Tokyo Museums: Tickets, Prices And The Ones Worth Booking Ahead

At the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka there is no ticket window at all. Every admission is a date- and time-specified advance ticket, printed with the buyer's name, sold from 10:00 JST on the 10th of each month for the following month, and the museum's own policy states that resale is not allowed. Two other Tokyo museums work the same way: teamLab Planets TOKYO in Toyosu and the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum in Kawasaki sell nothing at the door. That is the real shape of a Tokyo museum trip. Prices are modest, from 400 yen at the Sumida Hokusai Museum to 6,600 yen at the Warner Bros. studio tour, but three of the most famous venues cannot be bought on arrival at any price. This directory covers 38 museums with their door prices, booking routes, closed days and what each ticket actually buys.

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Tokyo National Museum admission is 1,000 JPY at the door, while the Meguro Parasitological Museum is genuinely free, donations welcome.

Short answer

Most Tokyo museums are cheap by big-city standards: 400 yen at the Sumida Hokusai Museum, 500 yen at the National Museum of Western Art, 630 yen at the National Museum of Nature and Science, 800 yen at the reopened Edo-Tokyo Museum, 1,000 yen at the Tokyo National Museum. Only two museums are free to visit outright, the Sumo Museum and the Meguro Parasitological Museum, and two more let you into the building for nothing but charge for every exhibition, the National Art Center, Tokyo and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Price is rarely the constraint. The real constraint is which venues cannot be bought at the door: teamLab Planets, the Ghibli Museum and the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum sell advance tickets only, and several more run timed slots that fill up.

Which Tokyo Museums Are Actually Worth Booking?

The venues that genuinely need booking ahead are the ones with no door sales: teamLab Planets TOKYO, the Ghibli Museum and the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum. Beyond those three, the timed-slot venues reward planning. teamLab Borderless at Azabudai Hills runs timed entry and adds a 200 yen surcharge if you buy on site. The Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo sells from 6,600 yen and recommends booking ahead because slots sell out, even though its on-site ticket office exists. Artizon, the Samurai Ninja Museum in Asakusa, KidZania and the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum all run timed slots too.

For everything else, walking up works. The Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Nature and Science, the reopened Edo-Tokyo Museum and the Sumida Hokusai Museum all sell at the counter on the day, and several are cheaper online: the Railway Museum is 1,500 yen in advance against 1,600 at the door, and Artizon is 1,200 yen online against 1,500 in person.

Browse Tokyo Museums By Theme

The 38 museums here sort into five working groups. Art covers the Ueno nationals, the Roppongi pair, the Sumida Hokusai Museum and Hakone Open-Air. Pop culture covers the Ghibli Museum, the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum, SMALL WORLDS and the Snoopy Museum. History covers the Edo-Tokyo Museum, the samurai venues and the free Sumo Museum. Science covers Miraikan, the Nature and Science museum and the Railway Museum. Quirky covers the Meguro Parasitological Museum, the Unko Museum and the CUPNOODLES MUSEUM.

Prices differ sharply by group. The history and science museums cluster between 400 and 1,000 yen, the art museums between 400 and 1,600, while pop culture runs from 1,000 yen at Ghibli and Fujiko to 6,600 yen at the Warner Bros. studio tour. Browsing by theme also reveals the booking pattern: two of the three no-door-sales museums sit in pop culture.

Art museums Two teamLab worlds, the national collections in Ueno, and the quiet Aoyama garden museums 13 museums Anime & pop culture Ghibli, the Harry Potter studio tour, Sanrio, and the toy-sized city in Ariake 7 museums History & samurai Edo-era Tokyo, samurai armour you can handle, and the sumo world in Ryogoku 6 museums Science & nature Ueno's whale and dinosaur halls, a robot future museum, and a hall of real locomotives 3 museums Quirky & unusual A parasite museum, a poop museum and two food museums that let you build your own 9 museums

Every Tokyo Museum Compared: Price, Book Ahead, Closed Day And Rating

The comparison table below lists every museum in the directory with its door price, whether it must be booked ahead, its closed day and its rating where one is published. The book-ahead column is the one to read first, because it is the only column that can end a plan rather than trim a budget. Three venues sell no door ticket at all, and another eight run timed slots.

