1-Tokyo Stock Exchange Trading Floor Free entrance and very interesting if you trade stocks. 😀 There’s also a guided tour for a fee, but you need an appointment. Surprisingly, the trading floor is much smaller than it looks on TV 😝🤣 P.S. I remember seeing it on Saudi TV in the early 90s when I was a kid—never imagined I’d see it in person one day.
2 — 👍JAL Maintenance Tour👌 It’s free, but you need to book it 2–3 weeks in advance. I was the only foreigner there, and everything was in Japanese. They had a B737, A350, B767, and a B787 (I think it was the -8). Lots of families and kids were attending.
🆔️ You need to show I.D., I just showed my saudi driving license but they usually ask for passport, name during booking should match with i.d.. for address just use your hotel address❤️
Booking the ANA maintenance tour was impossible—I tried a million times with no luck.
I took airport bus to/from Shinjuku bus station to Haneda airport, then took the Monorail from airport terminal to first stop.
3 — Reiyukai Shakaden Temple (Near Tokyo Tower) “cult temple,” Free entry, and they offer a free guided tour (a small gift to the guide is appreciated). It’s a beautiful, ultra‑modern piece of 1970s architecture—very unique.
4 — Extinct Media Museum (I think it's was like 30min walking from Tokyo stock exchange) If you’re into early‑2000s phones or old Apple computers, you’ll enjoy it. I expected to see more, especially since it’s Japan, but the collection is very very small. The good part is you can touch everything. Entrance is 2,000 yen, and the owner is very friendly
Thanks for sharing. All of your items are things I hadn’t heard of before.
I'll add to your list and suggest the Ikebukuro Life Safety Learning Center as a way to kill a bit of time if you're in the area.
Basically it teaches you what to do in the event of an earthquake, there is a small guided tour and even an earthquake simulator. I don't think I had to pay entrance fee for that one. It was something I randomly stumbled on lol.
Hey, I’m planning to do this. Was it only in Japanese or in English too?
Those are the travel tips I‘m looking for! Truly off-the beaten-path things for once!
Wow this list is interesting and cool!
Wow, Reiyukai Shakaden Temple building is pretty wild looking inside and out. Reminds me of the aesthetic they used in the Loki series. Oh, interesting.. looking at the map now it's right next to Azubadai Hills.
If you didn't know this is a massive area that just opened this year and it contains the tallest building in Japan. The new TeamLab borderless is located inside as well. They used some pretty wild architecture with some of the buildings in the complex.
I was planning on going to Borderless so it'll be cool to see this awesome building while I'm in the area.
JAL tour was absolutely fantastic.
If you're willing to pay extra for the tour, you can get lunch included.
Amazing places! Thanks for sharing
On point 3 you mention a small gift, do you have a suggestion for what that would be? I know Japan don’t do tipping and I’ve heard other people mention leaving gifts for the places they stay but I really don’t know what to consider.
$$$ is the best gift!
Japanese are actually struggling with high living costs, many are too old!
Tipping is uncommon from what I noticed but it will be appreciated....I did leave tipping few times in certain situations and they were happy (like the temple guide)
While staying in someone's place I guess foreign alcohol will be appreciate in many cultures.
Genuine question : why is this being downvoted ? Is there something insensitive ?
Because it's wrong
The cult temple happily accepted a monetary tip because that is essentially their whole business. The whole being a well known cult where you pay for salvation and all that.
It was just a small gift to the guide appreciating his time showing me around and answering my questions....not to the greedy cult.
I paid tipping many time, last was in family mart in kansai for helping me printing few documents. (In other countries I was ignored for asking for help in such situations) she was soo kind and patient with me, I think I gave her 1000yen (missing my flight could costed me more)
You paid the cult. That is literally their gimmick.
It's a cool place to tour, I agree.
But they know how to con money out of people. That money went straight to the management as soon as you left.
The family mart thing is weird. She was guilted by the weird foreigner she did part of job for. She likely gave money to the manager.
Gifting in any sense for people doing their job is weird here.
Money is just the weirdest.
I love this! Your desire to do something unique and your curiosity is to be admired.
The interior reminds of the Kyoto International Conference Center. (Setting of the robot company in Sunny)
Looks interesting and accessible. I like vintage computing especially, and am a bit frustrated that I have not been able to find much of a computer museum in Tokyo that showcases vintage Japanese computers especially. I've found one in Ome and a university museum in Noda, but those two are both a bit from the centre of Tokyo.
I have been to Japan only once and not been to koyot
His collection is very limited still interesting if you are into 2000's phones and Japanese phones that most of us outside of Japan never saw it...... didn't seen a lot of Japanese items I was expecting like early digital cameras or tiny portable TV
I think old cellphones are fascinating, so this is an excellent recommendation. Thank you for spotlighting it!
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it seems they have a telex machines which I have childhood memories with and I didn’t see any since mid 90s
. Hopefully to visit it next time.
I remember seeing Reiyukai Shakaden Temple from Tokyo Tower; it was such a unique building and I couldn't stop staring at it. Whish I knew I could've gone in!
Oh nice! My partner is keen on the JAL tour -- we'll be going in March if I can get a booking.
I booked two weeks before. In my opinion better avoid early ones before 12p.m. as you may get lost on the trains or something.
Its for free which is good 😀
We‘re pretty good at transit planning - we always have buffer and will consider the afternoon tour.
However, things must have changed since you went because the museum site notes that the tour is ¥1,000. Which is fine but it’s not free.
Cool stuff!!