The best things to do in Tokyo this weekend

Get ready to participate in one of the last Bon Odori festivals this summer. Miyashita Park’s very own Bon Odori will take over its rooftop on September 26 and 27. Expect to see folks dancing to the beat of traditional taiko drums as well as contemporary DJ mixes of J-pop and city pop. Everyone is welcome at this communal dance soiree, which will take place around a yagura stage adorned by Japanese lanterns.

Stores and restaurants surrounding Miyashita Park will be setting up stalls at the festival’s outdoor market.

Details have yet to be announced for 2026. Follow the organiser’s Instagram for updates.

Celebrated since 1968, this two-day festival takes place in Ikebukuro, with dozens of mikoshi (portable shrines) being paraded on the streets in front of Ikebukuro Station's west exit from 5.45pm to 7.30pm on September 27. Sunday's festivities also include a taiko drumming performance (4.20pm), lion dance and ohayashi festival music performance (5pm), plus a selection of dance performances from 11.30am to 3pm at the nearby open-air Global Ring Theatre.

Expect to see a similarly packed itinerary on Saturday September 26, with performances such as a Soprano singer and choir performance (2.50pm), Hawaiian hula (4.10pm), Cheerleading demonstrations (4.45pm) and belly dance (6.10pm) kicking off the festivities at Ikebukuro's Global Ring Theatre.

Northern Tokyo’s hanabi kicks off the autumn season with around 10,000 fireworks on Saturday September 26. The 70-minute display takes place behind the old Iwabuchi Watergate, creating a striking backdrop as colourful explosions light up the sky above the dam’s vivid red structure.

This year, KKday is offering English-friendly seat reservations for tourists (and foreign nationals living in Tokyo), which get you designated chair seats up close to the fireworks near Iwabuchi Bridge. 

If these seats sell out, check the general ticketing page on Ticket Pia. Tickets for paid seats on both the Akabane and Kawaguchi sides of the river are still available from ¥8,800 per person. Free viewing areas are located farther away at a baseball field accessible from Kita-Akabane Station, but expect crowds.

The fireworks festival may be cancelled due to inclement weather, though it will go ahead in light rain. Please check the festival’s official X account for the latest updates before you visit.

This September, Shimokitazawa welcomes the return of its annual lunar art festival that will coincide with the upcoming autumn moon. Back for its fifth edition, Moon Art Night Shimokita will span several venues in the neighbourhood, including the open plaza in front of the station, Shimokita Senrogai Open Space near Shimokitazawa police box, the rooftop of Higashi-Kitazawa Station, and the Bonus Track complex.

Exhibits include an outdoor moon installation by UK artist Luke Jerram, whose giant floating model features striking details of the moon’s surface as captured by Nasa. This particular installation – titled ‘Museum of the Moon’ – is set to be on show every day at the vacant lot of the Shimokita Senrogai complex. 

The festival is also hosting Tokyo-based contemporary artist Shoei Matsuda, whose giant eight-metre-tall inflatable recreates the iconic 'tears of joy' emoji at the Bonus Track complex. Inspired by the evolution of emoji from a feature of Japanese mobile phone culture into a universal visual language, the interactive installation explores the relationship between the digital and physical worlds. Visitors can also use an AR filter to transform their own faces into the 'tears of joy' emoji and share the results on Instagram, blurring the boundaries between online expression and real-world experience.

Moreover, Japanese sculptor and artist Teppei Kaneuji is participating with an interactive installation titled ‘A Thousand Faces of the Moon’ at the paid Higashi-Kitazawa Station rooftop venue. Inspired by the idea that while there is only one moon, its appearance and meaning can vary depending on where you are and your own perspective, the work invites visitors to throw, roll and photograph a collection of moon-shaped sculptures. Kaneuji will also host a silkscreen printing workshop, where participants can create and take home their own moon-themed artwork.

Aside from the art exhibitions, the festival will feature several immersive theatre performances, live music, video installations and pop-ups. Several shops around Shimokitazawa Station will also offer full moon-inspired food and beverages and limited-edition products during the festival.

Tickets to access paid venues and performances are on sale via the official website.

