The best things to do in Tokyo this weekend

With the motto ‘Save the Beach, Save the Ocean’, this outdoor party at Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse celebrates beach and surf culture, with an emphasis on protecting the shrinking number of beaches and coastal environments in Japan.

This surf-themed art-and-music jamboree has been a mainstay of the city’s spring event calendar since 2005 and offers a leisurely introduction to the summer music festival season, with film screenings, exhibitions and projection mapping shows adding to the relaxed vibe.

Greenroom is known for hosting a variety of established Japanese and international musicians and visual artists. Acts to look out for on this year’s line-up include the UK’s Ella Mai and Emma-Jean Thackray, American artists Jon Batiste and Janelle Monae, and Japan’s Otoboke Beaver and Kid Fresino, as well as a special Nujabes tribute set.

You can also take part in beach cleanups and peruse a green market selling products made from recycled materials.

Tickets are now on sale via the event website. 

Star Island – a ‘cutting-edge entertainment experience that reimagines the traditional fireworks show for the 21st century’ – returns to Tokyo bigger than ever before, lighting up Odaiba Marine Park on May 23 with 12,000 fireworks and 800 drones. Combining fireworks, lasers, drones, live performances and immersive 3D sound, the multi-sensory spectacle is set against the dramatic backdrop of Tokyo’s skyline.

Since its debut in 2017, Star Island has been wowing audiences around the world, including in Singapore and Saudi Arabia. The show is the brainchild of a diverse team of Japanese creatives – all fireworks lovers and pioneers in their respective fields – who have come together to create a spectacular production where synchronised dance and other performances unfold on stages below as fireworks illuminate the night sky from start to finish.

Tickets for these shows are now on sale, with options including group admission.

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 May 20 to May 24, the triannual event is expected to be bigger than before. As for music, you can look forward to an impressive lineup of artists, including headliner 'shimauta' singer Minami Kizuki (May 21), the dynamic sister singer and accordionist duo Chan-Po-Rantan (May 21), jazz trumpeter Tabuzombie (May 23), jazz and hiphop idol group The Organics (May 22) and many more.

Keep tabs on the event's Instagram for the latest updates.

Tokyo Night Market runs from 4pm to 10pm on Wednesday through Friday, and from 2pm to 10pm over the weekend.

For a metropolis with nearly every type of cuisine at arm’s length, the one thing that can still be tricky to find in Tokyo is a good bagel. But fret not, as New York City’s cult-favourite Apollo Bagels will hold their first-ever pop-up in Japan very soon. Coming to town for three days only, they’re setting up shop May 22–24 at Dean & DeLuca Marunouchi.

What sets Apollo Bagels apart is their naturally fermented sourdough that creates a crispy, dark exterior and a light crumb – easier on the stomach compared to the dense, bready bagel synonymous with New York.

Available at the pop-up are their classic sesame, everything, and plain bagels, along with four sandwiches: tomato with cream cheese and olive oil; smoked salmon with capers, red onion and dill; whitefish salad with cucumber and dill; and an event-special menu item of anko (sweet red bean paste) with butter.

Try their bagels while you can and find out why New Yorkers, young and old alike, champion the new-school Apollo Bagels.

Shinbashi Enbujo's most prominent show has been part of the programme here since the theatre first opened in 1925. Always happening around the time when spring gives way to early summer, it sees the venue transformed into an extra-large version of a traditional ryotei restaurant, with guests invited to munch on uber-fancy bento treats (provided by nearby ryotei) while being entertained by geisha. Eight performances take place over four days, with two shows happening daily. The closest you'll get to the geisha is during intermission, when the performers are free to mingle, chat and snap selfies with the audience. If you're even the least interested in the traditional arts, you owe it to yourself to see this one.

Tickets are available from March 31 through E-Tix. Check the official website for more details.

The iconic Tsukiji Hongwanji temple is hosting a one-day music and food fiesta organised by local volunteers. Pair delicious festival grub with smooth jazz this spring as over 15 stalls highlighting Tsukiji’s culinary traditions will set up shop next to an outdoor jazz stage. Seven groups of artists will be strutting their stuff, including the Tokyo x Seoul Band, drummer Shun Ishiwaka's Answer to Remember and Lisa Ono and Masaki Hayashi duo. Be sure to check the event Instagram for more details.

While the event is free to enter, reservations are required. Tickets are available now via Ticketpia.

Tokyo is indisputably home to some of the world’s most breathtaking architecture, from iconic buildings that define past eras to boundary-pushing creations by today’s starchitects. The third annual Tokyo Architecture Festival, held over a week in May, offers an opportunity to glimpse architectural wonders usually hidden from view and get the lowdown on many other key structures. Seventy buildings will be specially opened to the public (free entry, no reservation required), while experts in the field will lead participants on some 120 guided architectural tours.

