The best things to do in Tokyo this weekend

Pizza Slice is teaming up with Adicurry for a two-day ‘Curry Pizza’ pop-up at Pizza Slice Cat Street on March 7 and 8. Following a sold-out run in Seoul, the cult collaboration lands in Japan for the first time, serving up bold Nepalese spices alongside New York-style slices, plus a limited-edition T-shirt drop. A reception party with live DJ spins will be held on Friday March 6 from 6pm to 10.30pm.

Get bready for a carb-loaded weekend at Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, where bakeries from all around the country are gathering for one of Japan’s biggest bread festivals. This year's event marks its 10th anniversary, boasting a larger-than-ever line-up of over 80 pop-up shops, serving everything from buttery canelés and custard buns to curry-filled doughnuts and katsu sandwiches.

Many of the highlighted shops are newcomers that haven’t been featured at previous Pan no Fests, so those who were at last year's event will have an even bigger menu to look forward to this round. The general festival area is free to enter, but some sections will require an admission charge (prices announced for 2026) if you arrive during the first admission phase between 11am and 1.30pm. There's no admission fee for the second half of the event from 2pm to 5pm, but bear in mind some of the more popular stalls may be sold out of items by the late afternoon.

In theory, there's a limit to how many pretzels and bagels you can eat in one sitting, but the great thing about baked goodies is that you can easily snag some to go and munch on them later in the week, whether it's for breakfast, lunch or just a mid-day snack.

A popular place for plum blossom fans since olden times, Yushima Tenmangu shrine still draws crowds every year. The plum blossoms might get less hype than the cherry blossoms that follow, but they still make for some gorgeous late-winter scenery.

This year marks the 69th run of the Yushima Tenjin Ume Matsuri. The annual festival is one of Tokyo's most popular late-winter events, and it takes place for a month from February 8 until March 8. The shinto shrine is home to about 300 plum trees, and most of them are around 80 years old. Approximately 80 percent of them produce white plum blossoms. 

On weekends and holidays – February 8, 11, 14-15, 21-23, 28, March 1, 7 – you can look forward to events such as live Kagura (ceremonial silent theatre),  Nihon-buyo (traditional Japanese dance) and taiko drumming as well as flamenco and belly dancing performances.

You’ll also find several stalls selling souvenirs from Bunkyo ward as well as local products from Ibaraki (February 8), Ishikawa (February 8, 14), Aomori (Feb 14-15), Kumamoto (February 21-23), Hyogo/Shimane (February 28-March 1) and Fukushima (March 7-8).

The New York Comedy Festival is where the best of the best comedians of NYC gather each year – an event where legends are celebrated and next-generation stars are discovered. Two winners of the festival’s ‘Comic to Watch’ award will be sharing the stage at this special showcase at Tokyo Comedy Bar: Tokyo’s own Yurié Collins was granted the prestigious prize just a few months ago, while Olivia Hill was the NYCF Comic to Watch in 2024. Together, they can be counted on for a show brimming with painfully hilarious jokes and world-class stage presence.

Tokyo Tower is collaborating with digital art collective Naked Inc for a stunning projection mapping display this spring. This event takes place on the main deck's second floor and features projections of animals like deers, rabbits and giraffes walking among a forest covered in spring wildflowers and cherry blossom trees in vibrant pink. You can also see a Sakura Candle Monument produced by Japanese artist Candle June, which will be lit up in front of the main deck windows.

It starts at 6pm from February 28 to March 22, 6.30pm from March 23 to April 26 and 6.45pm from April 27 to May 6. Tickets cost ¥1,500 (¥1,200 for high school students, ¥900 for children, ¥600 for younger children) and can be purchased online or at the venue.

Here’s your chance to welcome the sakura season before the blossoms even come out this spring – at one of Tokyo’s tallest observatories to boot. Tokyo Skytree’s lower observation decks (at 340 and 350 metres above ground level) are getting a full cherry blossom makeover from February 26 to April 14, with plenty of photo spots and opportunities to take in the city’s breathtaking views framed by sakura.

As dusk falls, the flower decorations on floor 350 are accompanied by a majestic projection-mapping show using the observatory windows as a canvas. Each screening lasts three minutes and takes place at 7pm, 7.45pm and 8.30pm (7.10pm, 7.50pm and 8.35pm Mar 1-8; 7pm, 7.15pm, 7.50pm and 8.35pm Mar 9-31; and 7.30pm, 7.45pm, 8.20pm and 9pm from Apr 1 onwards).

If you’re looking for something to satiate your appetite, make a beeline to Skytree Cafe for their exclusive sweets and drinks menu. Along with alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks that are appropriately pink and sakura-flavoured, the café is offering plant-based vegan and gluten-free doughnuts. The matcha-coloured Sakura Mochi doughnut and sky-blue Sakura Sky Vanilla doughnut make a perfect pairing with the cherry-themed drinks. 

