Iwashimizu Hachimangu, a Shinto Shrine in Yawata, Kyoto, has announced that a 5-day light-up event will take place from February 10 to 14 at the site’s main shrine which is listed as a national treasure of Japan.

Following government guidelines in response to COVID-19, the event will feature LED illuminations, glowing exhibits from craftsmen, lights made by locals from materials such as bamboo, and more, all in the hopes of creating a bit of evening-time sightseeing in the area. The event will also be streamed live online for those unable to attend where viewers can also enjoy watching ceremonial dance by shrine maidens.

Universal Studios Japan is set to spring into Easter starting on March 12 with the announcement of Universal Easter Celebration 2021. This year, which marks the 20th anniversary since USJ opened, will see the park’s cute and iconic characters once again lull guests into an unforgettable Easter dream at Universal Wonderland and Minion Park.

Universal Easter Celebration

USJ will see colourful pastel decorations cover the Universal Wonderland and Minion Park areas, and the characters too will be dressed in their seasonal Easter costumes. A special Easter rendition of the Wonderland Seasons Joy show will also take place to commemorate the park’s 20th anniversary with song and dance.

Wonderland Seasons Joy ~Easter Ver.~

Minion Park Easter

The park will also introduced a special egg hunt after Elmo and the Minions dropped some of their eggs. If you manage to find them all you get a limited-edition gold medal. USJ is also taking the Easter festivities online too with a special celebratory live stream called Let’s Cooking! Kawaii Easter Party

WIZARDING WORLD and all related trademarks, characters, names, and indicia are © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Publishing Rights © JKR. (s21)
Minions and all related elements and indicia TM & © 2021 Universal Studios. All rights reserved.
TM & © 2021 Sesame Workshop
© 2021 Peanuts Worldwide LLC TM & © Universal Studios & Amblin Entertainment
Universal Studios Japan TM & © Universal Studios. All rights reserved.

© Nintendo

Nana’s Green Tea is serving up a brand-new dessert in collaboration with Häagen-Dazs for Valentine’s Day at 77 branches in Japan. The dessert was released on January 6 and will be available up to February 14.

Matcha Chocolate Glass with Häagen-Dazs | ¥880 (Before Tax)

The dessert is a tempting sight to behold – not only is it delicious but visually appealing to the eye too, and layered with various textures so that every bite is a surprise.

The dessert is made with Häagen-Dazs’ “Sweet Chocolate” ice cream coupled with Nana’s Green Tea’s own original matcha ice cream, soft and crunchy meringue sticks, crumbled cookies, white chocolate whipped cream, and matcha chiffon cake. Sat at the bottom waiting to be discovered is a sweet strawberry sauce for a tangy kick.

The plum blossoms of Odawara Flower Garden, which is located in Odawara, Kanagawa, are at the height of their blossom right now. The park’s Keiryu no Baien (“Mountain Stream Plum Garden”) area boasts the largest collection of plum blossoms in Japan’s Kanto region, with 480 trees spanning 200 species.

480 individual Japanese ayame plum blossoms of 200 varieties will adorn the garden once again this year. The event has a different theme each year, with this year’s focusing on the interweaving of red and white coloured flowers on each tree branch.

Visitors will be able to see the beautiful colour combination from many different iris varieties such as the murui-shibori which sometimes sees red safflowers come to life, the wachigai which witnesses wonderful variegated flowering, the impeccably beautiful maki-tateyama, and more.

2021 Keiryu no Baien
Running: January 23, 2021 – March 7, 2021
Location: Odawara Flower Garden
Address: 3798-5 Kuno, Odawara, Kanagawa
Entry: Free
Parking: Free
Opening Hours: 9:00-17:00

*No holidays for the duration of the event – open every day

Keiryu no Baien Guide Tour

Takayuki Otsubo, the president of the garden, is also an advisor on the management of its plants. He will be offering a detailed tour for the event.

Date: February 21, 2021
Times: 10:30 / 13:30 (1 hour each)
Participation: Free
Capacity: 30 per slot (first-come, first-served)

*Tour will be held seated indoors if it rains

Keiryu no Baien Flowers and Kimono Girls

A kimono rental and fitting service will be available at the event so visitors can take photo next to the gorgeous flowers while adorned in traditional Japanese dress.

