45 best Golden Week 2024 events in Tokyo

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:

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.

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