What's on in Tokyo
9 events in May 2027: 4 festivals, 2 gardens, 2 performances and 1 exhibition, from headline festivals to neighbourhood fairs. 6 of them are annual events whose 2027 dates are still to be confirmed, listed with their usual window.
Golden Week fills the first week with domestic travellers. After it, warm dry days, and the big shrine festivals: Kanda Matsuri in odd years and Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa every year. More on the season in Tokyo in spring.
Tokyo Tower, Shibakoen
17 Mar - 6 May (dates to be confirmed)
333 carp streamers, one for each metre of the tower's height, fly at the main entrance from mid-March until Children's Day. Look for the single 6-metre pacific saury streamer flown for the Iwate town of Ofunato since 2011.
Kameido Tenjin Shrine, Kameido
10 Apr - 5 May (dates to be confirmed)
Tokyo's best wisteria display, with over 100 plants on 15 trellises hanging over the shrine pond and its two arched red bridges, a scene Hiroshige printed in the 1850s. The blooms are lit up after dusk at peak, usually late April.
Meiji Shrine, Harajuku
29 Apr - 3 May
Five days of traditional arts offered to the shrine deities: bugaku court dance, Noh and kyogen, gagaku, hobu martial arts, and ikebana, performed on an outdoor stage in the inner precinct. All performances are free to watch, held April 29 to May 3 each year.
Okunitama Shrine, Fuchu
30 Apr - 6 May
A thousand-year-old festival at Fuchu's Okunitama Shrine, named for the mikoshi processions once carried in total darkness. Public highlights run over Golden Week: the koma-kurabe horse ritual on May 3, massive taiko drums, and the main night procession of May 5.
Ryogoku Kokugikan, Ryogoku
9 May - 23
Fifteen days of top-division sumo at the national arena, one of three Tokyo tournaments each year. Arena seats start around ¥3,000 and cheap same-day tickets exist, but weekend and final days sell out well in advance.
Kanda Myojin Shrine and surrounding districts, Kanda
14 May - 16 (dates to be confirmed)
One of Tokyo's three great festivals, held at full scale only in odd years, so 2027 is a main festival year. A day-long costumed procession winds through Kanda, Nihonbashi, and Akihabara on the Saturday, and some 200 mikoshi converge on the shrine the following day.
Asakusa Shrine, Asakusa
21 May - 23 (dates to be confirmed)
Asakusa's rowdiest weekend, when around 100 mikoshi including the shrine's three great portable shrines are carried through the neighbourhood's streets by roughly two million participants and spectators. Held the third Friday to Sunday of May.
Tokyo Big Sight, Ariake
22 May - 23 (dates to be confirmed)
Asia's largest freeform art event, with thousands of booths of independent illustrators, craftspeople, fashion makers, and performers selling and showing work across Tokyo Big Sight's halls. The spring edition usually lands on a late-May weekend.
Horikiri Shobuen Iris Garden, Horikiri
25 May - 13 Jun (dates to be confirmed)
Roughly 6,000 irises of 200 varieties, many of them Edo-period cultivars, bloom in the garden that appears in Hiroshige's woodblock prints. A second venue at Mizumoto Park adds about 14,000 more plants, with weekend stage events and evening lighting.
Tokyo International Forum, Yurakucho
1st and 3rd Sundays of the month (dates occasionally shift, no August edition)
Japan's largest outdoor antique market, held on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month with 250 or so dealers selling old kimono, ceramics, woodblock prints, and retro homeware. Dates occasionally shift and there is usually no August edition, so check the official schedule before going.
Hanazono Shrine, Shinjuku
Almost every Sunday, roughly 6:30am to 3pm, except festival days and rain
Small, atmospheric antique market held almost every Sunday from early morning in the grounds of Shinjuku's Hanazono Shrine, with 25 to 40 stalls of old ceramics, kimono, coins, and curios. Skipped on festival weekends and in bad weather, so go early and have a backup plan.