The closed-day column matters more than it looks. Ten museums close on a Monday, including all three Ueno nationals, and the two genuinely free museums close on the days most visitors are free. Ratings are only printed where the review base supports them; several museums carry no rating here at all.

MuseumBest forAreaTicket fromBook aheadRating
Hakone Open-Air Museum Ninotaira $11.75 Walk in ★ 4.9
CUPNOODLES MUSEUM Yokohama Minato Mirai $62 Walk in ★ 4.9
The Railway Museum Omiya $9.79 Walk in ★ 4.8
Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo - The Making of Harry Potter Toshimaen $42.75 Timed slot, book ahead ★ 4.8
teamLab Borderless Azabudai Hills $20.75 Timed slot, book ahead ★ 4.7
teamLab Planets TOKYO Toyosu $24.29 Advance only, no door ★ 4.7
Tokyo National Museum Ueno Park $6.65 Walk in ★ 4.7
Ghibli Museum, Mitaka Mitaka $179.19 Advance only, no door ★ 4.7
Madame Tussauds Tokyo DECKS Tokyo Beach $13.75 Walk in ★ 4.7
Edo Wonderland Nikko Edomura Kinugawa-Onsen $36.59 Walk in ★ 4.7
Samurai Ninja Museum Tokyo Asakusa $20 Timed slot, book ahead ★ 4.6
National Museum of Nature and Science Ueno Park $4.10 Walk in ★ 4.6
Sanrio Puroland Tama $22.60 Reserve entry date ★ 4.6
SMALL WORLDS TOKYO Ariake $19.15 Walk in ★ 4.6
KidZania Tokyo Urban Dock LaLaport Toyosu $15.29 Timed slot, book ahead ★ 4.6
Miraikan - National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation Aomi $4.15 Walk in ★ 4.5
Tokyo Trick Art Museum DECKS Tokyo Beach $7.95 Walk in ★ 4.5
Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum Shin-Yokohama $2.99 Walk in ★ 4.4
Tokyo Joypolis DECKS Tokyo Beach $23.49 Walk in ★ 4.4
Unko Museum Tokyo DiverCity Tokyo Plaza $13.05 Walk in, quiet days ★ 4.3
Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum Koganei Park $191 Walk in ★ 4.9
The National Museum of Western Art Ueno Park Walk in, quiet days
Mori Art Museum Roppongi Hills $52 Walk in
Nezu Museum Minami-Aoyama Walk in
Artizon Museum Kyobashi Timed slot, book ahead
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Walk in
The Sumida Hokusai Museum Ryogoku Walk in
Edo-Tokyo Museum Ryogoku Walk in
The Sumo Museum Ryogoku Kokugikan Free Walk in, except basho Free entry
Meiji Jingu Museum Yoyogi / Harajuku Walk in
Fujiko F. Fujio Museum Tama-ku Advance only, no door
Snoopy Museum Tokyo Minami-machida Grandberry Park Timed slot, book ahead
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Ueno Park Free Walk in Free entry
Tokyo Toy Museum Yotsuya Walk in, quiet days
Fukagawa Edo Museum Shirakawa $45 Walk in
Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum Shirokanedai Timed slot, book ahead
The National Art Center, Tokyo Roppongi Free Walk in Free entry
Meguro Parasitological Museum Shimomeguro Free Walk in Free entry

Which Tokyo Museum Suits The Day You Have?

A half day in central Tokyo suits the Ueno cluster: the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art and the Nature and Science museum sit in one park, all walk-in, all 1,000 yen or less. A rainy day suits teamLab Planets in Toyosu, where you walk barefoot through water, provided the advance ticket was bought, because there is no door. A full day out suits Hakone Open-Air, the Railway Museum in Omiya or Edo Wonderland in Nikko.

Travelling with children points to KidZania Tokyo, the Tokyo Toy Museum and SMALL WORLDS, all timed-slot or quiet-day venues. A Monday points to Roppongi, where the National Art Center opens and the Mori Art Museum has no weekly closing day, though Mori is shut between exhibitions from 24 September to 30 October 2026.

1. What kind of place are you in the mood for?
2. Does your plan need to survive a Monday?
3. How do you want to handle tickets?

