45 best Golden Week 2024 events in Tokyo

This open-air observation deck on the rooftop of Shibuya Scramble Square boasts 360-degree views of the city and you can see all of Tokyo’s major landmarks including Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Skytree and even Mt Fuji on a clear day. What's more, the observation deck boasts a stunning rooftop bar that's gearing up to reopen just in time for Golden Week on Sunday April 28.

You can order snacks and drinks such as beer, wine, cocktails and mocktails at the bar, which will be open from 4pm until 10pm every evening, giving guests a chance to catch the sunset as well as Tokyo’s stunning skyline at night.

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 26 to feast on Taiwanese food throughout the day. There are several stalls offering popular Taiwanese cuisine such as lu rou fan (braised pork over rice) 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 lanterns to give it a Taiwanese night market feel.

Niku Fes is back this Golden Week, bringing one of Tokyo's biggest meat festivals to Odaiba. It’s celebrating its eleventh anniversary this year, which means there'll be live music as well as an extensive line-up of meat dishes.

You can feast on a range of food such as A5 rank steak, wagyu sushi, slow-roasted beef, beef bowls and kebabs from around two dozen restaurants across Japan. Make sure to also try dishes from one of the eleven restaurants participating in the World Meat Showdown. These restaurants have prepared hearty dishes inspired by the cuisines of nine different countries, and you can vote for your favourite. 

For the 13th edition of its guest bartender series, Gold Bar at The Tokyo Edition, Toranomon is hosting the cocktail masters from Paradiso. This Barcelona bar, whose unusual entrance is a pastrami shop fridge, was ranked No 1 on the 2022 list of World’s 50 Best Bars. Paradiso is widely celebrated for its sculptural wooden interiors as well as its conceptual drinks menu.

For their one-day-only stint at the Gold Bar, four Paradiso bartenders will be shaking up five new cocktails mixing Spanish flavours and global travel inspirations. This event is reservations only, and there are two sessions: 4pm-5.30pm, and 5.30pm to 7pm. The price is set at ¥7,500 per person and you get to choose three from five cocktails (more may be added depending on availability).

Head over to Komazawa Olympic Park during Golden Week to spend an entire day sampling some of Japan’s best gyoza. There will be around 18 stalls offering many different styles of this quintessential Japanese dumpling. Enjoy miso butter and beef katsu gyoza from Hokkaido, juicy A5 wagyu gyoza from Fukuoka, cheese-topped xiao-long-bao-style gyoza from Saitama, Hakata-style hitokuchi (bite-size) gyoza, red bean paste and butter dessert gyoza from Tokyo, and much more.

Japan’s biggest Cambodia Festival takes place over the Golden Week holidays in Yoyogi Park. This two-day celebration of Cambodian culture features traditional dance performances, plus plenty of local food, drinks and handicrafts at around 70 booths. The festival takes place from 10am to 7pm on both days.

Entry is free and you just pay for food and drink as you go.

This carnivorous carnival at Todoroki Ryokuchi event space features over 30 different stalls offering a range of meat dishes and refreshments. Expect the likes of karaage fried chicken, steak bowls, burgers, wagyu meat skewers, grilled churrasco and even wagyu beef sushi.

You can pair your choice of meat with a pint of cool craft beer from Japanese breweries such as TY Harbor Brewery and MacKendy Beer. There will also be snacks like custard pudding and soft-serve ice cream.

Great news for families with children: Niku Fes also has an area with three different bouncy houses and slides, plus stalls with soccer and basketball shooting games to win prizes.

The festival takes place from 10am to 6pm from April 26-29, and May 2-6.

Entry is free, but you have to pay for each dish you order.

Taking over the expansive outdoor lawn within the children’s play area at Meiji Shrine’s Outer Gardens, the Forest Beer Garden distinguishes itself from other boozy events in town with its lush green surrounds and bubbling waterfall.

