Things to do this week in Tokyo

Posted on May 27, 2013 by tokiotours

Nobuyoshi Araki: EroReal

Until Sat Jun 22, 2013 Taka Ishii Gallery

Porn mags? ‘They’re doing it wrong,’ says Nobuyoshi Araki. ‘It’s not about an ambiance or concept; it’s about being real. Not realism, but real – ero-real.’ As someone whose work has often teetered on the line between art and porn, the 72-year-old photographer should probably know. His latest solo show at Taka Ishii Gallery – the 20th to date – offers an alternative to pin-up clichés, featuring 50 of Araki’s attempts to evoke what he calls ‘erotic presence.’ Sometimes the models even get to keep their clothes on.

Details

Open May 25-June 22 Closed Sun, Mon & hols

Time Tue-Sat noon-7pm

Admission Free

Venue Taka Ishii Gallery

Address 5F, 1-3-2 Kiyosumi, Koto-ku, Tokyo

Transport Kiyosumishirakawa station (Hanzomon, Oedo lines), exit A3.

Mitsuaki Iwago: Go With Cats

水 5月 29 – 月 6月 10, 2013 Mitsukoshi Nihombashi main store
Well-known wildlife photographer Mitsuaki Iwago latches onto one of the internet’s favourite memes for his latest exhibition, which coincides with the release of a new, feline-focused photobook. Go With Cats collects 222 images (spot the pun, Japanese readers!) from Iwago’s many encounters with his furry friends, with sections devoted to his travels overseas, around Japan, and portraits of his own pets. Look out for the photographer himself at a series of signings, held on May 29-31 and June 1, 2, 8 and 9.

Details

Open May 29-June 10

Time Daily 10am-7pm (June 10 until 5pm)

Admission Adults ¥800, high school & junior high scholl students ¥600, elementary and under free

Telephone 03 3241 3311

Venue Mitsukoshi Nihombashi main store

Address 1-4-1 Nihombashi-Muromachi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

Transport Mitsukoshi-mae Station (Ginza, Hanzomon lines)

Irma Thomas

Wed May 29 – Thu May 30, 2013 Billboard Live
The Grammy-winning ‘Soul Queen of New Orleans‘ – who started her career aged 13, singing in a Baptist choir and whose 1962 single, ‘It’s Raining’, was revived by Jim Jarmusch in his movie Down By Law – stretches her impressive lungs at Billboard Live.

Details

Open May 29-30

Time 1st show: Doors 5.30pm. Gig 7pm; 2nd show: Doors 8.45pm. Gig 9.30pm

Admission Service area ¥8,800, casual area ¥6,800

Venue Billboard Live

Address Tokyo Midtown Garden Terrace 4F, 9-7-4, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Transport Roppongi Station ( Toei Oedo Line, Hibiya Line : Exit 8 )

Grand Recipes of Love Gala Party

Thu May 30, 2013 Grand Hyatt Tokyo (Banquet Rooms)
As Roppongi Hills celebrates its 10th anniversary this spring, the Grand Hyatt Tokyo is getting in on the act with a series of events of its own, the glitziest of which is this black-tie gala party on May 30. ‘Grand Recipes of Love’ kicks off with a round of cocktails, followed by a live cooking station dinner showcasing the hotel’s seven restaurants. Once you’ve polished off dessert, you can take in a gig by Fab Four cover band The Bootleg Beatles, then hit the dancefloor for a disco session that keeps rolling until midnight. Reservations are being taken at 03 4333 8838, and the hotel is offering double rooms at a discounted rate of ¥25,000 to party guests looking to stay the night.

Details

Open May 30

Time 7pm-midnight

Admission ¥35,000

Venue Grand Hyatt Tokyo (Banquet Rooms)

Address 6-10-3 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Transport Roppongi station (Hibiya line), exit 1C; (Oedo line), exit 3.

