National Museum of Nature and Science

Great museum! We spent roughly 3.5 hours and it was a bit rushed because we were hungry. I recommend having a big breakfast before coming here and actually spending a whole day. When we arrived we saw a huge queue in front of the building which turned out to be the queue for the special exhibition. We wanted to see the Japanese and global exhibitions so the entry through the main entrance was enough. We didn’t wait at all and got our tickets at the counter for 630 Yen per person. For this price the museum has so much to offer! There are multiple floors and each has a theme and a storyline. From fossils to preserved animal species it offers a wide variety. There are also exhibits dedicated to technological advancements. There are multiple devices all around the place with explanations of the animal species. These ara available in English and couple of other languages. Overall it was great! Only downside was, it was very crowded which is understandable since it was a Sunday. Maybe coming during a weekday might be less crowded.

A great, budget-friendly stop in Tokyo! The entry fee was very affordable at just over 500 yen, which is excellent value considering the quality of the exhibits. I saw a wide variety of attractions, ranging from prehistoric fossils to modern technological innovations. While the museum is packed with interesting displays, it is a relatively quick visit—mostly an hour or two activity. It’s the perfect addition to a day spent exploring Ueno Park without taking up too much of your schedule. Highly recommended for a quick, educational break!

Pros: 1. Massive. At least 3hrs for quick visit, and definitely could take a full day for full immersion. 2. Awesome exhibit. Fossils, animals, rocks and meteors, science stuff, all displayed and presented well. 3. Great overall story-telling. From bottom level to upper level, well connected. 4. We come at 9 sharp and no que to main permanent exhibition. However long que already forming for special exhibition (dinosaurs). Permanent exhibition is free for kids below 18yo and seniors above 65yo. Tickets for adults also very affordable at 600yen. 5. Great gift shop. Some fantastic fossil from 400-450 years ago available for sale here (!). Imho, with good price too. It was awesome and shouldnt be missed. 6. Hospitable staff Cons: some exhibit only explained in Japanese, with no English version. Overall: Had a wonderful experience. A recommended visit.

Amazing experience! there is so much to see that I couldn't get it all done in in my 2 hour visit. I can't wait to go back to see the areas I missed. Even with so many areas, all of them are well thought out, explained and displayed. I highly recommend getting the audio guide as it's only around 300 yen but it's not necessary at all. I was there alone and I didn't feel out of place what so ever so I can confidently recommend a visit even to the solo travelers!

Place is very big and has many sections. You need a whole long day here to explore every bit of the exhibition. The stuffed animals looks very nice and real, almost too scary sometimes. 360 theater is cool. We went on the weekday so we didn’t need to waited for too long. Not far from Ueno station. Also lots of other attractions around. Child friendly atmosphere. The restaurant is nice though.

I truly enjoyed my visit here! This place is located within walking distance from Ueno station and it is massive! Filled with exhibitions from space, to cells to animals and then to dinosaurs! There's even exhibitions on gems. Go all the way to the top floor to access the roof top garden and get that massive bird eye view of Ueno! The souvenirs shop is SOOO good too, so many things to buy.

Huge collection that could take a serious history lover a whole day to complete. We visited in December where there is a special exhibition on the Dinosaurs so they added another 2 hours to the visit. Love the collection and would have wished for more time to complete all the exhibition halls.

Very rich museum full of interesting and informative exhibits. The language displayed is Japanese but they have a free guide in multi-language that you can access using your phone. There is a World Hall and a Japan Hall. Couldn't finish both halls in a day due to the richness. There was a special exhibition on 5 major extinctions when I was there which was very crowded.

What a wonderful museum with a great staff of volunteers that genuinely like helping people. The man who helped explain the Japanese clocks throughout history was so nice and knowledgeable. There were great exhibits of natural sciences, ecology, chemistry, history, physics. Really one of the best done museums I've been to and you can tell it was designed to be both informational/educational and engaging. There are a multitude of experiments that you can try while you are there and learn about different areas of science. They have a restaurant that was lovely as well and dinosaur themed down to the hamburger steak which was a nice touch. 5/5 would recommend to museum lover in your life.