Buildings accessible to the public include the Kyu Iwasaki-tei House in Yushima, built in 1896 for the son of the founder of the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi and designed by British architect Josiah Conder. Across the pond in Ueno, Tokyo University of the Arts Red Brick Building No. 1, believed to be the oldest surviving brick building in Tokyo, will open its second floor to visitors, revealing the original roof trusses and scars left by past earthquakes.

The festival’s guided tours explore an assortment of architecturally rich districts, with an emphasis on the urban. Areas covered include Marunouchi, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Roppongi and Ginza, with one of the must-see tours being Mon Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives, which opened in March 2026 as part of Takanawa Gateway City. The tour offers a look inside the new cultural hub designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates, including its vast 100-tatami room, showcasing an experimental space that blends traditional Japanese spatial design with future-facing creative programmes.

Immerse in an interactive show of lights, sounds and projections at Kyu Shiba Rikyu Gardens. Returning for the eighth time this May, Kyu-Shiba Rikyu Gardens is hosting a special night visit for four days from May 20 to May 23. Themed around the concept of rediscovering historical settings with cutting-edge technologies, expect areas of the garden to be illuminated in stunning projection mappings. 

The wisteria trellis installation welcomes visitors with soft lighting and drifting visuals that evoke the gentle movement of hanging blossoms, setting a dreamlike tone for the night garden. Meanwhile, the snow-viewing lantern zone, draws on the garden’s history as a former tidal landscape, layering shimmering light effects to recall the presence of water once connected to the sea.

The main highlight is the ‘A Moment Full of Memories’ show, in which the entire garden is illuminated in synchrony. Lights scattered throughout the grounds gradually respond to one another, building into a unified display that brings its historical narrative to life. This special light-up show takes place every 20 minutes from 7pm, with the final presentation beginning at 9pm.

Tickets are ¥1,000 (free for four-year-olds and younger kids) and they are now available via the Line app. Note that a Line app account is necessary to buy a ticket.

From now until June 14, you can catch hydrangeas blooming in one of Tokyo’s most picturesque Japanese gardens. Rikugien is currently celebrating the onset of summer with approximately 1,000 hydrangeas of 15 varieties. 

The highlight of the event is arguably the mountain hydrangeas, an elegant variant of the species that has bloomed on the Japanese archipelago since ancient times. These flowers may not have the conventional appearance of a common hydrangea, but they are still beautiful in their own right while being of modest colour and size. At the garden you’ll also find the vibrant pink Satsuki azaleas, which are also native to the mountains of Japan.

Entrance to Rikugien costs ¥300 (free for primary students and younger). Posters explaining the different varieties of hydrangea will have both Japanese and English text.

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 31 to feast on Taiwanese food throughout the day. Several stalls are offering popular Taiwanese festival cuisine such as lu rou fan (braised pork over rice), sheng jian bao (pan-fried soup dumplings) 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 and Tainan-style vibrant lanterns to give it a Taiwanese night market feel.

Touted as Tokyo’s highest beer garden, Mount Takao Beer Garden sits 488m above sea level beside the cable car station, with views stretching across Tokyo and even to Yokohama on clear nights. It’s a popular post-hike stop, offering an all-you-can-eat buffet of Japanese, Chinese and Western dishes, plus 90 minutes of free-flowing beer, wine and cocktails.

To say that this place gets crowded at weekends would be an understatement. The spring edition runs from mid-March to late May, with a chance of extending into summer. One thing to note: the last cable car departs at 6pm (6.30pm on weekends).

Shinjuku welcomes a brand new Korean pub-style beer garden, located on the rooftop of the Lumine Est shopping complex in the heart of the city. You can choose from four meal plans: the Pocha course (¥3,500), which includes yangnyeom chicken and bulgogi kimbap; the Korean Chicken BBQ course (from ¥4,000), offering chicken marinated in sweet and spicy miso sauce as well as salted green onion sauce; the samgyeopsal and beef galbi course (¥5,000), featuring makgeolli-aged samgyeopsal and seafood pancake; and the premium BBQ course (from ¥6,000), which builds on the samgyeopsal set with the addition of wagyu steak. All four courses come with a two-hour all-you-can-drink plan, with the options including fruit-flavoured soju, makgeolli, highballs, and both Korean and Japanese beers, along with unlimited banchan (Korean mini side dishes), French fries and curry.

Popular German craft beer brand Schmatz takes over the Lumine Ikebukuro rooftop with its annual beer garden serving modern German cuisine. The premium all-you-can drink plan features three original craft beers, plus a range of beer cocktails including shandy gaff, cassis beer, mango beer and even a peach weizen. Additionally, there are regular cocktails, highballs, wines and soft drinks to choose from as well. 

