Museum picks
[Open 9am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
This is an outstanding natural history museum, with beautiful, curiosity-inspiring exhibits exploring the animal and plant kingdoms and the prehistoric world. It's also a real bargain - general admission to the vast permanent exhibition areas is...
[Open 11am-6pm. Closed Sundays, Mondays.]
Graphic artists, designers, and anyone interested in the evolution of Japanese graphic design through the ages will find a lot to see at this compact advertising museum. The museum was renovated and reopened in December 2017, and we were pleasantly...
[Open May-Nov 10am-5pm; Dec-Apr 10am-4pm (last entry 30 min. before closing). Closed Mondays.]
If you're interested in taxidermied roosters, cactus plants, sake paraphernalia, ancient farm tools, modern architecture or lemurs, then this quirky little museum has something for you. Run by Tokyo University of Agriculture, the Food and...
[Open 11am-6pm (Thu, Fri 8pm; entry until 30 minutes before closing). Closed Mondays.]
The Marunouchi district is teeming with smart new shopping-dining-office complexes, but Kitte ("postage stamp"), brought to you by the Japanese Postal Service, is the only one with its own natural-history museum. Or is it a contemporary art gallery?...
History and culture
[Open 10am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Run by the city government of Kita-ku in northern Tokyo, this well-curated history museum covers a number of topics of local interest, starting with archeological finds from local prehistoric settlements dating back 30,000 years. The area's history...
[Open 10am-4:30pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Sundays.]
Under the auspices of the Bunka Fashion College, this tiny, specialized museum has collected some 20,000 historical costumes and related crafts from around Japan and around the world, and holds four exhibitions a year organized around specific...
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays, Tuesdays.]
By far the noisiest museum we've been to in Tokyo, Asakusa's Drum Museum is also one of the most interactive. Hundreds of percussion instruments of all shapes and sizes are on display here, many of them waiting to be banged on by visitors - just...
[Open 9:30am-5:30pm (enter by 5pm; Saturdays -7:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
[Update: The Tokyo-Edo Museum will reopen mid-2025] This excellent museum is devoted to the history of Tokyo, formerly known as Edo. Entering the museum via escalator from the third-floor plaza below is an inspiring experience - the massive...
[Open April-Sept 9:30am-5:30pm; Oct-March 9:30am-4:30pm (last entry 30 min earlier). Closed Mondays (or Tues if Mon is natl holiday).]
This massive open-air museum features preserved and reconstructed examples of Tokyo's Edo-era architecture. Besides merchants' mansions and crowded shops, there's also a mausoleum and a bathhouse. The visitor's center was once a pavilion of the...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed 2nd and 4th Mondays.]
Looking almost like a film set for a historical drama, the main exhibit here is a life-size reconstruction of an early nineteenth-century neighorhood on the banks of the Sumida River, filled with shops, warehouses, private houses, and even a canal...
[Open 10am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Built in Yokohama as a state-of-the-art luxury liner, the Hikaru Maru was launched in 1930 as a passenger ship traveling the route between Kobe and Seattle-Vancouver. Nowadays it's docked permanently in Yokohama Bay, where you can explore the ship...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
This excellent three-story museum covers the history of Tokyo's neighboring Kanagawa region from prehistoric times to the present day. Themed exhibition areas are devoted to ancient archeological finds, medieval life under the Kamakura shogunate,...
[Open 9am-4:30pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Mondays.]
Exhibits at this rather large museum feature archeological finds from the area, including a pit dwelling from the Jomon period. There are also collections of swords and armor, pottery and metalware, and famous 16th-century scroll paintings depicting...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
The pre-industrial history of Koto-ku in eastern Tokyo is intimately tied to its rivers and canals, and the top half of this small, rather specialized museum focuses on the theme of water transportation. The other half looks at daily life in this...
[Open 11am-6:30pm. Closed Mondays.]
The seventh-floor gallery of the Film Archive has a permanent gallery devoted to the history of the Japanese film industry, with a lot of old posters, photographs and film paraphernalia. The focus is mainly on notable directors and actors, but they...