Date: February 13, 2021
Time: 9:30-16:00 (Bookable slots)
Price: ¥3,000 (Tax/Rental/Fitting included)
No. of People: 15 (Booking required)
Bookings: By phone call by February 7, 2021
TEL: 0465-34-2814

*Must be at least 140m tall
*Visitors are asked to do their own makeup
*Male kimono are available in limited quantities

Plum Menu

The Odawara Flower Garden cafe, Cafe Hibiscus, is serving a selection of plum blossom themed meals and drinks for the festival. This includes the above-pictured new soba noodle dish, which is topped with plum pulp grown in Odawara as well as kamaboko fish cake, shrimp fritters, and spring onion. The broth in particular is worth of note which the staff went to great lengths to create. There’s also plum blossom ice cream too made with nanko plums, as well as other delicious bites.

Plum Blossom Festival Soba Noodles – ¥600 (Tax Included) / With Drink ¥700 (Tax Included)

Plum Ice Cream – ¥380 (Tax Included)

Location: Cafe Hibiscus
Opening Hours: 10:00-16:00 (Last Orders 15:30)
*No holidays for the duration of the event – open every day

Plum Blossom Souvenirs

A selection of plum blossom-themed souvenirs will be available like umeboshi dried plum, plum jelly, and more.

Available: From early January 2021
Location: Entrance souvenir corner
Opening Hours: 9:00-17:00

Saryo FUKUCHA in Kyoto is now serving up a very special selection of succulent strawberry and matcha parfaits until May 30, 2021. These exquisite delights will see only 10 made of each per day.

Saryo FUKUCHA is a cafe that was opened by FUKUJUEN in Kyoto Station in April 2019. This year, they have brought back their extremely popular strawberry and matcha parfaits : the Konome, Konoha, and Konoka. They have also introduced a new addition to the line-up: the Strawberry & Matcha Milk Parfait. Also on the menu is a strawberry matcha latte.

Matcha & Strawberry Parfaits

Konome | ¥1,350

Konoha | ¥1,450

Konoka | ¥1,550

Strawberry Matcha Milk Parfait | ¥800

Strawberry Matcha Latte | ¥650

Discover the taste of Japanese tea in a new way with Saryo FUKUCHA’s matcha and strawberry parfaits and latte.

Universal Studios Japan (USJ) announced last month that its highly-anticipated new Super Nintendo World area will open on February 4, 2021, which also happens to fall on the day of USJ’s 20th anniversary.

Super Nintendo World comes as the world’s first theme park area to be based around Nintendo’s characters and games, combining innovative ideas with cutting-edge technology.

With just one month left until the grand opening, USJ has launched a special website for Super Nintendo World which offers a virtual tour through each part of the new theme park area. Mario fanatics are sure to be delighted by the adornments from Bowser’s Castle to Pipes, Mushrooms, Question blocks, and more, as well as familiar faces like Goombas, Thwomps, Yoshi—the list goes on.

Accessing the site will bring you to an overview of the map. As you scroll down the website takes you on a virtual journey to each of its iconic attractions, all of which are designed to make you feel like you’re really in the world of Super Mario.

Art collective teamLab has announced the opening of teamLab Reconnect: Art with Rinkan Sauna Roppongi which will run for half a year starting this March in Roppngi, Tokyo.

Since 2019, teamLab has been combining saunas with digital art to create wholly new and unique sauna experiences never before seen.

teamLab Reconnect’s aim is not to offer a luxury and high-end venue for seeing artwork, but to put visitors into a luxurious state to experience the art. Through contrast bath therapy, where visitors are placed in a hot sauna followed by cold water and then relaxation, they can open their minds and senses to a variety of artworks and in essence become part of the art itself. teamLab hopes this will enable visitors to realise their own existence―their mind, body, and environment―and in turn ‘reconnect’ with the world and time.

Levitation
teamLab, 2021, Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

teamLab Reconnect will welcome a variety of new artworks based on teamLab’s new art project ‘Supernature Phenomenon’ which captures different natural phenomena in nature.

Proliferating Immense Life – A Whole Year per Year
teamLab, 2020, Interactive Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

This artwork captures the life cycle of flowers. It is not a pre-recorded image that is played back; it is created by a computer program that continuously renders the work in real time. The interaction between people and the installation causes continuous change in the artwork, meaning previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur.

Since opening their sauna in Mifuneyama Rakuen in Kyushu back in 2019, which won the SAUNACHELIN two years in a row in 2019 and 2020, teamLab has gone on to create new works of sauna art such as teamLab: A Forest Where Gods Live and teamLab Ruins and Heritage: Rinkan Spa & Tea Ceremony.

Solare Hotels and Resorts has announced that a new branch of hotels androoms will open in Kyoto Shijo on March 6, 2021. In the run up to its grand opening, the company has opened a website where guests can book hotels with Solare Hotels and Resorts at the cheapest possible price. The website will begin rolling out more information about each hotel on the site through the year.

