When I entered the houses, they filled me with nostalgia. While many skyscrapers and futuristic buildings have been constructed in Tokyo, historical architectures have been lost because of fires, earthquakes and redevelopment.
Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum is an outdoor museum which preserves important historic buildings from the 19th to the early 20th centuries. The buildings used to be private homes which include old folk thatched houses, politicians and famous architects’ residences, a public bathhouse and stores.
The biggest attraction of the museum is to allow visitors to enjoy each building with little restriction. Many of historical architectures would ordinarily be more or less off-limits but here is different. Once taking your shoes off when entering houses, you can see every corner of the houses, or take a break on tatami mats of their living rooms.
In Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away”, a Japanese animated movie to win an Oscar, some of buildings in the movie were modeled on the buildings in the museum. If you watch the movie, it might help you better enjoy the museum.
Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum (map)
Open:
9:30am-5:30pm (Apr-Sep) 9:30am-4:30pm (Oct-Mar)
Closed on Monday & New Year’s holidays
(When Monday falls on national holidays, closed on Tuesday instead.)
Entrance fee:
400yen for adult, free for under 12 years old
