A shoutout to Doraemon fans out there! Do you know that there's a special museum dedicated to the creator of Doraemon in Japan? If you don't already know this, then sit up and read on!
This museum is located in Kawasaki city, approximately 40 minutes from Tokyo city. You can take a train to either JR Shukugawara or JR Noborito station and walk there. It takes about 15-20 minutes walk and you'll be guided by road signs like the picture above to get you there.
Along the way, you'll also be accompanied by the characters in Doraemon's manga, especially when you're quite near to the museum.
Alternatively, board the shuttle bus from Noborito station for 210Y per trip. It is about 5 minutes ride to the museum. Most of the city buses are designed with Doraemon or characters that Mr Fujiko drew in the past.
One thing to note is to buy your tickets in advance. The museum does not sell tickets so you've gotta purchase it in advance from Lawson convenience stores. The entrance times are 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm on a daily basis and it costs 1000Y to get in for adult.
Before you enter the museum itself, there will be some rule and guidance that you'll need to observe. For one, photography is absolutely not allowed in most of the exhibition halls except for the children's area and the outdoor playground. Secondly, you're to keep quiet when you're in the museum but this is hardly observed especially when there are many children in your group.
This is part of the children's area where photography is allowed. There is also a reading section where there are many manga produced by Mr Fujiko on the shelves for visitors to read. Unfortunately they're all in Japanese.
The outdoor playground has 3 main areas for photography with the characters and it would be unsurprising to see a queue especially on weekends. However, there are not many characters that are available for photography, unlike say the 100 Years to Doraemon's birth exhibition that has been carried out worldwide.
And just like any other theme based museum, there will be souvenir shops where you can buy the merchandise or the characters that you like best. Since it's Japan, these products which nicely packaged will not fail to impress visitors.
If you're an avid fan and you can read Japanese, I think you should visit to have an appreciation of the original work that was drawn in the past. The museum does some conservation work by having duplicates of the original drawing so that they can rotate the exhibits to avoid them from degrading. The original artworks are generally done using watercolour so if it is put out for a long time, it will fade. In this regard, the lights in the exhibition halls are also dimmed to avoid the colours from fading too fast.
Do hop by for a visit if you're in Tokyo, particularly if you're interested in knowing the works of Mr Fujiko!
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