Misawa Aviation Science Museum — Attraction in Misawa

As a disclaimer, this review is written by an American, who only speaks English.

This place is great. It's small, and don't have a large selection of aircraft available, but it does everything it can to make up for it. You walk in, get your ticket, then display the ticket to the next booth. After that you're free to walk in any order you please, but there are zones with signs. Zone A is the Aviation zone. They are very proud of their Miss Veedol display and have the merch to back it up. I was unable to appreciate it fully as this display has very little English. Continuing on there are a few more aircraft inside, one of which you can do a full walkthrough of excluding the cockpit. (We'll get back to that.) Things are nicely displayed, though there isn't much English around, so you won't be able to soak in all the information without translating it all. Zone B is the Science zone. While largely designed for kids, it is still a fun and informative zone with many interactions that make you experience the things it's trying to teach, no matter your age. Sadly one of the displays was down for maintenance when I went, and it looked really quite interesting. (Something about the effect of sound traveling and the different mediums.) Also in this zone is a little zip line thing, an air rocket, flight simulators, and some weird little helicopter thing. I believe all of these things require additional tickets, which can be purchased at that station. Lastly, they have an entire cockpit that you can interact with fully. It's a genuine cockpit from a 60's-80's aircraft, with nothing connected so you can throw the throttle and buttons to your hearts content. (We came back to it.) Zone C is the Space zone. This area is probably the most lacking, especially as an American. Even then, there are some interactions to be had, and some neat pictures, videos, and diagrams. Sort of part of this, is a somewhat hidden wall, which was surprisingly one of my favorite aspects. It has models of military aircraft from the start of aviation to modern day. There's not much info with the models, but either searching ones that seem interesting, or going with someone who knows a good bit about the variety of the aircraft can be a pretty neat experience. (I'm the nerd who was explaining about the models and their history.) Lastly (for an American) is one of their most prominent features, the airplane gallery outside. This section is beautiful, and surprisingly interactive. During the non winter months, there are many aircraft you can get into the cockpit of. If the weather is good enough to be outside, there is still a P-3 that you can do a (mostly) full walkthrough of. Though I must say, it's interior is NOT accurate. Basically all its military aspects were stripped out and replaced with tables and chairs. I would say look up interior pictures as you're walking through to imagine a more authentic experience.

As a bonus, there's a large room with a Honda private jet, the other side of the building has some sort of movie theater (Likely not in English.), there's a gift shop, and there's a playground outside as well.

Tickets are cheap, and I would recommend visiting if you...

I went to visit an exhibit at the museum but explored a bit outside of that as well. The shop is an overpriced tourist trap, but that's to be expected of any museum shop. The planes on exhibit were set up so you could get close to them or climb up a short staircase to a small walkway and look at them from above. Much better place for children to have fun at than adults, but...

This is a great little museum to visit if you are in the vicinity of the Misawa Airport and an aviation enthusiast. Besides the actual plane models exhibited and the story behind iconic planes such as Miss Veedol (first plane that flew non-stop over the Pacific Ocean), there are also some experiences/simulators and areas that explain science aimed for...