Japan Travel News ❄️ Tax-Free Shopping Update, New Attractions, Winter Illuminations ✨ December 2025

Japan Travel News ❄️ Tax-Free Shopping Update, New Attractions, Winter Illuminations ✨ December 2025

This time on Japan Travel News, we’ve got changes to tax-free shopping, how to get tickets for the new Pokémon theme park, beautiful night walks in Tokyo, and lots more. I’m Amy from Cakes with Faces. Every month, I bring you what’s new in Japan and what’s coming up. And if you have a trip planned next year, make sure you’re subscribed because next month, I’ve got what you need to know for going to Japan in 2026. And tell me in the comments which of these things you’re most excited about. First up is attraction news. There’s a new San X area coming to Fuji Q Highland, which is a theme park near Tokyo. San X is a company that makes cute characters a bit like Sanrio. Their most popular characters are Reakuma and Sumio Garashi. They also have Afro Ken. Does anyone remember them? Top Panda and Nyan Yano. I like how all the characters are holding little Fuji sands for Fuji Kih Highland. The new theme park area is going to be really kawaii. There’ll be attractions featuring Raakuma and Sumio Kogarashi as well as photo spots, food, merch, and special events. Fuji Highland has some huge roller coasters. Some have been world record holders for being the tallest and steepest, and some have views of Mount Fuji. I don’t think we’re going to see a Sumikarashi White Knuckle roller coaster, though. The Sanax area is going to be a kawaii relaxing escape from the real world. It’s a permanent area of the theme park and it opens sometime in 2026. Also with theme park news, tickets are now available for Poker Park Kanto, which is a new Pokémon section of Yummy Uriland, which is another theme park near Tokyo. There are two sections. There’s a forest to explore with over 600 Pokémon dotted around, and Sedge Town with shops, food, and shows. It opens on the 5th of February. As you can imagine, it’s going to be really popular. So, there’s a lottery for tickets. There’s a separate ticket site for foreigners without the lottery. Some people managed to buy tickets the day the lottery opened. The lottery starts 3 months in advance on the first of the month. So, it seems like tickets for April might be available on the 1st of January, but check the details as it’s not 100% clear. You’ll need to be online the moment they go on sale. There are two levels of tickets. One of them has timed entry to the forest while the other one has unlimited access and various other benefits. And they’ll be releasing an additional type of ticket in the summer. They have said there’s a staircase with 110 steps to get into the forest and children under five aren’t allowed into the forest. I’m guessing that’s because it’s difficult for push chairs because it is quite hilly. But anyway, they’re the rules. Next, the opening date for Kawawaii Monsterland in Harajuku has been postponed until the new year. They originally said winter 2025, but at the moment they’re still recruiting staff until the end of the year. There’s no firm opening date announced yet, but as soon as there is, it’ll be here in Japan news. Kawaii Monster Land is the indoor mini theme park version of the Kawaii Monster Cafe that used to be in Harajuku. It looks really colorful and definitely an experience. It’s on to Cash Street. the main street in Harajuku in the same building as the new Sanrio shop and cafe that officially opens on the 11th of December. Although I’ve seen some pictures this week that it seems to be open already on some sort of unofficial soft opening. So if you’re in Tokyo now, it might be worth checking that out. Now, you might remember earlier this year, everyone was really sad when this Gigo arcade on the main street in Akihabara closed down. Well, it reopened on the 22nd of November as another arcade. I suspected that might happen. It’s run by Silk Hat Tokyo, who have other arcades around Japan, including one in Ikaro that closed in 2021. Games arcades have been opening up all around Japan. So, don’t worry about all the stories about lots of arcades closing down. There are still loads of them. It’s so strange seeing pictures inside the arcade before it reopened. I think it’s kind of sad there was so much more noise online about the old arcade closing than the new one opening up. But here on Japan News, we focus on positive news and not just clickbait. And finally, in attraction news, you can visit a former prison in N, which is of course near Osaka and Kyoto. It opens on the 27th of April. It’s a historic prison from the early 1900s. At the time, it was one of the five major prisons in Japan, and it closed in 2017. It’s being turned into a museum about the prison and about what the concept of freedom really means. Sounds interesting. The prison’s also being converted into a hotel, so you could stay there. It’s run by Hosinoya or Hosino Resorts, which is a luxury hotel chain. It seems strange to think the cells where prisoners used to live are being converted into luxurious hotel rooms. Tell me in the comments if you’d stay there. Next is serious travel news. We heard before on Japan Travel News there’d be some updates to the system for tax-free shopping. Now, at certain shops, foreign tourists don’t have to pay the consumption tax, which is 10%. Sometimes it’s 8%, but mostly 10%. You have to spend over 5,000 yen and then you basically get 10% off from the 1st of November 2026. There’s a new procedure. Currently, what you do is you show your passport at checkout in the shop or the QR code from the tax-free shopping section of Visit Japan Web and they take the tax off at checkout when you pay. But from the 1st of November, you’ll have to get a refund at the airport instead. So, you’ll need to keep hold of your receipts and allow extra time at the airport when you leave Japan to claim your refund. It seems like you might have to claim the refund before you check in, but I haven’t seen much reliable information about that yet. So, I’m sure they’ll be releasing more details nearer the time. You’re also not supposed to open anything you’ve bought tax-free while you’re in Japan. That’s the same with the current system. But I think a lot of people don’t realize with the new system, you need to be able to present anything you bought taxfree. Even if it’s a present for someone else you’re with, if you’re the one that bought it, you need to have it on you. The reason for these changes is some people were buying lots of items tax-free to sell on and other people, I don’t know how, were buying taxfree items that never left Japan. So this new system verifies you’re actually going to leave. It seems like this could cause a bit of a bottleneck at the airport with everyone leaving and trying to get their refunds. So, you need to get to the airport early. And I hope they’re going to have a lot of desks open for processing the refunds. I’ve already seen articles suggesting that tax-free shopping is being scrapped. That’s not what’s happening. You can still get the tax back. It’s just a change to the procedure. Next is shop news. Tower Records in Shibuya, the huge