Free things to do in Tokyo this week

Asakusa's Kappabashi – the famed mecca for Tokyo chefs and homecooks looking to kit out their kitchens – is festooned with vibrantly coloured streamers and decorations during this annual summer festival. Though it runs from July 3 to 7, the best time to visit the Shitamachi Tanabata Matsuri is over the July 4-5 weekend, when local businesses put out stalls and hold parades and street performances. The street parade on July 4 will begin at 1.15pm near the Ueno Gakuen Junior and Senior High School, and slowly make its way through Kappabashi Main Street towards Asakusa. Expect to see a parade of local kindergarteners, police and primary school marching bands, plus special appearances by a local Morioka-Sansa traditional dance troupe and the Metropolitan Police's all-female motorcycle brigade. On Sunday July 5, Kappabashi will be hosting street performances of all sorts throughout the day, ranging from Sado-Okesa dances from Niigata to Awa-Odori dances from Tokushima.

Enjoy the warmer spring evenings at the Tokyo Night Market near Shibuya Crossing. Here you can expect a variety of street food alongside live performances and art exhibitions, with DJs on deck to set the mood all day till 10pm. Held at Yoyogi Park’s Keyaki events square for five consecutive nights from July 1 to July 5, the triannual event is expected to be bigger than before. As for music, you can look forward to an impressive lineup of mainstream and indie acts, including pop-music band Friends (July 2), the piano and cajón duo Pia-no-jac (July 2), chorus-idol group Machida Girls' Choir (July 4), improvisational percussion group La Señas (July 5) and many more. Keep tabs on the event's Instagram for the latest updates. Tokyo Night Market runs from 4pm to 10pm Wednesday through Friday, and from 2pm to 10pm on weekends.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government No 1 Building in Shinjuku serves as the backdrop for a jaw-dropping and record-breaking projection mapping show. Covering an area of a whopping 13,905sqm, the after-dark spectacle has been certified by Guinness World Records as the largest permanent display of its kind in the world. The nightly showcase features a range of visual wonders created by a mix of local and international artists. Some shows are inspired by Tokyo’s rich history, while others draw on themes like the lunar cycle.  Currently, on weeknights, you can catch striking visuals synchronised to ‘800’ and 'Zankyosanka' by hit Japanese pop singer and lyricist Aimer as well as ‘Pac-Man eats Tokyo’, ‘Lunar Cycle’, ‘Synergy’, ‘Tokyo Resonance’ and ‘Evolution’. On weekends, you can look forward to the aforementioned ‘Zankyosanka (Aimer)’, as well as ‘Godzilla: Attack on Tokyo’ and ‘TYO337’, a display featuring motifs of traditional Japanese performing arts such as Kabuki paired with electronic beats.  From March 20, Pokémon Trading Card Game ‘Tokyo Luminous Night’, a brand-new projection-mapping show featuring Pokémon cards on a massive scale, has been running on weekends and holidays from 6.30pm, 7.30pm and 9pm. Be sure to check the event website for more details. Shows take place every night at fifteen-minute intervals from 6pm (Mar from 6.30pm, 7pm from Apr, 7.30pm from May to Aug) to 9.45pm. For more details and to check the full programme of daily projection mapping shows,...

Legend tells of the star-crossed lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi who, separated by the Milky Way, are only able to meet once a year on the night known as Tanabata. This festival is synonymous with colourful streamer decorations, wafts of romance, and a ritual in which people write wishes on strips of paper (tanzaku) and tie them to bamboo branches. Zojoji's version of the celebration features a beautiful candle light-up on Monday and Tuesday from 6pm to 9pm. Hundreds of washi paper lanterns are arranged in the shape of the Milky Way along the staircase that leads up to the temple’s main hall. Make sure to write down your wish for Tanabata on a colourful strip of paper, which you can get for ¥200 each. The temple priests will conduct a special ceremony at 5.30pm on July 7, where they’ll bless your wishes.  For this special occasion, Zojoji Temple is selling a beautiful Tanabata-themed omamori lucky charm (¥3,000). If you’d like to get your hands on one, we recommend buying yours in advance via the temple’s online shop, since quantities are limited. When you’re making the purchase, don’t forget to write your name in the column for additional notes, as the priests will read out your name at a special prayer on the night of July 7. The omamori will be shipped after the event (from July 8). For more information, see the event website.

It's not quite a Japanese summer without fireflies. Come see them at Setagaya's very own Firefly Festival which attracts a respectable 25,000 visitors every year. At the heart of the festival is the spectacle of approximately 3,000 fireflies released in a dome tent at the Setagaya Daikanyashiki parking lot. As dusk falls, watch these curious bugs illuminate the evening with their gentle glow.

