The new Nintendo Museum in Uji was a huge disappointment. I recently visited, and honestly, I couldn’t believe how underwhelming the experience was. I went in expecting to learn more about Nintendo’s rich company history and the people who helped shape it into the powerhouse it is today. However, I left feeling like the entire place was pointless.
Instead of offering insights into the company’s evolution, its culture, or its products, the museum is simply a collection of glass displays featuring Nintendo’s various products. There are no information placards, explanations, or context next to the displays. It’s essentially a giant showcase designed solely to tap into nostalgia, with no substance behind it.
When I first entered and rode the escalator to the second floor, I was initially impressed by the product displays. But as I looked around, I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t any accompanying information. I assumed the historical context must be in another section, so I went downstairs, thinking the second floor might just be the display area. Unfortunately, downstairs is just a series of random interactive games—things like hitting wiffle balls in a living room or playing classic Nintendo games on an oversized controller.
Nintendo is a company that has been around for over 100 years, originally making playing cards and then transitioning into board games and video games. The company’s history is fascinating, but you won’t learn a single thing about it at this museum. If you want to know about Nintendo, you’re better off reading their Wikipedia page.
I’ve visited many other company museums in Japan, like those of Toyota, Kirin, and Asahi, all of which have detailed displays about their histories, leaders, and product development. The Nintendo Museum, however, has none of that. It left me wondering—does Nintendo not have a company historian? With the amount of security and staff present, I expected much more. The whole museum feels like a lazy cash grab. Sure, the gift shop had some cool souvenirs, but that's about it. Everything else was a huge letdown.
TL;DR: The Nintendo Museum has an impressive collection of products but offers no information about the company’s history, its people, or the development of its products. It's a waste of time for anyone hoping to learn about Nintendo. However, if you're just looking for a nostalgic trip down memory lane, you might enjoy it.
by Monkeyfeng
15 comments
I think this is just the style with exhibitions in Japan. I’ve been to countless museums, galleries, and exhibitions around Japan and they are always like that.
Even high profile ones with special access to private collections will have maybe a paragraph of information in Japanese and if there is any English it will be just the translated title and maybe a sentence or two. Really sucks for anyone that does not read Japanese because they miss out on the already sparse context in Japanese. The English explains virtually nothing. It’s not a cultural gap thing either. I usually go with a Japanese friend and they are just as clueless as I am about everything unless they happen to have some background in that particular thing. My best experiences have been going with someone who already knows the work and can give some background, but obviously that requires quite a bit of luck.
I guess it keeps the tour guides in business? Audio guides have been getting more and more common. It’s worth paying the extra few hundred yen if your purpose is to learn about the stuff on display.
I went to the Nintendo Museum and loved it. If you want to know about history details you can find in on their wikipedia page. But seeing their history evolve it in front of you on those displays, chronologically organized, was good enough for me to know how the company expanded and became what it is today. Also being able to make your own karuta next door and play the interactive version downstairs was super fun! Finding things that brought good memories on each display was such a great experience for me, personally. I didn’t go there to learn about the company, I went there to geek out about it, and was totally satisfied. Had I taken my mum who knows nothing about nintendo, she would have been unimpressed, but that’s not a museum for the masses, that’s definetly a museum for the fans, and in that way I found that it really delivers.
I had an amazing time there a few days ago.. But.. I’m a huge Nintendo fan. I’ve been reading and researching the history of this company my entire life. So seeing things on display was just a cool, “Oh it’s THAT thing” moment for me. Without that context the museum would be boring and I get that.
I did the Hanafuda classes as extras and told one of the employees I’d had a Hanafuda deck for 20 years but didn’t know how to play. They were confused and asked more, so I explained I knew the history concerning Nintendo and was a big fan. They seemed impressed.
What were your expectations based on?
Tourist trap. Better off at the Tales of the Genji museum. Unforgettable. Byodoin was a working temple when I used to visit. No fee to wander the grounds. Peaceful and stunning. Now a Disney attraction for a quick spiritual fix. Avoid it too.
If I had a dollar for.every time a Nintendo fan was disappointed by Nintendo….
In Japan 99.9% of “museums” are tourist traps intended for a quick Instagram pic. Many of them are apartment sized. I include the Ghibli museum in this description.
Yes, dear OP… you have an unpopular opinion. Congrats
Thanks for posting this ,my son is a huge Nintendo fan ,and desperate to visit on his trip to Japan ,I will update him and save him the trouble and disappointment of visiting.
I’ve never met a Japanese museum I was actually satisfied with.
OP, you’re justified. Ignore the impossible fanboys.
Like everything else in Japan, the more homework you do beforehand the better your experience will be. Sure you can just pop-up and enjoy it but it won’t be the same. And it’s Nintendo…it’s a well known game company and there is an enormous amount of information online about the company’s history. A museum for a company like Nintendo is always going to be a tourist trap and I imagine they’re just expecting tourists to quickly shuffle through and be on their way. I can’t imagine anyone getting so upset about something like this they had to post about it on Reddit. lol. It’s interesting the company museums that you mentioned you really enjoyed here were mostly beer and sake museums…
So now Uji has been ruined as well it seems. 😔
Op you’re not wrong. My bachelor’s degree is literally “Museum studies” lol, and when I looked up what the Nintendo museum looked like, I knew I would be very disappointed. You’re not crazy, it’s not really designed to be a museum.
Japan is a little hit and miss with museums. The Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation was just one barely functioning robot and some children’s games. I thought maybe it was going through some kind of overhaul. But was also thinking “This is Japan! Call Fanuc, Mori, Toyota etc and get this place decked out”. I did like that Asahi tour.