From exhibits celebrating 50-year-old dress up dolls and cats to a farmer’s market and dance events to an abundance of spring fests, there’s something for everyone this week in Japan.
Monday: Dress up time (Tokyo)
Licca’s 50th Anniversary Exhibition
Japan’s beloved dress-up girls’ doll Licca is celebrating a half-century! This exhibition features approximately 580 Licca dolls including her family and friends dressed in fashion trends spanning the decades. Special items including Licca dollhouses, documents describing her creation and little-seen memorabilia will be on display, as well.
When & Where
- March 26-28
- 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
- Fukuoka City Museum - Map
- ¥900
Tuesday: Revel in it (Tokyo)
Spring Festival in Tokyo
“The Duet,” composed of Eri Nakamura (soprano) and Daichi Fujiki(countertenor) perform a program entitled “Harmonies Created by Two World-Acclaimed Voices” as part of the Spring Festival in Tokyo, one of the nation’s biggest classical music events. The singers will interpret compositions by Mozart, Handel, Puccini and many more at the Ishibashi Memorial Hall, Ueno Gakuen. Centering around Ueno Onshi Park and encompassing many institutions including Ueno’s museums and the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Recital Hall, the Spring Festival attracts Japan’s leading musicians and overseas start of the likes of pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja.
When & Where
- March 27-April 15
- Various
- Ueno Onshi Park and others, Tokyo - Map
- Various
Wednesday: Hanami without crowds (Yamagata)
Yamadera Basho Memorial Hall Spring Festival
If you really want to escape the crowds of frenzied sakura-chasers, follow Japan’s most famous poet and literary voyager Matsuo Basho, who spent a good amount of time in Yamagata, to Yamadera and the Basho Memorial Hall Spring Festival. During nights of the sakura season, trees lining the river adjacent to the museum are illuminated in a magnificent display of yozakura. Arrive early and spend some time perusing the exhibit of beautiful 17th century art and calligraphy.
When & Where
- March 28-April 15
- From sundown
- Basho Memorial Hall, Yamagata Pref. - Map
- Free
Thursday: Foot tapping, finger snapping fun (Tokyo)
One of Japan’s most adventurous and durable jazz pianists joins forces with a crop of fellow jazz explorers. Makoto Ozone not only possesses fearsome technique but a restless spirit of inquiry. He’ll be in excitable company with the likes of Arild Andersen, a leading Scandinavian bass player since the early 70s who’s worked with artists like Don Cherry and George Russell. Also on the bill at Tokyo’s finest jazz join are Scottish sax man Tommy Smith and Italian Italian composer and drummer Paolo Vinaccia.
When & Where
- March 29
- 6:30 p.m. & 9 p.m.
- Blue Note Tokyo - Map
- ¥8,500
Friday: Dance, dance (Osaka)
Petre Inspirescu Japan tour 2018
Romanian DJ and producer Petre Inspirescu brings his love of house and techno to Osaka’s Circus. Well-known for his experimental take on 120 beats per minute, Inspirescu’s after-hour sets are the stuff of legend. As a producer, he makes the sort of mysterious, otherworldly house tracks that Resident Adviser says ”result in those WTF dance floor moments
When & Where
- March 30
- 11 p.m.
- Circus Osaka - Map
- ¥2,500
Saturday: Farm fresh (Tokyo)
Farmers market
Since 2009, farmers market Hills Marche has enlivened the area around Ark Hills every Saturday with truckloads of organic vegetables and fruits, freshly baked bread, and a variety of cheese and wine. Staff from neighborhood eateries frequent the market to hold lessons featuring ingredients found there. While you’re there check out restaurant-cafe/store Fukushimaya in the south tower. Founder Toru Fukushima works with producers the nation over to deliver fresh meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, all of them additive free.
When & Where
- March 31
- 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
- Ark Hills, Roppongi - Map
- Free
Sunday: Art of the feline variety (Tokyo)
Genichiro Inokuma’s World: Dear Cats
Genichiro Inokuma (1902-1993) lived in a flamboyant world of art during the Showa era and maintained an unmatched style that left a group of unique paintings. He was known for his blind love for cats, sometimes keeping a dozen as pets, and they were always an important motif. This exhibition invites viewers to first enjoy the paintings in which he portrayed his beloved felines, as a gate to Inokuma's world via over a hundred oil and water paintings and sketches of cats owned by Marugame Genichiro Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art.
When & Where
- April 1-17
- 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
- Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo - Map
- ¥1,300
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