To start, here is a shortlist of six well-reviewed picks from across the city. Answer a question below and the list rebuilds itself.

Which Tokyo Museums Must Be Booked Before You Fly?

Three Tokyo museums cannot be bought at the door at any price. teamLab Planets TOKYO sells timed tickets in advance only, through its official ticket store, convenience-store terminals or the live listing. The Ghibli Museum releases tickets at 10:00 JST on the 10th of each month for the following month, first come, through Lawson Ticket, with a named-ticket policy and a stated ban on resale; the museum's only other named channel is the Special Bus Tour by Sunrise Tours JTB, a full-day guided coach tour with admission included, which is the fallback rather than the headline. The Fujiko F. Fujio Museum sells only through its own e-tix site, and you enter with the QR code issued.

A second tier needs a timed slot booked ahead but still has a same-day route: teamLab Borderless, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour, Artizon, the Samurai Ninja Museum, Sanrio Puroland, the Snoopy Museum, KidZania and the Teien Art Museum. Everything else on this site can be walked into.

Which Tokyo Museums Are Free, And What Still Costs Money?

Two museums are free to visit outright, the Sumo Museum and the Meguro Parasitological Museum, and two more let you into the building for nothing but charge for every exhibition, the National Art Center, Tokyo and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. The catches matter as much as the prices. The Sumo Museum shuts Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays, and during a Tokyo tournament you need a Grand Sumo viewing ticket to reach it. Meguro closes Monday and Tuesday. The National Art Center has no permanent collection at all and closes on a Tuesday.

Beyond those four, free is a concession, not a rule. The Tokyo National Museum is free for under-18s and over-70s on the collection exhibitions, the National Museum of Nature and Science is free for high school age and younger and for over-65s, and Artizon admits students free with a web reservation. The National Museum of Western Art's permanent collection is free to everyone on the second Sunday of every month.

Art Museums In Tokyo

Tokyo's art museums split between the Ueno park cluster and everywhere else. In Ueno, the Tokyo National Museum charges 1,000 yen for its collection exhibitions, the National Museum of Western Art 500 yen for its permanent collection, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum lets you into the building free and tickets each exhibition separately. In Roppongi, the National Art Center is free to enter with no permanent collection, and the Mori Art Museum prices admission per exhibition and closes whenever no show is running, including 24 September to 30 October 2026.

Further out, the Sumida Hokusai Museum charges 400 yen for its permanent AURORA collection, Artizon runs timed entry at 1,500 yen in person or 1,200 online, Nezu is 1,600 yen at the door with the strolling garden included, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo charges 500 yen for its collection. Hakone Open-Air, a day trip, is 2,000 yen on the day and open 365 days a year.

Anime And Pop Culture Collections

The pop-culture group holds the hardest tickets in Tokyo. The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka is 1,000 yen, advance only, released monthly through Lawson Ticket with the buyer's name printed on the ticket. The Fujiko F. Fujio Museum in Kawasaki is 1,000 yen, also advance only, sold through its own e-tix site after Lawson Loppi sales ended. SMALL WORLDS in Ariake is 3,200 yen and walk-in, and the Snoopy Museum in Machida runs timed entry at 2,200 yen same-day or 2,000 yen in advance through e-plus.

Two venues here are not strictly museums and are labelled as such: the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo, a timed-slot experience from 6,600 yen, and Sanrio Puroland, which requires a reserved entry date and prices by date tier. The Tokyo Toy Museum in Yotsuya, 1,300 yen at the counter or 1,100 online, rounds out the group.

History And Samurai Collections

The history group is the cheapest cluster in the directory. The Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku reopened on 31 March 2026 after roughly four years of renovation and charges 800 yen. The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum in Koganei is 400 yen and open, despite a stale banner on its own holiday page. The Fukagawa Edo Museum is 400 yen, closed the 2nd and 4th Mondays. The Sumo Museum, inside Ryogoku Kokugikan, is free but shut at weekends and during tournaments.

