Things to do in Tokyo this week

Continuing Tokyo’s trend of dazzling nighttime projection-mapping events, digital creative company Hitohata is bringing back its Asakusa Culture & Lights show to Sensoji Temple. This projection mapping showcase celebrates the history and culture of the iconic temple in the heart of Asakusa.

The nightly shows feature high-resolution digital animations created using cutting-edge technology and displayed at two locations within the temple grounds: the south side of Hozomon Gate facing Kaminarimon Gate, as well as Sensoji Temple's main hall. These light-ups are free to view, happening daily from October 30 to November 3 between 6pm and 9.30pm. 

Alongside the brilliant light-ups, the temple is also offering paid daytime and nighttime viewings of the Denboin Garden; the daytime session includes exclusive access to the Ema Hall, home to Edo-era votive plaques by the likes of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Hasegawa Settan and Henmi Isshin. Be sure to book tickets in advance to attend these viewings.

Find everything from furniture and old books to clothes and cameras at this massive flea market, held over four days at Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa. This market features over 300 sellers from all over the country, so you’re sure to stumble across some interesting finds. You can also pick up fabrics and fun knick-knacks at the Nordic Market, backpacks and bags at the Backpack Bazaar, dry flower bouquets and succulents at the Flower Market or sit down for a cup of coffee and a tasty pastry at one of the food stalls. There’s also live music to enjoy and some workshops taking place where you can learn skills like metalworking and brooch-crafting.

Tickets are now on sale via Eplus.

Komazawa Olympic Park is hosting its annual ramen festival for the last time this autumn with a dozen booths serving Japanese noodles from different prefectures throughout Japan. You can go for a simple shoyu (soy sauce) or shio (salt) ramen, or a bowl with rich tonkotsu pork broth, or one topped generously with chicken. Be warned though: some stalls are expected to have up to two hours wait time, as they are exclusive to the festival or have won the Ramen Grand Prix in recent years.

Instead of being split into multiple parts like previous versions, Tokyo Ramen Festa 2026 is a single, continuous five-day event. This year's lineup includes highlights such as Sapporo's Menya Nanabei with a premium local-chicken broth miso ramen, and Fukuoka's Honda Shoten, serving up rich, aged yobimodoshi-style tonkotsu ramen brought directly from the birthplace of tonkotsu ramen. You'll also find a rich Shinshu chicken paitan collaboration bowl between Nagano's Kimuzukashiya and Tokyo's Hongare Gyorai, and so much more. As a special addition for its final year at the park, the festival is also offering its first-ever rice dish – a ramen-broth curry called Ra-kare made with dried sardine broth soup.

Admission is free, while a bowl of noodles costs ¥1,100. Meal tickets can be purchased on-site or via Seven Ticket, which you can pick up at Seven Eleven outlets nationwide. We recommend purchasing tickets earlier rather than later, as popular bowls can sell out towards the end of the day.

Whenever winter arrives, Tokyoites look forward to snacking on warm yakiimo (roasted sweet potato). Dedicated yakiimo trucks are a common sight on the streets during the cold season, and this year, there will also be a festival dedicated to this comforting snack at the Yakiimo Fes at Nakano's Shiki no Mori Park from October 30 to November 8.

This tummy-warming food fest will be serving up 30 kinds of sweet potato dessert from 14 vendors, including roasted sweet potato drizzled with white chocolate and dried strawberries, sweet potato parfaits, sweet potato salted butter brûlée and even a sweet potato crepe. If you're looking for something more savoury, try the sweet potato tacos, sweet potato cheese pizza or even a sweet and spicy Korean-style jjigae stew topped with cuts of roasted sweet potato. Entry is free, but don’t forget to bring your credit card or Suica, as the event is completely cashless.

Ticket bundles, including eight meal tickets worth ¥5,000, can be purchased online via KKday. The bundle also gets you two 'fast lane' tickets to purchase items with using the priority lane.

Admire the autumn full moon this autumn in the beautifully illuminated gardens of Hamarikyu. This sprawling green space, which once belonged to the ruling Tokugawa shogunate, will stay open until 9pm from October 21 to 23. The special night opening is held to celebrate Kurimeigetsu (October 23), traditionally considered to be the second most beautiful evening of the year to catch the harvest moon. What's more, the programme is extended with a second late-opening session from October 30 to November 3 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Hamarikyu becoming a public garden.

Stemming from the moon-viewing tradition known as tsukimi, which dates back to the Heian period (794–1185), the event will begin with an offering ceremony on October 21 at 6pm at the lawn near the Shiojiri pond. This will be followed by a flute performance by shinobue performer Riki Yokosuka.

Guided moon-viewing tours (¥500, cash only) in English are available on October 23 at 6pm and 7.30pm. The meeting point is at the Matsu no Ochaya teahouse. Slots are limited and apportioned on a first-come, first-served basis through an online booking form.