Celebrated Japanese sound giant Audio-Technica is bringing back its annual market – a celebration of all things analogue, from records and turntables to handmade crafts and vintage goods. First launched in 2022 to mark the company’s 60th anniversary, the market returns this autumn on a much larger scale, taking over SKAC (Skwat Kameari Art Centre) for a month from September 2 to October 4.

Focused on the act of listening, the event’s main highlights include a listening area inside the VDS record store, which also happens to be the market’s co-organiser. At this listening station, you can try out some of Audio-Technica’s finest products, including high-end wooden headphones, turntables and more.

Meanwhile, at the Skwat Hertz Orchestra Archive, you can listen to and compare seven original recordings made at SKAC. Audio recorded from street pianos placed around the venue, along with ambient sounds – think the rumbling of trains overhead and the occasional sneeze – is mixed together to create original pieces that you can only hear here. This theme of listening (after all, Audio-Technica’s motto is the ominous-sounding ‘Always Listening’) continues in the Listening Room, where you can enjoy music played through omnidirectional speakers.

On the weekends, the creative hub gets a makeover. On September 12 and 13, 24 record stores from across Japan will set up shop in the MM Storage room from 11am to 7pm. On the weekends of September 19-20, 26-27 and October 3-4, meanwhile, expect a flea market featuring artworks, handmade ceramics, vintage treasures, interior design pieces, fragrances, houseplants, wines and more.

Gear up for 11 days of LOL as the Tokyo International Comedy Festival returns with a programme featuring shows by a star-studded cast of comedians, plus international roast battles, stand-up contests, bilingual improv and much more. With shows in both English and Japanese, this comedy extravaganza is for everyone in Tokyo.

The festival takes place across venues including Tokyo Comedy Bar, Mame Romantic, Tokyo American Club and Baird Beer’s taproom in Nakameguro. You can look forward to a diverse line-up of comedians, with a focus on local talents such as Yurie Collins, Shota Saimu, BJ Fox and Pakkun (Patrick Harlan).

The annual moon-viewing event Kangetsukai at Yokohama Sankeien Garden is returning this September to coincide with the garden's Mid-Autumn Festival. This sprawling park is designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

Happening from September 25 to September 29, the event will feature free performances of traditional musical instruments such as satsuma biwa (September 25, 6.15pm-8pm), gagaku (Sep 26 6pm-8pm), koto (September 29, 6pm-8pm) and more at the newly renovated Rinshunkaku villa. 

Time your visit to coincide with the full moon on September 27 for the best views.

The event is free but you'll need a park admission ticket (¥900). For more details and schedules, check the event website.

The annual moon-viewing festival at Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine returns this September with captivating stage performances, beautiful light-ups and tasty local cuisine.

For four days, the Fukagawa Jugoya Festival will celebrate the harvest moon with a packed performance schedule featuring shamisen and biwa performances as well as Balinese gamelan, Argentinian tango and more.

Besides stage shows, you can also expect food stalls selling Fukagawa-meshi, a local rice dish cooked with clams and broth. Visit in the evening to savour this local dish at the beautifully lantern-illuminated shrine, as this makes for the perfect moon-viewing experience in Tokyo.

For the full schedule, check the event website.

While Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine is worth a visit just for its impressive architecture, the beautiful grounds are also home to a regular antique market that usually takes place on the first, second, fourth and fifth Sunday of every month. However, to make sure the market is on schedule, you can check the website for the exact dates each month.

As this is an antique market, the items here are a bit less junky than some of the other flea markets in town, with plenty of gorgeous Japanese tableware, folk artworks, antique kimono and more.

In case of rain, the event is cancelled.

Sound, visual art and site-specific elements blend together in innovative and challenging ways at Ambient Kyoto, a multisensory, immersive exhibition that now makes its first foray into Tokyo, landing at Azabudai Hills Gallery. The display centres on the installation ‘async – immersion’, envisioned by the much-missed Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani of Dumb Type and first presented in Kyoto in 2023.

Inspired by Sakamoto’s 2017 album async, ‘async – immersion’ features visuals by Takatani and spatial audio design by sound engineer ZAK, whose fingerprints are all over many of Sakamoto’s late-career projects. At Azabudai Hills, the work has been reconstructed exclusively for the venue, with the setup including a 26-metre-wide screen for displaying the video elements of the installation.