The popular two-hour all-you-can-eat (¥5,880) option includes everything from barbecue beef, pork and lamb to veggies, yakisoba noodles, grilled onigiri and even ice pops. It includes an all-you-can-drink selection of seven kinds of beers including Kirin and Heineken, in addition to whisky, sours, wine and soft drinks. Despite being one of the largest beer gardens in Tokyo with a capacity for around 1,000 people, the event can get extremely busy at weekends, so advance bookings are recommended via the website.

Popular German craft beer brand Schmatz takes over the Lumine Ikebukuro rooftop with its annual beer garden serving modern German cuisine. It features four original craft beers, plus a range of beer cocktails including shandy gaff, cassis beer, mango beer and even a banana weizen. Additionally, there are regular cocktails, highballs, shochu and wines to choose from as well. 

The standard barbecue plan (¥6,000) includes sauerkraut, camembert cheese ahijo with baguette, sausages, beef, pork, and an array of veggies to grill. You can order drinks as you go, but we recommend adding an additional ¥500 to get an all-you-can-drink deal on its four speciality beers on tap.

The rooftop of Lumine Shinjuku has transformed into a beer garden where you can watch movies curated by Cinema Caravan, also known as the organisers of the annual Zushi Film Festival. You can choose from three kinds of cuisines – American, Korean or Mexican barbecue courses, all offered in light (from ¥5,390), standard (from ¥5,940) and premium (from ¥6,490) plans. The World Trip BBQ Premium Plan offers a taste of all the cuisines in one course, for ¥7,590.

The all-American course comes with classic beef short ribs, pork, jerk chicken and sausage, accompanied with condiments like buffalo sauce, magic mustard and Kansas City barbecue sauce. The Korean course, on the other hand, features a one-centimetre-thick slab of samgyeopsal (pork belly), beef short rib, scallops, kimchi and four kinds of dips including dadaegi miso and yangnyeom (sweet and spicy) sauce. The Mexican course comes with beef, jerk chicken, pork, as well as seafood options like scallops, salmon and shrimp, and a side of guacamole. All courses come with 90 minutes of all-you-can-drink beverages from a list of 160 cocktails and soft drinks.

Why wait until autumn to celebrate Oktoberfest? While the original Oktoberfest in Munich doesn't kick off until September, Tokyo's beer lovers can enjoy celebrations throughout spring, too. Odaiba’s outdoor Oktoberfest falls during Golden Week, when revellers can gorge on suds, sausages and sauerkraut by the waterside.

There will be over a dozen German breweries including Schneider Weiss, Munchen and Krombacher, all serving their signature beers in proper glasses. Depending on the stall, you can get them in 300ml (from ¥1,000), 500ml (from ¥1,500) and even a whopping one litre (from ¥2,900) jug.

Enjoy some live music this Golden Week at Blue Note Place in Ebisu, where a diverse line-up of acts will be performing on the terrace. In total, 28 musicians will be performing including Japanese hip-hop artist Muro, jazz DJ Koko and soul DJ DJ Sarasa. You can see the full line-up on the website.

There’ll also be a takeout stand on the terrace, from which you can order beignets (¥250 each), panini sandwiches (¥700), fries (¥700) and sausage platters (¥1,000). Drinks include natural wine (from ¥1,000), cocktails (¥850) and Ebisu beer (¥750).

The event lasts for seven days from 2pm to 10pm from April 27-29, and May 3-6.

Held all across Germany to celebrate the coming of spring, Frühlingsfest is also a familiar feature on Yokohama's Golden Week calendar. This year's edition features 12 types of German beer from breweries such as Schmatz, Hofbrau and Weihenstephan, with glasses starting from ¥1,200. You can try some Japanese brews, too, such as Yokohama Beer (¥1,000) and Shonan Gold (¥1,000) by Sankt Gallen Brewery.

There's an extensive, meat-heavy selection of food like sausages, schnitzels, roast beef and diced steak with frites to pair with your brews. If you're looking for something sweeter, you can also pick up desserts like kakigori shaved ice and ice cream sodas.

There's always plenty of fun stuff to look forward to for kids, with this year's edition featuring a giant caterpillar-shaped inflatable slide, a homemade sausage crafting workshop, and a fishing pond to catch goldfish. Adults, meanwhile, can look forward to live oom-pah music by the Woho and Kalendar Band at 12noon, 2.30pm, 5pm and 7.30pm every day.

