Museums in Japan

Discover 72 unusual museums in Japan.

Yokohama, Japan

Hara Model Railway Museum

The largest collection of model trains in the world is actually run using full-size locomotive technology.

Permanently Closed

Naoshima, Japan

007 Museum

A museum dedicated to the least secret spy is actually an attempt to get Hollywood's attention.

Painstaking, life-size recreation of a 1958 ramen boom town.

Yokohama, Japan

Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum

This historical theme park celebrates all things noodle.

Permanently Closed

Tokyo Tower Wax Museum. (R. Peter Seuffert/Atlas Obscura)

Tokyo Tower Wax Museum's Progressive Rock Room

Unlikely place for krautrock legends to hang out.

Hakone Open-Air Museum

Open-air museum with an elaborate sculpture garden, stretching for over 70,000 square-meters.

Statue of Momofuku Ando outside the museum, holding a chicken ramen packet in his hand and standing on a giant cup of noodles.

Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum

An unlikely hit, this museum is dedicated to the inventor of instant ramen and cup noodles.

Yamato model

Battleship Yamato Museum

Museum dedicated to the largest battleship ever built.

Every winter, the museum and its many picture windows become encapsulated in romantic and terrifying drifts of snow

Tokamachi, Japan

Echigo-Matsunoyama Museum of Natural Science

Modern Japanese museum is buried by snow annually.

Helmsman's station aboard the Akishio

The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force Submarine Museum

"Excuse me sir, your submarine is blocking my building."

Nima Sand Museum

"Singing sands" and the world's largest hourglass reside near Japan's Kotogahama beach.

Are we missing something unusual in Japan?