True to the title of the work, the aural and visual components are aligned but not fully synchronised; their constantly shifting relationship rewards attentive viewing and encourages visitors to approach the work on their own terms.

Enjoy a late-night stroll under an artificial Milky Way at Tokyo Tower’s main deck. As an alternative experience for astronomy enthusiasts, Tokyo Tower has recreated the Milky Way using 30,000 LED lights, so you can gaze up at the (artificial) stars in the middle of the city.

Every 15 minutes, the blue LED lights that represent the starry sky turn pink and gold, while the Milky Way changes from white to a rainbow of seven colours. This special effect makes the Tokyo skyline look even more mesmerising, as if our beloved city is under a magical starry night.

The light-up runs from 9am to 11pm.

Among the many Japanese incarnations (perhaps 'interpretations' would be more accurate) of Munich's world-famous beer festival, the Yokohama Oktoberfest has traditionally stuck closest to the schedule of its Teutonic forebear.

Yokohama Oktoberfest is Japan's largest beer festival, and you can expect over a dozen stalls offering both German and local brews. On top of the standard pints, some will be offering glasses of wine, highball and cocktails, too. Pair your drinks with platters of sausages and goulash, among other hearty meals. As always, a separate tent will be set up to host live performances and other forms of entertainment.

Entry costs ¥500 at the door, and starting this year, there is an extensive 'one coin menu' with each glass costing you only ¥500. Your first beer will include the cost of a beer glass, which you’ll need to use throughout the day. Once you’re ready to leave, you can return the beer glass to get your deposit back. 

One of Tokyo's three German beer fest spin-offs this autumn (including Shiba Park and Tachikawa), Munich Oktoberfest kicks off on September 18 at Urban Dock LaLaport Toyosu. This beer extravaganza at least manages to fall within a few weeks of the original German beer-fuelled festival it's copying, running from September 18 until October 12.

As with all the other Oktoberfests in town, you can enjoy pints of German beer served in glasses that can fill up to a litre, alongside bratwurst and sauerkraut. There will be oompah bands to sweeten the mood.

Entry is free and you can pay as you go. Do note that the event is mostly cashless; you can pay via credit card, PayPay, IC card, QuicPay, ID and other forms of electronic payment.

Inage Seaside Park in Chiba is hosting weekly DJ parties on its picturesque 90-metre-long pier that stretches out into Tokyo Bay, until September 27. Taking place on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 4pm to 8pm, the parties showcase artists spinning tunes from a variety of genres, including Balearic house, afrobeats, tech house, South African amapiano and more.

While the full 2026 line-up is unannounced, expect to see local favourites including Golden Roa, Mark Mila and Ahreum will also take to the decks, spinning everything from techno to R&B to keep the summer vibes alive.

Check the event website for the most up-to-date DJ line-up.

The National Stadium’s swanky next-door park is hosting a summer beer garden and outdoor cinema festival this month from July 17 to September 27. During the event, the park will be transformed into an open-air beer garden complete with tables, tents and plenty of seating. Hosted by Corona, the beer garden will serve favourites such as Corona Extra (¥750), alongside the brand’s non-alcoholic Corona Cero (¥600) and inventive Corona-infused cocktails. New for 2026 is the Corona Sunsets Truck, which will be serving drinks and appetisers designed to pair perfectly with Corona beer every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

While you’re there, don’t miss the free outdoor film screenings taking place on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. This weekend outdoor cinema event is one of Japan’s largest, with screenings running for over 70 days. While the cinema line-up for 2026 has yet to be announced, last year’s programme featured Academy Award-winning titles such as Green Book and Top Gun: Maverick, as well as family favourites including Paddington, School of Rock, The Minions and more. Note that most screenings are Japanese-dubbed versions of the films.

While entry to the festival is free, a special reservation is required to enter on August 8, when the nearby Jingu Stadium is hosting the Jingu Gaien Fireworks Festival. Capacity is limited to two thousand visitors, so reserve a slot via the official website before it's too late.