Entry is free and you just pay for food and drink as you go.

This Golden Week, an outdoor cinema festival is taking place at six different locations around Yokohama’s seaside neighbourhood of Minato-Mirai. You’ll be able to catch both Japanese and international movies at the various venues across the holidays from April 30 to May 6. While most films are dubbed in Japanese, there are four movies that will be screened in English with Japanese subtitles.

All of the English-language movies are being screened at the Marine & Walk Yokohama. You can catch the coming-of-age drama 'Aftersun' featuring Paul Mescal on May 3, Academy Award-winning movie 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' on May 4, American indie film 'Buffalo '66' on May 5 and the 1994 romcom 'Reality Bites' on May 6. All three showings start at 6.40pm and no ticket is required – just show up and enjoy the film.

You can also catch movies at Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, Pacifico Yokohama, Bay Quarter, Yokohama Hammerhead and World Porters. For more information about the screenings, check the website.

With sun, sea, sand and excellent movies, it’s no wonder that the Zushi Beach Film Festival is a popular fixture on the Golden Week calendar. This open-air cinema in Kanagawa prefecture is organised by Cinema Caravan, a group of artists and creatives who plan community events around the world. Every year it brings this event to Zushi, with movie screenings on the beach plus food stalls, a bazaar and live entertainment.

The ten-day festival is screening a variety of Japanese and international films; half of them are English with Japanese subtitles. Every day is a different movie and the show starts at a different time. You'll find the film schedule here, but note that tickets are no longer available for 'Close' on Saturday April 27, and 'The Karate Kid' on Monday April 29. Here’s the line-up of English films:

You can catch free movies at Shibuya Stream this spring from April 28 to May 12. One to two different films will be screened each day, including the likes of ‘Top Gun Maverick’, ‘Ghost Busters’, ‘Mamma Mia’, 'La La Land’ and 'Baby Driver'. 

Most movies will be in English with Japanese subtitles, but there will also be a few dubbed in Japanese. Screening times depend on the day, but you can check the schedule on the website.

The event is free and no tickets are required. However, reservations aren't accepted and space is limited, so we recommend arriving earlier to guarantee a seat.

Come over to Ebisu and join us for Time Out Café & Diner's 15th anniversary celebration this month. This party will span four live music nights between April 19 and May 5, with a host of local artists performing an eclectic mix of genres. The opening night, for instance, will feature singer and record producer Tofubeats, as well as Harashima ‘Domannaka’ Sorayoshi.

On April 20, singer-songwriter Satomoka will take the stage with Gusokumuzu – a four-person band that’s been making waves in the J-pop scene since their debut last year. The next day, April 21, features a hip-hop heavy line-up with acts like Japanese band C.O.S.A., rapper Campanella, In-d and Issugi. 

To wrap things up on May 5, there will be a minimal disco house night featuring the familiar faces of the NF crew, including Keiichi Ejima (Sakanaction/NF) and Shotaro Aoyama (Hyogu/NF), plus YonYon, Dr. Pay, and Samo (Fullhouse). It's a golden opportunity for one last dance during Golden Week.

Tickets for the opening night are available for ¥1,500 at the door, but you'll get a discount if you show up before 9pm.  Tickets for April 20, April 21 and May 5 are available for booking online, with discounts available for those who purchase in advance.

Tokyo jazz institution Shinjuku Pit Inn is hosting 11 nights of live musical performance over the 2024 Golden Week holidays.

Here’s a brief rundown of the performance schedule:

Friday April 26: Keisuke Nakamura Quintet plays Miles Davis featuring Kei Akagi. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets ¥3,850 (one drink included)

Saturday April 27: Dairo Suga Trio performs a unique take on jazz by mixing various genres including classical music and hip-hop. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets ¥3,300 (one drink included).

Sunday April 28: Ami Ogaeri Trio performs live to commemorate the release of their debut album ‘Terasu’. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets ¥3,300 (one drink included).

