National Museum of Nature and Science

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!

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.

We had two hours with 5 kids, from 7 years old to 12. We enjoyed focusing on these: B1F – Dinosaur Hall: Huge life-sized skeletons and moving models — a guaranteed favorite. • 1F – The Universe and Life: Space exploration displays, meteorites, and fossils of early life. • 3F – Evolution of Life: Eye-catching dioramas and interactive touch screens. • Theater 360° (optional): Immersive 3D globe-shaped theater — only 10 minutes, but kids love it. (Check show schedule when you arrive.) 💡 Tip: If lines are short, do the Theater 360° first before the Dinosaur Hall.

HUGE exhibitions. Three hours is the average time you'll spend in there if you're into natural and machinery history, or science in general. The limited exhibition about crocodiles was so awesome too, there were so many wet specimen on display! Will definitely go again just for the sake of it. Thank you!

Huge museum! This museum was absolutely massive and great value for the price. I came here on a weekday in the late morning and it was not crowded. I bought a ticket at the machine which was quick and easy. I would recommend starting at the bottom (B2) and working your way up the rest of the floors. I found the lower and upper floors to be less crowded as there were several school groups visiting at the same time as me that were concentrated at the middle levels. There were floors concerning space, scientists, dinosaurs, etc. I particularly enjoyed the floors specific to Japan. Many of the exhibits were also interactive which would be enjoyable for children especially. However, I will note that many of the signs were in Japanese only. If you cannot read Japanese then the museum may be less enjoyable for you if you like to read about the exhibits. There is still much to enjoy, but do keep that in mind. I would still highly recommend this for anyone who like musuems and will be back the next time I am in the area.

Unfortunately, as a national-level museum, it failed to meet my expectations. Many details were disappointing. Cerasite, Sakura Ishi, as a rare and special Japanese mineral, the cross section shows beautiful flower-like, six-rayed trapiche pattern crystals. But there was no cross-section of the specimen displayed here. Nipponites, name after nippon, the most bizarre shapes seen among ammonites, lied here all alone without any special introduction. I witnessed that most tourists rushed past here without stopping to pay any attention, which is a real shame. Also, some translations of signs were ridiculous! "付加体" in Chinese is "增生楔" and Chinese don't say "被追逐的生物", this should be "濒危物种" or "被威胁的生物". If you translate it like that, using same Kanji with no thinking, it's not Chinese at all; it's pseudo-Chinese.

Pretty amazing museum to be truthful. The exhibits are one of a kind (according to my experience). From dinosaurs to space shuttles and a lot of interactive exhibits, it had it all. The 3 stars are for 2 reasons: 1) a LOT of the exhibits didn't have an english explanation attached to them and 2) some of the interactive exhibits were faulty, or not working at all without any indication.

Not only children, but adults would be agreeing to say this museum is truly a gem in the city. We could see the efforts and hardworks of the scientists and staffs for collecting and showing the animal fossils from the countries in the world, not an easy work!! We also witness how this huge nature (animals and plants) could be united in a place, together with the stones and tools, equipments, from all ancient era to this modern technology, are here!! A must visit place!!

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.