The Nakajima no Ochaya teahouse, which boasts spectacular views of the garden, is offering a special tsukimi-themed nerikiri sweet and tea set from October 21 to October 23, making for a perfect light evening snack. Afterwards, enjoy traditional instrumental music performed near the Umashide no Mikoto statue. There are multiple 30-minute performances from two gagaku bands daily, from 6.30pm.

During the second session, from October 30 to November 3, visitors can expect to see the park decorated with colourful, glowing umbrellas, which are used in Japanese culture to symbolise 80 years. The Nakajima no Ochaya teahouse will serve a special 80th-anniversary menu featuring nerikiri sweets, matcha and sake.

After 4.30pm, entry is permitted only through the main Otemon Gate.

Neuro-tech startup VIE is bringing its masterful soundscape engineering to Tokyo National Museum for the first time with Zen Night Tokyo, an event taking place in the gardens behind the main museum building from October 14 to December 6. Held to coincide with the upcoming ‘Daitoku-ji: Japan’s Unrivalled Zen Monastery – 700th Anniversary Special Exhibition', the Japanese garden is hosting this special after-hours autumn leaves illumination spectacle designed to soothe the senses and let visitors admire the natural beauty of the grounds, which are ordinarily closed to the public.

Themed around the Buddhist concepts of rebirth and cyclical existence, this immersive journey guides visitors through different areas along the mirror-like Suigetsu pond, including an open-air teahouse zone where you can enter different realms through soundscapes tuned to distinct wavelengths, each designed to evoke a unique emotional experience. Continuing along the pond, visitors discover a path of spider lilies, flowers often associated with the arrival of autumn and the honouring of ancestral spirits. Aptly named Hyakki Yado (Night Path of One Hundred Demons), the path is lined with some 3,000 hauntingly beautiful spider lilies illuminated against the night.

Meanwhile, at the Kujokan teahouse, you can drink matcha while admiring the breathtaking illuminated rock garden. The tea experience is paired with a high-tech ‘Brainwave Zen’ meditation experience, which involves measuring brainwaves with an earphone-type monitoring device. The signals are visualised in real time through sound and projected imagery, creating an immersive meditation space. You can take home the results of your brainwave analysis and learn about your Zen meditation strengths and weaknesses. Note that the tea and ‘Brainwave Zen’ experience is a ticketed programme and requires a separate date- and time-designated reservation made online.

General tickets for Zen Night Tokyo are also available now, with early-bird discounts offered until October 13. Tickets include admission to the museum’s Daitoku-ji exhibition.

Grab your tickets now via the official website.

Tokyo itself becomes both subject and stage in Tokyo Atlas, a new international art exhibition unfolding across the capital’s waterfront from October 10 to December 20. The ambitious project transforms parks, public spaces and urban infrastructure into an open-air cultural landscape, inviting attendees to rediscover the city through encounters with site-specific works. Drawing on the dual meaning of its title – both the mythological Atlas and an atlas of maps – the exhibition encourages audiences to navigate Tokyo as a living constellation of artistic discoveries.

Anchored by major venues including Daiba Park and the Aomi Minami Port Park area, the exhibition explores how history, geography and global exchange continue to shape the metropolis. Daiba Park, originally constructed as an Edo-period (1603–1868) coastal battery, provides a striking backdrop where contemporary art meets one of the symbolic gateways to Japan’s modernisation.

Nearby, the working waterfront of Aomi becomes a setting for projects that reflect on community, ecology and coexistence. French artist Abraham Poincheval presents La Bouteille, a performance in which he inhabits a giant bottle, while the collaborative initiative Goat’s Eyes transforms the site into a participatory environment examining sustainable creativity and new forms of collective living.

Elsewhere, the atrium of the Telecom Center Building hosts a landmark installation by the recently passed Yayoi Kusama, bringing together her monumental balloon sculptures Yayoi-chan and A Bouquet of Love I Saw in the Universe for the first time in Japan. Suspended within the soaring architecture, the works create an immersive dialogue between the artist’s inner universe and an expansive cosmic vision.

By activating overlooked corners of the city with works by internationally acclaimed and emerging artists alike, Tokyo Atlas proposes an alternative map of Tokyo – one that reveals the city’s hidden histories, evolving identities and boundless imaginative potential.

This annual design event, which this year explores the theme of ‘gazing’, sees the vast grass square adjacent to Tokyo Midtown host installations by an international cast of 19 artists and creators. Helmed by creative director and designer Taku Sato, the event also features a diverse programme of family-friendly events intended to help visitors rediscover the charm and value of design hidden in everyday life.

The main highlight is the aforementioned open-air ‘Design Live Exhibition’ on the Midtown lawn, featuring works such as ‘Sea Hammock’ by architect Yuko Nagayama, which makes its return to the event after four years. Elsewhere, catch some grooves at ‘Design Live Music’, where design and music intersect, or browse a selection of books and stationery at ‘Design Live Market’.

