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Samurai Ninja Museum Tokyo With Experience is true to its name, lets you slice with real katana

Casey Baseel Jan 15, 2024
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Hands-on history in Tokyo’s most historical neighborhood.

Japan has all sorts of museums, but there’s a unique aspect regarding the experience of visiting one devoted to the country’s history. See, you can go to a Japanese art museum without necessarily becoming inspired to become an artist yourself, or to a science one without a newfound desire to become a scientist. It’s pretty much impossible, though, to go to a Japanese history museum and not find yourself thinking about how cool it would be to be a samurai or ninja.

This is something wisely understood by the people at Samurai Ninja Museum Tokyo With Experience. Yes, it’s a lengthily unwieldy name with questionable grammar, but there’s no denying that it communicates everything the museum, which just had its grand opening last month, has to offer and what sets it apart from others.

Located just a short walk from Sensoji Temple in downtown Tokyo’s historical Asakusa neighborhood, the Samurai Ninja Museum Tokyo With Experience houses a collection of samurai and ninja arms and armor forged in the Edo period (1603-1868). Guided tours, in English, are offered on the hour and included with the price of basic admission.

But the Samurai Ninja Museum Tokyo With Experience is serious about the “experience” part too. What’s more, they realize that “Do you want to be a samurai, or do you want to be a ninja?” is an impossibly difficult question to answer, and so the basic ticket includes both Samurai Experience and Ninja Experience activities, in which you can don replica samurai armor for photos and receive instruction in how to accurately throw shuriken (ninja stars).

For those wanting even more in-depth experiences, the museum’s Special Tickets also include advanced Samurai and Ninja Experience programs. The Special Ticket ninja course includes lessons in stealth and avoiding sword strikes. If you’d rather be the one swinging the sword, though, in one of the special Samurai Experiences you’ll slip into a pair of billowy hakama pants for a session of tameshigiri, slicing through bamboo training targets with an actual sharpened katana.

▼ The tameshigiri program is available only for guests 18 and older, probably for safety/liability reasons, but perhaps also because it might be harder for parents to discipline their children once they know how to swing a katana.

Basic Tickets are priced at 3,000 yen (US$21) for adults and 2,700 yen for children, with the special ninja training ticket 6,000 yen and the tamshigiri 12,000 yen (special tickets include admission and everything else from the Basic Ticket; they’re not a separate fee). Online reservations can be made here and currently get you a 10-percent discount, although it appears that the museum doesn’t accept the authentic Edo period coins being sold by a Tokyo capsule toy machine as payment.

Location information
Samurai Ninja Museum Tokyo With Experience
Address: Tokyo-to, Taito-ku, Nishi Asakusa 1-8-13
東京都台東区西浅草1丁目8-13
Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Website

Source: PR Times
Top image: Samurai Ninja Museum Tokyo With Experience
Insert images: PR Times, Samurai Ninja Museum Tokyo With Experience
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