 

Komazawa Oktoberfest 2013

Fri May 31 – Sun Jun 9, 2013 Komazawa Olympic Park General Sports Ground
If you happened to miss the October fest in Odaiba and Hibiya park, there is more on the way! Swing by to  Komazawa Olympic Park. This one promises to be the most sedate of the bunch, thanks to a slightly out-of-the-way location, though you can expect the same mix of sauerkraut, sausages and pricey German brews served in proper glass tankards.

Details

Open May 31-June 9

Time Mon-Fri 4pm-10pm, Sat, Sun 11am-10pm

Admission Free

Venue Komazawa Olympic Park General Sports Ground

Address 1-1 Komazawa-Koen, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

Transport Komazawa-Daigaku Station (Denentoshi line)

Raffaello

Until Sun Jun 2, 2013 National Museum of Western Art
Ueno’s National Museum of Western Art has a surefire blockbuster on its hands with this Raphael exhibition, billed as the first large-scale show of the Renaissance painter’s work ever to be held outside Europe. There will be approximately 20 of his oil paintings and sketches featured, among them Ezekiel’s Vision (pictured), Portrait of a Young Woman (also known as La Muda) and Madonna del Granduca, which is being shown in Japan for the first time. These are complemented by a range of works by Raphael’s contemporaries, including prints and decorative pieces that were based on his paintings and designs.

Details

Open March 2-June 2 Closed Mon (except April 29, May 6), May 7

Time Tue-Sun 9.30pm-5.30pm (Fri until 8pm)

Admission Adults ¥1,500, students ¥1,200, high school & junior high students ¥800

Venue National Museum of Western Art

Address 7-7 Ueno Koen, Taito-ku, Tokyo

Transport Ueno station (Yamanote line), park exit; (Ginza, Hibiya lines), Shinobazu exit.

 

Bakuon Film Festival 2013

Fri May 31 – Sat Jun 8, 2013 Kichijoji Baus Theater
Tokyo’s noisiest film festival returns at the start of the summer for another fortnight of ‘explosions of sound’. Bakuon Film Festival started six years ago, with a simple concept: whatever the film, it had to be loud, and it had to sound good. With towering speaker stacks lending an added whallop to each screening, it isn’t for the faint-hearted – and that’s before you factor in special events like the live soundtracked showing of F.W. Murnau’sNosferatu on June 3, courtesy of psychedelic guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto. The program includes some predictably in-yer-face offerings (Natural Born Killers, Carrie, Scanners), though also more low-key entries like Ben Rivers’ Two Years at Sea and Nicholas Ray’s lost experimental feature, We Can’t Go Home Again. There’s also a special section devoted to Michael Cimino, the cinematic auteur whose career bloomed with The Deer Hunterand then imploded with Heaven’s Gate.

Details

Open May 31-June 8

Time Screening times vary

Admission Regular screenings ¥1,300 (¥3,500 for three); prices vary for special events and screenings

Twitter boid_bakuon

Venue Kichijoji Baus Theater

Address 1-11-23 Kichijoji-Honmachi, Musashino-shi, Tokyo

Transport Kichijoji Station (Chuo, Keio Inokashira lines), north exit.

 

Cassandra Wilson

Fri May 31 – Sun Jun 2, 2013 Blue Note Tokyo
On last year’s Another Country, esteemed New Orleans jazz singer Cassandra Wilson touched on Italian favorites, plaintive British folk, nimble Brazilian pop, low-slung American blues and more, infusing each with her trademark shadowed sensuality. Expect to hear songs both new and old when she heads to the Blue Note with a band featuring many of her regular foils, including harmonica player Gregoire Maret, guitarist Brandon Ross and dazzling percussionist Mino Cinelu.

Details

Open May 31-June 2

Time May 31 – 1st show: Doors 5.30pm. Gig 7pm; 2nd show: Doors 8.45pm. Gig 9.30pm
June 1-2 – 1st show: Doors 3.45pm. Gig 5pm; 2nd show: Doors 7pm. Gig 8pm

Admission ¥8,400 adv

Venue Blue Note Tokyo

Address Raika Bldg, 6-3-16 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Transport Omotesando station (Chiyoda, Ginza, Hanzomon lines), exit B3.