Monday April 29: Tamaya Honda Bass-less Quartet plays a powerful set  without a bass player that pushes the boundaries of Japanese jazz. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets ¥3,850 (one drink included).

Tuesday April 30: Takeshi Shibuya Orchestra performs a wide repertoire of Jazz sounds  from free jazz to Dixieland. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets ¥3,850 (one drink included).

Wednesday May 1 to May 3: Yosuke Yamashita plays three consecutive nights, each featuring a different lineup of musicians. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets ¥5,500 (one drink included).

Saturday May 4: Toshiyuki Honda and Soichi Noriki duo play their newly released collaborative album, ‘Hon No Ri’, live. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets ¥3,300 (one drink included).

Sunday May 5: Toshiyuki Honda’s second night at Shinjuku Pit Inn, but this time with the Burning Wave Quartet (BW4). Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets ¥3,850 (one drink included).

Monday May 6: The J. Masters perform popular jazz numbers with an improvised and passionate twist. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets ¥3,850 (one drink included). 

Tickets are available online through the website, or call 03 3354 2024.

Yokohama's Minatomirai area will be transformed into a Star Wars galaxy over Golden Week 2024 to celebrate Star Wars Day on May 4. For fans of the iconic space saga, May 4 is known as Star Wars Day, as the iconic line ‘May the force be with you’ cheekily sounds a lot like ‘May the 4th be with you’. 

Celebrations include a host of events and exhibitions that will take place across Minatomirai, at venues such as Landmark Plaza, Mark Is Minato Mirai, the Sky Building, Yokohama City Hall, Grand Mall Park and around Sakuragicho Station.

At Landmark Plaza, you’ll find an exhibition featuring images of famous scenes from the movies showcased along with music. The plaza will also host a Yoda statue on the third floor as well as posters for all the movies. There'll also be a Star Wars Pop-up Store where you can pick up merch like T-shirts, tote bags, figurines and smartphone accessories.

A special screening of all nine Star Wars movies will be held at the new United Cinemas theatre at Mark Is Minato Mirai from May 3 to May 6. The movies will be in English with Japanese subtitles. Additionally, there will be 3D lego models of iconic Star Wars characters like R2-D2 and BB-8 shown at the Mark Is Minato Mirai Grand Galleria. Want to own your own lightsaber? You'll also be able to pick up a lightsaber-shaped balloon here between May 3 and 5 (from 10am, while stocks last). 

Head on over to the Sky Building to catch the special Star Wars: Visions exhibition featuring nine short animations created by renowned Japanese anime illustrators. Along with the animations, there will be a number of special Star Wars items on display, as well as photo spots set up throughout the facility.

At nearby JR Sakuragicho Station Square, you'll be able to enjoy live music as well as an impressive photo wall featuring visuals from the Star Wars movies and series. An original promotional video will also be shown on a large screen outside Yokohama City Hall. 

Want to meet your favourite Star Wars characters? Special character greetings will be taking place at various locations including the Sky Building, Grand Mall Park and Sakuragicho Station between May 3 and 5.

For more details, see the website.

Craft, creativity, heritage and modernity all converge in this immersive visual journey through the 187-year history of American jewellery maestros Tiffany. Within the gallery space of Tokyo Node, situated in the soaring Toranomon Hills Station Tower complex, ten rooms are filled with hundreds of captivating creations that range from one-of-a-kind items to iconic accessories that has become part of popular culture.

One standout amongst many is the very first iteration of Tiffany’s emblematic ‘Bird on a Rock’ brooch. This was conceived by longstanding Tiffany designer Jean Schlumberger, whose work for the brand won over clients including actresses Audrey Hepburn and Greta Garbo. As with many of Schlumberger’s works, this magnificent nature-themed piece reminds us that, for all of their luxury and glamour, diamonds are ultimately something derived from the earth itself.

The exhibition also explores Tiffany’s relationship with Japan, which stretches back to the company’s earliest days. Many designers closely associated with Tiffany, including Elsa Peretti and Edward Chandler Moore, took inspiration from traditional Japanese arts, making ‘Tiffany Wonder’ a spiritual homecoming for some of the featured works.

Tickets are available online.

