Things to do this week in Tokyo

Friday

Grande Biere 2013
Golden Week is beer time in Tokyo. While the Oktoberfest rolls into Odaiba (see below), Tokyo Midtown will be luring more serious hopheads for three days of ‘aromatic beer’, all of it selected by top industry experts. Read more

Les Girafes
Compagnie Off's hugely popular puppet/circus/theatre/opera extravaganza – in which a group of inquisitive giraffes are herded around by a motley crew of keepers – makes its Japan debut at Roppongi Hills. Read more

Iron Man 3
Getting the blockbuster season off to an early start, Robert Downey Jr slips back into the metal suit for the third in the Iron Man series – which this time finds him doing battle against Ben Kingsley's Mandarin. Read more

Odaiba Oktoberfest 2013
Why wait until autumn? While the Munich Oktoberfest doesn't kick off until September, Tokyo's beer lovers will be starting their libations today. Head to Odaiba for German brews, sausages and sauerkraut galore. Read more

All You Need is Love
The Mori Art Museum kicks off its 10th anniversary celebrations with a wide-ranging, rampantly eclectic show. Ever wondered what Auguste Rodin and Hatsune Miku have in common? You're about to find out. Read more

Otodama Joystudio Vol. 2
If you're sick of going to the same old clubs every weekend, how about dancing the night away in Tokyo's most futuristic video arcade? Catch Takkyu Ishino, Shinichi Osawa and Dexpistols at Odaiba's Joypolis. Read more

Killing Them Softly
Brad Pitt plays a cool, calm mob fixer in writer-director Andrew Dominik's stylish gangster movie, a cracking piece of storytelling with a restrained balance of laid-back chat and canny visual outbursts. Opens today. Read more

Vincent Gallo
Expect moody, downtempo improvisations and the odd vocal number when musician and movie auteur Vincent Gallo returns to the Blue Note tonight, in a trio with multi-instrumentalists Alex Noice and Jon Armstrong. Read more

Italian Progressive Rock Festival Finale 2013
Club Citta unleashes three evenings' worth of florid, fiddly and gloriously ambitious music from the 1970s heyday of Italian prog rock, starting tonight with Maxophone (making their Japan debut) and Museo Rosenbach. Read more

Club Museum 10th Anniversary: BMB
There was widespread rejoicing amongst techno fans last year, when it was announced that Surgeon and Regis would be reviving their tough-as-nails British Murder Boys project. Catch them live at Unit this evening. Read more

Rub N Tug
Eleven gets Golden Week off to a debauched start with notorious party fiends Rub N Tug, covering everything from vintage edits to warped electronic funk to spacey dancefloor jams, with plenty of delicious curveballs. Read more

Sound of Universe feat. Laurent Garnier
25 years after he snagged a residency at the infamous Haçienda club in Manchester, Gallic techno overlord Laurent Garnier is still at the top of his game. He heads to Sound Museum Vision for a date with DJ Emma tonight. Read more

Native Instruments’ Hello Tokyo!
DJ and music software supremos Native Instruments are offering three headliners for the price of one at Womb, with sets from house star Jamie Jones, Underworld's Darren Price and five-time DMC winner DJ Craze. Read more

R.E.S.O.R.T
Unit gets into the holiday spirit with a tropical-themed all-nighter, featuring live sets from steel pan ska band Little Tempo and G-funk revivalists Luvraw & BTB, plus DJs including Part2Style Sound and Grooveman Spot. Read more

Wara no Tate
Elite cops have to protect a murderer with a ¥10 billion bounty on his head in Takashi Miike's Wara no Tate, one of two Japanese movies chosen for the competition section of this year's Cannes Film Festival. Out today. Read more

The Lady and the Unicorn
One of the undisputed masterpieces of Medieval European art makes its first trip to Japan this spring. Form an orderly queue for a chance to view the the 22 metre, six-part tapestry known as The Lady and the Unicorn. Read more

Saturday

The Hacienda Oiso Festival 2013
Tokyo's party people will be taking the train down to the Shonan coast for this weekend-long dance event, held at an off-season swimming pool complex. Today's DJs include Digitalism, John Digweed and James Zabiela. Read more

Koenji Bikkuri Daidogei 2013
Acrobats, musicians, comedians and costumed weirdos will be plying the streets of Koenji this weekend, dispensing free, family-friendly entertainment as part of the neighbourhood's annual Daidogei festival. Read more

Shonan Festival 2013
Don't wait until summer to go to the seaside. Take your pick from beach football, surfboard races, flea markets, hula dancing, live music and a whole lot more at this festival held on Chigasaki's Southern Beach. Read more

