Kyoto and Nintendo Museum

Up for breakfast before a 25 minute walk to Hakone-Yumoto station. A beautiful morning (to what turned out to be one of our prettiest days), we then took a short train to Odawara before transferring to our Shinkansen to Kyoto. We had a layover on the way and picked up some bento boxes. But on the way out of the station at Mishiki, we finally got a small glimpse of Mt. Fuji just peaking above the clouds. It’s apparently rare to see it from any distance so we were happy with what we got. After a smooth arrival into Kyoto station we walked to the nearby Yamato luggage shipper office… where we were almost shocked to find all 6 of our suitcases. From there it was an Uber to our flat with early check-in. The Kyoto Airbnb is somehow even nicer than the Tokyo one with space for all. After a short break and unpacking for laundry, we hopped on the nearby metro for the 35 minute trek to the Nintendo Museum. Just opened in October of 2024, it’s the first and only certified Nintendo museum in the world. Built on the grounds of one of the early Nintendo shipping factories, entry is only via lottery 2 months in advance. I was able to get tickets after those that couldn’t make their assigned entry time released them on the open market. Tickets were cheap - about $65 for all 5 of us combined - but certainly harder to get than I would have thought. Security was TSA level to get in including full security and passport checks. It was an amazing building and so, so much fun. We couldn’t take pictures in the main museum area but got to see original drawings from the one of the first Mario games (though he was unnamed at the time) in Donkey Kong. I grew up playing that in my grandma’s cafe and it was crazy to see. Every Nintendo game and console was displayed including the Power Pad and even consoles I had never seen. We then made our way down to the gaming floor. Each of us was given 10 digital ‘coins’ on our passes at entry. With these, we were allowed to choose to play some games ranging from a giant Duck Hunt like screen (Gideon got 2nd and I got 3rd) to a baseball game that Nintendo sold to original Nintendo’s games using working giant controllers. It was a struggle to figure out what to pick but we all did each of them and had a blast. In the middle of playing, we took a break for a class that we had signed up for on admission. Nintendo actually started as a company that sold cards for a Japanese game called Hanafuda. The class was to teach us how to play. The game was beautiful and there was a high tech animated table that showed us how to play in English. Before going back to the game floor, we stopped into the gift shop and each got something to take home… including a set of Hanafuda cards. We finished up our games before the museum closed before hustling down the road to dinner reservations at a delicious cafe. Pizzas and burgers in a small hole-in-the-wall packed with loud Japanese - it was fun to not be in a tourist hub for once. Then a train back home before another late bedtime. A super fun day!Read more