Science and Technology Museum — Attraction in Tokyo

Despite appearing closed on the outside, it's very much open! After chatting to a friendly security guard and making our way to the ticket desk through a completely empty hallway, we purchased our tickets and made our way in.

This is obviously primarily a place for Japanese children / families, but non-Japanese adults can have lots of fun here too! There are 4 floors, each with a slightly different feel, I recommend working your way top to bottom.

There are hundreds of interactive exhibits scattered throughout, everything from an earthquake simulator to curling to cannons to walking pianos and optical illusions! You'll need to use Google Translate for most items, but the child-friendly Japanese means it all translates well. My personal highlights are, using the floor map, 4F (construction), 5F (optical illusions), and 5H (guitar hero-style piano).

Around lunchtime you might turn a corner near 4E and suddenly discover... hundreds of Japanese school children eating their lunch! This was quite a surprise, as we'd only seen a few running around playing with the exhibits.

There's a shop back on the ground floor, although mostly full of toys for kids (the museum's...

Very nice and informative place to be with kids.

First of all the entry fee was so cheap in Tokyo standards for the service. It was ¥800/- for adults and ¥400/- for kids roughly. They have display of quite a lot of science and technology organized systematically. The planetarium show explains quite a lot about solar system, stars, constellations, galaxies, galaxy structures and universe. There is no special fee to attend the show which was quite amazing. There are scientific experiments demonstrated at various places.

The facility is located very close to imperial palace and near to the art museum too. In short I strongly recommend you guys to make a visit.

NB. Try to use public transport as it’s in the center of city, parking can be quite expensive and at times you may find difficulties to get a parking lot in a busy day. Explanation in English language was very limited. So, you may need to have reasonably good skill in Japanese to enjoy the place full. But there are shows and sections that are self explanatory by nature which is still worth for folks who don’t have great Japanese...

Stopped by the Science Museum (科学技術館) near the Imperial Palace on a sunny afternoon, just to browse a bit—but it turned into a full-blown exploration. From the outside it looks a little old-school, but inside it bursts with life, colors, and sounds. What’s great is that even if your kids don’t understand Japanese, it’s still totally worth it—so many of the exhibits are hands-on and experimental that language hardly matters. You can touch, build, spin, and test everything yourself!

Each floor feels like a new world: mechanics and energy on one level, chemistry and flight on another. Staff members are kind and often join in the fun, explaining things with gestures and smiles when words fall short. Some displays have that nostalgic, Showa-era charm, but it only adds to the magic—like stepping into Japan’s timeless love for science.

By the time I reached the robotics zone, I’d completely lost track of time. A fantastic visit for families—interactive, educational, and welcoming even if you don’t speak Japanese. Set aside a few hours, because you’ll definitely want to...