Oblivion

This Tom Cruise sci-fi flick ‘plods even as it dazzles’

Oblivion

Director: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough

If one man is to be entrusted with designing our future, we could do worse than architecture graduate Joseph Kosinski. Whatever its other shortcomings, Kosinski’s 2010 directorial debut, Tron: Legacy, constructed a virtual-reality universe so sharply dressed and decorated it was hard to see why the characters kept trying to escape.

He has repeated that trick in his follow-up, Oblivion, a sleek sci-fi playground of gleaming cloud palaces, where French hipsters M83 provide the electro-classical beats and even Tom Cruise’s dirtied radiation suit looks runway-ready. Set in 2077, 60 years after aliens supposedly laid waste to our planet and forced humanity into this chic sky shelter, Oblivionsuggests the apocalypse may not be all bad news.

One person not delighting in this fashion-forward future is Cruise’s plaid-favouring Jack Harper, a former Marine now plundering our scorched Earth for its few remaining resources. With memories of their past lives wiped, Jack and his lover Victoria (Andrea Riseborough, sadly playing little more than a switchboard operator with benefits) work dutifully under the command of Melissa Leo’s Sally – essentially HAL with a perky Southern drawl. But when one of Jack’s missions turns up an oddly familiar-looking human time-traveller (Olga Kurylenko) from the year 2017, he is forced to question the rules of his existence.

The audience, meanwhile, will be questioning what those rules are in the first place, particularly when Harper is pursued by a parallel human race that has no obvious need for him. Like a haute couture designer with no grasp of ready-to-wear garb, Kosinski continues to lavish far more thought on how his elaborate fantasy worlds look than how they work, and neither the politics nor the human stakes here coalesce into rational or relatable drama. Oblivion finally plods even as it dazzles; a flick through Kosinski’s sketchbook would be quicker and equally impressive.

Oblivion opens nationwide on May 31

Big Beach Festival ’13

Sat Jun 1, 2013 Kaihin-Makuhari Park

The Tokyo-area offshoot of Fatboy Slim’s original Brighton beach party returns to the shores of not-so-scenic Makuhari this June for another dose of bikinis and big beats. Big Beach Festival ranks as one of the biggest dance events of the year, even if much of the assembled crowd is too busy cavorting and ogling to pay much attention to the music. That said, this year’s lineup is looking particularly strong: Norman Cook himself will be headlining, with a live set from fellow ’90s dance heroes Basement Jaxx and big-name DJs including Sasha, Erol Alkan and Maya Janes Coles. Here’s the complete lineup…

Erol Alkan, Ellen Allien, Banvox, Basement Jaxx, May Jane Coles, Fatboy Slim, Hot Since 82, Damian Lazarus, DJ Marc Panther, Nervo, Shinichi Osawa, Red Bull Thre3style Showcase (DJ Kentaro, Four Color Zack, DJ 8man, DJ Iku, DJ Tuskey), Sasha, Sekitova, Tom Staar, System of Survival.

Details

Open June 1

Time Doors 10am. Gig 11am (until 8.30pm)

Admission ¥10,500 adv

Venue Kaihin-Makuhari Park

 

Eco Life Fair 2013

Sat Jun 1 – Sun Jun 2, 2013 Yoyogi Park
Learn about environmental initiatives and meet some ‘eco idols’ at this annual, government-sponsored festival in Yoyogi Park. The Eco Life Fair looks to be rather more low-key than the park’s recent, insanely crowded Thai and Jamaica festivals, making it a better option if you’re looking for somewhere to take the kids over the weekend.

Details

Open June 1-2

Time June 1 11am-5pm, June 2 10am-5pm

Venue Yoyogi Park

Address 2-1 Yoyogi Kamizounocho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Transport Harajuku Station (Yamanote line), Yoyogi-Koen Station (Chiyoda line), Yoyogi-Hachiman station (Odakyu line)

Great Japan Beer Festival 2013 in Tokyo

Sat Jun 1 – Sun Jun 2, 2013 Yebisu The Garden Hall
It’s the highlight of the year for Tokyo’s hop heads: an afternoon of hardcore tasting, with over 100 varieties of craft beer on offer and the kinds of crowds you might expect on the Yamanote line during rush hour. Once you’ve paid the admission price for the Great Japan Beer Festival, you’re free to drink all the brews you can stomach for the next three-and-a-half hours (though bear in mind that you’ll be supping it from a 50ml tasting glass each time). Rare beers abound, with queues to match. Note that admission is limited to 1,500 people for each session, and the event often sells out, so you might want to pick up a ticket in advance.

