Hiroshima City Transportation Museum

Dedicated to exhibiting past and present and future modes of transportation, Hiroshima City's Transportation Museum has a lot to offer everyone, from children to adult enthusiasts.
The 4-storey building includes an open-air fun cycle area, craft centre, small restaurant, library, gift shop, train sets, countless magazines, computer simulations, a vast model city with panoramic views and video capsules with brief introductions to a wealth of transportational knowledge.

A brief guided tour:
1st floor: Dr.Vehicle greets you on a TV screen, introducing you to the various parts of the museum, and at the reception desk you'll be offered leaflet guides to each floor in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean. This floor has no entry fee and also houses the library, shop, restaurant, and craft centre acts as a corridor to the outdoor carting area at the rear. The library holds everything from children's story books like Thomas the Tank Engine to encyclopedias for adult use. Unfortunately you cannot borrow the books but you are welcome to stay as long as you like, enjoying the video corner too. The craft centre is only open on Sundays and a small charge of 50yen is requested. Older children will love making toy rockets and puzzles from wood or plastic bottles, with the help of staff. See the leaflets to find out what items are scheduled to be made on upcoming dates. Outside the craft room is a small play area with wooden blocks for younger kids. For a small fee and weather permitting, you can enjoy the fun cycles outside. They all operate in different ways, some with pedals, others with handles or springs. Younger kids can try the battery operated cars with their parents. After that you'll certainly need a refreshing drink! There is a vending machine corner available but please note there is no eating or drinking permitted throughout the museum, excpet in the designated corners. The entire building is also a smoke-free environment. The non-smoking restarant is nothing special, but is clean and well run and although I don't claim to be a connoisseur, serves amongst the tastiest tonkotsu ramen outside Kyushu. Buy a ticket from the machine (your usual fare of fried rice, noodles, curry and cake sets from around \500-\800), then take a seat and the staff will bring your food. Free tea and water is available for self-service as are baby bowls and cutlery.

2nd Floor: The showcase floor, offering countless thousands of glass-boxed models of cars, boats, planes, and trains from past to present, also houses interesting artifacts like tram tickets and station souvenirs from days gone by and touch-screen displays of information. More appealing to children however is the model train set you can operate yourself (try to get them off it!) but even adults will find the computer simulation tram ride through the snowy streets of Hokkaido a challenge. Another corner has a number of computer-linked cycles, that allow you to pedal through a virtual tour of Italy, France or Honolulu.

3rd Floor: A huge and impressive panoranic model town featuring every mode of transportation available from the port-side to the motorway, cable-cars, trains and helicopters to name a few. The lighting in the circular room constantly changes offering a daylight to nighttime effect, with all the city lights twinkling. Dotted around the outside are a series of buttons and levers, allowing you to start and stop various circuits within the model.

4th floor: A wide circular hallway that allows a bird's eye view of the 3rd floor panoramic display and houses 4 video capsules. Seating inside is for up to 10 and the touch-screen lets you choose from a menu of short transportation information films.

Written by GH's favorite roving reporter mama
lorna c

Information
Access: By Astram: Take the Astram bound for Koiki Koen Mae and get off at Chorakuji, exiting the south side. From here a 2 minute, well sign-posted walk.

By Bus: Get off at Tomoyasu, in front of the museum. Free parking is available for up to 100 cars.
A limited number of free manual wheelchairs and pushchairs are available.

Entry Fee: *Free admission to 1st floor Floors 2-4: Child (Elementary school-students 18yrs): ¥220 Adults: ¥440 *Group rates (30 people +):
Child: ¥170 Adult: ¥350 *Free admission for all on Culture Day (November 3rd) *Free admission to children on Children's Day (May 5th) and Saturdays (except National holidays and school's spring, summer and winter breaks) Other fees: Fun cycle: ¥100 (30mins/person) Battery powered carts: ¥100/cart Craft Centre: ¥50

"worth the trip"
Anonymity Personified.Sun Sep 2006
I guess I am still a kid at heart, because I really enjoyed just looking at all the model airplanes, trains, cars, and ships. One note: the admission for the upper floors has gone up to 500 for adults.

"great!"
Aline Hirosse - Sun May 2006
I loved that place! Very cultural.