After your visit, don’t miss the special cherry blossom light-up which lights up the tower in vibrant pink and blue almost daily from February 26 to April 14.

Tickets can be purchased through the official website.

Shinjuku's Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo is bringing back its annual month-long Hinamatsuri (girl’s doll festival) event for February. By displaying beautifully dressed ceramic dolls resembling members of the ancient imperial court, families wish for their daughters’ health and happiness. The tradition of displaying these dolls at home, believed to date back to the Edo period (1603-1868), is on full display at the exhibit, which is set up along a stunning curtain wall of approximately 5,000 hand-sewn ornaments made from vintage kimono silk.

After marvelling at the graceful handmade dolls and silk ornaments, be sure to visit the folding screen (byobu) exhibition in the main lobby and 7th-floor restaurant corridor. Folding screens, which usually occupy the background in displays of Hina dolls, take centre stage here, featuring works by Kataoka Byobu, Tokyo’s only folding screen speciality store, as well as pieces by a selection of contemporary independent artists.

The month-long exhibition is accompanied by live koto performances (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11am and 3pm in the main lobby), a market selling custom-made handpainted tabletop byobu (February 3, 19, March 3, 17 and 31 at the main lobby; prices start from ¥10,000) a live byobu painting performance (March 10 at 3pm, South Wing 2nd-floor space), and a karakuri trick-art craft workshop (February 12 and March 12 at 2pm and 4pm, with an additional 11am session on March 12; ¥4,400 per participant, first come, first served; main lobby).

If you’re looking for the most OTT illumination in Tokyo, this is it. Yomiuri Land's annual winter light show will bedazzle even the most jaded illumination-fiend. As the name suggests, jewels are the focus here: literally millions of colourful LEDs are set up throughout the vast theme park evoking sparkling gems. The park is split into ten areas where you will be treated to beautifully lit attractions. 

In addition to the 180-metre rainbow-lit Jewellery Promenade and the 140-metre Crystal Passage illumination tunnel, you can also admire the newly built 'Sky-Go-Land' Ferris wheel, which features a special two-sided light display — a dazzling diamond pattern on the east side and elegant gold on the west. The highlight, however, is the fountain show, with water illuminated in different colours and sprayed into the air to create stunning shapes. There are three kinds of show happening every 15 minutes from 5pm daily. Also look out for the fountain’s flames and lasers, which are synchronised to music.

 There will be no illuminations from March 2 to March 13, 2026.

Sagamiko Resort Mori Mori has gone all out for its winter illuminations, featuring over six million dazzling LEDs. This year, there's an entire area dedicated to Tamagotchi – Japan's beloved digital pets from outer space. Expect to see Mametchi, along with his sidekick Kuchipatchi and other pocketable pets such as Memechi.

You can hop on the park’s Mametchi and Kuchipatchi themed Rainbow Chairlift and sail over colourful stripes before reaching the top of a hill, where you'll find a series of illumination art walls showcasing the whole Tamagotchi family. Keep wandering and you might stumble upon a mysterious UFO beaming with colour – maybe a hint at where these pocketable pets really came from. To wrap up the night, take in the dazzling lights and sweeping mountaintop views from the Ferris wheel or hop on the Tamagotchi Starry Sky Pedal for stunning panoramas and a light leg workout.

While you’re there, indulge in Tamagotchi-themed meals and snacks. Enjoy a hearty Tamagotchi Poka Poka Star Ramen or the voluminous Mametchi's Omurice Curry Doria Plate. Prefer something sweet? Then check out Furawatchi's flower crepe or the Memechi mango sundae.

Celebrating three decades of Ghost in the Shell, one of Japan’s most influential sci-fi franchises, this large-scale exhibition takes over Tokyo Node at Toranomon Hills from January 30 to April 5. The ambitious showcase traces the evolution of the series from Masamune Shirow’s ground-breaking 1989 manga to its acclaimed anime adaptations and, with a new 2026 series from Science Saru on the horizon, into the future.

Organised with the full cooperation of Production IG, the studio behind the franchise’s animation, the exhibition brings together works by directors Mamoru Oshii, Kenji Kamiyama, Kazuya Kise and Shinji Aramaki, offering visitors an unprecedented deep dive into the cyberpunk universe that redefined anime.

Over 600 production materials are on display, including original drawings, storyboards and concept art. You can also look forward to immersive installations and interactive exhibits that explore key philosophical themes from the series such as identity, consciousness and the boundaries between human and machine.

