Japan’s first and only robot musuem in Nagoya closes
If you’re currently in Nagoya and love technology, gadgets and robots, quickly check out Japan’s first and only robot museum before it closes at the end of the month. The museum had just turned one year old and for the ¥1,300 entry fee, you get an can an iPod audio guide that helps you explore 2,600 meters of floor space over two levels featuring over 300 cutting edge robots like the Honda Asimo and Sony AIBO.
The Robothink section of the museum holds actual robots and roughly 1,000 pieces of related materials, including video images, photographs and their histories. There is also a library where visitors can freely browse books relating to robots.
Visitors also have access to an interactive corner where they can operate robots for themselves. After that, visitors can purchase robots at the Robot Mirai Department store, check out Hattori Lusso ( an interior design shop offering a glimpse of life in the future) or have a meal at the futuristic themed Famires cafe restaurant . See more photos of the museum here.
The Robot Museum in Nagoya is a one minute walk from Sakae Station (5 minutes from Nagoya Station on the Nagoya City Subway Higashiyama Line) and well worth the visit for every otaku! It’s so sad to see it closing down.
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(Japan Sugoi)
September 28th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
I never went in there. Didnt look that interesting from the outside and there was hardly anyone ever in there. Why is it closing down?
September 29th, 2007 at 8:29 am
The Nayoga robot museum is closing coz it didn’t have enough visitors.
September 29th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Why did they have this in Nayoga? Tokyo would have been a much better location.
September 30th, 2007 at 2:58 am
Last time I went there, there was actually a lot of people (schoolkids). It was during early summer, though. Looking into the museum, it was kind of hard to see the real number of peole (because the only thing you can see is the gift shop, which didn’t seem very popular). It was awesome inside, though. They had a Segway course where you could take a Segway and ride it around a (rather crappy) course. The staff would take about 2 minutes to explain it to you and then they would yell 3,2,1 SEGWAYYYYYYY and let you navigate the course. Unfortunately, they weren’t too enthusiastic when it was my turn (I didn’t even get a 3,2,1 SEGWAAAAYYY; I got a “okay, you have 2 minutes to fk around with the Segway but don’t go backwards) but that guy tried his damnedest to try to explain it to me in English, even after I told him that he could do it in Japanese (”you go migi PUSH,” he instructed). The dancing robots were okay, but anyone who had gone to the Aichi World Expo and saw the Toyota booth and their dancing debauchery of robots would’ve agreed that it didn’t compare to that. Other than that, it a museum chock full of old toys and the “history” of robots. Pretty interesting. I GUESS the Sony Aibo and the Asimo was there, but perhaps they weren’t doing anything memorable enough for me to remember. I WAS a bit disappointed not to see Bender the Robot from Futurama drinking beer there, though.
My guess is that Nagoya was still trying to capitalize (or store some of their old junk and make money) from the World Expo. It WAS a little strange to see the Robot Museum next to the Louis Vuitton shop, but that’s just a facet of life in Japan, I guess. One does wonder why the museum was placed in Sakae, though, as it is the “trendy, fashionable” place to be there. Otsu would’ve been a better place to keep it, as the otaku population there would’ve been more than enough to keep the museum afloat. However, I’ve heard that from the beginning the museum was “for a limited time only” and as the days and months past, the novelty of the magic of a “limited time only” museum just kind of lost its novelty. It just kind of became “oh… it’s still there.”
A friend of mine actually took his date there, and concluded that it was not really a good date spot. Seeing how guys who grew up watching Macross would’ve benefitted the most, and how Sakae IS considered a date spot. The only light at the end of the tunnel that awaited my wife was the trip next door to LV and a new key case. All I got was 4 crappy minutes on a Segway (which gets boring after the first minute).
All in all, a good experience for those who couldn’t get into the Toyota Pavillion at the Expo.
October 1st, 2007 at 5:01 pm
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