Lake Biwa Museum — Attraction in Kusatsu

I’ve been wanting to visit this museum and our family thought we would spend a few hours there. Turns out this place is AMAZING and we spent the entire day there! We have two young kids under 10 years of age and they had a blast. They spent time playing with microscopes, stenciling, coloring, making puzzles, playing in the historic buildings, dressing up as archaeologists, etc. The discovery center was so fun, and so much of the museum is super hands on. After hours of entertainment, we realized we still needed to explore the aquarium and the upstairs area (with many more exhibits). This museum is full of enriching educational opportunities for anyone and for all ages. After the rain stopped, we then walked along the tree top path and were able to take in the local wildlife along the shoreline. We also had lunch at the cafe housed within the museum and the kid and adult options were delicious. What a great museum! Highly...

The museum is very informative and really interesting. It does have a lot of information on the development and history of Lake Biwa. The aquarium has a lot of different specimens of fish which are very interesting to see. I was a bit surprised to see a baikal seal in one of the displays. I thought personally it seemed out of place to have it and it was clear by the swimming patterns of this seal that it was not living a happy life. Why have this seal here? It’s also alone. I didn’t feel good about seeing that. Also. The water birds in the display as well. What is the point of having those captive in a display as well? Other fish had open tanks. I think they should reevaluate some of the animals they have in the aquarium.

Other than those things, for learning history, it is...

Neat museum in Otsu located on the lakes’ edge. It’s only 500 yen of adults but 300 with student discount. Its full of exhibits displaying fossils, taxidermies of lake wildlife, and artifacts. I especially enjoyed the replica of a 1950’s rural lake village. Sadly the aquarium was closed when my friends and I visited in late April. Maybe it’ll be open on my next trip. My only recommendation for the museum is to add more English descriptions. There was limited English, so I only was able to understand about 5 percent of all the descriptions. It may bring more tourists. I did however increase my knowledge on Lake Biwa by...