[Open 11am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm) daily.]
Officially known as the Japan Newspaper Museum, this beautifully designed modern facility is both entertaining and informative. Three floors of exhibits cover the history of the newspaper industry in Japan as well as the nuts and bolts of print...
Nihon Minka-en - Museum: Mukogaoka Yuen
[Open 9:30am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Also known as the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum, this sprawling park is home to two dozen old houses that were built between the 17th and 19th centuries. The buildings were transported from various parts of Japan and reconstructed here, and they...
[Open 9:30am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
Aimed primarily at school-age children, this specialized museum focuses on the history and operations of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, exploring the topics of crime-scene investigation and disaster response in particular. There are a...
[Open 10am-5:30pm (last entry 5pm) daily.]
Stamp collectors and stamp enthusiasts will be excited to explore the centerpiece of this specialty museum - an impressively huge collection of more than 330,000 postage stamps from around the world, carefully arranged in hundreds of vertical...
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Run by Toppan Printing Company, this medium-size museum explores "printing culture," showing off interesting examples of both printed word and image. You can admire beautifully illustrated books from the 18th and 19th centuries, and see the...
[Open 9:30am-5:30pm (enter by 5pm). Closed Mondays.]
Highlights at this charming local museum include life-size reconstructions of an Edo-era storehouse, residential interiors, and half a streetcar. There's also a large scale-model diorama representing the early post town of "Naito Shinjuku" - rows...
[Open 9:30am-4:30pm. Closed Mondays.]
[Update: the Shitamachi Museum is scheduled to reopen in Spring 2025.] To get a real hands-on grasp of what life must have been like back in the dark days before instant noodles, the Shitamachi Museum is the place to go. Shitamachi ("low city") is...
[Open 10am-5:30pm (enter by 5pm). Closed Mondays.]
Life in Japan during and after World War II - the period from 1935 to 1955 to be exact - is the focus at this small historical museum. Completely renovated in January 2013, the museum offers a unique glimpse into everyday life during this turbulent...
[Open 11am-5pm. Closed Sundays.]
A visit to Nihonbashi's Taimeiken Kite Museum feels a bit like stepping into the attic of an eccentric old man. The room is a tangled heap of color and string, requiring you to duck under and step around the hundreds of kites that couldn't fit...
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Run by cigarette conglomerate Japan Tobacco, this oddly specialized museum focuses on the history of tobacco use around the world and the history of the Japanese salt industry. Graphic design historians can draw inspiration from a huge wall display...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed 4th Monday.]
This historical museum run by the Tokyo Bureau of Waterworks has surprisingly interesting exhibitions on the history of the public water supply in the capital, spread out over two spacious floors. Upstairs you can get a glimpse into daily life...
[Open 10am-7pm (last entry 6:30pm). Closed Tuesdays.]
This gorgeous museum is attached to Toyo Bunko, which is Japan's largest Asian Studies library with holdings of more than one million books. A museum devoted entirely to books might sound rather dry, but the exhibits here do a decent job exploring...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
[Update: currently closed for renovation, the museum will reopen in July 2024.] The permanent collection of this compact museum includes ancient pottery, coins, and ethnic costumes; there are also frequent special exhibits lasting two to four...
Literary museums
[Open 9:30am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Located on the banks of the Sumida River, this tiny museum is dedicated to the life and works of the poet Matsuo Basho, who elevated the haiku form to a major literary genre. Basho lived in a thatched cottage somewhere in the nearby area from 1680...
[Open 10am-4:30pm (last entry 4pm). Closed Mondays.]
The popular twentieth-century writer Fumiko Hayashi (1903-1951) was best known for her autobiographical novel "Vagabond's Song" and "Floating Clouds." Her tastefully appointed home, where she lived with her husband (the painter Rokubin Tezuka) and...
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30pm). Closed 4th Tuesday of the month.]
This small literary museum is devoted to Meiji-era novelist, translator, critic and physician Ogai Mori (1862-1922). The attractively appointed museum building was constructed in 2012 on the site of Mori's former residence near Sendagi station. ...