Further highlights include new contributions by international artists, exclusive interview footage, and the ‘DIG-ru’ installation, which invites visitors to ‘digitally excavate’ the world of Ghost in the Shell. And of course, you get to shop for plenty of only-here merchandise at the gift shop.

Visionary Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) transformed the landscape of modern architecture through his organic forms, bold innovations and deep reverence for nature. His iconic works, including Park Güell, Casa Batlló, Casa Milà and, above all, the Sagrada Família, remain enduring testaments to his genius, blending mathematics and faith into living architecture. Today, seven of his masterpieces are recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s passing and the completion of the Sagrada Família’s main tower, ‘Naked meets Gaudí’ at Warehouse Terrada offers a groundbreaking fusion of art, technology and scholarship. In official collaboration with the Gaudí Foundation, the immersive exhibition unveils Gaudí’s personal notebooks, letters, architectural tools and original blueprints, many on display for the first time worldwide.

Through cutting-edge projection, participatory installations and interactive experiences, visitors are invited to step inside Gaudí’s creative universe; to touch, feel and co-create the harmony of nature and architecture that defined his vision. Bridging a century of imagination, the exhibition celebrates Gaudí as an architect of stone, but also as a designer of dreams, whose spirit continues to shape the future of art and design.

This winter, the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo presents a landmark exhibition tracing the evolution of Japan’s landscape printmaking from the twilight of the Edo period (mid-1800s) to the dawn of modernity.

At the heart of the survey stands Kiyochika Kobayashi (1847–1915), often called ‘the last ukiyo-e artist’. Published from 1876, his Tokyo Famous Places series transformed the traditional woodblock print aesthetic by infusing it with Western notions of light and shadow. Through his ‘light ray paintings’, Kiyochika, as he was known, captured the melancholic beauty of a city in transition, the lingering spirit of Edo illuminated by the glow of modernisation.

His vision, steeped in nostalgia yet alive with innovation, profoundly influenced the shin-hanga (‘new prints’) movement that emerged in the early 20th century under artists such as Hiroshi Yoshida and Hasui Kawase. These successors revived ukiyo-e craftsmanship while reimagining Japan’s landscapes for a new era.

Drawn from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, ‘From Kiyochika to Hasui’ reunites these masterpieces with their homeland, illuminating how light, both literal and emotional, guided Japan’s printmaking into the modern age.

Donald Judd was one of the most decisive figures of twentieth-century art; an artist whose rigorous thinking reshaped the conditions under which art is made and experienced. Emerging from painting in the early 1960s, Judd developed three-dimensional works that rejected illusion and hierarchy, insisting instead on clarity, material presence and spatial integrity.

Beyond form, he was equally concerned with context: how, where and for how long a work should exist. His writings, architectural projects and advocacy for permanent installations reveal an artist for whom art could never be separated from its environment.

The Watari-Um’s ‘Judd | Marfa’ traces its protagonist’s radical vision through the lens of his life and work in Marfa, Texas. After leaving New York in the 1970s, Judd transformed former military and industrial buildings in the remote desert town into sites for the permanent installation of his own work and that of artists including Dan Flavin and John Chamberlain. These spaces, later formalised through the Chinati Foundation, remain preserved as Judd intended.

The exhibition brings together early paintings from the 1950s, key three-dimensional works from the 1960s to the 1990s, and extensive archival materials (drawings, plans, videos and documents) that illuminate Judd’s conception of Marfa as a total environment for art, architecture and living.

A special section revisits The Sculpture of Donald Judd (1978), organised by museum founder Shizuko Watari, underscoring the museum’s long-standing engagement with Judd’s legacy. Together, these materials articulate Judd’s enduring conviction that the installation of art is inseparable from its meaning.

Shigeru Onishi (1928–1994) occupies a singular position in postwar Japanese art. Born in Okayama prefecture and trained as a mathematician, he pursued advanced research in topology at Hokkaido University while developing an intensely personal artistic practice. Moving freely between mathematics, photography and painting, Onishi sought visual forms capable of expressing abstract concepts such as ‘superinfinity’. Largely indifferent to fame or artistic movements, he devoted his life to what he described as ‘seeking the way’, producing a body of work that would only be fully recognised decades later.

The Tokyo Station Gallery’s ‘Onishi Shigeru: Photography and Painting’ is the first major retrospective of the artist ever held in Japan. Bringing together carefully selected works from the more than 1,000 photographs and paintings Onishi produced, the exhibition reveals the full scope of a practice that defies categorisation.

Onishi’s experimental photographs, created through multiple exposures, solarisation and chemically altered development, stood apart from the realist and journalistic norms of their time, aligning instead with the rise of subjectivist photography in Europe and Japan.

