It might still feel like we’re in the depths of winter, but February is when the first hints of spring begin appearing all over Tokyo. There are so many ways to celebrate that this month: enjoy the plum blossoms, watch some bean-throwing rituals at various temples in town, and head over to Yokohama for the Lunar New Year. Don’t forget to also catch the last of the winter illuminations!
Marunouchi Illuminations © Dick Thomas Johnson
14 November 2024-16 February 2025
Event: Marunouchi Illumination
Location: Marunouchi Illumination
Time: 5:30am-11:00pm
Admission: Free
Website: Official website (Japanese)
Clocking in at 23 consecutive years, the annual Marunouchi Illuminations is one of the longest-running Tokyo light-ups of its kind. Naturally, it’s a favourite with many Tokyo residents. Walking down the champagne-coloured, fairy light-strewn, gently glittering Naka-dori never fails to induce starry-eyed Christmassy feelings in us. Sometimes literally. Naka-dori stretches for around 500 meters, from near Tokyo Station to the vicinity of the Peninsula Hotel.
1-2 February 2025
Event: Pokémon x Crafts Exhibition
Location: Azabudai Hills Gallery, Azabudai Hills
Time: 10:00am–7:00pm (8:00pm on Fridays)
Admission: ¥1800
Website: Official website (English)
Pokémon isn’t just for kids anymore — the fanbase now includes an entire generation of Millennials who grew up with the iconic Japanese franchise. Whatever your age, though, this exhibition is perfect if you love Pokémon but also enjoy sophisticated Japanese craftsmanship. This exhibition showcases 70 items across a range of crafts, all themed around Pokémon. Think Pikachu-themed tea bowls and cups, a ceramic Venusaur, and a Jolteon in shiny wrought metal and gold. The exhibition ends on 2 February.
1-24 February 2025
Event: Hello Kitty 50th Anniversary Exhibition
Location: Tokyo National Museum
Time: 9:30am–5:00pm
Admission: ¥2,000
Website: Official website (English)
It’s been a whole half-century since Yuko Shimizu introduced her iconic white kitty to the world. This sprawling exhibition traces the evolution of Hello Kitty across the decades, showcasing a huge range of artworks featuring this cat. Of particular note are the pieces already in the National Museum’s collection, such as Hello Kitty making an appearance in an interpretation of a folding screen of the Wind and Thunder gods, or the cat reinterpreted as an Edo period-style woodblock print of a kabuki actor. Naturally, fans won’t want to miss the gift shop full of fabulous feline merchandise. February is the last leg of this several month-long exhibition.
1-12 February 2025
Event: Chinese Spring Festival
Location: Yokohama Chinatown
Time: Various – see website
Admission: Free
Website: Official website (Japanese)
Chinese New Year is easily one of the best festivals around by virtue of its length - it lasts 15 days, with a variety of rituals and celebrations taking place over 2 weeks. Yokohama’s Chinatown is the place to be at this time of the year. Even strolling around and snacking on Chinese food takes on an extra pizzazz when there are thousands of paper lanterns lining the streets. Check out the New Year Countdown in Yamashita-cho Park, auspicious lion dance performances, traditional music concerts, and firecrackers in the streets.
1 February-6 April 2025
Event: Yomiuri Land Jewellumination
Location: Yomiuri Land
Time: 4:00am-8:30pm
Admission: From ¥1,800
Website: Official website (Japanese)
If you subscribe to the idea that bigger is better, there’s no larger light show than Yomiuri Land’s annual winter illumination extravaganza. As the name suggests, it’s all about evoking jewels and gems, and there are ten themed areas covered with blindingly bright LEDs. There’s the Crystal Passage and Celebration Promenade, as well as an epileptic fountain show with illuminated jets of water, flames, and lasers, all set to music. It does make one wonder about the state of their electricity bills.