The exhibition is closed on the following dates: April 17 (5pm-8pm), April 22 (6.30pm-8pm), April 30 (5pm-8pm), May 8 (11.30am-1pm, 5pm-8pm), May 13 (6pm-8pm), May 16 (6pm-8pm).

Step into an enchanted digital forest in this collaborative exhibition between teamLab and Galaxy. Now in its third iteration, the interactive experience is based on the concept of catching different digital creatures to study them before releasing them back into their habitat. As it's a digital art experience, you'll be using an app on the Galaxy smartphone to collect different prehistoric animals in the mystical forest.

Be gentle when approaching these critters! If you try to touch them they might run and disappear into the forest. If you're lucky, they might become curious instead and turn towards you. Nevertheless, the exercise here is to point your phone camera at them, release a Study Arrow in their direction, and capture them onto your screen so that you can learn more about their nature.

You can also work together with other visitors and shepherd the dinosaurs projected on the floor. This allows you to then deploy the Study Net and capture them into your phone. Once you've done studying them, you can release them back into the space.

While the exhibit is free, reservations are required so as to avoid overcrowding the venue. Each session is an hour long, with the exhibition open from 11am until 7pm daily. You can book a timeslot as early as three days in advance via the event website.

Yokohama’s premier celebration of the arts takes place every three years. Themed ‘Wild Grass: Our Lives’, the 2024 edition will centre on the Yokohama Museum of Art, the Former Daiichi Bank Yokohama Branch, and BankART Kaiko, as well as a wide variety of venues around the city, welcoming an international lineup of 93 artists – 20 of whom will be exhibiting all-new works.

Tickets are available here or via our affiliate partner Klook.

Renowned 20th-century master Henri Matisse (1869-1954), though best known as a painter, was a true multimedia artist whose creativity also spanned sculpture, printmaking and other forms. This is the very first exhibition in Japan to focus on the French artist’s work with paper cut-outs, the medium he energetically pursued in the last decade-and-a-half of his life.

Works on loan from the Matisse Museum in Nice, France show how the artist began creating expressionistic collages composed of scissor-cut pieces of paper in a multitude of colours. The subjects and themes of these cutout works included the female form, avian life, and a distinctive two-dimensional take on the flowers-and-fruit still life. While initially modest in size, these cut-outs grew in scale to become murals spanning entire walls: the largest example featured here is some eight metres wide.

Also on show is a selection of works in other media, including painting, ink brush on paper, and stained glass.

This exhibition is closed on Tuesday, except April 30.

Text by Darren Gore

British-born artist Mark Leckey is a product of the UK’s ever-vibrant pop culture, and through diverse mediums he confronts youth, dance music, nostalgia, social class and history from an often countercultural perspective. The subcultural edge of his work – which encompasses film, sound, sculpture, performance, collage and more – additionally takes on a gritty incongruousness when enjoyed at Louis Vuitton’s sleek Omotesando exhibition space.

The French luxury house here presents two Leckey works from its collection. 'Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore feat. Big Red Soundsystem' (1999-2003-2010) is a film that, through a mash-up of archive footage, vividly traces the development of the UK’s underground dance music scene from 1970s disco through to the ’90s rave scene.

2013’s 'Felix the Cat', meanwhile, is a giant inflatable rendering of the cartoon cat that Leckey considers a pioneer of the digital age. Almost a century ago, this feline character was one of the first subjects to be transmitted as a TV signal.

Text by Darren Gore

Opened in 2016 in Munich, the Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art (MUCA) holds one of Europe’s foremost collections of urban-inspired contemporary art, encompassing the likes of Kaws, Banksy and Shepherd Fairey. Now Tokyo, a key city in global street culture, finally gets a taste of the MUCA collection with the arrival of this touring exhibition that has already wowed Kyoto and Oita City.

Over 60 major pieces, including career-defining work by the above-mentioned figures as well as fellow legends including JR, Invader and Barry McGee, are being shown in Japan for the very first time. Highlights include Banksy’s ‘Bullet Hole Bust’, in which the artist’s anti-establishment attitude is rendered in 3D form: the cultural bust form associated with classical art is brutalised by a bullet to the forehead. Kaws’s ‘4ft Companion (Dissected Brown)’, meanwhile, cuts away the left-side ‘skin’ of one his signature ‘Companion’ characters to reveal its inner organs.