Details

Open June 1-2

Time June 1: 11.30am-3pm, 4pm-7.30pm; June 2: 12.30pm-4pm

Admission ¥5,200 on the door; ¥4,800 adv

Venue Yebisu The Garden Hall

Address 1-3-2 Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo

Transport Ebisu Station (Yamanote, Shonan-Shinjuku, Hibiya lines)

 

Daido Moriyama 1965~

Sat Jun 1 – Sat Jul 20, 2013 Gallery 916
That great documenter of Japan’s post-war urban wildlife, photographer Daido Moriyama was recently the subject of a major show at London’s Tate Modern that paired him with American cohort William Klein. Neophytes and dedicated fans are both likely to appreciate this exhibition at the bayside Gallery 916, in which museum co-curator Yoshihiko Ueda (a highly regarded photographer himself) selects 70 key images from Moriyama’s vast catalogue, ranging from 1965 to the present.

Details

Open June 1-July 20 Closed Sun, Mon

Time Tue-Sat 11am-8pm (Sat & hols until 6.30pm)

Admission Adults ¥800

Venue Gallery 916

Address 6F No. 3 Suzue Bldg, 1-14-24 Kaigan, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Transport Takeshiba Station (Yurikamome line), Daimon Station (Oedo line)

Taico Club ’13

Sat Jun 1 – Sun Jun 2, 2013 Kodama no Mori, Nagano Prefecture

Long one of Japan’s better dance festivals, Taico Club put on an unusually strong showing in 2012 – Fuji Rock aside, it was probably our favourite music festival of the year. Can the 2013 edition repeat that success? The programming is as eclectic as ever: techno devotees like Ricardo Villalobos (who’s practically Taico Club’s patron saint), Zip and Magda are joined by the likes of bangin’ Warp Records producer Clark, indie darlings Of Montreal, saxophone colossus Colin Stetson and Diamond Version, a collaboration between avant-garde electronica vets Alva Noto and Byetone (with added help from Japan’s Atsuhiro ‘Optrum’ Ito). Also look out for local festival faves like Denki Groove, Rovo and Zainichi Funk. Here’s the complete lineup:

Cero, Clammbon, Clark, Denki Groove, Diamond Version + Atsuhiro Ito, Eye, JETS (Jimmy Edgar + Travis Stewart aka Machinedrum), Kishi Bashi, Takeshi Kubota, Machinedrum, Magda, Moodman, Nick the Record, Of Montreal, Polaris, Prefuse 73, Rovo, Sambomaster, Colin Stetson, Tycho, Ricardo Villalobos, XXYYXX, Zainichi Funk, Zip

Held at the mountainside Kodama no Mori campsite in Nagano Prefecture, Taico Club is within relatively easy striking distance from Tokyo, albeit more convenient by car than public transport.

Details

Open June 1-2

Time Gates 1pm. Gig 3pm (all night)

Admission ¥12,000 adv, ¥13,000 on the door

Venue Kodama no Mori, Nagano Prefecture

 

Big Beach Festival ’13 Official After Party

Sat Jun 1, 2013 AgeHa
While the Big Beach Festival is usually a heap of fun, the music itself can tend to get overshadowed by all the drunken revelry, bikini babes and other sources of seaside distraction. If you’d rather hear this year’s impressive lineup in a conventional club setting, the after party at Ageha might be a better option. Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook won’t be playing, but they’ve got DJ sets from Basement Jaxx, Sasha, Erol Alkan, Maya Jane Coles, Nervo and Shinichi Osawa – a high-calibre bill that should go some way to justifying the hefty ¥7,000 door charge (reduced to ¥5,500 if you’ve kept your Big Beach ticket stub).