Japanese kites at a festival © cotaro70s
6 February 2025
Event: Kite Market
Location: Oji Inari Shrine
Time: 10:00am-6:00pm
Admission: Free
Website: Official website (Japanese)
We’re lucky this isn’t the Edo period - we’d have to contend with frequent fires burning down entire streets and neighborhoods at a time. At the time, kites were believed to help ward off fire. Whether you believe that or not, the annual Kite Market at Oji Inari Shrine is nonetheless a great place to browse - Japanese kites are gorgeous, and make wonderful decorative pieces in the house.
Throwing beans at Zojo-ji Temple © Masayuki Takaku
2 February 2025
Event: Setsubun Mamemaki (Bean throwing) Festival
Location: Zojo-ji Temple
Time: 12:00am-1:00pm
Admission: Free
Website: Official website (Japanese)
Setsubun celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of spring. The mamemaki or ‘bean-throwing’ ritual is held as part of setsubun, and is supposed to chase ill fortune out of the household - represented by literal demons - and bring good fortune. You know spring is coming when everyone starts tossing beans out of the door.
Many places around town from Asakusa’s Senso-ji Temple to Kanda Myojin Shrine will be holding bean-throwing rituals, but an exciting place to watch this ceremony is at Zojo-ji Temple. As a bonus, there’ll be many people wearing samurai costumes. Out with the demons, in with luck!
Hanazono Shrine © Guilhem Vellut
2 February 2025
Event: Hanazono Shrine Antique Market
Location: Hanazono Shrine
Time: 6:30am-4:00pm
Admission: Free
Website: Official website (Japanese)
Here’s another fun reason to visit Hanazono Shrine in Shinjuku: there’s a small but regular antique fair happening there almost every Sunday. The Hanazono Shrine Blue Sky Antique Fair - which is the full name in Japanese, roughly translated - is not exactly endless sprawl and shopping, since there are only 25~30 stalls maximum at any given time. Smaller items are the focus here, rather than large furniture or statement pieces.
The market runs from sunrise to sunset, though visiting in the morning is best since many stalls tend to close around 3pm. (Come around then for the best bargains.) Check the calendar above before you go. This month, it’s being held on 2, 9, 16, and 23 February. If it rains, expect it not to run.
2 February 2025
Event: Oedo Antique Market
Location: Tokyo International Forum
Time: 09:00am-4:00pm
Admission: Free
Website: Official website (English)
Billed as the largest outdoor antique market in Japan, the event attracts shoppers from all walks of life. There is quite literally everything and anything old here: Taisho-period glassware, ceramics, rusty coins, gorgeous jewelry, secondhand kimono ranging from dirt cheap to a few hundred dollars… Whether you’re looking for a cheap bargain or a rare gem from the 1880s, you’re sure to find something for your budget. Haggling is best very early in the morning or towards the end of the day, though you can spend the whole day browsing.
The market is closed in case of rain, but this market is held twice or thrice a month. So, if that happens, you can try your luck again on 16 February.
Plum blossoms at Yushima Tenjin Shrine © y kawahara
7 February-7 March 2025
Event: Bunkyo Ume Matsuri
Location: Yushima Tenjin Shrine
Time: 6:00am-8:00pm
Admission: Free
Website: Official website (English)
With around 300 trees in white and pink - mainly Shirokaga white plums - Yushima Tenjin is one of Tokyo’s most beloved plum blossom-viewing spots. Yushima Tenjin enshrines Sugawara no Michizane, the deity of scholarship, making it a popular spot for students to pray for good results in their exams or studies. Fewer know that when exiled to Dazaifu in Kyushu, he also wrote a famous poem referencing the beauty and fragrance of the plum blossoms.
The best time for the plum blossoms is really around the second half of February, but they’ve been known to linger on till the first week of March. Besides the plum blossoms, you’ll also be able to enjoy some performances and tea ceremonies.