Yasukuni Shrine outer approach, Kudanshita
Sundays, sunrise to sunset, weather permitting
A modest Sunday antique market along the tree-lined outer approach to Yasukuni Shrine, with 10 to 20 dealers selling pottery, old tools, and militaria from sunrise to sunset. Small enough to browse in half an hour on the way to the shrine or nearby Chidorigafuchi.
Koganji Temple and Jizo-dori Shopping Street, Sugamo
4th, 14th, and 24th of every month
Temple fair days at Koganji, home of the healing Togenuki Jizo, held on the 4th, 14th, and 24th of every month when food and trinket stalls line Jizo-dori shopping street. Nicknamed the Harajuku for grandmas, it is one of Tokyo's most charming old-school street scenes.
Kishimojin Temple, Zoshigaya
3rd Sunday of the month, 10am to 4pm (check the schedule, some months move or skip)
Craft market held on the third Sunday of most months in the cedar-shaded grounds of Kishimojin Temple, where up to 200 makers may only sell things they made themselves. One of the best places in Tokyo to buy ceramics, leather goods, and prints directly from the artists.
Takahata Fudoson Kongoji Temple, Hino
3rd Sunday of the month, 8am to 4pm
Around 120 dealers fill the grounds of this major Kanto temple on the third Sunday of every month, selling old kimono, clocks, toys, and farmhouse finds. The name Gozare roughly means anything goes as long as it is old, and prices run cheaper than central Tokyo markets.
United Nations University plaza, Aoyama
Every Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 4pm
Tokyo's best-known farmers market runs every Saturday and Sunday on the plaza in front of the United Nations University, with around 50 stalls of produce, honey, coffee, and baked goods from farms across Japan. An easy, food-truck-fuelled stop between Shibuya and Omotesando.
Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine, Fukagawa
Antique market on 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th Sundays; flea market on the 15th and 28th of every month
This Edo-era shrine in old-town Fukagawa runs an antique market on most Sundays plus a bigger flea market on the 15th and 28th of each month, with dealers in Imari porcelain, old kimono, and vintage toys. Markets pause in January and are cancelled in rain.
Oi Racecourse, Shinagawa
Most Saturdays and Sundays (skips race days, check the calendar)
Tokyo's biggest regular flea market takes over the Oi Racecourse parking area most Saturdays and Sundays, with 300 to 600 stalls of secondhand clothes, household goods, toys, and the occasional genuine antique. Pure local bargain-hunting rather than a curated antiques fair.
Ark Hills, Ark Karajan Place, Akasaka
Every Saturday, 10am to 2pm
One of Tokyo's longest-running weekly marches, held every Saturday morning at Ark Hills since 2009 with farmers and small producers selling vegetables, bread, and prepared food. A relaxed local scene ten minutes from Roppongi.
Ark Hills, Ark Karajan Place, Akasaka
4th Sunday of the month (2nd Sunday in December), 11am to 5pm
Around 70 vendors of antiques, vintage jewellery, art, and old kimono fill the plaza at Ark Hills on the fourth Sunday of each month, moving to the second Sunday in December. More polished and design-minded than the shrine markets, with food stalls alongside.
Tokyo Ryutsu Center, Heiwajima
About five times a year over three days, typically March, May, July or September, and December (Sep 13-15 and Dec 6-8 in 2026)
Japan's biggest indoor antiques fair, held about five times a year over three days with nearly 300 dealers from across the country under one roof. Because it is indoors it runs rain or shine, making it the safest bet of Tokyo's big antique events.
9 events are listed for May 2027: 4 festivals, 2 gardens, 2 performances and 1 exhibition. 3 have confirmed dates and 6 are annual events whose exact 2027 dates are still to be announced, shown with their usual window. Every listing links to the interactive map.
Golden Week fills the first week with domestic travellers. After it, warm dry days, and the big shrine festivals: Kanda Matsuri in odd years and Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa every year.
Near-term events are refreshed every week as organisers announce dates, and finished events drop off automatically. Annual events further out carry their typical dates until the official ones are published.