music shop, is having a major renovation. The first renewed section reopens on the 18th of December, which is the entire ground floor. It’ll have new CDs, vinyls, books, and merchandise, as well as a new Oshi area. Oshi Katsu is the culture of fandom, mostly for idols, but it can also be anime or manga characters. So, it’ll have idol goods and photo spots. The next stage, the renovation of the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors starts on New Year’s Day. The fourth floor will be for idols, anime, and games. There’ll be new private photo booths and dance studio style spots where you can take photos next to pictures of idols with lighting and fulllength mirrors. The fifth floor will be for K-pop. It’ll have neon signs inspired by the nightife of Soul. Both of those floors open on the 23rd of February. The sixth floor, which is Vinyl Records, will have a bar with craft beer. I guess they’re thinking that drunk people buy more, which is probably true. There’ll also be a DJ booth, so they can have events there. That reopens on the 27th of February. There’ll also be more minor renovations to the J-pop section, which is going to be bigger than before. There’s a new shop in Harajuku selling anime and manga artwork, both reproductions and original drawings and film sets. It’s called Japan Art Gallery. It’s their second Tokyo store in Harajuku. It’s on to Kestcha Street upstairs where Bodyline used to be, which was one of my favorite shops at one point. Harajuku changes so much. I have a playlist of Harajuku videos if you want to see what it’s like there. Next is train news. Now, I feel like this is old news now because it was announced just after Japan news last month, but the Suika penguin is retiring. I’m so sad. They’ve been the mascot for 25 years. They’re so cute. I don’t know why they’re getting rid of them. I kind of hope this is a publicity stunt, like when Donkeyote threatened to get rid of their penguin mascot. What is it with penguin mascots? They’ll be retiring at the end of Japan’s fiscal year 2026, which I think is the end of March. I’ve already seen pictures of long cues outside the Sura Penguin shops with people trying to buy all the cute merch while they can. Now, do you like the sound of a disco Shinghan Zen? This month, there’s a special one-off disco car on the bullet train with a DJ booth, disco lights, and a dance floor. I don’t know how they’re fitting a dance floor on there. I mean, you do get a lot of leg room on the Shinkansen, but it’s not that spacious. You get a mini bottle of champagne and a ticket to a nightclub when you arrive in Osaka. It is sold out, but I wanted to tell you about it anyway because party shinkansen. Next is events. I’ve got two stamp rallies for you. There’s a Paddington Bear Stamp Rally in Tokyo in Nihon Bashi near the Tokyo station area with six stamps to collect. And there’s a Disney stamp rally also in Tokyo in the Marinucci area which is also around Tokyo Station. So that’s where to head if you’re collecting stamps. It’s called Disney Joyful Moments until the 4th of January. And there are also Disney Holiday displays. And if you are collecting stamps, my stamp books are available now on general release. I ship worldwide and at the moment there’s still time to get them in time for Christmas. There’s a bamboo lantern festival in Tokyo until the end of January. It’s in East Tokyo between the Sumida River and the Sky Tree with decorations of bamboo lanterns lit up after dark. It looks beautiful and lovely for an evening stroll. There’s projection mapping at Seno G, the oldest temple in Tokyo. This is the first time they’ve done this, but it’s only on for a really short time until the 7th of December, so I hope they do it again. And during that time, if you buy a ticket, you can visit some parts of the temple and the garden that aren’t usually open to the public. Shinjuku Neon Walk is a free event at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku in Tokyo until the 7th of January. There’ll be colorful illuminations and displays including neon lights with happy new year messages, interactive displays using your shadow and street food on certain nights. It looks really creative and fun. And remember, there are projection mapping shows on the Metropolitan Government Building every night throughout the whole year and a free observation deck inside. On to seasonal things. If you’re going to Japan over the next month or so, look out for winter illuminations and snow and winter festivals. And Japanese festivals throughout the year are all on my calendar. Over 3/4 of them have gone already. It usually sells out before Christmas. So, the link to get it is in the description. Although Christmas in Japan isn’t quite the same as Christmas in the West, there are Christmas decorations. There’s this Sumakarashi Christmas tree in Yokohama and a Sumikarashi Christmas display in Osaka in Umeida. Also in Osaka, Christmas is Miffy themed in the Umeita district. There are also Christmas markets. There’s quite a lot of them, so I won’t list them all here, but look them up wherever you’re going to be. And Winter Illuminations. I definitely wouldn’t miss these ones at Tokyo Midtown in Rapongi in Tokyo. There’s also this giant whale in Yokohama throughout December. They’re transforming it into a digital ocean with projection mapping. If you’re in the Tokyo area in January or February, you can take a trip to Chi-Chibu to see the Ashi Gakubo icicles. They are man-made, but they’re beautiful anyway, and in the evening, they’re illuminated. Or if you’re in North Japan, you can see frozen waterfalls in Almori Prefecture. The Oasi ice fall tours on until the 1st of March. On to exhibitions. There’s a Godzilla exhibition in Tokyo, but it’s not quite what you’d expect. It’s at the Science Museum, so it’s looking at what if Godzilla appeared today, comparing weapons from the films with real life robots and disaster prevention technology and looking at how humans interact with nature. There’s a common rider exhibition in Osaka in January and a theme cafe alongside it where you can get red curry shaped like the characters and tiramisu. Remember I have a list of pop-up theme cafes on cakes with faces.co.uk in the blog section. There are always lots. The great Tamagotchi exhibition is in Tokyo in January for the 30th anniversary of Tamagotchi. It’ll be touring afterwards to Nagoya, Ibaraki, and Osaka. and the Tamagotchi shop from last month’s Japan news is now open. So that’s it for Japan news. We’ve had the cutest Christmas tree, a disco shinen, and that beautiful bamboo lantern festival. And a big thank you to everyone who’s ordered from my shop recently in your Christmas shopping. Cakes faces wouldn’t be here without your orders, and I wouldn’t be able to keep making videos. There are lots of things. If you know someone who likes Japan or someone who likes cute things, there’s lots of stuff they won’t have seen in the shops already. Christmas is the busiest time of year for me, so videos might be a little bit shorter this month, but I’m really going to try and keep uploading every week if I can. So hopefully I’ll see you next Thursday. Bye-bye.

