February 2019 events in Tokyo
Plan your February in Tokyo with our events calendar of the best things to do, including Valentine's Day fun, festivals, concerts and art exhibits
February in Tokyo is when the chilly grip of winter finally loosens and the first signs of spring – most notably, plum (ume) flowers bursting into bloom – can be seen all over the city. The month also features a number of big-time events, from Setsubun celebrations and the Tokyo Marathon to Lunar New Year festivities, not to mention Valentine's Day and all the chocolatey commotion surrounding it. Make the most of the month with our guide to the top events going on in Tokyo this February.
Our February highlights
Open Space 2019
The Intercommunication Center has been hosting these annual, almost year-long media art exhibitions since 2006, and they are so on point that they sometimes end up eclipsing the cultural facility’s other concurrent exhibitions. The latest Open Space show, titled 'Alternative Views', takes a look at how our ideas and perceptions of the world are influenced by the alternative world views propagating through media and technology...
Akasaka Sacas Sound x Terrace
Get your camera ready as you walk through the ‘vertical tube’ at Akasaka Sacas that's equipped with LED lights which are capable of creating 16.7 million colours. The lights are synchronised to seasonal music, so you can expect different tunes at different times, ie Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc...
Il Barbiere di Siviglia
This witty two-act opera buffa, based on the French comedy ‘The Barber of Seville’, is Rossini’s most popular work. In this frivolous story, Spanish nobleman Count Almaviva is infatuated with the sheltered Rossina, who is already claimed by her guardian, the old and lecherous Dr Bartolo...
Rooftop Star Garden
The rooftop garden at Ginza Six is piling on the romance for the year-end holidays. The illimunination feature calming water elements and sparkling LED pillars (there are 147 of them), turning the space into a star-filled galaxy come nighttime...
Kenneth MacMillan's Manon
Based on the novel ‘Manon Lescaut’ by Abbé Prévost, Manon tells the story of a fickle young woman with a taste for luxury and her hapless lover who goes to extreme lengths to please her. This bewitching ballet about the ultimate femme fatale is choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan and features a sequence of challenging lifts and movements, as is typical of MacMillan’s work...
Future and the Arts
This major exhibition highlights past and present advances in science and technology through art. In today’s world, biotechnology is playing an increasingly big role in food, medicine and the environment, and it is not too far-fetched to say that sooner rather than later we'll leave much of our everyday decisions to artificial intelligence...
Dumb Type. Actions + Reflections
Dumb can mean one of two things: stupid or mute. And this dual meaning is the founding concept behind the group of artists who named their collective ‘Dumb Type’. Formed in 1984, Dumb Type is known for creating new art forms that portray a dark, cynical and humorous world in which media, consumerism and technology are the norms of everyday life...
Mummies of the World
Featuring an array of preserved human bodies from around the world including some from ancient Egypt and naturally mummifed corpses from Europe, this Ueno exhibition will explain how mummies came into being. It will also teach visitors about the cultural and scientific aspects of these fascinating, well-preserved, and, it must be said, slightly creepy artifacts...
Winter Wonderland in Moominvalley Park
While the Moominvalley Park is not in Tokyo per se, it’s still worth the roughly one-hour trip from Ikebukuro Station. During the park’s winter illumination event – based on the iconic troll’s fifth book ‘Moominland Midwinter’ – you can expect a colourful and immersive spectacle complete with projection mapping, lights and sound...
Treasures from Budapest
The National Art Center, Tokyo will bring European and Hungarian masterpieces amassed by the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest and the Hungarian National Gallery to Tokyo. The exhibition is held to commemorate 150 years of diplomatic relations between Japan and Hungary...
Tokyo illuminations 2019-2020
The days may be getting shorter and colder, but even so, Tokyo doesn't turn into a dark and desolate place at this less than cheery time of year. In fact, as the city transitions from autumn into winter, millions of colourful LED lights are displayed in trees as well as on and around buildings, turning Tokyo into a sparkling wonderland...
Best places to go ice-skating in Tokyo and Yokohama
Lace up your skates and glide around the capital's frosty selection of indoor and outdoor ice rinks