From June 20 to July 20, the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum showcases the winning works from one of the world’s most prestigious international photography competitions. Since its launch in 2007, the Sony World Photography Awards has championed photographers at every stage of their careers, providing a global platform for both emerging talent and established practitioners while celebrating the diversity and vitality of contemporary photographic practice. This Tokyo presentation adopts the thematic concept developed for the exhibition’s debut at Somerset House in London. Visitors are invited to engage with the award-winning photographs through three interconnected narratives: Absence, which reflects on memory, loss and erasure; Humans in the Stories, focusing on the immediacy and complexity of lived experience; and Conflicted Territories, examining borders, divisions and the political and social tensions that shape today’s world. By placing the works in dialogue with one another, the exhibition encourages viewers to consider broader global issues through photography’s uniquely evocative visual language. A special highlight is a presentation of works by Joel Meyerowitz, recipient of the 2026 Outstanding Contribution to Photography award. Widely regarded as one of the pioneers of colour street photography, Meyerowitz has profoundly influenced the evolution of the medium through his luminous explorations of urban life, light and everyday experience. Displayed alongside this...

Window manufacturer YKK AP teams up with a number of prestigious Spanish institutions to highlight a small but crucial detail of Antoni Gaudí’s wide-ranging oeuvre. Zooming in on the role apertures played in the Catalan visionary’s singular architectural language, which was defined by organic forms, intricate ornament and a profound understanding of structure and light, ‘Windows on the Future’ forms part of a wider research initiative examining Gaudí’s creative methods. Organised to mark the centenary of Gaudí’s death, the exhibition at 21_21 Design Sight shares its concept with a more extensive presentation at Barcelona’s Palau Güell, a UNESCO World Heritage site, adapting it to the design-focused environment of Gallery 3. Through models, research materials and visual documentation, visitors are invited to explore Gaudí’s enduring ideas and consider how his inventive thinking may inspire the windows, and architecture, of the future.

Based on traditional folklore, Tanabata (Star Festival) is celebrated across Japan each summer between July and August, the actual day of which varies according to region. Marking the earliest possible day of Tanabata (July 7), the shopping arcades of Hiratsuka city near Tokyo are adorned with around 100 giant colourful streamers, which are hung from giant ornamental balls called the kusudama. The Shonan Hiratsuka Tanabata Festival is regarded as one of the top three of such events in the Kanto region, drawing almost 2 million visitors over the three days. Aside from the impressive street decorations, you can expect parades, live performances, vendors selling local products and plenty of technicolour-fuelled buzz over the July 3-5 weekend.

One of Tokyo's biggest annual festivals is celebrating its 75th edition this year. Held at its namesake park, Ueno Summer Festival is a month-long programme packed with a diverse array of traditional events, live performances and seasonal festivities. These include a traditional lantern-floating event on July 17 at 7pm, as well as Japanese taiko drum street performances on July 20 and 25 (from 1pm and 3pm) at Ueno Park’s Shinobazu Pond Bentendo Temple. That said, the festival offers more than just classic Japanese celebrations. The antique market, which will run every day from July 10 to August 11 (from 2pm to 8pm) at the gates of Shinobazu Pond Bentendo Temple, for instance, is a great place to look for small treasures and summer mementoes. For a picture-perfect spot to capture your summer memories, don’t miss the nearby Hasumi Deck lookout, adorned with more than 4,000 wind chimes that create a soothing summer soundtrack. As always, there will be plenty of food and drink stalls encircling Ueno Park's Shinobazu Pond (from 3pm to 9pm daily), selling popular street eats like yakisoba and kakigori shaved ice – a staple summer treat. Check the event website for the full programme (in Japanese only).

Dividing his time between Tokyo and New York, Kota Iguchi (b. 1984) has emerged as a leading figure redefining the relationship between graphic design, motion and immersive visual experience. As co-founder of the creative association CEKAI, he has developed a practice that moves fluidly between motion graphics, live-action film, spatial installations and large-scale digital environments. From the animated sports pictograms of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to projects for Las Vegas’s Sphere, Iguchi demonstrates how graphic language can evolve beyond flat surfaces. This summer, Ginza Graphic Gallery explores the artist’s dynamic visual universe with ‘Kota Iguchi: Motion Graphics’. The exhibition examines how typography, geometry, paper and physical movement can interact and unfold across time and space. For the occasion, Iguchi has collaborated with artists Rei Ishii, Ryu Mieno and Taku Sasaki/Aki Kanai on three newly commissioned works exploring the intersections of geometric structures, bodily expression and sequential forms. Installed on the gallery’s ground floor, these projects trace the transformation of graphic ideas into sculptural and animated experiences. Meanwhile, the basement space surveys landmark works by Iguchi and CEKAI, highlighting the growing role of immersive visual communication in contemporary culture. Blending motion, architecture and graphic experimentation, the exhibition offers a compelling glimpse into the future of design as a spatial and sensory...