We visited quite a few museums on our last couple of trips to Tokyo. You will note the conspicuous absence of art museums. Our girls don’t last too long in art museums. They do much better in interactive environments.
One of my husband’s favorite museum was Fune-no-kagakukan or the National Maritime Museum in Odaiba (you could make a day out of visiting both Miraikan- National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, also in Odaiba and a 5 – 10 minute away– depends on who is doing the walking…) The ride on the Yurikamome line from Shiodome is scenic. The views of the Rainbow Bride, Tokyo Bay and the futuristic buildings are not bad. The girls enjoyed the glass doors at the station and the view from the back/front of the train. It is an unmanned monorail.
The Maritime Museum has extensive exhibits on ships, shipbuilding etc. In fact the museum looks like a ship – you can’t miss it. There were quite a few interactive exhibits. If you were really interested in ships, this is the place to go. There is a Chinese restaurant in the museum with a nice view. In retrospect we should have eaten there. Instead we went to lunch at a mall nearby, though we had to take the train. The food was not good ; it was a bad idea. However, the girls were entertained by about 200 or so Japanese middle school students who came in for lunch after their field trip to Fuji TV.
http://www.funenokagakukan.or.jp/index_e.html
We usually travel to Japan during its rainy season. This means we are on the look out for indoor activities. One of our discoveries was the Science Museum situated in Kitanomaru Park near the Imperial Palace.
The first museum we encounter from the subway station is the National Museum of Contemporary Art. My husband decides why not go in since it is there and on our way to the Science Museum. I wasn’t too keen about the idea, mainly because I wanted to make sure we had time at the Science Museum.
This was not a kid-friendly choice! All the guards, mostly women, on the floors were so uptight. At one point, one of the women asked me to hold Stella’s hand for the duration of our visit. I refused! We made a quick exit from the museum, the kids found it boring and frankly we did too. We have seen better collections elsewhere.
We walked further in the rain to the Science Museum which was about to close in 10-15 min and Karim talks his way into letting us in for free. In contrast to the other museum, people were very kind and friendly. One of the women took pity on our girls and showed us the jumping/TV exhibit (very fun!) and the big bubble exhibit. The girls were able to stand inside a huge bubble! Had a lot of fun in 10 minutes!
We liked our short visit so much we went back to it. It is very kid friendly and there are many fun, interactive displays. However, if you had to choose between the Science Museum and Miraikan in Odaiba, Miraikan wins hands down. No contest!
http://www.jsf.or.jp/eng/
The National Arts Center is near Tokyo Midtown, smack in Roppongi, known for its night life. What a find since it is a stone throw away from where we were staying. It is the fifth national arts institute (probably a recipient of all the public works stimulus projects by the Japanese government). It is an amazing building consisting of glass and concrete. The concrete is smooth and we detected no cracks. The Japanese are masters when it comes to concrete.
The Arts Center does not have a permanent collection but shows rotating works of art. The building itself is interesting and provides a wonderful space for rest and contemplation. There is a restaurant and café in the museum. You don’t have to pay an admission fee to enter the museum, only for special exhibits. Until September, a collection of art from the Musee d’Orsay is being shown.
http://www.nact.jp/english/index.html
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