The interactive end costs more. The Samurai Ninja Museum in Asakusa is about 3,000 yen for a ticket that includes a guided tour, trying on samurai armour and shuriken throwing, sold on a timed slot. A second branch, Samurai Ninja Museum Shinjuku, opened in December 2025 near Shinjuku-sanchome; it is unrelated to the permanently closed Kabukicho Samurai Museum. The Meiji Jingu Museum is 1,000 yen, and the shrine grounds around it are free.

Science And Nature Collections

Tokyo's science museums are inexpensive and mostly walk-in, with one large exception. The National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno charges 630 yen for its permanent exhibitions, free on 18 May and 3 November. The Railway Museum in Omiya, a half-day trip, is 1,600 yen at the door and 1,500 in advance, with advance tickets at 7-Eleven, Lawson and Ministop; it closes on Tuesdays.

The exception is Miraikan in Odaiba, 630 yen for its permanent exhibitions plus a 310 yen Dome Theater add-on. The whole museum closes for refurbishment on 1 October 2026 and reopens 23 April 2027: the Geo-Cosmos, the robot area, the shop and the library all shut, and the last open day is 30 September 2026. Plan around it, because most published guides have not caught up.

Quirky And Unusual Collections

The quirky group runs from free to 5,800 yen. The Meguro Parasitological Museum is genuinely free, donations welcome, closed Monday and Tuesday. The Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum charges 450 yen admission, with the ramen itself paid for separately inside. The Unko Museum in Odaiba is date-tiered from 2,000 yen. The Tokyo Trick Art Museum is 1,200 yen, and the CUPNOODLES MUSEUM Yokohama is 500 yen with the noodle-making workshop charged separately.

Several members are attractions rather than collections, and are labelled that way: Tokyo Joypolis, where 1,700 yen buys admission and no rides, Madame Tussauds, and KidZania Tokyo, a role-play park for children running timed slots. Edo Wonderland in Nikko, a reconstructed Edo town, is 5,800 yen for a one-day pass and a full-day trip from Tokyo.

Is The Grutto Pass Worth It For Tokyo Museums?

The Grutto Pass costs 2,500 yen, covers 107 facilities and lasts two months from first use. It is not a free-entry card: each listing is either free entry or a discount, decided per facility. The arithmetic is unforgiving. Six museums in this lineup give free entry, totalling 3,130 yen, so four visits leave you 170 yen short of the pass price, which makes the common claim that three or four visits repay it wrong. With Miraikan closed from 1 October 2026 to 22 April 2027, the remaining five free-entry venues total exactly 2,500 yen.

The exclusions are the other half of the answer: both teamLabs, the Ghibli Museum, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour, Sanrio Puroland and special exhibitions almost everywhere are not covered. No other Tokyo museum pass exists, and Go City does not operate a Tokyo product.

Day Trips: Yokohama, Saitama, Hakone And Nikko

Several of the best collections sit outside the 23 wards. Hakone Open-Air is roughly two to two and a half hours from Shinjuku each way, with the Odakyu Romancecar and a transfer at Hakone-Yumoto, and a Hakone Freepass at 7,100 yen for two days covers the local network. The Railway Museum in Omiya is about 45 to 60 minutes from Tokyo Station, and the Snoopy Museum in Machida is about 35 minutes by express from Shibuya. Journey times and fares here are route-planner approximations, not operator figures.

Further out, the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum sits in Kawasaki, the CUPNOODLES MUSEUM and the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum in Yokohama, and Edo Wonderland in Nikko is a full, long day from Asakusa on the Tobu line plus a bus. Ghibli in Mitaka is the closest of the day trips, about 40 to 60 minutes from Shinjuku, with the community bus at 230 yen each way.

Which Tokyo Museums Are Closed Right Now?

Two closure facts are widely published the wrong way round. The Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku is open: it reopened on 31 March 2026 after roughly four years of renovation, and admission is 800 yen. Miraikan in Odaiba is the one that is closing: the whole museum shuts for refurbishment on 1 October 2026 and reopens 23 April 2027, with the last open day 30 September 2026 and nothing staying open, not the Geo-Cosmos, not the Dome Theater, not the shop. Most published Tokyo guides have these two reversed.

Also worth checking before a visit: the Mori Art Museum closes whenever no exhibition is running, including 24 September to 30 October 2026; the National Museum of Western Art's permanent collection closes 12 January to 19 March 2027; and the Tokyo National Museum has a string of gallery closures and a year-end shutdown between late November 2026 and early January 2027. The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum is open despite a stale closed banner on its own site.