Details

Open June 1

Time Doors 10pm

Admission ¥7,000 on the door; ¥5,500 with Big Beach ticket stub

Venue AgeHa

Address 2-2-10 Shinkiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo

Transport Shinkiba station (Rinkai, Yurakucho lines).

 

Circoloco Lifestyle

Sat Jun 1, 2013 Womb
After playing support to Fatboy Slim at the afternoon Big Beach Festival ’13 in Chiba, fellow Ibiza veterans Ellen Allien, Damian Lazarus and System of Sound will be heading to Womb for an all-night session dedicated to one of the Mediterranean island’s most famous parties, Circoloco. Local man Satoshi Otsuki also plays in the main room, with Shintaro.D and Julien Sato in the downstairs lounge.

Details

Open June 1

Time Doors 11pm

Admission ¥4,000 on the door

Venue Womb

Address 2-16 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Transport Shibuya Station (Yamanote, Ginza lines), Hachiko exit; (Hanzomon line), exit 3A.

Up Beat! 10th Anniversary

Sat Jun 1, 2013 Club Asia
What’s a Saturday night party without a few pyrotechnics? Expect some awesome turntable trickery from five-time DMC world team champions Kireek and last year’s overall DMC winner Izoh (the first Japanese DJ to clinch the title since DJ Kentaro in 2002). And if that isn’t all impressive enough already, they’ve also got a performance promised from the capital’s original jackasses, Tokyo Shock Boys.

Details

Open June 1

Time Doors 11pm

Admission ¥3,500 on the door; ¥3,000 with flyer

Venue Club Asia

Address 1-8 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Transport Shibuya station (Yamanote, Ginza lines), Hachiko exit; (Hanzomon line), exit 3A.

All-Night Extreme Cinema

Sat Jun 1, 2013 Shin-Bungeiza
Perhaps wary that the Bakuon Film Festival might lure away some of its regular customers, Shin-Bungeiza is upping the ante with the June 1 installment of its weekly all-nighters. The four ‘extreme’ films start with a couple of recent Time Out faves – po-mo horror The Cabin in the Woodsand bone-crunching actioner The Raid: Redemption – before following up with a couple of rather more humdrum efforts, Nazis-in-space comedy Iron Sky and apocalyptic indie flick Bellflower (pictured).

Details

Open June 1

Time 10pm-5.15am

Admission ¥2,200 on the door; ¥2,000 adv

Venue Shin-Bungeiza

Address Maruhan-Ikebukuro Bldg 3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo

Transport Ikebukuro station (Yamanote, Yurakucho lines), east exit; (Marunouchi line), exit 30

Design Ah!

Until Sun Jun 2, 2013 21_21 Design Sight
It’s all about the kids at 21_21 Design Sight’s first big show of 2013. Put together by the same team behind NHK educational program Design Ah!, the exhibition aims to foster young ‘design minds’ that can wade through the data overload of 21st century life to ‘determine the adequacy of the things around us’ – a laudable aim, if we might say so ourselves. With graphic designer (and show director) Taku Satoh, web designer Yugo Nakamura and musician Keigo ‘Cornelius’ Oyamada overseeing the proceedings, and a welter of hands-on, audio-visual exhibits promised, this should be just as much fun for parents as it is for the little ones.

Details

Open February 8-June 2 Closed Tue (except April 30)

Time Mon, Wed-Sun 10:30am-8pm

Admission Adults ¥1,000, students ¥800, high school & junior high school students ¥500

Telephone 03 3475 2121

Venue 21_21 Design Sight

Address 9-7-6 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Transport Roppongi Station (Oedo, Hibiya lines), Nogizaka Station (Chiyoda line)

Grand Exhibition of Sacred Treasures from Shinto Shrines

Until Sun Jun 2, 2013 Tokyo National Museum
Japan’s shrines are a repository for all manner of cultural riches, from divine statues to paintings to kimono, but (unsurprisingly) it’s not often that you get to see them all in one place. Timed to coincide with the 62nd relocation of Ise Jingu in Mie Prefecture, this lavish show collects notable works from shrines throughout Japan, a full 160 of which have been designated National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties.