The elegant Marunouchi Hotel gets into the beer garden spirit every summer, but as you’d expect from this nearly century-old hotel, it’s a far more refined affair than the rooftop beer gardens found on department stores across the city.

The Standard Course (¥8,500) features a seasonal menu that changes throughout the summer. July and August showcase Spanish flavours, with dishes such as brocheta skewers, seafood ajillo, sea bream ceviche, Spanish omelette and paella. From September, the menu shifts to French cuisine, including comforting dishes like chicken confit with potato mousseline and mustard.

All courses include 120 minutes of free-flowing drinks from a selection of more than 60 options, including beer, wine, cocktails and sours. For an additional ¥1,500, you can upgrade to a heartier main dish, such as beef sirloin steak. Best of all, you’ll enjoy your meal on the hotel’s elegant eighth-floor terrace, decorated in blue and white tones with superb views of nearby Tokyo Station.

Closed on July 31 for a private event. Reserve in advance via Tablecheck.

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.

The force behind smash-hit titles including Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen, Japanese animation studio Mappa is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. To mark the milestone, the company is hosting its largest-ever exhibition from September 16, bringing together work from 23 titles at the newly opened Yurakucho Museum.

The exhibition features original drawings, large-scale sets and video projections that immerse visitors in the worlds of Mappa shows and films such as Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, Attack on Titan: Final Season, Jujutsu Kaisen and more.

At the Chainsaw Man exhibition area, you can feast your eyes on exclusive production materials, including drawings that follow the story of The Movie: Reze Arc, from Denji and Reze’s first encounter and the explosive battle between Chainsaw Man and Bomb to the conclusion of their story. Don’t miss the illuminated life-size figure of Bomb, which is being unveiled for the first time.

The Attack on Titan: Final Season zone features original drawings for key scenes, displays explaining the production process, and original hand-drawn watercolour artwork of the symbolic hill from the story’s ending.

The Jujutsu Kaisen area revisits some of the series’ most iconic battle scenes and memorable moments. Production materials are exhibited in the first half of this zone, including original drawings from Season 1 and Jujutsu Kaisen 0, while the second half features materials from Season 2, Hidden Inventory / Premature Death, Shibuya Incident and Season 3, The Culling Game Part 1.

The exhibition will be held in two parts: the first from September 16 to October 25, and the second from October 28 to December 7. Some exhibits will be changed between the two parts, giving you a reason to plan multiple visits.

Tickets are available for specific dates and time slots. You can currently purchase tickets for the first half of the exhibition via Lawson Ticket, and place applications for advance lottery tickets for the second half (from Aug 22).

South Korean digital art and design firm D’strict is joining hands with Sanrio to bring a popular interactive exhibit to Japan for the first time after a successful run in Seoul last year. Utilising the latest digital media technologies, the hotel-themed exhibition in Shinjuku’s Tokyu Kabukicho Tower takes you on a photogenic and immersive journey through 11 themed areas in the imaginary hotel, with characters such as Hello Kitty, My Melody, Kuromi, Cinnamoroll and Pompompurin appearing in their own dreamy, fairytale-like rooms.

While the full details are still under wraps, expect to see a plentiful line-up of exclusive Sanrio merch, including Hotel Floria room key charms, hotel sticker sets and travel-themed accessories.

The exhibition space is located on the fourth floor. Tickets are now on sale via Eplus.

One of Tokyo’s premier contemporary art galleries, Nanzuka has opened its brand-new flagship space in Shibuya Axsh, marking the gallery’s return to Shibuya after a 20-year absence. The inaugural exhibition celebrates contemporary artist Keiichi Tanaami with his solo show ‘Do Not Bomb’. Spanning works from the 1960s to unreleased pieces made before the artist’s death in 2024, the exhibition explores Tanaami’s memories of war through around 60 works, including silkscreens, collages, paintings, animations, sculptures and videos.

The work closest to the entrance is ‘Do Not Bomb’, created while Tanaami was preparing for a large-scale solo exhibition in 2024. Made against the backdrop of ongoing wars around the world, the piece features a goldfish at its centre, flying towards the viewer like a cannonball.