Museum is designed for families with young children. Easy to walk though and there are a total of four floors which includes the basement. The basement has lockers and also a 360 movie theater. The runtime for the 360 theater is ten minutes long. It is included with the price of admission. Children are free.

Excellent science museum located at Ueno Tokyo Japan. Admission is free for kids under 18. For an adult, it was only 600 yen and I can't believe they are not charging more!!!! I saw many young kids but I don't think they really appreciate what they have here. I think it would be more appropriate and be appreciated by kids in the middle school with some science background. Four hours I spent here only got through a half of their stuff here. I of course enjoyed about aircrafts and space, but I also spend lots of hours at the nanotechnology area. Let me tell you I've never seen so many grownup men enjoying museum. I mean middle aged men are looking and experiencing science displays here and they are not shy about talk about what they are. the natural history area was appropriate for younger kids like in elementary school. They were made so well, great way to learn earth's history. Be sure to visit 3D theater. It was made so well although only available in Japanese, still enjoyable by pictures alone. I wish I had more time here. They have a cafe available and I tried their green tea cake. They also serve light meals, really ideal for all day stay here. Hope to come back someday to visit the other half I couldn't go.

One of the best Science Museums I've ever visited. See everything from Dinosaurs, Aquatic Life, Vegetation, Insects,... to the history of Japan's Technological Advancements. This place is pretty big, so you'll definitely be here for a while if you want to see everything. This building is made up of five or six floors of exhibits. It actually felt like a maze going through this place. And at only 600yen (I only paid 500yen because I had the tourist guide), this place must not be missed. A great destination if you are in Ueno.

It's hard to make everyone happy on a family vacation, yet despite a rough start to today we all enjoyed this museum. We started off in the Japan Gallery and my kids, aged 8 and 10, were more bothered with the tablets that we rented to give us more information on the exhibits in English. In retrospect, we could have skipped those, as there was enough information and visual stimulation for their attention spans. We ended up returning the tablets when we left the Japan Galley. The vast number of taxidermy is amazing, and the human replicas are done well. I certainly learned new things. There's more to take in than my kids' attention spans allowed for today, as they were also thinking ahead to seeing the Giant Panda at the zoo. The Global Gallery begins with a visual and audio exhibit in the round, animated to display how living beings began as organisms to where we are today. The museum is free for kids and seniors (with ID). The bathrooms are clean, and there's no/little line if you take 30 seconds to take the stairs above the first level of the museum. There are little potty seats for small children in each stall too. Lockers are available to rent (with a refundable deposit) so we didn't have to wear our heavy coats the whole time. The curry in the cafe really hit the spot on this cold, rainy day, but they don't take credit cards and the nearest ATM is at the Ueno Train Station, which isn't far but the distance is enough to be inconvenient. Once we solved the cash issue, the cafe employees were very accommodating in making my daughter a plain dish of rice for her meal. All the employees were helpful and the museum is well run and clean.

What a cool museum! For 600 yen you get to see a lot! They permanent exhibits have lots of taxidermy so it's nice being able to see the anatomy and skeletal structures of many different animals from crabs to the skeletal structure of a giraffe. They also have a three floor progressive gallery dedicated to the natural history of Japan. I thought that was pretty neat! My only regret was not being able to see the whole lot of dinosaur exhibit! :(

Smaller museum than we thought it'd be, but the entrance fee isn't much either. A lot of the exhibits are of course only in Japanese, so I found myself phone in hand with Google Translate open a lot if something looked interesting. They have a really good geological exhibit going on that has a lot of different minerals on display. There were really detailed, life-like human displays too. It showed the process it took to mold and carve them which was really cool. It took the viewer through the early humans in Japan which was interesting. The day that we went was apparently also a massive field trip day for a couple schools. It was pretty crowded with screaming children pressing all of the sound buttons and then running off. Don't let this deter you though. Just a normal type thing when you come to this sort of place. You won't be needing a full day for this place as there were only about 4 stories or so. We finished our visit within 2 hours max.