Text by Darren Gore

The 18th edition of Watari-Um's 'I Love Art' series explores the concept of self-camouflage. In an era when we are overloaded with so many things and ideas, Watari-um posits that art might be the perfect tool for the act of self-preservation that is camouflaging oneself.

Works by 11 artists pulled from the museum’s formidable collection, including Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, are combined with pieces from three Japanese guest artists – Rika Noguchi, Hiroshi Sugito and Hiraki Sawa – to form four sections that total around 80 thought-provoking exhibits.

'Camouflage into Everyday Life' features a 1986 self-portrait from Warhol, whose approach to 'camouflage' was expressed in his statement that his style of painting arose from his desire to be a machine. This section also includes works from Man Ray, who was a leading figure in Dada, Surrealism and the Avant-garde movement.

'Camouflage into Nature' then introduces natural world-related works from artists including Gary Hill, whose 'Leaves' is a dual-screen video installation displaying flickering images of a leaf overlaid with wordplay.

'Camouflage into Memory' next showcases one of Joseph Beuys’s most famed works, the self- descriptively titled ‘Felt Suit’. There's also an installation by Hiroshi Sugito that incorporates LED lighting and uncooked potatoes.

Finally, ‘Camouflage into Space’ presents pieces that take a myriad of approaches to the spatial dimension, from the likes of Donald Judd and Nam June Paik.

The exhibition is closed on Monday, except April 29 and May 6.

Text by Darren Gore

As the Covid-19 pandemic fades from our collective memory, the realities that were revealed over that distressing period come into greater focus for those willing to look back. The National Art Center, Tokyo’s first group exhibition in five years explores the idea that the pandemic, with its enforced social distancing, international travel bans and remote working, shattered the illusion that geographical and spatial distances between us had been eliminated by the tech innovations and globalisation of recent decades.

Through a post-pandemic lens, ‘Universal / Remote’ looks mainly at art created prior to the globally disruptive event. Works by eight international and Japanese artists, and one art collective, are sprawled across two expansive sections.

‘Constant Growth at a Pan-Global Scale’ looks at how supposedly 'universal' capital and information continue to drive post-Covid society, with the balance between state power and individual freedom becoming increasingly tense. ‘The Remote Individual’ then investigates the paradox that, despite ever-greater connectivity, a sense of personal isolation is also growing.

Highlights include ‘Dragonfly Eyes’, a video work by Beijing/NYC-based Xu Bing that stitches together actual surveillance camera footage to create a poignant love story, and Danish photographer Tina Enghoff’s desolate images of places where people have died alone.

The exhibition is closed on Tuesday, except April 30.

Text by Darren Gore

One of the most influential figures in twentieth-century sculpture finally gets a comprehensive career retrospective in Japan. Romanian-born Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) is considered one of the pioneers of modernist sculpture, thanks to his bold exploration of pure form. Around 90 exhibits, including 2D works such as fresco, tempera and drawings as well as sculptures, demonstrate how his muse flourished after a period working as assistant to Auguste Rodin.

Brancusi’s artistic practice came to combine wild shapes influenced by non-Western art forms, such as African sculpture, with an acute sense of the materials he was working with. In earlier, plaster sculptures such as ‘The Kiss’ (1907-10), human and animal figures are abstracted yet still clearly identifiable. By the late 1920s however, as illustrated by the bronze-cast ‘Bird in Space’ (1926), Brancusi’s subjects are rendered as abstract silhouettes almost entirely distinct from their natural form.

This retrospective includes over 20 sculptures on loan from the Brancusi Estate, as well as works from other collections both Japanese and international.

The exhibition is closed on Mondays (except April 29, May 6), April 30 and May 7.

An art gallery operated by luxury house Hermès and located within the brand’s Ginza flagship store, Le Forum presents the second exhibition of a two-part series exploring the practice of ecology in art. ‘Ephemeral Anchoring’ brings together diverse work from four international creators to examine contemporary art's potential to be a site for dialogue between nature and human energy.

