Naramachi Karakuri Toy Museum — Local services in Nara

My husband and I stumbled upon this museum after seeing a sign on the corner on our way to a DIFFERENT museum and decided to stop in. Mr. Jimmy is fluent in english and he showed us all of the toys personally. All of the staff members were so sweet and tried to be as helpful as possible despite their own language barriers. As it turns out, Mr. Jimmy even worked in the U.S. in my hometown! He knew it right down to the train station and I was so blown away by this seemingly random meeting and it made the experience all the more exciting for us.

The museum is charmingly small and you can donate what you want. We spent approximately 45 minutes learning about all the toys. There were many families also having fun and the tatami mats made it a very cozy, comfortable and unique environment. We enjoyed it so much and loved learning about the toys and look forward to seeing Mr. Jimmy and the toys again soon. Please support this museum it is truly a hidden...

The Naramachi Karakuri Mechanical Toy Museum is a dedicated to showcasing traditional karakuri (mechanical) toys from Japan’s Edo period. The museum aims to preserve and share the craftsmanship and workings of the toys, allowing visitors to play and experience how simple mechanisms like pulleys, gravity, and momentum were used to create the toys. The museum also hosts karakuri toy workshops, where visitors can learn how these toys work and create their own. This museum is just a short walk from Kintetsu Nara Station. There is no admission fee into this interesting place. However, donation...

This is such an underrated gem! My husband and I stopped in here and it was such a unique and wonderful experience. It is free to play with all of the toys and the people who work there are extremely informative. The gentleman speaks excellent English and he sat with us at each toy and explained how they worked, as well as the history (if the employees are reading this, we are the couple from Dallas who said we had temps of 110F this summer!). I hope that they start replicating more of their toys for purchase. We would’ve gladly bought several. We did take home the book game and we...