The standard barbecue plan with the premium 2-hour all-you-can-drink option will set you back ¥6,500, and includes spare ribs, beef shoulder loin, specialty sausages, chicken, corn and an array of veggies to grill. If you're looking to save, the standard all-you-can-drink lager beer plan at ¥6,000 is worth considering too.

Make a reservation via the official website.

The wildly popular Mundo Pixar Experience, also known as the Pixar World Exhibition, has finally made its way to Tokyo. The exhibition recreates Pixar Animation Studios’ most popular worlds, including classics like Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Inside Out, Coco and Finding Nemo, turning them into an immersive experience where you can literally walk into these animated movies.

The experience also lets you meet more than 24 life-sized characters from the animations such as Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan from Monsters, Inc., Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, Joy and Sadness from Inside Out, as well as Carl Fredricksen and Russell from Up.

Before you leave, you’ll also want to stop by the expansive souvenir zone, where you can stock up on plushies of your favourite characters, as well as other items like clothing and collectible figurines.

The exhibition runs at Crevia Base in Toyosu until May 31. Exhibition hours are set from 10am to 8.50pm, with extended hours on select dates (closed on Mondays).

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, visit here.

This expansive exhibition is the largest in the Doraemon franchise’s 56-year history, bringing together manga panels, animation, sculptures, limited-edition merch and a themed food menu all starring the world’s favourite blue robot cat and his friends. It launched in Hong Kong in July 2024, attracting over five million visitors during its month-long run. Since then, it has continued to captivate fans across Asia, making its way through several cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Bangkok, and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

The exhibition space contains over 100 distinct Doraemon figures, each with its own expression and costume. In addition to showcasing the content from the previous cities, the Tokyo exhibition also features Japan-exclusive works. Here you can see Doraemon transformed into a shiba inu, a sumo wrestler and a few other forms inspired by Japanese culture, as well as view two original animations not seen elsewhere.

‘100% Doraemon & Friends’ runs until September 30 and is open from 10am to 6pm daily (last entry 5.30pm). Tickets start from ¥2,400 for adults, ¥1,800 for primary and secondary school students and ¥1,600 for children four years old and below – purchase yours here. As an added bonus, upon arrival exhibition visitors receive one of nine Doraemon-themed acrylic pins and one of four promotional cards (both chosen at random).

Step into a world of vibrant chrysanthemums this spring at this free collaborative exhibition between teamLab and Galaxy. Now in its fifth year, the interactive, immersive space at Galaxy Harajuku uses cutting-edge projection mapping to depict flowers caught in an endless cycle of birth and death. Reach out to touch them and they’ll wither; stand still beside them and they’ll bloom more quickly.

Look down and you’ll see flowing currents of gold beneath your feet – traces shaped by your very presence. The movements of others create their own currents, which intertwine and form swirling vortices. The result is a constantly shifting environment where no two moments are ever the same. The Galaxy store also invites visitors to capture these fleeting scenes using the foldable smartphones available at the venue.

Internationally recognised photographer and film director Mika Ninagawa is hosting a solo exhibition at the homey and intimate DDDArt art gallery in Shimokitazawa this spring. Much smaller in scale than the likes of her recent projects in Kyoto, at Expo 2025 and Tokyo Node, the exhibition takes a step back to revisit Ninagawa’s body of work, from her early career to her latest creations.

Coinciding with the launch of her latest photo book with the same name, the exhibition brings the artist’s worldview to life in a physical space. As if the vibrant pages of the book were superimposed onto reality, the tatami-floored kominka folk house is reborn with shimmering crystal strands, red and pink paint splatters and super-saturated photo prints.

Running until May 31, the exhibit is only a short stroll away from Shimokitazawa, where Ninagawa herself spent over a decade in her formative years. Why not take a detour towards Sangenjaya for a creative journey on your next visit to the area?

Brace yourselves – things are about to get intensely kawaii. From April 9 to June 21, the Mori Arts Center Gallery in Roppongi hosts the final and most expansive edition of a pink-hued exhibition that has toured Japan since 2021. Marking more than 60 years since the founding of cute character empire Sanrio, the show returns to Tokyo in an enriched version that looks back not only at the company’s history, but also at the birth and global rise of kawaii as a cultural language.

Before Hello Kitty’s debut in 1974 (!), Sanrio was already exploring new forms of visual softness, warmth and emotional connection. The exhibition traces this formative period, revealing how kawaii emerged as a distinct value through early designs, products and ideas. Subsequent sections delve into the creation of the company’s multifarious characters, the enduring appeal of Kitty-chan and Sanrio’s unique philosophy of growing characters together with their fans. Central to this story is Ichigo Shinbun, the fan mag that fostered a participatory culture long before the age of social media.

The exhibition culminates in a spectacular gathering of characters: over 200 appear on display, the largest number in Sanrio exhibition history, alongside a vast array of nostalgic merchandise. More than a celebration of cuteness, ‘The Beginning of Kawaii’ offers a thoughtful portrait of how Sanrio shaped, and continues to shape, a global cultural phenomenon.