Access

hotel androoms Kyoto Shijo is located a convenient 5-minute walk from Kyoto Station’s Karasuma Line section and 7 minutes from the Central Exit in the JR section, placing it within close distance to many of Kyoto’s sightseeing spots.

The hotel offers seven different room types from standard to double to premium twin. One room can house a maximum of three people, accommodating groups and families. It also promises to be packed with a variety of exclusive services you won’t find at other hotels.

Specialty coffee by Unir Kyoto

hotel androoms Kyoto Shijo will welcome the opening of a new branch of Unir inside the hotel which serves coffee made from specially-selected coffee beans. The coffee is hand-roasted on site with baristas pouring their love and skill into every cup.

Breakfast delivered right to your room

The morning time is your time and should be used as you please without you having to rush around, so says the hotel, and so it offers a breakfast delivery service which must be booked in advance.

Relax and unwind in the modern-style baths

Those looking for a little relaxation can look forward to pushing all their stresses aside in a modern bathing area which is inspired by a cave. It’s open from 3pm-2am and again from 6am-10am.

If you’re planning a trip to Kyoto and want a hotel with easy access to all the hot spots then be sure to consider hotel androoms Kyoto Shijo.

An event centred on the TV anime series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is now taking place in Kyoto at Toei Kyoto Studio Park, Kyoto Railway Museum, and Shijō-Ōmiya Station and Arashiyama Station on the The Keifuku Randen Tram Line until March 14, 2021. Fans of the series can participate in a ‘keyword rally’ where they’ll be walking around Kyoto trying to locate specific words to win prizes, enjoy unique Demon Slayer exhibits at each of the venues, gets their hands on original merch, tuck into themed food, and more.

Pins (17 Designs) | ¥440 Each (*Design chosen is random)

Long Chocolate Baumkuchen | ¥1,080

Merch includes pins of the anime series’s main characters, a special baumkuchen cake based on the Infinity Train from the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train film, and more. Online orders are also available in Japan at Chugaionline.

Fans still hyped over Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train, which broke records in Japan to become the highest-grossing film of all time in the country, can expect to stock up even more of their favourites for their collection at the event.

©吾峠呼世晴／集英社・アニプレックス・ufotable

What is being dubbed as a new sightseeing spot in Shibuya, “KISS,TOKYO,” an artistic bench, appeared at Shibuya River Street on Christmas Day. The street runs from SHIBUYA STREAM towards Daikanyama.

About KISS,TOKYO

“KISS,TOKYO” is a project and nod towards those who love Tokyo, taking inspiration from the “I♡NY” slogan and logo. Japan isn’t a country where kisses are used as greetings like other places around the world, but the bold notion of “KISS,TOKYO” expresses the feeling of love wards the people and city. It’s a mark to welcome visitors to the capital of Japan.

The bench was made in cooperation with the Shibuya City Tourism Association and Tokyu and under a crowdfunder.

Pop-Up Store

A pop-up shop is now open at WIRED SHIBUYA selling merchandise with the KISS,TOKYO logo on it. It will run until January 31, 2021.

If you’re planning a trip to Shibuya, make sure you get a photo with the city’s new sightseeing and tourist spot.

Illumination and light-up events are a huge part of winter and the holiday season in Japan, but when Christmas ends, many of them are turned off until next year. But there are still some that run through the New Year holidays and into early spring, so we’ve compiled a list of 5 must-visit illumination and light-up spots to visit over the next couple of months.

Please note that the times and dates of these events are subject to change depending on the COVID-19 situation.

Tochigi: The Garden of Illuminated Flowers ~Flower Fantasy 2020~

Ashikaga Flower Park in Ashikaga, Tochigi, is holding an illumination event for winter called “The Garden of Illuminated Flowers ~Flower Fantasy 2020~” until February 7, 2021. Held for the 19th time this year, the event was ranked among the Top 3 biggest light-up events in Japan in 2017 alongside Sapporo White Illuminations and Huis Ten Bosch Illuminations. It was also ranked top by night view critics in Japan as the best illumination event for four consecutive years.

Full Details: https://www.moshimoshi-nippon.jp/366535 

▼The Garden of Illuminated Flowers ~Flower Fantasy 2020~

Address: 607 Hasamacho, Ashikaga, Tochigi
Running: October 17, 2020 – February 7, 2021
Official Website: https://www.ashikaga.co.jp/flowerfantasy_special2020/en/index.html

▼MIDTOWN WINTER MOMENTS

Tokyo Midtown’s winter season event ‘MIDTOWN WINTER MOMENTS’ is running until February 28, 2021. “ANOTHER WORLD” is the concept for this year’s rendition of the annual event, which is enjoying new winter illuminations, Christmas decorations, an ice rink, and plenty of other fun experiences for people to enjoy throughout the entire day, right into the evening. A highlight of the event is the “MIDTOWN WINTER LIGHTS,” warm illuminations to light fires in hearts during the cold winter season that will create a dazzling spectacle the likes of which cannot be missed.

