Edo-Tokyo Museum — Attraction in Tokyo

This is a great museum to learn about the past history of Tokyo which used to be called Edo. If you stay in Asakusa area, I would recommend taking taxi to come here. The nearest subway to Asakusa hotel is the last stop and you will need to transfer to another route to go to this musuem, plus lots of walking. By the time we arrived, we were sweaty, wet (from rain) and tired, and I've got a slight headache from the hassle of the morning travel. Not a good sign to see a museum. But it turned out to be a great experience after getting a tour guide (I forgot her name. She used to live in Tennessee, America for five years with her husband). Tour is free and in English. She showed us many things such as models, figures, maps and displays, and explained to us about the lives of shogunate's and warriors', merchant's and civilian's, etc. She was very attentive and tried to make the tour fun for my kids. The best part was the music room in Kabuki theatre production. We played around with the musical instruments and got a feel about how the theatre was like in the old days. Also the map and the water device for the city to get water were quite interesting, you can tell the Japanese people were thoughtful in planning the water supply of the city in ancient time. There were many interesting things to look at. We learned a great deal about Japanese history and culture in this museum. I recommend it to everyone...

It is a very informative museum, almost more like a library with heavy information about Edo-period than a museum. More of a come-alone study all day museum instead of a touristy come-with-family type of attraction. There is a lot to see but very little to interact/play with. The majority of the information is still in Japanese. And the mountains of Edo-period information is great if you have studied this period and/or would like to look up particular places/persons/facts here. Otherwise, even if you're just skimming through all the exhibitions, it gets quite tiring with information overloading, for me as a foreign Japan resident and for my Japanese friends even as well. Really, 5-stars for the amount of information they collected and showed here; 3-star as a tourist attraction.

The standard exhibition includes the Bombing of Tokyo (東京大空襲) which I find most informative and it's a good chance for all the foreigners (especially from US) to learn about this aspect of the WWII, and not just the atomic bombs. The deaths and damages were also detrimental and not any less than the atomic bombs. There is no judgement here, only facts. And especially in this day and age, it is important to learn this aspect of and this particular...

We came here immediately following a morning at the Imperial Palace grounds. I recommend doing the exact same thing. After standing in the old fortifications and gardens that morning, you get to learn about their history in depth at the museum later on. It really adds to the experience of both locations.

The museum has most exhibits in Japanese with English text beside it. Some even have a tablet with about 10 other languages to choose from. My only qualm with the whole place was the heat and the rest of the exhibits. It was about 75-78 degrees inside, which was a little warmer than outside. A little stuffy. Also, most of the exhibits were well-described in English, however some large displays and maps were only in Japanese. It would be nice for those to be labeled like the rest so that everything in the museum could be read. A quick fix for this is to request a language guide. They are free volunteers and all you need to do is ask for one and they will follow you around and answer any questions in your language. Unfortunately, the volunteers don’t have set working schedules so you might not get one.

Overall, a great place with a wealth of good information about the city and...