Samurai Museum

This museum is largely the personal collection of the owner. It’s always wonderful to see people share these treasures with the world. They have a several sets of armor that cover a large set of history, as well as other swords and helmets. There was a guide who walked me through personally and explained the time periods and significance of what I was seeing. It was great.
This isn’t a large museum, but it’s worth a stop. It takes about an hour, and you can put on a replica samurai helmet and see a demo of the sword handling. Each group was walked through individually and then guided to the demo. There were some kids in there who really liked that part (though it was funny to watch them cover their ears when the performer yelled with each stroke).

This place is amazing. They have samurai armor and weapons going back 300+ years. They also have several reproductions that they are happy to let you try on. They’ll even give you outfits and weapons (!!!) and take photos for you. The staff speaks enough English to show you around and tell you about the exhibits. Very kid friendly too. The staff was happy to give my kids swords and show them how to hold them correctly.

Yep. I am a tourist. I came to Tokyo, went to a Samurai museum, and loved it.
From the outside it looks closed, but when you walk through the automatic doors there’s someone there to greet you right away. Instantly you’re hit with the smell of burning incense. It was nice. The tickets are about $ 14 US dollars per person.
We first passed a few traditional Samurai suits. They looked like they were for tiny people. The leg armor would have probably been used for my arms. Really cool hand sewn pieces though, and helmets to match. Some of the face masks had a blond mustache. That was unexpected.
Once upstairs we took our shoes off and entered the first room, which were swords. This guy came in, we later determined he was the owner, and started telling us about the pieces in English.
It was pretty awesome to have someone explain the different swords and time periods. This was a special treat, it didn’t seem like he visited the museum often. He had a millionaire vibe, and this was his hobby, but he was super friendly and down to earth.
We were able to try on helmets and hold samurai swords, he even opened up the rifle case and let us hold a few guns. The helmets were heavy as hell, my head pretty much sagged into my neck. All the museum workers seems to get a kick out of watching us try all this stuff on.
At the end of the tour they let us do a little photo session with outfits for free. I’d like to think it’s cuz they liked us to so much. Everyone was so accommodating and friendly. It was a great visit. I’d recommend a quick stop inside if you’re in the area. There’s a lot of replicas, but still good mix of authentic pieces too.