What’s new in Japan, including new shops and attractions, Pokepark Kanto tickets, updates to the tax-free shopping procedure, winter illuminations and lots more.

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It’s time for winter events and illuminations in Japan! There are some beautiful evening events, including projection mapping on Senso-ji, the oldest temple in Tokyo, a giant whale (projection mapping) in Yokohama, a bamboo lantern trail in Tokyo and Shinjuku Neon Walk, another free event by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. They’ve announced a new area of Fuji-Q Highland opening in 2026 with San-X characters, including Rilakkuma and Sumikko Gurashi – it looks so kawaii! Pokepark Kanto tickets are on sale, so I cover how to get them for foreign tourists (slightly different to the procedure for Japan residents). A new arcade run by Silk Hat Tokyo’s opened in Akihabara, and Nara Prison Museum will be opening in 2026 (there’ll also be a hotel inside the prison!). There are changes to the system for tax-free shopping in November 2026, and Tower Records in Shibuya’s having a renovation. There’s a new anime film cell and artwork shop in Harajuku, plus lots of exhibitions as always – including a Godzilla science exhibition! See you next month for more Japan travel news, out at the start of every month.

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00:00 Intro
00:28 San-X at Fuji-Q Highland
01:28 Pokepark Kanto tickets
02:43 Kawaii Monster Land
03:31 New arcade in Akihabara
04:19 Nara Prison Museum
05:05 Tax-free shopping update
06:57 Tower Records Shibuya renovation
08:15 Anime art shop
08:43 Suica penguin retiring
09:19 Disco shinkansen
09:49 Stamp rallies
10:25 Bamboo lantern trail
10:41 Senso-ji projection mapping
11:00 Shinjuku Neon Walk
11:31 Seasonal
12:56 Exhibitions

#japan #japantravel #tokyo #tokyotravel