[Open 10am-6pm (last entry 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Open since September 2017, this tasteful and expensively produced museum is devoted to the work of esteemed novelist Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), whose portrait appeared on the face of the Japanese 1000-yen note from 1984-2004. The museum will...
[Open 10am-6pm (last entry 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Special exhibitions here cover a wide range of topics, including film, theater, music, art, and of course literature. The permanent exhibition is quite small though - the main items of interest are some unusual kinetic art pieces by artist Masato...
Pop culture
[Open 10am-4pm (enter by 3:30pm). Closed Thursdays.]
Especially popular with younger children but suitable for all ages, the museum exhibits thousands of toys from around the world, with plenty of hands-on activity for enthusiastic visitors. The musuem occupies two floors of a former elementary...
[Open 10am-6pm. Closed Tuesdays.]
When Hayao Miyazaki's spellbinding Spirited Away won the Oscar for best animated feature in 2003, it only confirmed to the world what Japan has known for decades: that the work of Miyazaki and his fellow artists at Studio Ghibli ranks alongside that...
[Open 11am-6pm. Closed Sundays, Mondays.]
Graphic artists, designers, and anyone interested in the evolution of Japanese graphic design through the ages will find a lot to see at this compact advertising museum. The museum was renovated and reopened in December 2017, and we were pleasantly...
[Open Mar-Sep 10am-6pm; Oct-Feb 10am-5pm (enter by 30 min before closing). Closed Mondays.]
Hardcore fans of Japanese baseball can view room after room of baseball memorabilia - uniforms of famous players, old balls, significant bats, important gloves, and miscellaneous trading cards and trophies. Equipment dating back to 1875 is on...
[Open 11am-8pm daily.]
This ambitious design museum/gallery has the unusual mission of showcasing commercial, industrial and product design from all 47 Japanese prefectures. Products cover everything from pottery, lacquerware and kitchen utensils to stationery, fabrics,...
[Open 9:30am-6pm (weekends -7pm) daily.]
In the early twentieth century Japan exported huge numbers of tin-plate toys to countries around the world, and this charming little musuem traces that history, displaying some 3,000 antique toys made between the 1890s and the 1960s. Shelf after...
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30). Closed Mondays.]
Cartoon fans can learn about the history of Japanese animation, try their hand at using animation software and browse through a massive library of DVDs and comics at this free museum. The museum's attached theater boasts a 150-inch screen and...
Food
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5pm). Closed Tuesdays.]
If you love instant ramen and want to learn much, much more about the ubiquitous snack and its inventor, Momofuku Ando, you've come to the right place. Walk around inside a replica of the original shed where Ando first created instant ramen back in...
[Open May-Nov 10am-5pm; Dec-Apr 10am-4pm (last entry 30 min. before closing). Closed Mondays.]
If you're interested in taxidermied roosters, cactus plants, sake paraphernalia, ancient farm tools, modern architecture or lemurs, then this quirky little museum has something for you. Run by Tokyo University of Agriculture, the Food and...
[Open 9am-5pm daily.]
The main attraction here is the fascinating Fruit Museum, where you can explore the history of fruit through the centuries, with particular emphasis on the role of fruit in the history of Yamanashi Prefecture. This sounds like a must-see destination...
[Open 10am, 2pm, 3:30pm. Closed weekends.]
You'll amaze your friends with your deep knowledge of mayonnaise-related facts after a visit to Tokyo's one and only mayonnaise museum, Mayo Terrace. Best-selling condiment brand Kewpie has set up this attractive facility on the former site of...
[Open 11am-7pm. Closed Mondays.]
[Update: the Museum of Yebisu Beer is scheduled to reopen in April 2024.] Devoted to the proud history of the Yebisu beer brand, this renovated facility is built on the site of Tokyo's original Sapporo Brewery. It includes a spacious restaurant, a...
[Open 9am-5pm daily.]