Details

Open April 9-June 2 Closed Mon (except April 29, May 6), May 7

Time Tue-Thu 9.30am-5pm, Fri 9.30am-8pm, Sat, Sun & hols 9.30am-6pm

Admission Adults ¥1,500, students ¥1,200, high school students ¥900

Venue Tokyo National Museum

Address 13-9 Ueno Koen, Taito-ku, Tokyo

Transport Ueno Station (Ginza, Hibiya, Yamanote, Keihin-Tohoku lines)

New 10am Film Festival

Until Fri Mar 21, 2014 Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills Rakutenchi Cinemas Kinshicho, Tachikawa Cinema City, Toho Cinemas Fuchu

Toho’s popular 10am Film Festival – a season of morning movie screenings that allowed audiences to revisit classics from Belle de Jour to Back to the Future – looked set to bow out in 2013, yet another victim of the switchover from celluloid to digital. But fret not, cineastes: after some last-minute wrangling, the event will be continuing in a new, all-digital format. That’s not the only change, either – there are now four Tokyo-area cinemas taking part, with each film now getting an extended, two week run. The following list is for screenings at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills; see the official website for details of screenings at other participating cinemas (Japanese only):

April 6-19: The Last Adventure (Les aventuriers) (1967)
April 20-May 3: Roman Holiday (1953)
May 4-17: Pretty Woman (1990)
May 18-31: West Side Story (1961)
June 1-14: Rio Bravo (1959)
June 15-28: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
June 29-July 12: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
July 13-26: Ben Hur (1959)
July 27-August 9: Forrest Gump (1994)
August 10-23: Cinema Paradiso (1988)
August 24-September 6: Mary Poppins (1964)
September 7-20: Casablanca (1942)
September 21-October 4: Rocky (1976)
October 5-18: Enter the Dragon (1973)
October 19-November 1: The Godfather (1972)
November 2-15: The Godfather: Part II (1974)
November 16-29: The Day of the Jackal (1973)
November 30-December 13: The Towering Inferno (1974)
December 14-27: The Great Escape (1963)
December 28-January 10: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
January 11-24: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
January 25-February 7: Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
February 8-21: Gone with the Wind (1939)
February 22-March 7: Chariots of Fire (1981)
March 8-21: Psycho (1960)

Details

Open April 6-March 21 2014

Time Screenings from 10am

Admission Adults ¥1,000, students & children ¥500

Venue Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills Rakutenchi Cinemas Kinshicho, Tachikawa Cinema City, Toho Cinemas Fuchu

Address 6-10-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Transport Roppongi station (Hibiya line), exit 1C; (Oedo line), exit 3.

4th AQFF Asian Queer Film Festival

Until Sun Jun 2, 2013 Cinem@rt Roppongi
Filmmakers from countries including South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong and Cambodia are taking part in this year’s AQFF, a biennial festival that sheds light on the range of LGBT experiences in Asia. Tanwarin Sukkhapisit’s ladyboy-themed It Gets Better opens the festival, while One Night and Two Days, a trio of shorts by gay cinema pioneer Lee Song Hee-Il, closes the proceedings the following weekend. Films to look out in between include Kim Jho Kwang-soo’s Two Weddings and a Funeral – a feelgood romcom in which the main characters happen to be gay – and Saratsawadee Wongsomphet’s Yes or No, So I Love You, which holds the distinction of being Thailand’s first film to feature lesbian protagonists (the 2012 sequel is also showing). All films screened with English subtitles.

Details

Open May 24-June 2 No screenings May 27-30

Time Screening times vary (Fri, Sat, Sun only)

Admission Screenings ¥1,500 on the door, ¥1,300 adv; closing program ¥2,700 on the door, ¥2,500 adv

Venue Cinem@rt Roppongi

Address 3-8-15 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Transport Roppongi Station (Hibiya, Oedo lines)

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