Best Museums Spot List

Meet the two famous cats that manage the station

A museum where you can enjoy contemporary sculpture in the sleek, hexagonal main building and the four outdoor exhibition areas.

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.

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.

The Perry Memorial Hall is a museum that illustrates the Perry Expedition (1853－1854), which paved the way to the opening of Japan, and the history leading to it through dioramas and historical documents.

This is a hands-on train museum that is enjoyable for both adults and children. An operation simulator that uses an actual operator's seat is popular.

This art museum is located in the residential area of Shoto, Shibuya Ward. It features a unique, beautiful facade by architect Seiichi Shirai.

A history museum featuring precious cultural artifacts from the Kamakura Era.

Sharing a new art culture from Aomori

The Sogo Museum of Art is located inside a department store that is directly connected with Yokohama Station. You can enjoy both shopping and art at the same time.

Artworks that blend in well with traditional Japanese houses are displayed

Currently under renovation, and plans to reopen in the autumn of 2016. One of the few museums worldwide focusing on photography and film.

This is a museum built on the site where the Kawagoe Castle used to stand. Through various exhibitions, the museum explains how the people in the castle town lived.

The Sumo Photography Museum is placed in the parking area of a photo studio. There are many items on display, including photographs of successive generations of great sumo wrestlers, references, and sumo wrestlers' ornamental aprons.

Located inside the Yugawara Tourist Hall, this museum exhibits the works and information panels of various writers and artists who have visited Yugawara since the Meiji era, such as Doppo Kunikida, Soseki Natsume , Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Akiko Yosano, Toson Shimazaki, and Junichiro Tanizaki. It also features a walking map for sights connected to Yugawara’s literary history, a brief history of modern literature in Yugawara, as well as panels of photos showing Yugawara in the past and present, and temples, shrines and stone statues. Access: From Yugawara Station, take the bus headed to Okuyugawara or Fudo-Taki for about 10 minutes We are right next to the Ochiaibashi bus stop

Experience a simulated ski jump at this winter sports museum

This is a museum where visitors can trace the changes in Chinese kanji characters and their shapes from the pre-Christian time to the present through its collection of valuable cultural properties.

A historic building representing the Showa era. Its location within one kilometer of Ginza makes it easily accessible before or after shopping.

A museum exhibiting works of art under the theme of pumpkins, with a focus on the work of world-famous artist Yayoi Kusama. The museum also has a cafe. [Yayoi Kusama] A painter, avant-garde sculptor and novelist born in Nagano. She began painting pictures based on hallucinations she had in her early childhood. She went to the USA in 1957 and stayed in New York for 18 years, and has also represented Japan at Venice Biennial in 1993. After her retrospective exhibition tour around the US, she held a large-scale, one-woman exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, in 1999. In 2001, she won the Asahi Prize. Her work has appeared at the Yokohama Triennale. Access: From Yugawara Station, take the bus headed to Okuyugawara or Fudo-Taki for about 5 minutes We are five minutes' walk from the Shogakko-Mae bus stop

Loved by bird watchers, a spot to photograph Japanese cranes