From the early 1700s up until 1962, when the Port of Tokyo began major redevelopment work, the shoreline in this area was the source of some of Japan's finest nori. There are still a number of nori wholesalers located here, and this is also the...
[Open 10am-5pm daily.]
Traditional kamaboko fish cakes are the unlikely, yet logical, subject of this specialized museum run by a company that makes fish cakes. Most people seem to be here for the 50-minute, hands-on classes in fish-cake production (in Japanese; Y1500),...
[Open 8:30am-4:30pm. Closed Sundays.]
Fans of Ajinomoto's MSG seasoning can learn all about the world of umami flavors and get a glimpse into the operations of a 21st-century food factory with Ajinomoto's very comprehensive factory tour. The ninety-minute adventure includes a...
Science
[Open 9:30am-4:30pm. Closed Mondays.]
Located on the north shore of Teganuma Lake, around 45 minutes from central Tokyo, the museum focuses on the avian wildlife of the lake as well as the world of birds in general. After a visit to the museum you can stroll along the lakeshore trail...
[Open 1-5pm. Closed weekdays.]
Popular with insect fans of all ages (but mostly children), this specialized museum is devoted to the life of French entomologist Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915), who was famous in Japan as the author of the beautifully written Fabre's Book of Insects....
[Open 10am-5pm (enter by 4:30). Closed Tuesdays.]
There is more than enough to keep you (or any children you happen to bring along) busy for a whole day in this beautifully housed and expertly presented museum. The personal cinemas in the library section alone have more than 600 science videos....
[Open 9:30am-4:50pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Wednesdays.]
Aimed primarily at younger visitors, the focus here is on basic science and technology, with lots of hands-on exhibits, although many of them look like they were put together a few decades ago. Driving simulators in the Waku Eco Motor Land section...
Technology and manufacturing
[Open 10:30am-6pm daily.]
Wondering what Japanese robots are up to these days? Find out at the Tokyo Skytree campus of Chiba Institute of Technology, which is actually just a couple of exhibition spaces located upstairs from the Skytree's shopping-mall complex. One area is...
[Open 11am-7pm. Closed weekends.]
This charming hands-on museum is jam-packed with now-obsolete gadgetry that once represented the cutting edge of technology and industrial design. Hand-cranked movie cameras, pre-war film cameras, manual typewriters and early-model laptops are...
[Open noon-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
ICC explores the interface between electronic technology and the arts with varying degrees of success. Some of the installations here seem more like cool toys than groundbreaking art, but there's always some fun stuff to look at and play with.
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Sundays, Mondays.]
It's an entire museum devoted to old cellphones! The history and culture of mobile communication is the theme here, and visitors with an interest in Japanese industrial design can trace the evolution of mobile-phone fashions through the years. ...
[Open 10am-5:30pm (Sat, Sun -6pm). Closed Mondays.]
Aimed primarily at school-aged children, this science and technology museum covers a broad range of topics, including image-recognition technology, paper recycling, geothermal generation, smart buildings, and nanotechnology. Many of the exhibits...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (enter by 4:30). Closed Mondays.]
H2O from A to Z. Everything you ever wanted to know about water. Small and quiet, but it's free and fun enough to justify popping in if you are nearby. As with most museums in Japan, considerable thought and money has obviously gone into the...
Trains, ships and cars
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
Earthquakes. Landslides. Typhoons. Faulty wiring. Japan has its share of danger. But fear not: the fire department is here to help. To learn exactly how they help, visit Tokyo's Fire Museum, where the history of Fire and Rescue in Japan - from...
[Open 11am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed Tuesdays.]
Two gigantic room-size layouts are the main draw at this impressive model-railway attraction. The larger diorama is European in character, with urban streets, town squares and outdoor restaurants, as well as a couple of mountain resorts connected...
[Open 9:30am-5:30pm (last entry 5pm). Closed Wednesdays.]
This inexpensive mini-theme park is an entertaining destination for young train fans who still have leftover energy after a visit to Tama Zoo, located just across the road. It's a very hands-on attraction, with several different train simulators...