Photographs by Nicolas Flocq, shot during dives into oceans and rivers across the globe, use both conceptual and scientific methods to capture 'underwater landscapes' together with their ecosystems. As the representative work included here demonstrates, the results of Flocq’s shots range from documentary of subaquatic human activity normally hidden from view, to abstract images formed from the green and blue tones of the sea. Texas-based Kate Newby, meanwhile, contributes colourful abstract installations that appear to proliferate across the gallery space.

Japan’s Takeshi Yasura presents installations themed on various natural and sensory phenomena ('noise', 'cosmos') that are partly the result of the artist’s daily practice of literal 'field work': sowing seeds, ploughing and replanting. Finally, French sculptor Raphaël Zarka presents a series of photographs in which the latent dynamism of public artworks is revealed by skateboarders riding their geometric forms.

The exhibition is closed on March 27 and April 3.

Text by Darren Gore

The mid-century modern (MCM) aesthetic, most commonly associated with the work of Charles and Ray Eames, emerged in the years following WW2 and thrived from the 1950s to the ’70s across the USA, Europe and Scandinavia, also influencing the Japanese design of the time. Now, this mode of interior, product and architectural design is more popular than ever: in Tokyo, the Eames’ famed shell chair is seen everywhere from hip cafés to dental offices.

Tokyo Modernism 2024, taking place from late March through to mid-May, celebrates mid-century modern style through a program of events allowing you to get hands-on with iconic and rare items, meet expert MCM dealers, and maybe pick up something to enhance your home.

The Modernism Show (April 18-21), the program’s main event, sees guest rooms of Muji Hotel Ginza host pop-up shops where the owners of around 30 MCM-focused galleries and vintage shops, from both Japan and across the globe, will showcase and sell their often difficult-to-source items. Tickets are required for this exhibition, with prices starting from ¥3,000.

Over at Idée Tokyo in Marunouchi, the Modernism Auction (March 22 to April 9; then April 12-23) will offer rare pieces previously owned and used by gallery and shop owners participating in Tokyo Modernism 2024. Items range from functional furniture designed by names such as Alvar Aalto and George Nakashima to decorative pieces from artists including Lisa Larson.

Back in Ginza, Muji Atelier presents the Mid-Century Muji free exhibition (March 29 to May 12). Muji’s products, just like MCM designs before them, have long embodied a simplicity and functionality that is in tune with the lifestyles of their era. Mid-Century Muji extrapolates upon this notion to present a mocked-up architect’s office in which existing Muji items have been reworked into an MCM style.

Anime Station Tokyo is celebrating the latest addition to the ‘Gundam’ franchise by hosting a special ‘Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Freedom’ exhibition, ongoing until early May. Dedicated to the aforementioned film, which was released in January this year, the event features an exclusive showcase of rare materials and illustrations from the iconic 'Mobile Suit Gundam' anime series.

As the exhibition also coincides with the 45th anniversary of the Gundam franchise, it offers a comprehensive look at Gundam's long and illustrious history. Visitors can explore a detailed timeline, admire iconic Mobile Suits, and view a collection of beloved Gunpla models.

This year is especially significant as the iconic moving Gundam in Yokohama will be closing at the end of March. The exhibition therefore provides fans with a unique chance to dive into the Gundam universe. By first visiting the towering mecha in Yokohama and then exploring this exhibition in Ikebukuro, fans can enjoy a seamless Gundam experience that celebrates both its rich legacy and promising future.

The UNU farmers’ market is one of Tokyo’s longest running and best-attended markets. Taking place every weekend in front of the university’s Aoyama headquarters, this one always attracts a knowledgeable crowd. Organic and local fare is readily available every Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm, with the farmers themselves happy to provide details about their wares. Plus, there's always a few food trucks on hand if you wish to enjoy a quick meal.

Head up to Ibaraki's Hitachi Seaside Park from mid-April to early May and see a whopping 5.3 million 'baby blue eyes' – also known as nemophila – flowers in full bloom. The hilly grounds span 3.5 hectares and are almost completely covered with the little blue blossoms, making for a pretty spectacular sight.

