What other travelers are saying about Osaka Mint Bureau (Cherry Blossom Viewing in Spring)
I have to many coin museums and this one was short and sweet. I enjoyed the layout and the short history lesson since coins pressed in Osaka are only since the mid 1800s. Still quite interesting.
Tour is only in Japanese so if you don’t speak it - it is a visual tour of the mint! Japanese vending machines don’t run on Apple Pay so they need a lot of coins. And this is where they come from.
Mint museum is all about the creation of their currency system. I've visited the Currency museum in Tokyo, and enjoyed it so I was also looking forward to this one! It's free admision, with stamps and some interactive content. Unfortunately a lot of the displays are not in English, so it was a quicker walkthrough and less understanding of some of the displays shown. Regardless, I enjoyed this museum and the little gift shop before exiting the properly. I highly recommend visiting the Mint museum for currency and history enthusiasts!
The collection they have is very interesting, but explanations are only in Japanese. Unfortunately the city wifi and the ntt-docomo connection on my phone did not work well enough to do live translations. Ended up taking photos of just about everything, so i can translate it later when i do have a connection. Overall still a worthwhile visit
Visited on 4/6 for the sakura viewing. You need reservation to enter during the sakura viewing period. Reservation is open mid March and it runs out fast, so check the website often! This place is famous for its collection of sakura trees, including rare variants with greenish and yellowish flower that is hard to find anywhere else. They also sell commemorative coins, bookmarks, and even cookies and senbei with sakura theme at the gift shop. Definitely worth a trip!
