Today I visited the Imperial Palace but you don’t care about that. You want to hear about the Nintendo Museum.
As you might expect photos are forbidden in most of the museum, so I’ll describe the layout. The top floor houses the look-at exhibitions. There is a section dedicated to each console (yes, including Virtual Boy) that displays the Japanese, American, and Europe boxes of each major Nintendo release. There are also walls covering the histories of Nintendo’s franchises, Nintendo’s pre-1980 toys (this was my favorite part; a screen was playing Japanese commercials from the 1960s), Nintendo’s playing cards, and a little alcove with tons of concept art.
What you won’t find at these exhibits are any explanatory notes or histories. There’s a sign warning you about this on the way in, which essentially says “Make up your own theories about what these things are!” Which, sure, foster creativity and whatever, but that approach creates a pretty lousy museum in my opinion. Now I’m a freak who walked into the building already knowing who Gunpei Yokoi was. I knew Nintendo was founded in 1889. Do most visitors? Wouldn’t a Nintendo fan want to learn why Nintendo made so much Disney merch in the 1950s instead of just assuming something? Museums should be educational, but this one somehow feels like just a brand extension, a voluntary advertisement to remind yourself how much you like Nintendo. It gives the sense that Nintendo is so protective of their image that they’re afraid to even talk about their own history. You’ll see the name “Miiverse” in this museum, but not the name “Iwata.”
But I do have to admit. Seeing all those GBA boxes lined up tickled a part of my brain that hasn’t been active since the last time I was in a Toys R Us.
The lower floor is the interactive zone. On entry you’re provided a scannable ID card loaded with ten “coins” to be spent on the games. If you run out of coins, you can refill them by… leaving the museum and coming back another day. These are the only ten coins you’re getting, so spend them wisely (i.e. not on 7 minutes of a game you can emulate at home). I was a big fan of the Ultra Machine game, where you hit ping pong balls around a fake living room, so much that I went back and did it again. The Ultra Hand game was a fun novelty as someone who had never touched one before. (It’s actually a really cool contraption!) You can also spend a coin on the Love Tester booth. All six booths were empty for some reason.
In the next building over, still within the museum, there’s a curiously unthemed restaurant that serves totally regular burgers, and upstairs is an arts and crafts room where you can paint-by-numbers your own hanafuda cards.
And then… there’s the store.
I do not want to admit how much I spent at the store, suffice to say I was scolded for trying to buy too many pins and had to remove some from my bag. If transport wasn’t an issue I definitely would have bought the giant N64-controller-shaped pillow. Do you like keychains? Japan LOVES keychains. They unfortunately didn’t have any Super Famicom shirts in my size, however I will proudly sport my new Wii U shirt at all formal occasions.
To make matters worse, there is a separate Nintendo store in Kyoto with different stock. If the current Splatoon merch wasn’t all-in on the catchphrase “Ink You Up” I would have loaded up on that. I settled instead for some tasteful Pikmin kitchenware. I also found another department store where I bought more used games and a vinyl of the soundtrack to Tale of the Princess Kaguya, a great score to maybe the best animated film ever made. It’s going to be a struggle to bring all this back. I promise I’ll take it easy tomorrow. Promise.
