What other travelers are saying about The Railway Museum
Ah, The Railway Museum in Ōmiya. It was just as cool and interesting as we expected it to be - and more!
I recommend to come here early so you don’t have to rush through all the exhibitions, because you certainly will spend hours in this place. You will be able to see many historical trains and have possibility to enter inside to see how the interior is, and everything is very well preserved.
The museum offers different places to grab a snack or have a full meal.
We went on a public holiday (Sports Day) so it was relatively crowded, but not too much. Make sure to download the app called «The railway museum raffle app» and use it while you are in the museum to be able to win chances of trying activities like simulators and miniature trains outside. I also highly recommend checking out areas in the museum such as the rooftop terrace above the «Future Station» and the railway diorama in the second floor.
Such a cool museum!! Lots of historical rail related content with beautiful exhibits, many interactive activities for children (but adults have fun too), and several onsite restaurants. If you are interesting in rail, trains, or even just design and graphics, you should make time to visit the Railway Museum.
Worth a visit if you are in Omiya. Easy to get to with the new shuttle, only 1 stop. The ticket is not cheap at ¥1600. It's not crowded, you can buy it there.
If you can't read Japanese, you probably need slightly over an hour. If you have kids, maybe 2 hours as there are kids' activities. Considering how brilliant Japanese train engineering is, it is worth appreciating the history and step into trains that were built as far back as 1920s!
You can spend multiple hours at the Railway Museum. There's so much to see and there's also a lot to do for kids. I especially like the 'Science Station' of the museum, I think it's important to give the kids a hands-on experience behind the physics of trains and railways.
It's quite busy, but that isn't really an issue since the museum is pretty big. Spectating the railway diorama is very relaxing. As many people said, you can save 100 yen if you buy tickets in advance.
As an international visitor, I did miss an English explanation for many exhibitions. However, there's an English audio guide that I didn't try. But personally, I would've liked it if there was a translation of the descriptions of the exhibitions.
It was a great experience to go to the railway museum. I believe there's a lot of things to explore inside and if you are really a train person you can learn a lot. I recommend you to look at the map and also event times. There are various events in one day such as middle SL turn 360 degrees or there's a theater with times. Also, they have an app but it's in Japanese if you want to use a simulator or something needs reservations you can reserve from there.
