Best Museums around Tokyo Spot List

A building that is in itself a work of art. An art center where you can enjoy a variety of art exhibitions.

This is a museum where you can learn the aesthetics of the samurai spirit. You can experience being a samurai warrior wearing kabuto (a helmet) and yoroi (an armor) and take commemorative photos as well.

This museum owns over 38,000 artifacts relating to the culture and history of tobacco and salt both from Japan and overseas.

The Higashi-yamato Municipal Folk Museum has ”the Sayama Hills and life” as its theme. The museum has a planetarium equipped with a Megastar projector, which casts images of stars.

The Tokyo Station Gallery is a museum located in an Important Cultural Property, Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building. Exhibitions and events in a variety of themes are held there.

This museum exhibits academic specimens and research materials owned by the University of Tokyo. It is a museum where brings an academic heritage into creation of a new culture and design.

A place connected to Matsuo Basho. A garden with flowers and trees associated with his haiku and Shiseki Tembo Teien with a waterside view are the highlights.

A museum that displays precious references to sumo wrestling — a form of traditional culture dating to the era of Japanese myths.

A hall that holds rakugo (comic storytelling) performances throughout the year. It also holds a variety of other performances, such as manzai (a two-man comedy act), that are worth seeing.

A museum located in Ueno Park. Visitors can enjoy a variety of artworks including ones designated as Important Cultural Properties.

Founded by Kunio Kobayashi, the notable bonsai (potted plant) creator. Artistic bonsai are in line with each other at the Japanese garden. You can also purchase some of them.

Reproduces the streets of Fukagawa Saga-cho in the Edo Period so visitors can see the scene and lifestyle of that period.

An art center open to all where you can enjoy exhibitions, workshops, and a variety of other events.

Museum of Yebisu Beer will teach you the history and the way to enjoy Yebisu beer at the birthplace of Yebisu beer.

This is an art gallery established in 1926, located in the Meiji Jingu Gaien Park. About 80 masterpieces of Japanese and Western paintings are displayed in chronological order.

This art museum, which opened its doors in 1983, is out of ordinary among other museums in Tokyo. Located in the middle of the city, the museum harmonizes its art exhibitions, which utilize the former official residence of Asaka-no-miya (a branch of the Japanese Imperial Family) constructed in the early Showa period employing an Art Deco style, and the lushly green garden. After improvement of the old building, and an extension for a gallery and a cafe was added, the museum was re-opened in November 2014. In front of the art museum, there is a wide spread of lawn. You can put down a mat and eat your meal on this lawn.

Nippon Camera Hakubutsu-kan or the JCII Camera Museum is a museum operated by the Japan Camera Industry Institute, and you can have fun learning and familiarizing yourself with cameras by looking at and touching cameras. There are more than 300 cameras on display.

Established in accordance with the wishes of the business tycoon, Kaichiro Nezu, after his death. Antique works of art from Japan and the rest of Asia can be enjoyed here. It also has a Japanese garden with tea houses.

The museum displays valuable handicrafts and folk crafts, mainly Japanese antique ceramics and dyed or woven textiles that were selected by Japanese philosopher Yanagi Muneyoshi, collected from Japan and overseas.

The museum has the ancient Orient as its theme. Visitors can learn about the hunting and gathering life of 5,000 years ago as well as the invention of writing.