My family and I visited the Fukagawa Edo Museum. Upon entering, we looked out on a small reproduction of a town. As we started to explore, a guide came up to us and asked if we spoke English. She then proceeded to give us a personal tour for 30-45 minutes, explaining the significance of the homes, townspeople, and representative items in the homes and shops. She brought the museum to life, and made it one of my family's favorite activities in the Tokyo area. This is a museum where you can learn a great deal about the Edo period, and it should not be missed.
Not only an amazing place that helps to bring the history of Tokyo and the Edo period to life, but also features great guides like Atsuko who patiently answered my questions.
Sometimes, it is hard to find a museum that captivates you. This one is truly one of them.
The Fukagawa Edo Museum is related to the larger Edo-Tokyo Museum. This one is more focused in scale, however, exhibiting a life-size city block from an Edo period (1600s-1800s) neighbourhood. The lights in the museum cycle to simulate the passing of day and night, which is atmospheric, but makes it hard to take photos with good lighting. Nonetheless, there are lots of little touches to accurately depict what life would have been like during the Edo period. I highly recommend seeking out a free volunteer guide, some of whom speak English, to make up for the limited signage.
A great place to visit to give you an overview of the history and culture of Japan before you visit the real thing. We had an excellent free English speaking guide for our 2.5 hour visit. All wheelchair accessible.
We visited here a few days after we visited Tokyo Edo museum. The concept is similar, but this one has been open good 20 years or more before Tokyo Edo was open, I suspect that this place was the inspiration for the big museum. Unlike Tokyo Edo, this museum lacks English description panels, but there are guides walking about, trying to help the visitors in English or Japanese, to compensate the lack of panels. They invite you to get in the houses and touch the exhibits, open the cupboard, furniture, etc. The scale is much smaller than the Edo Tokyo Museum, but it was enjoyable for us for sure.