Full Details: https://www.moshimoshi-nippon.jp/366420

▼MIDTOWN WINTER MOMENTS
Running: November 19, 2020 – February 28, 2021
Official Website: https://www.tokyo-midtown.com

Kanagawa: SAGAMIKO ILLUMILLION’s ‘Pokémon Illuminations’

Lake Sagami Pleasure Forest’s annual SAGAMIKO ILLUMILLION winter event is taking place until April 4, 2021, and this year, it has brought that a new Pokémon with Pokémon illuminations. Wild Pokémon illuminations roam everywhere and there are plenty of Pokémon photo spots to take your picture with including Pikachu sleeping in the forest, Charmander taking a nap by an open-air, and more.

Full Details: https://www.moshimoshi-nippon.jp/375427

▼SAGAMIKO ILLUMILLION
Address: 1634 Wakayanagi, Midori-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa
Running: November 14, 2020 – April 4, 2021
Illumination Times: 16:00-21:00 (Last Entries 20:30)
*Illumination times to begin from 17:00 starting in February
Official Website: https://www.sagamiko-resort.jp/illumillion/

Nagano: Karuizawa Shiraito Falls Midwinter Light Up

Shiraito Highland Way is holding this year’s Karuizawa Shiraito Falls Midwinter Light Up until February 14, 2021. Karuizawa Shiraito Falls is a 3-meter tall waterfall that spans 70-meters in length. The lights add a warmth to the cool evening and glow under a starry night sky. The event creates a different atmosphere from the summer light-up, allowing visitors to enjoy the enveloping nature in a way that they normally can’t and see beauty they may not have noticed in the area before.

Full Details: https://www.moshimoshi-nippon.jp/379120

▼Karuizawa Shiraito Falls Midwinter Light Up
Location: Karuizawa Shiraito Falls
Running: December 19, 2020 – February 14, 2021
・Christmas Session: December 19th-20th, 24th-27th (17:00-19:00)
・New Year Session: January 2nd-3rd, 8th-11th (17:00-19:00)
・St.Valentine Session: February 11th-14th (17:30-19:30)

Access: https://karuizawa-shw.com/access/

*Please see the website for the latest information
*Entry restrictions may be made depending on the number of visitors

Official Website: https://karuizawa-shw.com/

Shizuoka: Hikari no Sumika Winter Illuminations

Toki no Sumika is hosting its 19th annual winter illumination event “Hikari no Sumika” until March 21, 2021. There are many different illumination areas to enjoy at the event, like the Forest of Trees Illuminations, the 370m-long Tunnel of Lights, and more.

Full Details: https://www.moshimoshi-nippon.jp/359381

▼Hikari no Sumika 2020-2021
Running: September 18, 2020 – March 21, 2021
Address: Gotemba Kogen Toki no Sumika, 719 KōyamaGotemba, Shizuoka
Illumination Times: 17:30-22:00
Car Park Spaces: 2,000
Enquiries: 0550-87-3700 (9:00-20:00)

Official Website: http://www.tokinosumika.com/illuminations2017/renewal/

Doraemon’s official shop Doraemon Future Department Store, which is located in Odaiba, Tokyo, is celebrating its 1st anniversary of opening this December by opening two limited-time shops in Osaka and Nagoya this month and January respectively. Fans can get their hands on a selection of exclusive merchandise and more.

Customise Service

The pop-up shops will offer a customisation service which lets customers have different embroideries put into the T-shirts, tote bags, and other merch they buy. The work is done on the spot by hand so you can see the result of what will be a very special item of which only one exists in the world. Perfect for Doraemon fans and gifts to friends and family.

Post Office

The shop will offer a postal service for sending off Doraemon letters and postcards with original Doraemon stamps.

Bonus Items

1st Anniversary Postcard

Mini Tote Bag

Those who buy anything from the department stores will receive a free 1st anniversary postcard. And for every ¥5,000 spent (tax included) they’ll get a mini tote bag. These are all limited in stock so you’ll want to get them while they’re hot.

If you’re in Osaka or Nagoya over the New Year be sure to pay a visit to the Doraemon Future Department Store pop-up shops.

©Fujiko-Pro