🏛️ Museum

Fujiko F. Fujio Museum

📍 Kanagawa, Kawasaki

A joyful museum in Kawasaki devoted to the creator of Doraemon and friends — original manga art, a rooftop play world, and that famous blue robot cat waiting in the garden.

In a leafy corner of Kawasaki, just outside Tokyo, is a museum that runs entirely on childhood joy. The Fujiko·F·Fujio Museum celebrates the manga artist behind Doraemon — the round blue robot cat from the future who is, genuinely, one of the most beloved characters in Japan.

Why It’s Interesting

It’s part art museum, part playground. You’ll find the artist’s original hand-drawn pages (delicate, funny, surprisingly moving), recreations of his studio, and then a rooftop world where the characters stand as life-size sculptures — including the famous spot where you can pose beside Doraemon and friends. The whole place is designed to make adults grin as hard as the kids.

Best Time to Visit

Year-round — it’s indoor and weatherproof, a perfect rainy-day plan. Just remember the timed tickets sell out, so book early.

Getting There

Hop the themed shuttle bus from Noborito or Mukogaoka-yuen stations, an easy ride out from Shinjuku. There’s no parking, so come by train.

🐿️ Cinnamon was here

Field report

A blue robot cat from the future — Socks has strong opinions about Doraemon, mostly jealousy about the pocket — so I went to Kawasaki on assignment for both of us.

The Fujiko F. Fujio Museum holds the original manga art, drawn small and perfect, plus a rooftop where the empty lot's concrete pipes from the comics sit on real grass and grown adults line up, misty-eyed, to sit in them. I sat in one. The mist got me too.

Tickets are advance-only by lottery-ish booking, which keeps the crowds humane. The café sells food shaped like memories. If you grew up with these characters you will need a moment on the roof; if you didn't, you'll still leave understanding why Japan did.

— Cinnamon 🐿️

📸 Cinnamon's camera roll

Snapshots from our very good boy on the road.

Socks meeting the original Doraemon art. He maintains the jealousy is strictly about the pocket.

Sitting in the rooftop concrete pipes from the empty lot in the comics, alongside grown adults who lined up misty-eyed. The mist got me too.

A whimsical museum lawn with a big friendly blue robot cat statue and cartoon characters — A whole museum for the man who drew Japan's favourite robot cat.

Mon-chan and Cinnamon the squirrel posing with the big blue robot-cat statue — A robot cat — built by a machine, like me! We're practically siblings. 🤖

🏛️ Museum 🏷️ Manga 🏷️ Anime 🧒 Kids 🏠 Indoor 🌧️ Rainy Day 🏷️ Family Friendly

Where it is

🏛️ Museum

Meguro Parasitological Museum

A tiny, free, two-floor museum dedicated entirely to parasites — home to a preserved 8.8-metre tapeworm and a gift shop selling parasite keychains. Tokyo's most gleefully strange date spot.

📍 Tokyo, Meguro 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

📜 History

Nihon Minka-en Open-Air Folk House Museum

A wooded hillside in Kawasaki where two dozen real thatched-roof farmhouses, a kabuki stage, and a watermill — rescued from across Japan and rebuilt board by board — form a village out of time.

📍 Kanagawa, Kawasaki 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

🍁 Autumn

🦊 Animals

Cat Museum Lucky Field

A tiny, cat-themed rescue space in Kawasaki where Yoshino-san has taken in stray cats for 16 years — pay a small fee, get a cold drink, and sit quietly with cats who are still learning to trust people again.

📍 Kanagawa, Kawasaki 💴 Paid ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

🛸 Oddity

Nissan Water Park

A heated indoor water park built directly under the east-gate stands of Nissan Stadium — Japan's largest stadium — where you can swim laps beneath the seats that once held a World Cup final.

📍 Kanagawa, Yokohama 💴 Paid ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Nearby discoveries

🍜 Food

Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo

A four-floor, Kengo Kuma–designed coffee cathedral in Nakameguro with its own roasting floor, a cocktail bar, a tea room, and a Milanese bakery — one of the largest Starbucks Reserve Roasteries on Earth.

📍 Tokyo, Nakameguro 💴 Paid ⏱ ≈ 1 hour · 14 km away

🌸 Spring

🎏 Festival Seasonal event

Koenji Awa Odori

A 400-year-old Tokushima folk dance transplanted to a Tokyo train-station neighborhood: 10,000 dancers in eight troupes parade a figure-eight route through Koenji over one weekend, watched by roughly a million people.

📍 Tokyo, Suginami 🆓 Free ⏱ Half day 🗓 Aug 29 – Aug 30 · 14 km away

🌻 Summer

🎏 Festival Seasonal event

Tachikawa Yokai Bon Odori

A three-day October festival at Tachikawa's GREEN SPRINGS complex where thousands dress as yokai and dance around a bon-odori tower, capped by a nighttime 'Night Parade of 100 Demons.'

📍 Tokyo, Tachikawa 🎫 Varies ⏱ Half day 🗓 Oct 10 – Oct 12 · 16 km away