When at the exhibition, be sure to also check out the collab café right next to the museum.

Ueno’s University Art Museum plays host to this landmark celebration of one of Japan’s most enduring art-focused TV programmes. Since its debut in 1976, NHK Sunday Museum (Nichiyo Bijutsukan) has aired more than 2,500 episodes, introducing audiences to masterpieces from across eras and cultures while elevating the voices of cast members, thinkers and performers who reflect on the meaning of beauty. The exhibition, on view from March 28 to June 21, revisits this half-century history through roughly 120 works presented across five thematic chapters.

Visitors will encounter iconic pieces that shaped the programme’s narrative, from prehistoric Jomon pottery and Edo-period (1603–1868) screens to Paul Cézanne’s Bathers, Alberto Giacometti’s Yanaihara I, Taro Okamoto’s Encounter and the haunting visions of Tetsuya Ishida. Archival footage and carefully selected quotes from past broadcasts, including reflections by literary giants, dancers and contemporary creators, illuminate how the show has continued to discover beauty across generations. High-definition projections, including a life-size rendering of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, further expand the experience.

Touching on themes such as rediscovered Japanese aesthetics, the evolution of craft, the relationship between art and disaster and the intimate space of the artist’s studio, the exhibition offers a sweeping meditation on creativity. This anniversary celebration stands as a vivid tribute to a programme that has long served as a bridge between the public and beauty.

Having spent over four decades redefining the relationship between art, technology and desire, Hajime Sorayama is one of Japan’s most celebrated contemporary artists. Noted for his iconic Sexy Robot series and his pioneering fusion of human sensuality and mechanical precision, Sorayama’s work has influenced generations of creators across art, design and popular culture – from RoboCop to Dior. His visionary approach, uniting the sensual with the synthetic, has earned him international acclaim and a lasting place in the subcultural art canon.

Opening this spring at the Creative Museum Tokyo, ‘Sorayama: Light, Reflection, Transparency -Tokyo-’ marks the artist’s largest retrospective in Japan to date, following its acclaimed debut in Shanghai. The exhibition traces Sorayama’s artistic evolution from his first robot painting in 1978 to his latest digital and sculptural works. Visitors will encounter highlights such as the original Aibo robot design for Sony, the artwork for Aerosmith’s Just Push Play album, and an immersive installation that embodies Sorayama’s lifelong pursuit of capturing light, air and reflections.

By blending futuristic imagination with classical mastery, Sorayama invites viewers to contemplate a world where human emotion and machine form merge in radiant harmony.

From April 7 to July 26, the National Film Archive of Japan explores the creative intersection between cinema and graphic design with ‘The Art of Film Posters in Japan: Revisited’. While film posters in Japan were traditionally produced anonymously under the control of studios and distributors, many stand out today as striking works of graphic art in their own right.

Revisiting a landmark exhibition first held in 2012, the show incorporates newly acquired works and brings together more than 90 posters produced mainly between the 1960s and the 1980s, a period of profound innovation in Japanese visual culture.

The exhibition traces the evolution of the medium across four thematic sections. Early post-war posters, often painted in a dramatic illustrative style, reveal how artists sought to capture the emotional essence of films. By the 1960s, a new generation of designers, including Kiyoshi Awazu, Tadanori Yokoo and Makoto Wada, began to challenge conventional promotional aesthetics with bold experimentation. A decisive turning point came with the emergence of the Art Theatre Guild in the 1960s, which encouraged collaborations between filmmakers and avant-garde designers.

Through these vivid and sometimes surprising images, the exhibition reveals another face of Japanese cinema – one that flourished beyond the screen, transforming the humble ad poster into an expressive and enduring art form.

The National Museum of Western Art’s ‘Artists by Artists in Western Prints’ explores how artists have portrayed themselves (and one another) through the medium of printmaking from the Renaissance to the modern era.

Featuring nearly 50 works drawn primarily from the museum’s collection, the exhibition traces the historical evolution of the artist’s image in Western art. During the Middle Ages, creators were largely regarded as anonymous craftsmen, and their likenesses rarely appeared in the works they produced. From the 16th century onward, however, artists began to assert a new identity, aligning artistic creation with intellectual inquiry and positioning themselves as practitioners of the liberal arts. As their social status rose, so too did interest in the individual artist, giving rise to the flourishing tradition of the self-portrait.

The exhibition includes prints by major figures such as Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco Goya and Pablo Picasso. Alongside self-portraits, you’ll encounter images of artists at work and idealised representations of the creative figure.

Together, these diverse images offer a compelling reflection on how the notion of the artist has evolved, from skilled artisan to solitary, introspective creator, while inviting viewers to reconsider the enduring relationship between identity, creativity and self-expression.