineup of 93 artists – 20 of whom will be exhibiting all-new works.

Tickets are available here or via our affiliate partner Klook.

Marking the release of director Hayao Miyazaki’s new film 'The Boy and the Heron' (also known as 'How do You Live?' in Japanese), the museum dedicated to anime powerhouse Studio Ghibli presents a behind-the-scenes look at the hand-drawn animation that contributes so much to the movie’s charm.

In the production process of 'The Boy and the Heron', virtually all of the drawings used were pencil-drawn onto paper, while backgrounds were hand-painted with poster colours. The result is a production in which the presence of Miyazaki and his team of artists and animators is tangible. At this point in the 21st century, the reality is that even most 'hand-drawn' anime productions involve extensive use of digital tools, making ‘The Boy and the Heron’ something of a rarity.

This special exhibition presents the original drawings used in the film’s production process, revealing that in the form of still frames too, Ghibli’s creations possess expressive power. This showcase is divided into three parts, and will tentatively run through to May 2025: check the Ghibli Museum website for details.

Note: Ghibli Museum tickets are not available at the door. See this feature to learn how to get your tickets in advance.

Text by Darren Gore

Renowned 20th century master Henri Matisse (1869-1954), though best known as a painter, was a true multimedia artist whose creativity also spanned sculpture, printmaking and other forms. This is the very first exhibition in Japan to focus on the French artist’s work with paper cut-outs, the medium he energetically pursued in the last decade-and-a-half of his life.

Works on loan from the Matisse Museum in Nice, France show how the artist began creating expressionistic collages composed of scissor-cut pieces of paper in a multitude of colours.The subjects and themes of these cutout works included the female form, avian life, and a distinctive twodimensional take on the flowersand-fruit still life. While initially modest in size, these cut-outs grew in scale to become murals spanning entire walls: the largest example featured here is some eight metres wide.

Also on show is a selection of works in other media, including painting, ink brush on paper, and stained glass.

This exhibition is closed on Tuesday, except April 30.

Text by Darren Gore

British-born artist Mark Leckey is a product of the UK’s ever-vibrant pop culture, and through diverse mediums he confronts youth, dance music, nostalgia, social class and history from an often countercultural perspective. The subcultural edge of his work – which encompasses film, sound, sculpture, performance, collage and more – additionally takes on a gritty incongruousness when enjoyed at Louis Vuitton’s sleek Omotesando exhibition space.

The French luxury house here presents two Leckey works from its collection. 'Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore feat. Big Red Soundsystem' (1999-2003-2010) is a film that, through a mash-up of archive footage, vividly traces the development of the UK’s underground dance music scene from 1970s disco through to the ’90s rave scene.

2013’s 'Felix the Cat', meanwhile, is a giant inflatable rendering of the cartoon cat that Leckey considers a pioneer of the digital age. Almost a century ago, this feline character was one of the first subjects to be transmitted as a TV signal.

Text by Darren Gore

Opened in 2016 in Munich, the Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art (MUCA) holds one of Europe’s foremost collections of urban-inspired contemporary art, encompassing the likes of Kaws, Banksy and Shepherd Fairey. Now Tokyo, a key city in global street culture, finally gets a taste of the MUCA collection with the arrival of this touring exhibition that has already wowed Kyoto and Oita City.

Over 60 major pieces, including career-defining work by the above-mentioned figures as well as fellow legends including JR, Invader and Barry McGee, are being shown in Japan for the very first time. Highlights include Banksy’s ‘Bullet Hole Bust’, in which the artist’s anti-establishment attitude is rendered in 3D form: the cultural bust form associated with classical art is brutalised by a bullet to the forehead. Kaws’s ‘4ft Companion (Dissected Brown)’, meanwhile, cuts away the left-side ‘skin’ of one his signature ‘Companion’ characters to reveal its inner organs.

Text by Darren Gore

Anime Station Tokyo is celebrating the latest addition to the ‘Gundam’ franchise by hosting a special ‘Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Freedom’ exhibition, ongoing until early May. Dedicated to the aforementioned film, which was released in January this year, the event features an exclusive showcase of rare materials and illustrations from the iconic 'Mobile Suit Gundam' anime series.

As the exhibition also coincides with the 45th anniversary of the Gundam franchise, it offers a comprehensive look at Gundam's long and illustrious history. Visitors can explore a detailed timeline, admire iconic Mobile Suits, and view a collection of beloved Gunpla models.

This year is especially significant as the iconic moving Gundam in Yokohama will be closing at the end of March. The exhibition therefore provides fans with a unique chance to dive into the Gundam universe. By first visiting the towering mecha in Yokohama and then exploring this exhibition in Ikebukuro, fans can enjoy a seamless Gundam experience that celebrates both its rich legacy and promising future.