Doraemon Museum (Fujiko F. Fujio), Tokyo
Doraemon has been around for decades and still remains popular till this date. So the museum appeals to both children and adults who grew up with the series. I am one of those who grew up watching Doraemon cartoon series! And I love it~ What better way to reminisce it than to visit Doraemon Museum in Japan! Because we planned for this trip in Tokyo, we skipped the Doraemon Waku Waku Sky Park in New Chitose Airport. If you are an avid fan of Doraemon, you now know where you can go next. :)
But for those who don’t know who Doraemon is, it is a robotic cat who travelled from the 22nd century back in time to befriend a group of children. It has lots of gadgets in its kangaroo like front pouch to help the boy protagonist. Go watch the series or movies before heading to the museum!
The formal name of this museum is Fujiko F. Fujio Museum (藤子・F・不二雄ミュージアム) because it’s technically a museum to celebrate and showcase the work of Hiroshi Fujimoto (pen name: Fujiko F. Fujio, “Fujiko”), one of the two Japanese manga artists who created Doraemon. His other partner is Motoo Abiko and the pen name for this writing duo is Fujiko Fujio.
On Our Way to Doraemon Museum!
If you are coming from Tokyo (Shinjuku, 新宿)
- Take Odakyu Line towards Odawara (小田原線) from Shinjuku (新宿). Check the signs on the boarding platform to board the correct train (there can be multiple train lines at the same platform). Double check the destination that’s indicated at each train car door.
- Alight at Mukogaoka-yeun (丘遊園駅) or Noborito (登戸駅) station that are in the suburbs of Kawasaki. Depends on whether you are walking or taking the shuttle to the museum (see below). Click for train route map.
- It takes ~20 mins on Express train and ~35 mins on Local train. (Train schedule: www.hyperdia.com/en).
- You can use SUICA.
From Mukogaoka-yeun / Noborito Station to Doraemon Museum
There are two ways you can get from the train station to Doraemon museum:
- By Shuttle Bus: Take the Doraemon shuttle bus to and from Noborito Station (Odakyu line or JR Nanbu line). There’s a service every 10 – 15 mins. It’s a 10 mins ride at ¥210 (S$2.60) per pax, one way.
- By Foot: Walk about 15 – 20 mins from Mukogaoka-yeun station (South Exit) of Odakyu-line or Shuku-Gawara station of JR Nanbu line. It’s a further walk from Noborito station.
Address for your google map: 2-chome 8-1 Nagao, Tama-ku, Kawasaki-city, Kanagawa Prefecture, 214-0023
We chose to walk! Because we heard there’s interesting stuff to spot along the way. Well, we spotted a few! But probably not worth the time and effort to walk. It took us about 25 to 30 mins to walk because we stopped numerous times along the way to take pictures of the serene neighbourhood.
As you walk, you might find some of the architecture familiar. That’s probably because Fujiko was staying in Kawasaki when the duo wrote and illustrated the Doraemon manga series. We’re all inspired by our surroundings! Also, this explains why the museum is located at this part of the country.
Tickets and Admission
As we walked on, the museum was on our right side. We had to cross a canal and a road to reach it. Be sure you have your tickets ready with you! Tickets are not sold at the museum and you must buy the tickets in advance. The tickets are also limited so that the museum wouldn’t get too crowded for people to enjoy. Do note that you can only buy up to 2 months in advance – on the 30th of each month, tickets are available for purchase for the following two months.
Ticket Information
- How much? ¥1,000, S$12.60 (Adults); ¥700 (High School students); ¥500 (Children above 4); Free (below 3).
- Where to buy? Loppi ticket machine at Lawson convenience stores in Japan. You can also purchase the tickets from Loppi in Hokkaido.
- How to use Loppi? First, know when you are going – the date and the time. There are four admission time slots for you to choose from (10:00, 12:00, 14:00 or 16:00) when you purchase. Loppi is in Japanese, so you might want to refer to this guide n how to use (l-tike.com/fujiko-m/english), though it turned out to be different from the Loppi we used in Narita airport. Hence we got the Lawson staff to help us buy. :)
We bought the tickets on the first day we arrived in Japan, at Tokyo Narita airport while making our flight transfer to Hokkaido. We wanted to get it early just in case the tickets for our desired time slot were sold out. We could also buy it from Loppi in Hokkaido.
We wanted the 10am time slot because that’s when the crowd is the thinnest. If we got the later timings, e.g. 12pm, those who came in at 10am can still linger on with the 12pm crowd. That’s true, because we felt the place getting crowded as we left about 12.25pm. We spent more time than our scheduled 1.5 hr in the museum! If we were not going somewhere else, we might have even taken longer.
Admission Information
Don’t be late! Visitors must enter the museum no later than half an hour from the chosen time slot.
We planned to reach earlier than 10am to avoid the queue. The early scheduling was a good thing because the walk took longer than expected and so there was some buffer. In the end we reached at 10am sharp and there was a queue forming outside the museum. But no worries, the staff moved the queue quite fast while the windows of Doraemon minatures will entertain you.
As you enter the doors, you will get a information booklet/map and an English/Mandarin/Korean audio guide upon request. Photography is strictly prohibited at certain areas, especially where Fujiko’s artwork is displayed.
