Things to do in Tokyo today

Showa Kinen Park is the most beautiful in autumn, with the maple and ginkgo trees blushing in fiery red and yellow. The Ginkgo trees are the first to turn and you can see two boulevards of the golden yellow trees as soon as you enter the park’s Tachikawa gate. The momiji and kaede trees, however, present their signature vermillion hues a bit later towards the end of November. During this season, the park stays open after dark, with special light-ups taking place at the Gingko Tree Avenue (near the futsal and basketball courts) and the traditional Japanese Garden from 4.30pm until 8.30pm. While you can enjoy the light-ups at the Gingko Tree Avenue with just the park's regular admission fee (¥450, free for junior high school students and younger), you need an extra ticket to enter the Japanese Garden (advance ticket ¥1,100, primary and junior high school students ¥600; same-day tickets sold at Komorebi House close to the Japanese Garden ¥1,300, ¥700). However, between October 28 and November 2, you can enter the Japanese Garden with just the park's regular admission fee. Tickets are available on the website. Note that during 4.30pm and 9pm, you can only use the Nishi-Tachikawa gate to enter the park. On Saturday, Sunday and holidays, however, the Sunagawa gate will stay open as well. 

The 400m-long Keyakizaka Street next to the Roppongi Hills shopping centre is lighting up with 800,000 sparkling white and blue LEDs until Christmas Day. From the pedestrian bridge near the Roppongi Hills Arena, you'll get a stunning view of the trees covered in shimmering lights, with Tokyo Tower in the background, from 5pm to 11pm daily.  While you’re in the area, make sure to drop by the Mohri Garden, a Japanese-style green space sandwiched between Roppongi Hills Mori Tower and the TV Asahi building, which is illuminated with blue lights from November 6 to 18. There’s also a bouquet-inspired illumination at 66 Plaza to commemorate Roppongi Hills’s 20th anniversary, with 200,000 LED lights illuminating the surrounding trees.

The annual Hibiya Magic Time Illumination is returning for its fifth run at Tokyo Midtown Hibiya. This year, the event boasts three areas bathed in beautiful lights inspired by twinkling stars in the night sky. Hibiya-Nakadori Street is decked out with captivating multi-coloured illuminations. Hibiya Step Square, meanwhile, features Christmas trees (until December 25) adorned with sparkly lights (Christmas trees until Dec 25) as well as light-ups that are synchronised to festive music. Don’t miss the Park View Garden on the sixth floor. Here you’ll find glittering white lights assembled to look like the Milky Way. The illuminations take place daily from 5pm to 11pm.

The 1.2-kilometre-long Marunouchi Naka-dori street, always one of the most popular Tokyo illumination spots, will have around 360 trees lit up with about 1.2 million champagne-coloured, low-energy LED bulbs this year, making for an environmentally friendly and stylish display. If you’d rather stay cosy while admiring the lights, visit the newly renovated Marunouchi House, where the seventh-floor terrace will be lit up for a limited time. The terrace has plenty of seats surrounded by outdoor heaters. To celebrate Christmas, Gyoko-dori between the Imperial Palace and Tokyo Station will have more illuminations between November 28 to December 25.

  These illuminations at the Oi Racecourse – also known as Tokyo City Keiba – will be returning for the fifth year, with the venue bathed in colourful lights every evening. You can enjoy elaborate illuminations and projection mapping displays across two areas. Upon entering the venue, you’ll find yourself in the ‘Twinkle’ area where you’ll walk through a long corridor lit up with appropriately twinkly blue lights that lead you to the main attractions. Aside from plentiful and vivid light projections on the ground, you’ll come across the ‘Aurora Forest’ with glowing trees that put on a six-minute show synchronising to music using light and shadows. Enter the ‘Wa no Kirameki’ area, taking up the centre of the racecourse with a colourful water fountain where shows are synchronised to music, stunning aurora lights, an illuminated cherry blossom tunnel, and more. There’s also a large trellis of artificial wisteria illuminated with pink and golden lights, and an illumination recreating a typical Japanese rural landscape, complete with paddy fields and a stream. What's more, with this event taking place at a racecourse, you can even pet and take photos with real horses.

Mt Takao is one of the best locations in Tokyo to see autumn leaves. And one of the best ways to do that is by taking the scenic cable car ride, which brings you closer to the mountain’s Yakuoin temple. Here you can sample shojin ryori, a traditional Japanese Buddhist vegetarian meal. The seasonal Momiji-zen (¥2,900) includes a variety of small dishes made with ingredients typical of autumn. It’s served on weekdays between 11am and 2pm until December 9. Throughout the duration of the festival, you can also look forward to a host of free events at Kiyotaki Station, the cable car stop at the base of Mt Takao, including musical and dance performances by local university students. Check the website for the schedule. As it’s the case every year, the base of Mt Takao will be crowded in autumn, so it’s best to arrive via public transport.

The neighbourhood surrounding Toranomon Hills is getting light art installations for a limited time this winter. This event is held in partnership with the Light Art Collection, an outfit known for operating the annual Light Festival in Amsterdam.  You’ll come across seven breath-taking installations created by artists, architects and product designers from around the world. Oval Park features bioluminescence lights scattered all over the grass lawn. Made to look like a field of fireflies, this stunning display is created by Studio Toer from the Netherlands. Saio Park, on the other hand, has a tornado-like light installation made from a stack of rings, designed by UxU Studio in Taiwan. Make sure you stop by the Step Garden as well to see an installation of colourful butterflies floating among the greenery, created by Italian design studio Aether & Hemera.

Taking centre stage at Yebisu Garden Place, this light display incorporates a Baccarat chandelier constructed in 1994. At five-metres-tall and three-metres-wide, this chandelier is one of the largest in the world and is adorned with 8,500 crystal pieces and 250 golden lights. The official lighting ceremony of the chandelier takes place on Saturday November 11 at 5pm. The event will feature a live music performance by Kona Rose with Budamunk.  Happening concurrently until December 25 is a Christmas Market at the Clock Plaza. There are stalls selling festive goods and accessories, as well as a food truck by The Westin serving tomato and beet borscht and mulled wine from 5pm to 8pm on weekdays and from noon on weekends. On weekends from Friday to Sunday in December, there’s even a public DJ session hosted by the Blue Note Place. Here you can order freshly prepared beignets with coffee at the BNP Stand takeout shop.

Meguro's annual Minna no Illumi event has found a novel solution to the issue of massive energy consumption during Japan’s winter illuminations season. Resembling winter cherry blossoms, the pink LED used in the light-up are all powered by biodiesel electricity generated using waste oil collected from local homes and restaurants. The eco-friendly lights illuminate a stretch of the 2.2km-long Meguro River near Osaki and Gotanda stations. You can catch this beautiful sight from 5pm to 10pm every day from November 10 2023 until January 8 2024.

This winter, the 1.5km-long street right outside the east exit of JR Yokohama Station turns into a sparkling wonderland. This illumination display uses 350,000 LEDs to bathe the area in warm blue and white light from 4pm to 11pm every day. The trees all get a lot more festive and the Hamamirai Walk pedestrian bridge becomes a beautifully lit walkway. This year, the lights will be powered by sustainable energy such as solar and wind power.