Yes, The Railway Museum is fully accessible. There are ramps, elevators, and accessible restrooms available throughout the museum.
Photography for personal use is allowed in most areas of the museum. Flash photography and tripods are not permitted. Please check with museum staff regarding specific exhibits.
Most visitors spend between 2 to 3 hours at The Railway Museum to fully explore the exhibits and participate in the activities.
Traveler reviews
It was awesome, As a Japanese train enthusiast this is heaven on earth for me. There were numerous full size electric and steam locomotives and lots of passenger cars. There are lot of historical videos and pictures of trains from the past. Interactive and hands on attractions were numerous some for adults and some for kids. Bring your most comfortable sneakers for this museum. I like the outdoor seating/exhibit area which is conveniently adjacent to several railway track for filming oppertunites. I think you can eat out there but I'm not 100% sure so check.
Sometimes the heat makes you do wierd things…like really wierd things. It was the beginning of the summer in Japan and we found ourselves melting in Saitama. Instead of suffering in our own puddles of sweat, we decided to checkout the Railway Museum…all because it was hella hot. Well I thought it was wierd to go here because I’ve seen hundreds of these train fanatics taking photos with their meter long lenses and knowing thousands of random facts.
But here’s where the weirdness started. Once we entered the museum…I started to read, explore, touch, experience EVERYTHING! I became one of those train otakus! I even did the mini train driving experience and wanted to drive all of them! I found myself taking pictures of every single train car and pushing all the buttons. What I though was going to be just an hour of cooling down in the museum ended up being four hours and lunch in the museum! I saw the imperial train car, all generations of trains, the first Shinkansen, regional train ads, I saw so much more than I ever expected. This was incredible!
Great museum to find. Easy to walk through, they have interactive areas for all ages. This is a great place to visit for families and multi generational.
The museum is broken up into sections, history, science and future. It has a railway themed park and miniature railway which you can ride.
As an overseas visitor it also provided a good overview of Japanese railways.
The Railway Musuem was an amazing look at the history of the railroad in Japan. It is worth the price of admission since they have dozens of decommissioned trains and explain every aspect of them. How they work, what they did; where they went, plus the history and evolution of the technology. You could spend hours here just soaking in all the sights and sounds. It’s really cool to sit in a cab from the 1920’s and imagine across the country. The Railway Museum was worth the price of admission.
The museum is huge and has an impressive collection of Japanese locomotives. You can even go inside many of the old and historic trains to see what they looked like back in the day. On the top floor, there’s a great exhibit where you can read about and explore the history of railways in Japan.
We also visited the outdoor area where you can drive mini trains, but we were in a bit of a rush since we needed to get back to Tokyo before rush hour. I recommend planning a full or half day trip to this museum because there’s so much to see and explore, and there are cafes here to enjoy. It’s a wonderful museum especially for train enthusiasts like me!