Doraemon Cafe
Afraid that the queue will get longer, we went straight up to the Doraemon cafe at Level 3 and took a queue number. It was slow moving at the start, but suddenly the queue numbers jumped quickly to ours. I think because most of those before us went to the outdoor playground thinking it would be quite a wait and missed their turn. We probably only waited for about 5-10 minutes?
But if you are coming in later at 12, 2, 4pm, the queue will be quite a wait and 5pm is their last order. So I suggest you take a queue number first before touring the museum or taking photos at the rooftop playground.
We were well prepared with an empty stomach to dig into our brunch! With all the waiting, we only managed to dig in at 10.40 am. Since it was still early, we ordered one dish of rice casserole with soup (¥1230, S$15.40) to share and a cup of coffee (¥570, S$7.15) for hubby to perk his morning.
I wasn’t expecting the food to be good in such themed restaurants, with their price premium going into cute dish presentation and cutesy everything. Prints of Doraemon and company were everywhere – from utensils to serviettes. We even took back the manga drawn coaster. :) Anyway, the cheese baked rice turned out to be cheesy-licious! The cheesy smell waffled in the air and danced on my taste buds. Don’t expect to find much ingredients though.
Moreover, the dishes were sooooooo cute! To cute to be eaten in fact. Everyone was busy taking photos of them before defacing the Doraemon to eat. :P We requested for a Doraemon latte art but was told that we can’t choose the art… but we still got a Doraemon in the end! Yays!
Around Doraemon Museum
After our brunch, we went back to Level 1 to start our museum tour. Oh! Because the museum has a limited number of audio guides, the staff didn’t allow us to bring them to the cafe. They took them back and said we could only get these guides again at level 1 just before we start our museum tour.
Exhibition Halls (1F, 2F)
There are a few exhibitions spanning from level 1 to level 2. Using the audio guide for commentary, we walked around the collection of Fujiko’s work, including his original artwork of Doraemon and other series. There is also a replica of his study room and photos of private family episodes.
(Photography is not allowed here.)
People’s Plaza, Manga Corner, Kid’s Space (2F)
As you exit the exhibition hall, you will come to a section designed for children or those young at heart. There are many gachapon machines for visitors to twist their luck and bring a mini souvenir back home. There’s also activity and play rooms for children to get crazy in and a manga section for Japanese readers to dig into the books.
Fujiko F. Fujio Theater (2F)
If you are not interested in these stuff, then go straight to the theater for a short film that’s exclusively shown at the museum. The film is shown every 20 mins.
*Spoiler Alert: What’s amazing was, when the show ended, the screen opened up to an outdoor garden/courtyard for you to exit into. Talk about a holistic experience.*
Woodcutter’s Spring (Inside the Exhibition Hall)(2F)
We need to do some backtracking here. It’s only when we exited the exhibition hall that I spotted a prominent Gian* figurine marked on the museum map with the words ‘Woodcutter’s Spring’. So we went back into the exhibition hall to find out what it is.
There, we found Gian springing out of a well when you keep moving the lever up and down (photo above)! There was a long queue to play with the lever, so we merely took a few quick photos and left.
* Gian is Takeshi Goda, the local bully of the Doraemon series.
Gift Corner Fujikoya, Museum Gift Shop (3F, 1F)
At level 3, there’s a mini gift shop that sells Doraemon snacks. Try the vanilla-flavoured Dorayaki ice cream and savour the fluffy pancakes!
More souvenir shopping awaits you at the museum gift shop at level 1. It was crowded and had a long queue at the cashier. With ready fans to grab the merchandise, their buying fuel only increased after the tour. What a good business opportunity. Hee. Even so we became their “victims” and bought a set of cute couple cups. Happy!
Rooftop Playground, Piisuke’s Lake
The rooftop playground has many life sized characters and scene set up for photo taking opportunities. And you should be familiar with this playground (photo above). It’s one of Doraemon series’s famous scenes – where Nobita hides whenever Gian and Suneo bully him.
We were able to capture this scene with only us because there was a queue for photos. There was a dad who ‘cut the queue’ and allowed his little girl to play around this section. People waiting in line were staring impatiently at him and only after 5 mins he said that it’s a playground, and anyone can play and there’s no need to queue. He left after 5 minutes. It’s interesting because I saw photos from other blogs where children were all over it, above and under – like the dad said – a playground. So it really depends on the crowd when you are there.
It’s fun to relive those Doraemon memories! However, if it’s your first time to Tokyo, you might want to skip this stop, unless you’re a big fan of Doraemon! It’s quite time consuming, you need to cater about 3-4 hours (including travel).
Okay time to say bye bye as I stepped through this pink door! The Dokodemo Door (Anywhere Door) is Doraemon’s commonly used gadgets to transport one anywhere just by walking through. Bye for now!
fujiko-museum.com/english
2-chome 8-1 Nagao, Tama-ku, Kawasaki-city, Kanagawa Prefecture, 214-0023
10:00-18:00 (4 entry time slots)
Closed: Every Tuesday except Golden Week (29 Apr – 5 May) and summer holidays (20 Jul – 3 Sep). New Year Holidays (30 Dec – 3 Jan). *We will announce any other special holidays in advance on this website.
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