Discover new artists, take home some new art and do it all for a good cause. The CAT POWER 2025 exhibition is back at Galerie LE MONDE in Harajuku, Tokyo—marking the return of its annual cat‑themed charity show, now in its 10th edition.
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Imagine sitting on your toilet and getting a personalized health report sent straight to your phone. No clinic visit, no awkward conversations. Just data, insight, and… well, your poop. This isn’t science fiction anymore. Toilets in Japan have long been known for their innovation: heated seats, bidet functions, even calming sounds to mask noise. But starting this August, Japanese toilet giant Toto is rolling out the country’s first home-use toilet with an integrated stool scanner.
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Originally composed as the main theme for Takeshi Kitano’s 1999 film Kikujiro, Joe Hisaishi’s timeless piece “Summer” has long been cherished in Japan as the soundtrack of nostalgic summer memories. Now, this beloved masterpiece is reimagined as a short film.
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all images courtesy the artist | used with permission
Erica Ward is a California-born ink and watercolor artist who has called Tokyo her home for over 10 years. Inspired by Japanese designs and imagery, as well as the ever-changing landscape of Tokyo, Ward reinterprets everyday sights and objects in surreal ways within her artworks, asking the viewer to consider the mundane daily objects in their surroundings as things of beauty and symbols of culture. Spoon & Tamago spoke to the artist about her newest pop-up exhibition, currently on view at Daikanyama T-Site Tsutaya Books .
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Tokyo-based artist Haneno Suzuki has a way of turning something everyday as paper into something completely unexpected in her solo exhibition “Playful Lines“, currently on view at (Place) by Method in Shibuya. Running from July 4th to 19th, 2025, the show invites visitors to explore a surprising world where paper becomes architectural and organic at once. The gallery is located just a short walk from Shibuya or Omotesando station, open from noon to 7pm, and closed on July 6 and 13.
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Sou Fujimoto’s newest project, Earth, is a vacation home that nearly disappears into the landscape of Ishigaki Island. Built for NOT A HOTEL, the circular villa is topped with a green roof and designed to feel like part of the land itself. From above, it reads more like a natural clearing than a luxury home. Inside, it opens up to the sea with an airy living space and a sweeping infinity pool that seems to spill into the horizon. Four glass-walled bedrooms curve along the outer ring, while the lower level hides thoughtful details like an “underwater” sauna lit by the pool above, a gym, and a quiet courtyard with a kids’ pool and firepit.
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If you’re heading to the Osaka Expo, you need to stop by Kuroneko Yamato’s booth. Trust us. And while they do offer baggage storage and shipping, that’s not why you want to go. Running for the duration of the Expo (through October 13), the “Dreaming World of Kuroneko” has an installation over 100 stickers that the company uses to indicate the content of packages and corresponding levels of fragility and speed.
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Every summer, the city of Gyoda in Saitama Prefecture turns rice paddies into giant canvases, planting colorful rice varieties to form massive works of art. Known as tanbo art, these living murals stretch across nearly three hectares and can only be fully appreciated from above. Gyoda’s rice paddy art holds the Guinness World Record for the largest of its kind, and each year it draws visitors eager to see what design will emerge from the fields.
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All photos by Shotaro Hamasaki, courtesy mitone design.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Kochi prefecture’s Monet’s Garden Marmottan, a beloved recreation of Monet’s iconic garden in France, Kitagawa Village has brought the garden’s peaceful beauty to the Gomen-Nahiri Line in Kochi. Designed by mitone design, this special train is filled with photographs taken over the year at the garden, showing blooming flowers, soft light, and beautiful scenery. Even the ceiling features a custom pattern inspired by Monet’s kitchen tiles, with a hidden character named “Kitagawa Monet-san”, designed by Anpanman’s creator Takashi Yanase.
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all photos by Sayuki Inoue
Located in Nara, the ancient capital of Japan, the Shosoin is the Imperial treasure house associated with Todai-ji Temple. Constructed in the 8th century, it safeguards nearly 9,000 precious artifacts once belonging to Emperor Shomu, donated by his widow, Empress Komyo. In a new exhibition going on this summer at the Osaka Museum of History, several artists have been selected to reinterpret and create artworks based on the treasures.
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