Game on! The much anticipated new Nintendo Museum in Kyoto Japan opened in October 2024 and we recently visited to see what all the Mario mania was about.
Located in the small town of of Uji (located south of Kyoto city), the Nintendo Museum comprises of two floors of exhibits and gaming, a shop full of exclusive Nintendo merchandise, a (non-themed) cafe plus workshops.
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But does the Japan Nintendo Museum in Kyoto really live up to the hype? Getting tickets to the Nintendo Museum can be tricky (admission must be booked in advance) – so here is our guide to getting tickets plus an honest review of the Nintendo Museum.


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How to get to the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto
Located in south Kyoto in the Uji district, you are best to use public transport to get to the Nintendo Museum as they have no onsite parking.
The nearest train station to the Nintendo Museum Kyoto is Ogura Station on the Kintetsu Railway Kyoto Line. The journey takes around 20 minutes.
Take the east exit from Ogura Station and the museum is a 5 minute walk away (or an 8 minute walk from the north exit if you are arriving via the Nara Line).
Alternatively, it is around a 20 minute walk from the north exit of Uji Station (JR Nara Line). We’d recommend visiting Uji and its famous Byodoin temple and riverside views before or after your Nintendo Museum visit. Read more about Uji in our guide >

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Nintendo Museum admission price in 2024 / opening hours
These are the ticket prices to the Nintendo Museum as of November 2024. You need to enter a lottery or keep checking back for tickets; we’ll go into more details on this shortly.
Adult (ages 18+) | 3,300 yen (including tax) |
Youth (ages 12-17) | 2,200 yen (including tax) |
Child (ages 6-11) | 1,100 yen (including tax) |
Child (ages 6-11) | Free |
There are no tickets available on the door and security guards at the Nintendo Museum will ask whether you have a ticket when you first arrive.
Kyoto’s Nintendo Museum is open Wednesday to Monday from 10am to 6pm; it is closed on Tuesdays.

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How to get Nintendo Museum Kyoto tickets
To get your hands on Nintendo museum tickets you will need to enter a lottery draw on their website >
You can purchase up to eight tickets for the day you want to visit. You will need to enter the full names and phone numbers of every visitor in the application process.
Ticket applications start three months prior – for example if you wanted to visit the museum in the month of November, you will need to apply for tickets in the month of August. The results will get announced on the 1st of September via email.
You will need to create a free online Nintendo account to enter the drawing and purchase tickets.
You can pick up to 3 separate time slots for the lottery draw (they can be on different days if you want).
After the drawing is over, if there are any extra tickets still available that have not been claimed, they will go on sale on a first-come, first-served basis around 2 weeks after the lottery results have been announced. This is how we managed to secure our tickets as we were not successful with the lottery. They do not have a set date for these sales, so just keep an eye out on the Nintendo Museum website.

Tip – If you are really keen to visit the Nintendo Museum then you could try and time your trip so that you enter the lottery twice. You could stay in Kyoto at the end of one month and into the next month, so that your stay falls over two separate lotteries. Osaka is another city that is also close by so you could travel to the Nintendo Museum from there as well.
Once you have been successful in securing tickets, you will then need to purchase them. During the ticket application process you are asked to provide your phone number (mobile or landline). Your phone number can only be used on one Nintendo account – this is a way of stopping people creating multiple accounts to enter the lottery.
Before you enter your credit card details you will need to call a Japanese phone number from the phone number you provided in the application. This is to confirm you are calling from that particular phone number.
You don’t need to speak to anyone, the call just makes a quick connection which then activates the booking form where you put your credit card details in. We found that the phone line was very busy and had to call multiple times before it finally connected.
Once you have paid you will receive your confirmation email. My Mastercard was rejected despite the website saying it was accepted, but my Visa card worked, so have a few different credit cards at hand.
To enter the Nintendo Museum you will need to present a QR code which will appear in your Nintendo account 2pm the day before your visit. You can also edit your ticket design but we forgot and ended up with the standard Mario design on the ticket they print out for you at the gate.

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Arriving at the Kyoto Nintendo Museum in Japan
After a short walk from the nearest train station, the entrance to the Nintendo Museum is quite subtle – it is more modern office building than museum or theme park; it is very understated and not what we were expecting at all.
It is also in a very sleepy neighborhood with very little nearby other than the odd restaurant like CoCo Ichibanya across the road and the odd konbini / convenience store.

Upon arrival, you’ll be asked to show your pre-booked QR code / ticket – if you arrive before your allocated time, you’ll be asked to wait in a queuing area. We had a 1pm to 1.30pm time-slot and arrived at 1.15pm meaning we didn’t have to queue at all.

