Niconico Chokaigi 2027 is officially confirmed for April 2027, but exact dates, venue and tickets haven't been announced yet. Here's what Chokaigi is, how its 2026 edition topped the year before (though still short of the pre-pandemic 2019 turnout), and how to catch the official announcement.
The world's largest garage-kit and figure festival returns to Makuhari Messe for a two-day event — the first in 36 years — officially confirmed for February 13–14, 2027.
The 13th Autumn Reitaisai, Japan's biggest Touhou Project doujinshi fair, runs Sunday, October 4, 2026, at Tokyo Big Sight East Hall — English go-info for it is almost nonexistent, which is exactly the gap this guide fills.
Comic Market 109 (Winter Comiket) runs December 29–31, 2026, at Tokyo Big Sight — a rare 3-day edition after several 2-day Comikets in a row, with East Halls 4–6 still closed for renovation.
Jump Festa 2027 runs 19–20 December 2026 at Makuhari Messe, 9:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30), free to enter — but last edition every visitor from elementary school age up needed a free app-issued ticket, allocated by lottery in autumn. Miss it and you can't get in on the day.
Tokyo Game Show 2026 closed on 20 September 2026 with 257,642 visitors over four days: the 30th-anniversary show was booked for a record five days, but the final day (21 September) was cancelled outright for Typhoon No. 25. This page is the record of the show — figures, day-by-day attendance, and the TGS2027 dates.
Aug 15–16, 2026 at Tokyo Big Sight: the world's largest doujinshi fair, and the finale of Comiket's 50th-anniversary year. Paid wristband admission — how foreigners buy one, inside.
The world's largest garage-kit and figure festival, held for one day at Makuhari Messe on July 26, 2026. Theme: "Exploration."
Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2026 จัดที่อาริอาเกะ โตเกียว วันที่ 28-30 สิงหาคม 2026 และจบลงด้วยรอบชิงชนะเลิศที่ Tokyo Garden Theater วันที่ 30 สิงหาคม ผู้ชนะไม่ได้อยู่ในหน้านี้ หน้านี้เก็บบันทึกวันที่ สถานที่ และการจับสลากชมฟรีที่จำกัดเฉพาะผู้พำนักในญี่ปุ่น
Pokémon Center TOKYO DX is on 5F of the Nihombashi Takashimaya S.C. East Building, open 10:30–21:00 daily, direct from Nihombashi Station exit B2, tax-free in-store, with the reservation-only Pokémon Cafe TOKYO on the same floor.
Odaiba's life-size Unicorn Gundam is no longer on display: its run at DiverCity Tokyo Plaza, which began in September 2017, ended on 31 August 2026, and no successor statue has been announced for the site.
Tokyo's official, reservation-only Pokémon-themed café, on the same East Building 5F as Pokémon Center Tokyo DX in Nihombashi. Since its June 2026 reopening after renovation, seats are released in bulk waves at 18:00 JST for blocks of future dates rather than a simple daily window, so foreign visitors need to time their booking to the current wave.
A B1 arcade of official character shops in Tokyo Station's First Avenue — Jump Shop, Pokémon, Ghibli's Donguri, Sanrio and TV-network stores, all in one corridor.
Studio Ghibli's whimsical museum in Mitaka, designed by Hayao Miyazaki. Entry is advance-ticket-only with a fixed date and time slot — and tickets sell out fast.
The official Gunpla flagship on DiverCity Tokyo Plaza 7F, Odaiba — Gundam model kits of every grade, store exclusives and build zones. The life-size Unicorn Gundam statue outside ended its display on 31 August 2026; the store stays open.
New One Piece Card Game boosters at Tokyo's three official shops (Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Shibuya) are lottery-only, with an ID check and one checkout per person per day. Addresses, hours, the 1-box limit, card shops for singles in Akihabara and Ikebukuro, and the Japanese-card region rule, checked 2026-09-23.
Gachapon Kaikan in Akihabara is the highest-density stop with around 500 machines. Bring ¥100 coins — most machines take coins only, most don't give change, and you cannot choose which figure you get.
Super Potato, Surugaya, Trader and Mandarake cover the whole retro market between them. Before you spend anything, settle the compatibility question: a Japanese Famicom cartridge will not fit an American NES, and a Super Famicom cartridge will not fit a US SNES.
Outside Comiket, doujinshi is a year-round shop purchase: Melonbooks and Toranoana for new, Mandarake and Lashinbang for out-of-print. The two things that catch foreign buyers out are the R18 age check and the fact that most doujin shops won't ship abroad.
Decide new or secondhand first — it changes which street you walk down. New (AmiAmi, Kotobukiya, Tamashii Nations) clusters around Akihabara's Radio Kaikan; secondhand (Mandarake, Surugaya, Lashinbang) is where rare and out-of-print kits actually live.
Tokyo has no VTuber mall: hololive's only permanent shop is Harajuku's OMOKADO; Nijisanji has none. Real picks: Kotobukiya's VStore AKIBA, animate, Gamers, plus secondhand and X-only pop-ups.
Three days is enough to properly cover Tokyo's otaku scene without rushing: Day 1 is Akihabara top to bottom, Day 2 pairs Nakano Broadway with Ikebukuro's Otome Road, and Day 3 is yours to pick — a franchise/character day (Gundam, Pokémon, Ghibli, Tokyo Character Street), a pilgrimage day trip, or a TCG/arcade day. Here's the stop-by-stop plan, with realistic travel times and how to sequence it so you're not backtracking across the city.
Six anime and game collab cafés are running in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka right now — Pochacco, Blue Archive, IDOLiSH7, 18TRIP, New Prince of Tennis and more — plus one exhibition-with-goods-shop at Sunshine City. Here's what's open, where, and through what date, verified against each café's own site.
As of 18 September 2026, the anime film we can confirm with officially announced English-subtitled screenings in Japan is SEKIRO: NO DEFEAT — a three-week limited release that opened on 4 September 2026. The official account announced 英語字幕版 (English-subtitle) showtimes at ten cinemas, and nine of those ten still carried the 英語字幕版 tag on the distributor's schedule page on 18 September (109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku, Shinjuku Wald 9 and Grand Cinema Sunshine Ikebukuro among them; Keisei Rosa 10 was not tagged). Here is the cinema list, how to check a single showtime yourself, and which runs have ended.
The Gundam Base Tokyo (DiverCity Tokyo Plaza, 7F, Odaiba) is not a reservation-only shop — but on weekends, national holidays and new-kit release days, Bandai can cap entry with a pre-entry lottery or a numbered ticket, and announces the affected dates in advance.
Odaiba's life-size Unicorn Gundam ended its display on 31 August 2026, but The Gundam Base Tokyo on DiverCity 7F is still open. Where to buy gunpla in Tokyo, and the tax-free rules for kits.
All four Pokémon Centers in Tokyo are open: Mega Tokyo in Ikebukuro reopened on 24 August 2026, joining Tokyo DX, Shibuya and Skytree Town. Official hours, tax-free status by store, and exactly how foreign visitors book the reservation-only Pokémon Café online.
The red-railed stairs where Taki and Mitsuha reunite in the final scene of Your Name. A real, working shrine in a quiet Yotsuya residential neighbourhood — visit respectfully.
