Well, what can I say about the toy museum? It is FANTASTIC. It is in an elementary school which they had to close due to the lack of kids being born. The museum starts on the 2nd floor and all in all is 8 converted classrooms. The first room is the museum shop, like most museum shops it was a tad expensive but was filled with beautiful toys. The 2nd room has lots of great toys to play with, most of the were wood, a few were plastic but of good design. The 3rd room is a display room with toys of the ages from around Asia, there were some really pretty and some were well, quite ugly!
The 4th room, the wood forest was my favourite and Ebi-kun spent a long time in there too. The room even smelt lovely, I wanted to transport the who lot back to our house! This wooden ball bit was a big hit, we all had a go in it
Jii-chan even got down and lay in it, getting back out was a bit of a challenge though :o)
Around the room were lots of lovely wooden toys to play with and in the centre a big wood structure which would make a great 'tree house' bedroom.
This was a popular choice, you start the acorn off at the top of the 'tree' and it rolls down, the sound changes as it goes, my mom was seen playing with this one alot.
This is one of my favourites, they are little grubs in holes and you have to use the magnetic rod to get them out, some holes are deeper that others so you never know if you are going to catch a grub or not! There are grub holes in the tree trunks too.
Yet another great toy, this one was like giant chunky jigsaw pieces that you could make a 3D sculpture with. This kept ebi-kun and daddy-ebi busy for quite some time.
Eventually we made it upstairs where they have a room to do toy making workshops in, we didn't go in that one we headed straight to the next room which had games and puzzles for older kids. One of the was actually the same as the Montessori sound cylinders, which I found quite difficult, maybe I am going deaf in my old age! The red room had all kinds of traditional Japanese toys, Ebi-kun likes these spinning tops, there were lots of different kinds to try out. The last room had marble runs, play shop and kitchen, science toys etc. Along with all that there were more toys and puzzles set up in the corridors. The staff were brilliant, all friendly and showed you how to use things and pulled new things off the shelves. As a Montessori mom I really approved of the set up, mostly there were just one of two of each toy to play with, encouraging the kids to wait or find something else. All the toys were beautifully made and how they were presented made you want to play with them. Everyone, in our party of 8 enjoyed it and we could have easily spent longer there.
But...the Hobgoblin English pub was waiting, we had great English lunches, fish and chips for most, roast beef for me and a pint of cider, ahhh lovely. Not sure that the in-laws liked it much ;o). Hubby was as happy as a pig in mud, he loves real ale, looks like his son is taking after him.
The 4th room, the wood forest was my favourite and Ebi-kun spent a long time in there too. The room even smelt lovely, I wanted to transport the who lot back to our house! This wooden ball bit was a big hit, we all had a go in it
Jii-chan even got down and lay in it, getting back out was a bit of a challenge though :o)
Around the room were lots of lovely wooden toys to play with and in the centre a big wood structure which would make a great 'tree house' bedroom.
This was a popular choice, you start the acorn off at the top of the 'tree' and it rolls down, the sound changes as it goes, my mom was seen playing with this one alot.
This is one of my favourites, they are little grubs in holes and you have to use the magnetic rod to get them out, some holes are deeper that others so you never know if you are going to catch a grub or not! There are grub holes in the tree trunks too.
Yet another great toy, this one was like giant chunky jigsaw pieces that you could make a 3D sculpture with. This kept ebi-kun and daddy-ebi busy for quite some time.
Eventually we made it upstairs where they have a room to do toy making workshops in, we didn't go in that one we headed straight to the next room which had games and puzzles for older kids. One of the was actually the same as the Montessori sound cylinders, which I found quite difficult, maybe I am going deaf in my old age! The red room had all kinds of traditional Japanese toys, Ebi-kun likes these spinning tops, there were lots of different kinds to try out. The last room had marble runs, play shop and kitchen, science toys etc. Along with all that there were more toys and puzzles set up in the corridors. The staff were brilliant, all friendly and showed you how to use things and pulled new things off the shelves. As a Montessori mom I really approved of the set up, mostly there were just one of two of each toy to play with, encouraging the kids to wait or find something else. All the toys were beautifully made and how they were presented made you want to play with them. Everyone, in our party of 8 enjoyed it and we could have easily spent longer there. 
But...the Hobgoblin English pub was waiting, we had great English lunches, fish and chips for most, roast beef for me and a pint of cider, ahhh lovely. Not sure that the in-laws liked it much ;o). Hubby was as happy as a pig in mud, he loves real ale, looks like his son is taking after him.
*Ebi-kun didn't actually drink any he just smelt it and declared it stank!
Toy Museum Info
website in Japanese
4-20 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Tel:03-5367-9601
Closest station - Yotsuya 3-chome (Tokyo Metro, Marunouchi line exit #2) 7 mins walk from the station
Adult ¥700
Child 3yrs + ¥500
Child + adult pair ticket ¥1000
Open 10am-4pm, closed Thursday unless it's a national holiday
Yesterday I had the whole day to myself and went to Nippori fabric town, keep tuned for my fabric buying adventures...
Wow! I love museums. No matter where we are visiting in the world, I HAVE to go to the museums. My family just loves them. It looks like this museum was amazing!
ReplyDeleteHihi
ReplyDeletei was surfing around when i came upon your site. Very motivated by the things you do with your child. I have a 1 yr old too, and we are bringing her to Japan for a short trip in April. It was good to come upon this toy muesuem post :) However, is the toy museum near the train station as i hope to visit too, but i don't have a map guide.
hihi
ReplyDeleteI was surfing for places to visit in Tokyo when i chanced upon your site. I am really motivated by your Montesorri teaching as well. I will be bringing my 1 yr old to Tokyo for a short trip in April and would be visiting the Toy Museum upon reading your post :).
Regards, Riane
hi, here is the map, it is all Japanese
ReplyDeletehttp://goodtoy.org/ttm/guide.html
it is about a 10min walk from the station. there is a free fire museum at the station exit.