Amazing museums. Most things are not translated into English, but they do get a lot into such a two building. If you love dinosaurs then this will be a must stop. For only $6 or 620yen. The museum is split into two different buildings and can be a bit much for even a day. It is 12 floors between the two We spent about four and a half hours and only hit a few floors. As always in Japan the staff were amazing and the map was in English. Would highly recommend to any Natural history buff.

I love Museum of Natural History anywhere else, and although I'm not a big museum fan in general, I always try to check this museum in the cities I have visited. This museum is in Ueno Park, among the museum complex there, so it's very easy to get there, just a stroll out of Ueno station, surrounded by the beautiful greeneries in the park. Entrance is 600 Yen for adult, which is quite the standard fare for museums in Tokyo. The museum is divided in two section - the global section and the Japan section. Since we were mostly interested in the Japan section, we went there first. The layout was quite confusing, but the Japan section is the one at the main entrance. Go straight up to 3rd floor and make your way downstairs. If there's any regret on this museum is because they're hardly any English explanations in most of the items. I know that Japanese people aren't keen in English, but I wish I understood Japanese in most of my stay, including the visit to this museum. The Japan section was very much interesting, but not much things to read from apart from the English title. That said, things have gotten much better since I visited Japan a year ago in general. So, all in all a great museum, but there's not much information in English, but you can always entertain yourself with the amount of interesting items on display here, including the huge swimming dinosaur bones!

I hate to be a party pooper since the rest of the reviews were pretty positive, but I was somewhat underwhelmed by the museum. Maybe I'm spoiled by museums in Philadelphia where I'm from, but there just wasn't a whole lot on display here. Primarily taxidermy of smaller animals, with a bear or two, and a few skeleton models. I'd also say if you can't read Japanese you're going to have a bit of trouble here, the majority of the exhibits don't have any English at the moment, although the touch screen displays indicate they're planning on adding English information. Given its only ~650 yen, its okay to walk around for a bit, but don't expect to spend more than an hour or so, especially if you can't read Japanese.

good museum! enjoyed it very much :D The museum has two buildings - one of Japan nature/history, and another building of the world's nature/history. They had a special wine exhibit, which required an additional cost, but I'm glad we did it. It showed the process in which wine is created. The best part, and one of the highlights of this Tokyo trip, was where visitors can step on rubber grapes!!!! It felt squishy!!! Had a I love Lucy moment. So fun haha.

I could spend days there. Spent 4 rushed hours there with buddies on a Japan skiing/eating trip. Spent 4 rushed hours there 2 years later with my family on a Japan onsen trip. In close proximity to other museums about Japan (art, music). This museum has displays of Japan's ancient history, medieval history, modern history and nature. Restored WW2 fighter planes, space satellites, ancient community exhibits, interactive displays about Japan's volcanic geography, exhibits of Japan's flora and fauna. Even famous Hachiko (stuffed). Highly recommended for people of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities visit this museum. Directions/displays/explanations are marked in English language. Relatively cheap admission fee, lots of places to rest with water fountains and rest rooms. A short walk away from the train station and the best street food around for the whole family (my favorite highball/beer/croquette stand is a 10 min. walk away).

To be honest, we were hoping for more science than nature. Still, some of the presentations were excellent. The little kids all around were super excited. Just jealous of the families here who have a wonderful museum a train-ride away. Adult ¥620 and free for high schoolers and younger. ========== Second visit eight months later. Should skip the small building to have enough energy for the big building. Lucked out to be there on the first day of a five month ten museum pass for 2000 yen.