Japan Kanji Museum & Library — Attraction in Kyoto

I absolutely loved the museum and kanji, but the experience is a bit lacking if you're using the English audio guide. More below 👇

This kanji museum is a gem that details how kanji came from China, evolved in Japan and also the evolution of hirigana and katakana scripts.

The second floor is fully interactive with kanji games and a library.

Super cool 50k kanji display, which color-codes which kanji are learned in elementary school vs high school and how many are on the computer (so many aren't!)

🇬🇧 I used the English audio guide, which was a nice supplement. However, it only read a very small amount of the written information. I ended up using Google Translate to read the signs. I think for the larger displays, it would be helpful to read all of the large text, instead of just a snippet.

Obviously, if you don't know kanji, you can't play most of the games upstairs. The one that you could play as a non-Japanese speaker was a bingo, but that was a ¥500 gatcha capsule to play. I feel like given the price of admission and audio guide, and that the bingo takes up 1/6 of the top floor, that was a bit much.

Really friendly staff.

⏰ I spent about 45 min, I did the activity paper and listened to the whole audio guide plus read on my own. Japanese speakers would likely stay longer.

💳...

If you can read Japanese and enjoy kanji, it's a must-visit. The bottom floor is a history of kanji. while the top is full of quizzes, games and smaller exhibitions (stuff like Japan-only kanji, regional kanji, the kanji kentei test). There's a very good library packed with linguistics books.

The exhibition part is small and changes every 3 months. If you have an annual pass it's good value, but otherwise it might not be worth paying full entry a second time just to see a new exhibition.

I deducted a star for the gift shop outside, which is clearly marketed to foreign tourists, selling the usual stuff - I expected more kanji-related items, so I was quite...

English or Japanese, this place is a joy to visit and learn a bit more about the interesting history of Kanji I would recommend knowing at least a little bit about what kanji is with respect to the Japanese language, as there are sections on this cute interactive pamphlet they give you that mention hiragana and katakana, but even without Japanese knowledge it's still interesting to go and check out how the kanji has changed from the beginning to now. Full experience, you should know a bit if Japanese, otherwise it'll still be nice just be wary that some sections might be a tad confusing without such...