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
Recently refurbished, the Metro Museum focuses on the Tokyo subway system, with several hands-on driving simulators, a big model train layout (with shows four times a day), and exhibits of subway cars through the ages, tunneling equipment and...
[Open 10am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Fans of rockets, ships and big machinery in general will find a lot to see in this two-story technology museum run by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Exhibits focus in particular on the realms of aerospace, deep-sea exploration and shipping. There's...
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30pm). Closed Tuesdays.]
Train enthusiasts shouldn't miss this impressive, expensively produced railway-history museum located about thirty minutes north of Shinjuku in Saitama Prefecture. The showpiece here is a collection of thirty-five real train cars and full-size...
[Open 10am-4:30pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Mondays.]
A three-minute "Steam Locomotive Show," with spinning wheels and loud whistling, is held four times a day and is one of the main attractions at this local train museum. Another draw is the 13-minute "Panorama Show," held five times a day on a large...
[Open 10am-4:30pm (last entry 4pm). Closed Thursdays.]
Tokyu Railway's transportation museum offers plenty of hands-on activities for children and train enthusiasts, with numerous driving simulators and three different room-size model-train layouts. There are lots of features geared towards younger...
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
The main museum building has exhibits on the 150-year history of Yokohama port, but the main attraction is the Nippon Maru, a real-life sailing ship built in 1930 and retired in 1984. You can walk around admiring the big white sails and the...
Small, specialized museums
[Open 9:30am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
Banknotes from Japan and around the world are the main theme of this free museum run by the National Printing Bureau. Watermarks, holograms, color-shifting inks, microprinting and textural effects - these are some of the many anti-counterfeiting...
[Open 10am-noon, 1-3pm. Closed Mondays.]
Learn all about brakes at this highly specialized mini-museum, which covers everything from simple bicycle calipers to the sophisticated eddy-current and regenerative brakes used in Shinkansen trains. A timeline illustrates the history of brakes,...
[Open 1-5pm. Closed weekdays.]
Popular with insect fans of all ages (but mostly children), this specialized museum is devoted to the life of French entomologist Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915), who was famous in Japan as the author of the beautifully written Fabre's Book of Insects....
[Open 1-4pm. Closed weekends.]
Although it's called a stationery museum, you won't find any envelopes, notebooks or other paper products at this quirky little museum. Instead they've assembled impressive collections of rare inkstones and calligraphy brushes, vintage fountain...
[Open 10am-4pm. Closed Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon.]
Traditional Japanese wooden architecture is the focus of this fascinating mini-museum, with a particular emphasis on the technique of wood joinery - the art of constructing wooden buildings with interlocking wooden joints instead of nails and...
[Open 10am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Young children who are fascinated by package-delivery services are perhaps the main audience for this rather specialized corporate facility, although professional museum designers and connoisseurs of quirky museums may also find it of interest. ...
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays, Tuesdays.]
Forget the usual superlatives for Tokyo - the highest concentration of pachinko balls in the world, the greatest number of geographically challenged taxi drivers anywhere, etc. - what really makes me want to punch the air in civic pride is knowing...
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed weekends.]
This quirky little mini-museum is devoted to meishi and other paper products, and is run by a long-established meishi-printing company. If the exhibition area is closed (as it usually is), just pop your head into the second-floor office and ask to...
[Open 9am-5pm daily.]
From the early 1700s up until 1962, when the Port of Tokyo began major redevelopment work, the shoreline in this area was the source of some of Japan's finest nori. There are still a number of nori wholesalers located here, and this is also the...
[Open 10am-5pm (enter by 4:30). Closed Mondays.]
If you're spending the day in the nearby park but get hit by a sudden downpour, this specialty museum is a decent way to kill ten or fifteen minutes. The rather limited exhibit area covers topics such as the invention of paper, the crafting of...
[Open 11am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
Collectors and devoted fans of winter weather-themed novelty souvenir items will be interested in this unique cultural resource - the world's only museum devoted to snow globes (aka snowdomes). Hundreds of examples of this much-neglected artform...