20 things to do this weekend

Saturday

Play an artist at table tennis...

Young local artist, Shiori Clark, pitches up at Time Out Café & Diner with a pattern-inspired exhibition that she calls, simply, Repeat! 'I get really crazy about repeating the same thing over and over,' she explained to Time Out Tokyo recently, 'like drawing the same circle again and again, or playing endless table tennis rallies.' Fittingly, the exhibition will also feature a pingpong table decorated by the artist, on which she will challenge all comers at this opening party. Click here for event details

Love design...

The first Design Festa of 2011 rolls around this weekend, bringing with it 3,000 booths and some 8,500 exhibitors. Now into its seventeenth year, the event claims to be the biggest of its kind in Asia, and with figures like that, it's hard to imagine how anybody could disagree. Click here for event details

Get cheesy...

Roppongi's Fifty Seven hosts a French-style party this coming Saturday, giving you the chance to nibble on some quality cheeses and tipple on a selection of seven different wines. Heck, they've even found a chanson singer to round things out. Click here for event details

Go all Puffy eyed...

The last time they tried this – documented in the 2006 DVD Tour! Puffy! Tour! 10 Final – it rained like there was no tomorrow. Here's hoping that the weather is a little kinder to Puffy as they return to Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall for the final date in their 15th anniversary tour. Click here for event details

Punk up your life...

The outdoor stage in Ueno Park is usually the preserve of folk musicians and low-ranking J-pop idols. In a change of pace so abrupt that it risks giving some of the area's local pensioners a heart attack, the venue is being taken over for the day by a sizable punk contingent, led by thrashcore survivors Vivisick. Click here for further details

Join the republic...

For the third year running, the latest edition of the Japanese Motion Graphic Creators guide is getting itself an epic release party, courtesy of the folks behind eye-popping Republic events. There'll be live spots this time around by Denki Groove alumnus Yoshinori Sunahara, electropop unit Kuchiroro, laptop mangler Oorutaichi and rapper Tamaki Roy, among others. Click here for event details

Attend the wake of a much-loved magazine...

This is the final date in a national tour that's seen Snoozer editor-in-chief Soichiro Tanaka and writer Ryota Tanaka manning the decks alongside Takahiro Takahashi and Handsomeboy Technique, of Kyoto-based record label Second Royal. Takahashi will also be leading a live performance by indie supergroup Halfby and His Magic Arkestra, with Animal Collective wannabes The New House in support. With the recent news that the magazine is soon to cease publication, this will be a bittersweet affair. Click here for event details

Try a little togetherness...

Joaquin 'Joe' Claussell has done a lot of thinking recently. 'What a few others and myself have come to realize is that Music Is The Answer to so many confusing questions,' he writes in a message on the Air website. 'We just have to be willing to open our ears, hearts and mind and believe, before it’s too late!' Putting his mysticism where his mouth is, Claussell is inviting each partygoer to bring a single record 'dedicated to love and peace', and he and his fellow DJs – including Kaoru Inoue and Dazzle Drums – will do their best to play all of them. Assuming that everybody doesn't come toting a copy of John Lennon's 'Imagine', it should be rather a nice night. Click here for event details

See the daddy...

Second generation Detroit techno daddy Carl Craig's label Planet E turns 20 this October, and he's celebrating its passage into adulthood with a world tour that takes in everywhere from Paris to Singapore. His Japan dates come ahead of what should be a triumphant gig at the Movement Festival in Detroit, where he'll be performing live for the first time ever under his 69 moniker. Click here for event details