Best Museums around Tokyo and Surroundings Spot List

Saitama Midori-no-mori Museum is a field museum that presents the satoyama (traditional agricultural) landscapes of Sayama-kyuryo Hills, such as wooded areas and swamps.

A museum inside the building of Tokyo University of the Arts, the best out of all the art universities in Japan. It stores approximately 29,000 items of mainly Japanese modern arts.

It is a toy museum designed to attract people of all ages, from babies to the elderly. Visitors can see, touch, play, and learn while having fun.

The National Film Center is the only national institution devoted to cinematography. It keeps movie films as well as many valuable materials related to movies. They are shown on the screens or displayed in the exhibition hall.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum is in Ueno Park. Special exhibitions of domestic and foreign famous paintings, variety of planned exhibitions, and exhibitions of works by the general public are held there.

Walk around the extensive grounds covering 70,000 square meters while enjoying the spectacular sculptures surrounded by magnificent greenery.

Lalique Museum, Hakone exhibits about 230 pieces of French artist, René Lalique (1860-1945) who created precious jewelry in Art Nouveau style, and beautiful objects in glass during Art Deco period.

This is the world's first museum dedicated to the classic novella ”The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It displays documentation and memorabilia from the author Saint-Exupéry, and visitors can fully enjoy the world of ”The Little Prince.”

Directly connected to Mitsukoshimae Station, the Mitsui Memorial Museum features masterpieces of Japanese and Eastern art acquired by members of the Mitsui family over 350 years. There is no permanent exhibition.

A museum where you can relax surrounded by rich greenery. It positions art as a ”sustenance of mental health.”

This art museum has the longest history in the Hakone area. On the premises, there is a tea ceremony room from which you can enjoy the landscape of each season.

The museum houses 900 drums, including Japanese drums and others from all over the world. Visitors can touch and play the drums.

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

A museum introducing Edo hanabi (fireworks) and brimming with the atmosphere of the era.

It is Japan's only national nature and science museum, which presents the history of nature and science; it is located in Tokyo. Its theater, in which a movie can be displayed in a panoramic 360 degrees, is worth seeing.

The museum exhibits precious fossils of prehistoric life and a large diorama replicated the forests of Saitama. It is a museum where you can learn the 300 million years of the natural history of the prefecture.

A museum were you can enjoy the modern works painted by the illustrators such as Takabatake Kasho who swept through the art publication world.

The Meguro Parasitological Museum exhibits 300 specimens of tapeworms and related material from inside and outside Japan. This is a research facility and museum devoted to parasites.

This is an art museum that houses and exhibits modern and contemporary Japanese art. It hosts special exhibitions on a wide range of themes.

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.