Edo-Tokyo Museum

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 visiting Japan.