The blooms are usually at their best from mid- to late April, but they are still a magnificent sight if you catch them a bit earlier or even right after peak bloom. According to this year's forecast, the flowers will be in their full glory between April 18 to 27.

Along with the flowers, the park has gone all-out with blue food and drink for you to enjoy during your visit. Sample blue ramune-soda-flavoured soft cream served with nemophila-shaped cookies, pretty blue lemonade, lattes and even a blue-tinged curry ramen. While you're at it, pick up a few souvenirs to take home with you including nemophila macarons, cookies and jewellery featuring the flower of the season. 

The park is home to various other spring flowers, too, including daffodils and tulips, which also bloom between April and May.

The annual Fuji Shibazakura Festival is returning this spring with a staggering 500,000 pink, purple and white blooms from April 13 to May 26. With its seemingly endless fields of shibazakura (pink moss) and view of majestic Mt Fuji on the horizon, it's no wonder that this annual spring festival out at Lake Motosu in Yamanashi typically attracts hordes of Tokyoites over Golden Week. 

In addition to the eight kinds of shibazakura, you’ll get to see other colourful blooms like cherry blossoms, grape hyacinth, poppy anemone and forsythia. While you’re here, it’s also worth checking out the adjacent Peter Rabbit-themed English Garden, decorated with around 300 kinds of plants as well as figurines of the characters from the storybook. 

One of the best ways to get here is by highway bus. A round-trip ticket including festival entry fee starts from ¥7,800, with the bus departing from Bus Terminal Shinjuku, Mark City Shibuya, Futakotamagawa Rise and Tokyo Station. It takes you directly to the Fuji Shibazakura Festival in around two and a half hours. We recommend making reservations in advance because seats can fill up quickly during spring.

Otherwise, you can opt for the two-hour-long Limited Express Fuji Excursion train from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko Station, and hop on the Fuji Shibazakura liner shuttle bus for another 50 minutes to get to the venue.

For one of the best shows of wisteria in this region, you'll have a make a day trip to Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi prefecture. The annual, ever popular Fujinohana Monogatari Ofuji Festival runs from April 13 to May 15, with the evening light-up set for April 18 to May 15.

The park is one of Japan’s top destinations for wisteria, boasting 350 trees that bloom from mid-April to mid-May. The stunning flowers, which dangle from wooden trellises, come in a riot of colours including violet, blue, pink, white and yellow blossoms. Each colour tends to bloom at different times: pink first, followed by purple, white and then yellow wisteria.

Spring is here, the flowers are blooming and many of us are excited to spend more time outdoors without bundling up. Cherry blossoms may get all the love and attention this season, but there are still a host of other flowers blooming all across Greater Tokyo. And you can see all of them for free at the two-month-long Garden Necklace event in Yokohama.

This year’s Garden Necklace takes place from March 23 to June 9 and highlights some of Yokohama’s most impressive flower gardens and parks. You’ll find beautiful spring flowers like cherry blossoms, tulips, roses and lilies. 

Held in Tokyo back in 2022, the touring Toshio Suzuki and Ghibli Exhibition is one of the best ways to get an inside look at the Ghibli universe – outside of Tokyo’s Ghibli Museum and the newly opened Ghibli Park, of course. The exhibition reexamines beloved Ghibli films through the eyes of Toshio Suzuki, the producer of some of the anime studio’s greatest hits including ‘Spirited Away’ and ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’.

Aside from Tokyo, the exhibition has made stops in other prefectures around Japan, including Kyoto, Fukuoka, Ehime and Iwate. It’s now been set up at its next location, in Kanagawa at the Yokosuka Museum of Art, and will be there until June 18.

These destinations for art and museum lovers are less than two hours from Tokyo, with art by Yayoi Kusama, Rothko, Picasso and more

Love a good shopping spree? Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama have discount stores offering big brands at low prices

Venture into the great outdoors without leaving Tokyo, from a bamboo forest and nature parks to lush river valleys and more