You’d think having a special pass that entitles you to free (or discounted) entry to nearly 80 museums in Tokyo would be a fantastic privilege. Indeed it is. However, with this booklet of coupons comes two high-pressure months of trying to use every spare moment to visit places you’re maybe not even interested in! On the other side of the coin, some of these museums you didn’t realise would interest you, do spring a surprise or two!

One of my students told me about the pass last Summer and it sounded a wonderful idea. Two months where you can visit 79 museums (as well as zoo’s) in Tokyo for 2000 yen is a bargain if ever there was one. Wonderful value if you have lots of time off but when you’ve only got your weekends it’s already whittled down to about 16 free days and it’s not like you’re going to want to visit museums on all those days…..unless you absolutely love museums……which neither me nor my wife do!

That aforementioned student later presented me with a couple of free passes back in August which we eventually got round to starting at the end of October. My plan was to combine some of my working days with trips to nearby museums and then to cycle around others on my days off. Basically I wanted to go to the places whilst not spending any extra money on getting to each one. It has to be said that I probably enjoyed hunting down these places more than actually going inside them!

For the first month of the pass being validated it became kind of addictive to keep crossing places off the list. It’s always nice to have something to focus on in my free time and this pass certainly helped get me out of the house not that I really ever need much with that.

Below is a list of when and where I went with the amount of money I saved being revealed at the end of this post……

21st October:

#1. Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Meguro-ku (900 yen) (W)

     

23rd October:

#2. Ueno Zoo, Taito-ku (600 yen) (W)

      

26th October:

#3. The Japanese Sword Museum, Shibuya-ku (600 yen)

 

#4. Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum, Shibuya-ku (500yen)

 

#5. Sato Sakura Museum Tokyo, Meguro-ku (500 yen)

 

27th October:

#6. National Film Center, The National Museum Of Modern Art, Chūō-ku (260 yen)

     

28th October:

#7. Ancient Orient Museum Tokyo, Toshima-ku (600 yen)

 

#8. Kita City Asukuyama Museum, Kita-ku (300 yen)

 

#9. Paper Museum, Kita-ku, 300 yen

 

2nd November:

#10. Toguri Museum Of Art, Shibuya-ku (1000 yen)

 

#11. The Shoto Museum Of Art, Shibuya-ku (1000 yen)

#12. Accessory Museum, Meguro-ku (1000 yen)

 

#13. The Meguro Museum of Art, Meguro-ku (800 yen)

 

4th November:

#14. Amuse Museum, Taito-ku (1080 yen)

     

#15. Ichiyo Memorial Museum, Taito-ku (300 yen)

 

#16. Calligraphy Museum, Taito-ku (500 yen)

#17. Shitamachi Museum, Taito-ku (300 yen)

6th November:

#18. Edo Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, Koganei (400 yen) (W)

 

#19. Tamarokuto Science Center, Nishitokyo (1000 yen) (W)

 

10th November:

#20. Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Shinjuku-ku (1200 yen)

#21. NTT InterCommunication Center (ICG), Shinjuku-ku (free)

#22. Koga Masao Museum Of Music, Shibuya-ku (540 yen)

 

11th November:

#23. Kichijoji Art Museum, Musashino (100 yen)

#24. Inokashira Park Zoo, Musashino (400 yen)

#25. Yamamoto Yuzu Memorial Museum, Mitaka-shi (300 yen)

17th November:

#26. Printing Museum, Bunkyo-ku (300 yen + 500 yen special exhibition)

#27. Showa-Kan, Chiyoda-ku (300 yen)

 

#28. Shinjuku Historical Museum, Shinjuku-ku (300 yen)

14th December: 

#29. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Meguro-ku (500 yen)

 

Total 16,380 yen 

(W) = Wife visited with me. Her total was 2,900 yen and then I passed on her pass to a friend for the last couple of weeks and he saved a further 2,860 yen on the pass.