Enjoy the changing of the leaves before anywhere else in Tokyo at the 60th-floor observatory of Ikebukuro’s Sunshine City this autumn. From September 10 to November 30, the relaxing indoor park with artificial turf is decorated with vivid red momiji leaves. Here, you can enjoy the seasonal foliage with the stunning Tokyo skyline as your backdrop without having to worry about rain.

During the event period, the Tenbo Park café is churning out autumn-themed menu items like the buttered sweet potato (¥900) and the refreshing Grape soda (¥800), an autumn-inspired concoction of Nagano Purple grapes, soda and jelly.

Tickets can be purchased via the official website.

If you’re looking to max out your Halloween celebrations this year, you’re in luck. Harajuku’s OG kawaii café, Kawaii Monster Land, is putting on Spooky Season parties for an entire month. Reborn earlier this year with rides, claw and gacha machines and hyper-cute shows by the Monster Girls, the venue is bringing back Kawaii Monster Halloween for the first time in 11 years with plenty of spooky stage performances, DJs and dress-up, transforming the hyper-cute fantasy landscape into a Halloween wonderland.

While the venue will be decked out for Halloween throughout the month, you’ll want to time your visit for one of the special event nights. Held on select Saturdays, as well as Halloween Eve and Halloween itself, each night will feature a different line-up of performers and DJs, creating a distinct Halloween world with a mix of live showcases, music and Monster Girls.

Upcoming nights include the ‘Yokubari Kawaii Night’ on October 10, ‘Harajuku Gala’ on October 17, ‘The Halloween Monster’ on October 24, ‘Halloween Eve’ on October 30 and the grand ‘Kawaii Monster Halloween Party’ on October 31.

An entrance fee is required to enter Kawaii Monster Land. Tickets are on sale on the official website.

Tokyo Node presents the largest solo exhibition to date by Japanese artist and art director Yoshirotten. Widely recognised for his ability to move seamlessly between fine art, graphic design, moving image, spatial design and commercial projects, the Tokyo-based visionary has spent more than two decades developing a distinctive visual language that bridges urban culture, technology, nature and the cosmos. From collaborations with global brands and musicians to ambitious independent art projects, his work consistently seeks to make the invisible visible.

‘Communication with the Other Side / Beyond Earth’ brings together the artist’s major ongoing series, while introducing new large-scale, site-specific installations. Across these works, Yoshirotten explores enduring themes that have shaped his practice: light, colour, natural phenomena, planetary systems and humanity’s relationship to the unknown.

A highlight of the display is a new project created in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which transforms space-related data into immersive visual experiences. Expanding upon the speculative and sci-fi-inspired worldview that has characterised Yoshirotten’s recent work, the exhibition invites visitors to contemplate perspectives that extend beyond the boundaries of everyday perception – and even beyond Earth itself.

Serving both as a retrospective of key developments in Yoshirotten’s career and as a platform for new experimentation, the exhibition marks a major milestone for one of Japan’s most influential contemporary visual creators. Through a dynamic fusion of art, technology and imagination, it offers a compelling vision of unseen worlds and the possibilities that lie beyond them.

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).

The erotic art of old Edo returns to modern Tokyo’s most seductive ’hood with ‘Kunisada & Kuniyoshi: Shinjuku Kabukicho Shunga Exhibition – WA’. The fourth instalment in a series of exhibitions focused on Shunga, or traditional Japanese erotica, and organised by the Kabukicho-based Smappa! Group, the display showcases original ukiyo-e prints by two of the greatest masters of the form: Utagawa Kunisada and Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

Kunisada (1786-1864) is particularly renowned for depicting kabuki actors (yakusha-e) and beautiful women (bijin-ga). What’s more, his pieces are famed for their detailed portrayals of daily life in Edo, and have proved invaluable for historians researching the folksier aspects of the late feudal period.

Kuniyoshi (1798-1861), meanwhile, was dubbed ‘Edo’s ultimate graphic designer’. He illustrated the trending topics of his day – from political scandals and sexual fashions to mythical monsters – with a wit and humour that endeared him to the capital’s masses.

Curated from the collection of Mitsuru Uragami, one of Japan’s foremost ukiyo-e authorities and Shunga connoisseurs, the exhibition extends throughout the Shinjuku Kabukicho Noh Stage, incorporating bijin-ga, yakusha-e, musha-e (pictures of warriors) and illustrated books in addition to the erotica. Yasutaka Hayashi from artist collective Chim↑Pom from Smappa! Group returns as art director, bringing a hefty serving of Kabukicho flair to the table.

Advance tickets are available now via TimeOutShop. For a ¥200 discount on same-day tickets, use our Time Out Coupons offer.