Oceanic Culture Museum Planetarium

This place is very underrated and underpriced. It’s located in the same area as the aquarium so it gets overshadowed. If you only want to visit this place without going through the aquarium, you can do that as well. The entrance fee is only ¥180 for adults and kids are free. If you like history this is a good place to visit. If you’re Pacific Islander, this whole museum is dedicated to the Pacific Islands. There’s a planetarium in there with different showing times. It’s all in Japanese but they give out headphones so you can follow along with a translation in the language of your choice ( they have English, Korean, Chinese etc..). Overall a great experience. Overall a very interesting and great visit.

This was a great unexpected bonus to the aquarium visit as we came across it walking through the park. The planetarium was really well done with an informative and fun animated film about ancient Polynesian marine navigation techniques, which was a whole different angle from any other planetarium I’ve been to and the English translation headset was really handy. The Polynesian marine culture exhibition hall is cool too with well thought out and informative displays. I notice some people say the info is mostly in Japanese but it’s not. If you bother to follow the route upstairs there’s English translation of everything too but the signs next to the boat displays are only in Japanese, so if you want to just quickly look at those it could be slightly improved and that is obviously what those people did. It cost peanuts to enter, I think it was ¥380 total for 2 adults and 2 elementary school kids. It’s very under attended which is surprising but nice for those who do go. I really enjoyed it actually and the kids were super interested.

Such a wealth of info! If you’re going to the aquarium without going here you’re missing out! They have the largest amount of info for everything related to the Pacific Islands. It’s an inexpensive museum and you also get to see a planetarium show for free while you’re there. If you’re not a Japanese speaker they offer headsets that will translate the show. The staff are kind and helpful. It’s also a great place to beat the summer heat!