Things to do in Tokyo today

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.

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, will begin 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 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.

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.

Adapted from Tatsuki Fujimoto’s celebrated manga, the anime film Look Back (2024) is a quiet yet piercing meditation on creativity, loss and the fragile resolve that drives manga artists to keep drawing despite uncertainty. Directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama, one of contemporary Japan’s most respected animators, the cinematic adaptation stood out for its emotional restraint and the expressive power of its hand-drawn lines. The Fukushima-born Oshiyama has built a multifaceted career as an animator, director and designer, contributing to landmark works such as Den-noh Coil before setting up his own company, Studio Durian. For Look Back, he assumed nearly every key creative role, shaping a deeply personal tribute to drawing itself. This exhibition at Azabudai Hills Gallery offers an unprecedented look behind the scenes of the film. Instead of presenting Look Back as a completed work, the display traces its making through original key animations, character sheets, memos and an immersive ‘tunnel’ of drawings suspended from the ceiling that foreground the physical labour of animation. Carefully recreated spaces from the story invite visitors to step inside the emotional geography of the work. Other highlights include the first public presentation in Japan of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s original sketches for Look Back, newly created manga drawn by Oshiyama for the exhibition, and a special dialogue display with Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki. Together, these elements form a moving...

The MOT will launch visitors into the mysteries of the universe with this groundbreaking exhibition running from January 31 to May 6. Marking ten years since the museum’s acclaimed ‘Mission [Space x Art]’, the new show expands the former’s scope in celebration of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (2025), bridging cosmic exploration with the ever-evolving field of quantum research. The exhibition traces the origins of the world and the invisible forces that shape it through collaborations between artists, space scientists and quantum researchers. Alongside works inspired by astronomical investigation and spaceflight, the show will unveil the first artwork created using a Japanese quantum computer – a milestone revealing the expressive potential of a realm where conventional notions of time and space dissolve. Visitors can expect a constellation of installations, extended-reality experiences and experimental prototypes by leading creators including Akihiro Kubota, Norimichi Hirakawa, Takuro Osaka, Yoichi Ochiai, Hideki Yoshimoto, JAXA’s research teams and many others. The exhibition also features a robust programme of talks by artists and scientists, encouraging audiences to imagine their own ‘quantum-native’ futures. Bold, exploratory and visionary, ‘Mission∞Infinity’ invites you to witness how art continues to push beyond the boundaries of the known universe.

Kicking off its centennial, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum presents this landmark exhibition that brings to Japan, for the first time on such a scale, masterpieces from the golden age of Swedish painting. In the late 19th century, a generation of Swedish artists traveled to France, where they absorbed the spirit of Realism and the plein-air traditions flourishing in Paris. Returning home, they turned their gaze towards the landscapes, people and quiet rhythms of everyday life in Sweden. Their works, infused with intimacy and lyricism, gave form to a distinctly Swedish artistic identity, one that celebrated the interplay of northern light, nature and human presence. Organised in close collaboration with the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the exhibition features a rich selection of paintings created between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Together, they reveal the sensibilities of a culture deeply shaped by its environment and its search for national expression. Entry to the exhibition is free for college students on weekdays between January 27 and February 20.

Andrius Arutiunian (born 1991) is an Armenian-Lithuanian artist and composer whose practice unfolds at the intersection of sound, ritual and speculative cosmology. Working across installation, performance and moving image, he approaches listening as a hybrid and political act, treating music as an architecture of distorted time. His work, shown at major international exhibitions including the Venice, Shanghai, Gwangju and Lyon Biennales, explores how belief systems, vernacular knowledge and collective rituals shape alternative models of social and temporal order. ‘Obol’, Arutiunian’s first solo exhibition in Japan, takes place from February 20 to May 31 at Le Forum. Presented by Ginza Maison Hermès and curated by Tomoya Iwata, the exhibition imagines a futuristic vision of the underworld, a speculative space where myth, sound and ceremony converge. Drawing on ancient cosmologies, esoteric texts and fragments of ritual, ‘Obol’ is conceived as a ‘club for the dead’, where time becomes viscous and hypnotic, and where the boundaries between past, present and future dissolve. Central to the exhibition is a new body of work using bitumen, a petroleum-derived material once imbued with sacred meaning but now relegated to utilitarian use. As both material and metaphor, it anchors a meditation on Charon, the ferryman of the underworld, evoked through silver obols, serpentine forms and generative mythological imagery. Layered soundscapes weave through the space, binding playfulness...

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.

The Artizon Museum invites art aficionados to immerse themselves in a vibrant space of dialogue and imagination with ‘Katarium’, an exhibition that explores art as a site of narration. The title combines the Japanese word katari (‘tell’ or ‘narrate’) with the suffix -arium, evoking a realm where stories unfold. The exhibition seeks to reflect on the myriad conversations that surround artworks, from the artist’s private musings in the studio to the audience’s impressions before a finished piece. Through approximately 60 works spanning diverse eras and media, including two National Treasures, seven Important Cultural Properties and five Important Art Objects, ‘Katarium’ invites viewers to listen to these silent dialogues across time. Highlights include Edo-period (1603–1868) folding screens thought to have been created for samurai lords, mythological paintings from the Meiji (1868–1912) and Taisho (1912–1926) eras, and poetic lithographs by the American social realist artist Ben Shahn. Additionally, traditional scrolls such as Zen Proverb Scroll Fragment and Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Humans are reassembled from fragments, allowing visitors to witness ‘reunions’ of masterpieces long separated. From the newly restored Illustrated Tale of the Heiji Rebellion: The Tokiwamaki Scroll to the mysterious Edo Tenka Festival Screens, ‘Katarium’ offers an evocative journey through Japan’s artistic storytelling, where each work whispers, greets and remembers across the centuries.