8 February-2 March 2025
Event: Setagaya Plum Blossom Festival
Location: Hanegi Park
Time: 10:00am-4:00pm
Admission: Free
Website: Official website (Japanese)
If Yushima Tenjin doesn’t feel green enough for you, hit up the Setagaya Plum Blossom Festival at Hanegi Park. 650 plum trees in this little green space makes it gorgeously fragrant and wonderland-like. To experience the full festival atmosphere, you’ll want to visit on the weekends when the vendors set up their stalls. Most things on sale are plum-themed: plum jam, pickled plums, red-bean-and-plum jellies, sweet plum crackers, plum kombucha, even a handbook stuffed with information about plums.
Awa Odori is probably Tokushima’s most famous export © Dumphasizer
16 February 2025
Event: Tokushima Tourism & Products Fair in Tokyo
Location: Yoyogi Park Events Square
Time: 10:00am-4:00pm
Admission: Free
Website: Official website (Japanese)
Tokushima isn’t exactly a place many outside the Kansai region are aware of, but Tokyoites will all know its most famous export, the Awa Odori dance. It does have far more to offer than just a cool traditional dance though! Learn more about this Shikoku island prefecture at the Tokushima Tourism & Products Fair, which returns for its 7th year running.
Sample your way through the food - fabulous teas and citruses, for starters - and check out their stunning indigo-dyed products. This is also the perfect opportunity to learn more about places in Tokushima to visit on your next trip, like the Iya Valley, the Naruto whirlpools, and the Tokushima Handicraft Village.
21-24 February 2025
Event: Samurai Festival 2025
Location: Ueno Onshi Park Fountain Square
Time: 10:00am-6:00pm
Admission: Free
Website: Official website (Japanese)
Fans of the hit TV show Shogun, this festival is for you — a four-day extravaganza of everything samurai-related. Think stage events with reenactments (most likely of famous historical battles) by actors dressed in period costume, musical performances, and stalls selling everything from beer to battle armor. It’s all the fun and games of samurai culture without the bloodthirsty killings. The samurai families may have been disbanded in the Meiji Restoration of 1868, but the national fervor for their culture lives on.
22-24 February 2025
Event: 7th Ariake Antique World
Location: Tokyo Big Sight, Ariake
Time: 10:00am-5:00pm
Admission: ¥1000 (Free admission from 1:00pm on 24 February)
Website: Official website (English)
Anyone who loves antiques would do well to spend some hours at Ariake Antique World, one of the largest antique fairs in Japan. Think anything and everything from centuries past — swords, quills, ceramics, lacquerware, clocks, vintage kimono, matchboxes, teacups, maps, painted vases, even dental instruments. There’ll be a staggering volume of junk to sift through, but the bargains and treasures you’ll walk away with are (usually) worth the time. You can also have your antiques appraised for free.
Tokyo Vacation Checklist
- For all the essentials in a brief overview, see my First Time In Tokyo guide
- Check Tokyo accommodation availability and pricing on Booking.com and Agoda.com - often you can book with no upfront payment and free cancellation
- Need tips on where to stay? See my one page guide Where To Stay In Tokyo
- You can buy shinkansen (bullet train) tickets online from Klook - popular routes include Tokyo to Kyoto, Tokyo to Osaka and Tokyo to Hiroshima
- You can buy an eSim to activate in Japan or buy a Japan SIM card online for collection on arrival at Tokyo Narita or Haneda airports. Or rent an unlimited data pocket wifi router
- See my comprehensive Packing List For Japan
- Compare airline flight prices and timings for the best Japan flight deals. Check my guides to arriving at Narita Airport and at Haneda Airport.
- If you're visiting more than one city, you might save money with a Japan Rail Pass – see if it's worth it for you
- World Nomads offers simple and flexible travel insurance. Buy at home or while traveling and claim online from anywhere in the world
- Do you want help planning your trip? Chris Rowthorn and his team of Japan experts at Japan Travel Consulting can help
