Absolutely amazing museum, with incredibly detailed exhibits. The collection starts with a huge collection of very early (10,000+ years ago) artifacts and continues to the present day with exquisite dioramas, models, and multimedia presentations to bring the period objects into context. The grounds are and architecture are beautiful, and the central garden / rest area can also be used to quickly move gallery to gallery. The food in the restaurant was very good as well, really all the details have been covered.

While they have the best and most comprehensive foreign language audio guide I have seen in Japan, at least in English, going with a Pixel running Google Lens (on Google Fi) is highly recommended. I was able to translate every sign through the viewfinder in seconds, allowing me to experience anything in the museum I wished to see. Keeping Lens running for the entire visit will drain your battery though, so bring an external battery to recharge.

One incredible exhibit is a house from the 1800s which was donated to the museum. The house is from Kesennuma, a town which was hit extremely hard by the tsunami of 3/11/11. The house was destroyed, but it's pieces were collected and transported to the museum where the house was reassembled and can be toured. That amazing story within a story should help explain some of the other exhibits to non-Japanese as the spirit of that project, to me, is similar to many other stories from Japanese history. I was in Kesennuma and several other locations in Tohoku in the months after the disaster, and I can't really describe the experience in words. This exhibit, and the fact that it exists at all, do a much better job of communicating the aftermath of the tsunami and the Ganbarou spirit that followed than I ever will.

One day really isn't enough time in the museum in my opinion. It would be well worth securing a hotel nearby and spreading the visit over at least a couple days. There is that much depth and content. I could go on and on about this museum, the experience is quite remarkable. It's truly something Japan should be proud of. I would give it six stars if I could.