Odaiba Retro Museum is an experiential museum in which the townscape of Japan during the Showa 30s and 40s (1955-1974) has been recreated. It is packed with things and buildings that feel new and surreal to the generations that do not know what the Showa era was like, and they bring back nostalgic memories for those who know what it was like.

The entrance of Odaiba Retro Museum welcomes you with a colorful sign.

With things like an old, red cylindrical postbox and a green public phone booth, the interior of the museum is filled with nostalgic scenery that you rarely see in Japan today. The background music featuring popular songs from that time also hypes up the atmosphere.

A recreation of a public bath entrance featuring a sign reading “台場の湯” (meaning “Daiba bath”). The red postbox gives off the feeling of life in the Showa era.

The museum also features faithful recreations of various other structures, such as a wooden classroom and a small, Showa-style pub. The classroom, with wooden desks and a blackboard, feels like after-school hours. At the pub, you can hear famous songs of the Showa period coming from a jukebox in a unique atmosphere lit up with neon signs. Showa-style costumes are also available to wear, so you can enjoy taking pictures while soaking up the mood of the era.

A recreation of an elementary school classroom in the Showa period with wooden desks and chairs.

At the toy shop, tinplate robots and character toys from the period are lined up. At the electronics shop, nostalgic home appliances such as thick cathode-ray tube TVs are displayed.

A recreation of the distinctive townscape of Showa-era Japan, with a toy shop, a home appliances shop, and other establishments lined up side by side.

What makes this museum great is that you can not only see the exhibits, but also take pictures and touch and play with many of the exhibits so as to allow visitors to feel the warmth of handmade items and uniqueness of the things from the era with no smartphones or the internet that are lost in today’s digital society. On top of that, you can immerse yourself in the nostalgic scenery of Japan that feels like it came straight out of a Japanese animated film.

The museum also has a shop where you can purchase the museum’s original Showa-style products that are perfect as souvenirs.

A room and a kitchen have also been recreated.

The exterior of a café with impressive retro signs.

Odaiba, the town where Odaiba Retro Museum is located, is known for near-futuristic tourist spots and buildings such as a life-size standing Gundam statue and the Rainbow Bridge, but the museum truly stands out in that area as it allows visitors to travel back in time to the Showa era.

Odaiba Retro Museum is about two-minutes’ walk from Yurikamome Line’s Odaiba-kaihinkoen Station or about five-minutes’ walk from Rinkai Line’s Tokyo Teleport Station. We highly recommend that you visit there for a valuable opportunity to feel and experience Japan’s Showa culture.

■DATA Odaiba Retro Museum Address: 4F Decks Tokyo Beach Seaside Mall, 1-6-1 Daiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo Opening hours: Weekdays 11:00–20:00 / Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays 11:00–21:00 *The opening hours may be changed without notice, so please check the latest information on our official website. Official website: https://odaiba-retromuseum.tokyo.jp/ (Information as of June 2025)

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