There is a small locker room before you enter (with lockers partially themed like old Gameboy cartridges – cool).
The lockers are free to use (you’ll need a 100 Yen coin which is refundable at the end) and will hold a medium size backpack and coats etc.

You can also lock away strollers and bigger suitcases in a separate area. These lockers can only be accessed before you enter the park, and after you exit (so you cannot return to them during your visit).

Once a staff member has scanned your QR code ticket, you are issued with a Nintendo pass which you can use to access the museum and games later. Remember to bring your passport (which you should be carrying with you anyway), as they will be checking your full name on your ID against your booking at the gate.
You can also personalise your card avatar ahead of time if you want a unique image but we were happy with Mario himself.

Outside food, oversized baggage, selfie sticks and drones are not permitted at the Nintendo Museum and all visitors must go through security screening and an X-Ray machine.
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Nintendo Museum Gardens
Once through security, there are a couple of selfie spots in the grounds including the iconic Super Mario green pipes.

You’ll also see a Pikachu manhole cover (Japanese is famous for its colorful manhole covers) which can be scanned as part of Pokemon Go.

Next to the manhole cover, also check out the Kirby themed vending machine and the Gameboy themed umbrella station.


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Food and drink at the Nintendo Museum
A very quick mention to the food and drink at Nintendo Museum – a few drinks vending machines are available onsite (including on the ground floor of the exhibition) but you’re only allowed to drink in designated areas.


The Nintendo Museum cafe is one of many missed opportunities for us – it is a basic burger bar (in collaboration with Hatena Burger) but there is next to no theming and the meals are quite expensive – especially when most Japanese chain restaurants are so cheap and serve up good food at low prices.

A burger set starts from 2,100 Yen including a burger of your choice, side and a soft drink – this is around £11 or $14 USD. Vegan and vegetarian options are available.
As no external food is allowed at the museum, you are a captive audience – if you are travelling to Kyoto on a budget, just visit the CoCo Ichibanya outside first or the cafe next to it.
We can’t help thinking this could have been something amazing, not just a very average burger joint with a high price point.
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The Nintendo Museum experience
Once through the main museum doors, the first exhibit you experience is actually one of the best in the entire museum.
Queue up to take pictures with Toad and play music by stroking their heads – it is joyously bonkers and we are all for it! We just wish there were more fun attractions like this.

Plan My Japan tip – After the Toad exhibit, you can enter the main Nintendo Museum after a short briefing. However, you might want to go to the Nintendo Museum gift-shop first as on the day we visited, lots of stuff sold out early in the morning like the huge controller cushions.

So if there is something you really want from the gift shop, go there first in case it sells out – and many items are limited to one per person but they don’t seem to keep a track of it.
So you could buy one limited edition item before going into the museum and then another one on the way out, if you are an avid Nintendo collector – you’re welcome!
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– 7-Eleven
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– 7-Eleven smoothies
– Convenience store egg sandwiches
– Lawson fried karaage/chicken nuggets
– 7-Eleven’s famous craft beer shop
– Dragon Quest themed Lawson
Nintendo Museum – Upper Floor (level 2)
Before you go into the main museum, there is a quick briefing and video you need to watch.
As well as explaining that your Nintendo pass has 10 coins allocated to it which you can use to play games on the lower level, it also states that you must not take photos in the main collection area – hence why we don’t have any photographs of the non-gaming area.

Consisting of about 20 or so glass cabinets and display cases with lots of Nintendo consoles and cartridges from the last few decades, this part of the museum looks amazing but sadly, there isn’t much interpretation or history given other than the year it was made.
We thought more could have been done here – and it is fascinating to see the non-gaming items Nintendo produced years ago like board games and metal toys.

It is also interesting to see the different types of Nintendo gaming machine over the years and all the regional variations. For instance, us being from the UK, we’d never seen a Famicom machine before or lots of the Japanese market add ons like the Gameboy printer.
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Nintendo Museum – Gaming Floor (ground level)
Once you’ve finished in the main exhibits area of the Nintendo Museum (for us, we spent about 30 minutes browsing all the cabinets), walk downstairs to the main gaming area.

Here is where you get to have some fun trying new and classic Nintendo games – photographs are also allowed here.

As this is the busiest area, we found some of the gaming queues quite prohibitive – e.g to play the Zapper and Scope game (4 coins of your allocated 10 coins), there was around a 40 minute wait.

Most of the games cost between 1 coin (e.g. the old NES classic games) to 2 coins (like the Ultra SP baseball cages and the Big Controller section).
Sadly there are no opportunities to increase your initial balance of 10 coins – so choose your consoles and gaming wisely.
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Nintendo Museum Games
In total, there are about 7 interactive / big scale exhibits to play on at the Nintendo Museum (all 1 to 4 coins) plus a ‘Nintendo Classics’ area with around 50 machines and 80 retro gaming choices.
The bigger games and exhibits you can play on are:
Big Controllers
Play classic NES, Wii, Super Nintendo Games using big controllers – this was 2 coins per go and the queues were quite big (aptly, like the controllers)!