Equally striking are his ink paintings from the 1950s, whose turbulent, wave-like lines embody the spirit of Art Informel while asserting a powerful individuality. Supplemented by manuscripts and materials from his mathematical research, the exhibition offers a remarkable portrait of an artist who fused rigorous intellect with overwhelming visual force.

Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) is counted among the most influential figures in postwar American art. Emerging in the 1960s amid the rise of minimalism and conceptual art, LeWitt replaced the emotional expressionism of earlier generations with a rigorous focus on systems, structures and ideas. His works, from modular ‘structures’ based on cubes to his celebrated Wall Drawings, transformed how art could be made, perceived and even authored. As he famously wrote in his 1967 essay Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, ‘The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.’

‘Open Structure’ is the first major public museum survey of the artist’s work in Japan. Spanning wall drawings, sculptures, works on paper and artist’s books, the exhibition traces LeWitt’s lifelong pursuit of an art of pure thought and open form. Six wall drawings, realised by local teams following LeWitt’s own detailed instructions, invite viewers to experience his radical redefinition of authorship and collaboration.

Highlighting LeWitt’s ‘open structures’, the exhibition reveals how his skeletal cubic forms, stripped of surface and solidity, expose the underlying architecture of thought. The artist’s enduring influence lies in his conviction that ‘ideas cannot be owned; they belong to whoever understands them’.

Roe Ethridge is one of the most influential photographers of his generation, celebrated for a practice that fluidly moves between fine art and commercial imagery. Born in Miami in 1969 and based in New York, Ethridge has developed a distinctive visual language by repurposing techniques from fashion and advertising photography into the realm of contemporary art. His photographs, often still lifes or seemingly mundane subjects, create subtle tensions between reality and fiction, familiarity and estrangement. Collected by major institutions including MoMA, Tate Modern and the Guggenheim, his work consistently reveals how images construct meaning in both personal and cultural contexts.

‘Chanel History Collection by Roe Ethridge’ is an exhibition unveiling a body of work commissioned for Chanel Arts & Culture Magazine, launched in 2025. For this project, Ethridge was granted rare access to the House of Chanel’s Patrimoine archives and to Gabrielle Chanel’s preserved apartment at 31 rue Cambon in Paris. There he photographed objects that shaped Chanel’s artistic universe: a sculpted bust by Jacques Lipchitz, manuscripts by Pierre Reverdy, works linked to Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso, and even an ancient Egyptian funerary mask.

Reimagined through Ethridge’s lens and combined with contemporary props in his Paris studio, these images breathe new life into Chanel’s legacy as a visionary designer and patron of the avant-garde. The exhibition encourages dialogue between past and present, extending Chanel’s century-long commitment to artistic creation through the eyes of a photographer who thrives on reinvention.

Emerging in the wake of the Margaret Thatcher era, the Young British Artists (YBAs) and their contemporaries embraced shock, irreverence and entrepreneurial flair. While the YBA label (applied after the landmark 1988 ‘Freeze’ exhibition organised by Damien Hirst) was often contested, it came to define a generation that reimagined what art could be. Painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation all became tools for probing themes of identity, consumer culture and shifting social structures. 

The National Art Center’s ‘YBA & Beyond: British Art in the 90s from the Tate Collection’ is the first exhibition in Japan devoted exclusively to British art of the 1990s. Featuring around 100 works by some 60 artists, the show captures a turbulent and transformative period in British culture, when politics, society and art collided to spark a wave of radical experimentation.

Highlights include works by Hirst, Tracey Emin, Steve McQueen, Lubaina Himid, Wolfgang Tillmans and Julian Opie, alongside others who reshaped contemporary art on a global stage. More than a retrospective, ‘YBA & Beyond’ offers a vivid portrait of 1990s Britain, an era when art intersected with music, fashion and subculture, leaving a legacy that continues to resonate today.

Johnny Depp may be best known for his eccentric on-screen roles, but long before fame, he was quietly building a collection of artworks. Now, more than 100 of his paintings and drawings – spanning from his early twenties to the present – are on view at ‘A Bunch of Stuff – Tokyo’, held at +Base 0 inside Newoman Takanawa South. 

The exhibition features five themed spaces, beginning with bold calligraphed quotes that hint at Depp’s mindset. Visitors are then led into a bohemian studio-style room filled with the actor’s personal objects and art supplies brought directly from his workspace. 

Other highlights from the exhibition include Depp’s signature ‘Death by Confetti’ series, where celebratory motifs meet skeletons to reflect the pressure of fame, as well as a video work making its Japan debut inside the immersive ‘Black Box’. Projected across a curved screen, Depp’s paintings come to life as he narrates his reflections on art, identity and the highs and lows of his long career.