The exhibition also features Tanaami’s ‘No More War’ series, which connects to ‘Do Not Bomb’. Created in 1967, the series was submitted to an anti-war poster contest hosted by American magazine Avant Garde in 1968, where it was selected as an outstanding work. Influenced by pop art, the silkscreen prints reflect Tanaami’s early interest in reaching a wider audience through reproduced imagery.

The exhibition runs until October 17. Check the gallery website for more details.

A master of immersive installations that merge video, sculpture, sound, light and language, Tony Oursler is one of the most influential multimedia artists of his generation. He’s been a pioneering figure in video projection and media-based art since the 1980s, probing the uneasy intersections between technology, psychology, belief systems and contemporary society. Drawing equally from pop culture, science, conspiracy theories, religion and the paranormal, Oursler’s work gives form to the invisible forces shaping modern life, be they data streams, surveillance or spirits, through a poetic blend of humour and unease.

‘Tony Oursler: Tech/Gnosis – Magic, Media, Art’ at Tokyo Node is the artist’s first large-scale solo exhibition in Japan, offering a comprehensive survey of Oursler’s practice from the early 1990s to the present. Key works such as Private (1994–1997), Specular (2021) and the psychologically charged installation Lock 2, 4, 6 (2010) are shown alongside previously unpublished projects and extensive archival materials drawn from Oursler’s personal collection of more than 3,000 items related to science, magic and unidentified phenomena.

A highlight is the world premiere of Empty (2000), a long-gestating collaboration with David Bowie and composer Glenn Branca, realised here for the first time. The exhibition also debuts Chimera (2026), a monumental, site-specific work conceived for Tokyo Node’s soaring 15-metre-high space, where mythical hybrid creatures appear to float above the city. In an age shaped by AI, surveillance and renewed spiritual curiosity, Oursler’s work resonates with striking urgency, challenging you to reflect on how belief, technology and imagination entwine.

A visionary who worked along the boundaries between art, design and everyday life, Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007) was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century Italian design. Rising to prominence in the 1950s through his groundbreaking work for the typewriter and computer manufacturer Olivetti, Sottsass redefined industrial design by infusing functional objects with emotion, symbolism and wit. His restless creative spirit culminated in the 1981 founding of the Memphis Group, an international collective whose bold colours, playful forms and radical aesthetics came to define post-modern design and reshape global visual culture.

‘Design begins where magic begins’ at the Artizon Museum is the first comprehensive retrospective of Sottsass’s work in Japan. Drawing from the Ishibashi Foundation’s extensive collection, the exhibition brings together 112 works spanning the entirety of its subject’s long and prolific career, from early experiments to later, more philosophical creations.

Through furniture, industrial design and conceptual works, the exhibition traces Sottsass’s lifelong challenge to strict rationalism and his belief that design should reflect the emotional and spiritual dimensions of human life. Humour, colour and sensuality emerge as tools with which he sought to illuminate the lived experiences, desires and contradictions of modern society. Offering a rare opportunity to encounter Sottsass’s work in depth, the exhibition reveals a visionary who insisted that true design begins with imagination and magic.

Minami Tada (1924–2014) was a quietly radical figure in post-war Japanese art whose practice unfolded across sculpture, relief, lighting and architectural space. Working at the intersection of art, design and emerging industrial technologies, Tada developed a distinctive visual language that embraced transparency, reflection and light – materials and phenomena closely tied to Japan’s rapid economic growth. As a pioneering female artist operating in a male-dominated field, her work anticipated many later conversations around spatial perception and the expanded field of sculpture.

From August 29 to December 6, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo presents the artist’s first solo exhibition in Tokyo in 35 years. This long-overdue retrospective traces the arc of Tada’s career, from early paintings to her most emblematic sculptural works, as well as large-scale pieces created for architectural settings. Drawing on industrial materials and contemporary technologies, her works explore how light interacts with form and space, producing effects that shift with the viewer’s movement.

The exhibition also includes archival materials that shed light on the artist’s process and intellectual context, situating her practice within broader developments in post-war Japanese art and design. At a moment when interest in overlooked modernist figures is growing both in Japan and internationally, ‘Still, shimmering light’ offers a timely reassessment of an artist whose work feels strikingly current. Elegant, experimental and forward-looking, the exhibition reintroduces Tada as a vital voice in the history of contemporary art.