Ultra Machine
This was so much fun and one of our favourite bits of the Nintendo Museum. There are several themed baseball batting cages, each costing 2 coins / credits for 20 balls.

Hit certain areas of your cage for fun interactions e.g. hit the radio with a ball and the music comes on or whack the shelf and it falls down.
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Love Testers
Join hands and test your couple skills on camera with lots of on screen graphics – this was popular with older families and young couples. It costs 2 coins per player.

Game and Watch
Play old school games using your shadow as the controller – in a word, dull! This costs 1 coin per person.

Ultra Hand
Based on a Nintendo toy from decades ago, grab the Pokemon balls using a set of plastic grabbers. More zzzzzz than snazzy. This costs 1 coin.

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Shigureden
An interactive card game based on a famous Japanese poem which involves using your phone and a huge light up floor. This costs 2 coins.

Zapper and Scope
Definitely the most popular game to play at the Nintendo Museum, this takes gaming to the next level with big guns and super-size shooting.
Costing 4 coins a go and with long queues, this is the scale we were expecting for all the games – but sadly, this is the only that really delivers anything unique.

Retro Gaming Lounge / Nintendo Classics
A great opportunity to play Nintendo Classics like Kirby, Mario Kart and Super Mario Brothers in either 1 player or 2 player formats. You get 7 minutes of gameplay and can choose from over 80 classic Nintendo titles.

Overall, it is nice that you can play new and old Nintendo games but ultimately, we were really underwhelmed by what was on offer.
There should be more newer and exclusive gaming experiences and not just a reliance on nostalgia and what were quite frankly rather boring games. Nintendo can surely do better!



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Nintendo Museum Gift Shop
Once you’ve spent your 10 gaming coins, exit through the Nintendo Museum gift shop; this is the ‘final level’.
There are lots of super-cool collectibles here from pin badges to plushes, compact consoles to cushion controllers – however, many are limited to one purchase per person plus a lot of items had already sold out when we got there.




There is no doubt there is some really cool stuff in the gift-shop and we loved the retro console blind boxes which we eagerly bought. The Nintendo console dipping trays would also look amazing in any kitchen or lounge.



A lot of the merchandise is quite similar though – for instance, for each type of Nintendo console, there is a section on the way where you can buy t-shirts, bags, and coasters etc. So if you want a NES T-shirt or Gameboy pen, they’ve got you covered but it gets rather repetitive.




They also have a line of exclusive Nintendo Museum clothing, bags and magnets.
BUT we would say the Nintendo Museum gifts can be rather expensive – we think 2,000 Yen for one pin badge is a bit much. But the classic console blind boxes for around 1,400 Yen are a bit more reasonably priced (they are good quality and make an excellent souvenir).

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Workshops / Craft & Play
One final thing to do at the Nintendo Museum – workshops are available to book at the information desk which take place above the cafe. They can only be booked on the day and start from 500 Yen per person.

At the time of our visit (November 2024), both workshops were based on the Japanese Hanafuda card game.
The 500 Yen workshop allowed you to try playing the game whilst the 2,000 Yen workshop allowed you to make your own Hanafuda card set to take home.

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Nintendo Museum review and final thoughts
After all the hype and extraordinary lengths to get Nintendo Museum tickets, we were actually a little disappointed with our Nintendo Museum experience.
The star of the show was the exhibit section showing all the various consoles and games over the years (and we are saying this as casual enthusiasts, not super Nintendo fans) but it just needed more detail and history.

The gaming section relied too heavily on nostalgia and old games – it was missing unique and modern experiences; we expected more of this highly anticipated Kyoto Nintendo Museum.
The gift shop is cool but quite pricey and the bog standard Nintendo Museum cafe could have been so much better – it was just underwhelming.

There are some neat design touches like the Toad exhibit and using your Nintendo pass / coins to play games but there needed to be more of this. It definitely isn’t somewhere we’ll be making a repeat visit to unless they unveil something amazing.
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Our Nintendo Museum video
Nintendo Museum Address
Kaguraden-56 Oguracho, Uji, Kyoto 611 – 0042
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This is the best information I have seen! I was wondering if a person could go in, then leave (to eat lunch elsewhere) and then enter again on the same day? would you happen to know if its allowed? Thank you!
Hi James, so happy you found our article helpful! I believe once you are in the museum you cannot leave and come back in I’m afraid. There isn’t much around lunch wise anyway apart from Coco, its a bit of a quiet area.