Antonio López
Spanish hyperrealist painter Antonio López Garcia has only had a few solo shows in the course of his five-decade career, and this is being described as the ‘first and perhaps the last opportunity’ to see his work in Tokyo. Read more

Nile Long
Tokyo indie scenesters The Brixton Academy have ditched the new wave trappings and reinvented themselves as a slinky, '80s disco act. They mark the release of their debut album as Nile Long tonight. Read more

Massacre
Avant-garde icons don't get much more iconic than this trio of musicians. Fred Frith, Bill Laswell and Charles Hayward return to the stage after a lengthy hiatus, in support of new album Love Me Tender. Read more

Club Museum: House of God
A party just isn't a party unless people are 'screaming and covered in sweat', right? That's what Birmingham's House of God crew – including Surgeon, Regis and Terry Donovan – will be aiming for at Unit tonight. Read more

Mayer Hawthorne
He may be better known for his vocal chops these days, but soul man Mayer Hawthorne started out as a hip hop DJ and producer. Catch an exclusive DJ set at this Stones Throw party, which co-stars DJ Sarasa. Read more

Innervisions 2013 feat. Âme live
Only a few weeks after Kristian Beyer played under the Âme moniker at Eleven, the deep house duo's other member, Frank Wiedemann, is hitting Air for a live performance. Confused? Don't think: just dance. Read more

Sense of Unity
Last seen at Ageha playing a four-hour monster session last summer, South African psytrance bigwig Protoculture returns to the club for this Golden Week bash, where he's joined by British counterpart Andy Moor. Read more

Arpa Showcase #011 feat. Nina Kraviz
The naysayers insist that it's only because of her looks, but there's no doubting that Nina Kraviz has had a meteoric rise over the past few years. She guests alongside Arpa Records boss DJ Sodeyama at Womb tonight. Read more

The Last Stand
After his tongue-in-cheek cameo in The Expendables 2, Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a full-fledged return to the big screen in The Last Stand, an ’80s-style actioner heavy on the squibs and catchphrases. Read more

Sunday

Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2013
Fun, flamboyant and in-yer-face, Tokyo's newest Gay Pride parade drew 4,500 people for its inaugural edition last year. See if it can top that number when it returns to Yoyogi Park and the streets of Shibuya today. Read more

Nutcracker: Rated R
Making its Japan premiere, The Love Show's Nutcracker turns Clara into a rebellious teen who travels back in time to 1980s NYC and learns life lessons through the magic of sex, drugs, nightlife and a lot of bare flesh. Read more

Modern Jazz Discotheque
Saxman and DCPRG leader Naruyoshi Kikuchi will be leaving the horn at home and flexing his DJ chops instead at Pit Inn, in a late-night sessions that harks back to the days when jazz featured heavily in the charts. Read more

Jazz Auditoria 2013
As the second annual UNESCO International Jazz Day rolls around on April 30, Tokyo is getting in on the act with a three-day festival featuring some big names from the Japanese scene – all of them playing for free. Read more

CSH4 by 2E2L meets Mar-T
Whatever the weather's like outside, you can expect some sunny island vibes when Mar-T – winner of the 2011 Best Ibiza DJ prize – makes his Japan debut at Womb, accompanied by the 2E2L crew and a host of go-go boys. Read more

Shangri-La 38: Splash
The Golden Week edition of Asia's biggest gay party is taking things off on a tribal house tip, with a guest set by Stereo Productions founder DJ Chus, plus added eye candy from 'Japan's hottest and sexiest' go-go boys. Read more

The 5.6.7.8’s Release Party
As they release a DVD collecting live footage from their pre-Kill Bill days, garage rock trio The 5.6.7.8’s will be getting together with some old pals – including Tucker and Oi Skall Mates – for an all-night gig at Shelter. Read more

Shackleton Japan Tour 2013
Purveyor of spooked-out dubstep, minimal techno and bass-heavy ambient wyrdness, Shackleton will be heading to Eleven for a live performance tonight, with DJ support from Goth-Trad, CMT and Shhhhh. Read more

Hacienda Oiso Festival After Party
If you're still hungry for excitement after the weekend's Hacienda Oiso Festival (or if you only just got out of bed), veteran UK spinner John Digweed will be rolling into Sound Museum Vision for the after party tonight. Read more

Leonardo da Vinci: Portrait of a Genius
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum's heavily promoted da Vinci show only features a handful of works by the Renaissance master himself, though they've rustled up plenty of additional pieces by his peers and students. Read more

Keep reading for Part 2 of our Golden Week Special, April 29-May 5