What Visitors Ask About Tokyo Museums

Which Tokyo Museums Cannot Be Bought At The Door?

Three museums sell nothing at the door: teamLab Planets TOKYO, the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka and the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum in Kawasaki. teamLab Planets sells timed tickets in advance only. Ghibli tickets go on sale at 10:00 JST on the 10th of each month for the following month through Lawson Ticket, first come, with the buyer's name printed on the ticket. The Fujiko F. Fujio Museum sells only through its own e-tix site, and you enter with the QR code you are issued.

Are Any Tokyo Museums Free?

Two museums are free to visit outright, the Sumo Museum and the Meguro Parasitological Museum, and two more let you into the building for nothing but charge for every exhibition, the National Art Center, Tokyo and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Both free museums carry a catch. The Sumo Museum closes Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays, and during a Tokyo tournament you need a Grand Sumo ticket to reach it. The Meguro Parasitological Museum closes both Monday and Tuesday, not one day a week.

How Much Do Tokyo Museums Cost?

Door prices run from 400 yen at the Sumida Hokusai Museum, the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum and the Fukagawa Edo Museum, up to 6,600 yen at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo. The big Ueno nationals sit in between: 1,000 yen at the Tokyo National Museum, 500 yen at the National Museum of Western Art, 630 yen at the National Museum of Nature and Science. Several museums charge less online than at the door, including the Railway Museum, the Artizon Museum, Nezu and the Tokyo Toy Museum.

Is The Grutto Pass Worth It For Tokyo Museums?

Only if you will use it at five or more free-entry venues. The pass costs 2,500 yen, and the six free-entry museums in this lineup total 3,130 yen, so four visits leave you 170 yen short. Miraikan, one of the six, is closed for refurbishment from 1 October 2026 to 22 April 2027, which leaves the other five totalling exactly 2,500 yen. The pass excludes both teamLabs, the Ghibli Museum, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour and Sanrio Puroland, so it is no shortcut to the headline attractions.

What Is Open In Tokyo On A Monday?

All three big Ueno museums close on a Monday: the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art and the National Museum of Nature and Science. The Monday answer is Roppongi, but which venue depends on the date. The National Art Center, Tokyo opens Monday and closes Tuesday instead. The Mori Art Museum has no weekly closing day, but it is shut between exhibitions, so it is closed every day from 24 September to 30 October 2026 and rejoins the Monday options from 31 October 2026.

How Do You Buy Ghibli Museum Tickets As A Foreigner?

The museum's own English tickets page names two methods. The primary route is Lawson Ticket, which needs a Lawson WEB membership and phone verification, prints the member's name on every ticket, allows one purchase per account per month up to six tickets, and releases tickets at 10:00 JST on the 10th of each month for the following month. The fallback is the Special Bus Tour by Sunrise Tours JTB, a full-day guided coach tour with admission included, non-refundable, bookable at least 10 days ahead, and not open to residents of Japan.

Is Miraikan Still Open?

Only until 30 September 2026. Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Odaiba, closes entirely on 1 October 2026 for refurbishment and reopens 23 April 2027. Nothing stays open: the permanent exhibitions, the Geo-Cosmos, the Dome Theater GAIA, the robot area, the shop, the cafe and the library all shut, and no satellite venue has been announced. Advance tickets sell only one week out, so no date inside the closure window is purchasable.

Is The Edo-Tokyo Museum Open?

Yes. It reopened on 31 March 2026 after roughly four years of renovation, and admission to the permanent exhibition is 800 yen. Most published Tokyo guides still say closed, so check the museum's own site rather than a guidebook. Its sister site, the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum in Koganei, never closed and is open now, despite a stale banner on one of its own pages.

Helpful Articles About Tokyo Museums

The deeper reads on what has to be booked ahead, which places are genuinely free, and which days to avoid:

Browse all museum guides and answered questions.

Book The Hard Ones First, Then Fill In Around Them

Three of these museums cannot be bought at the door at all, and several more run timed slots that go before the week does. Sort the list by what has to be reserved, then build the rest of the trip around it.

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