Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum (Edo-Tokyo Tatemono-en) in Koganei Park on Tokyo's western edge opened in 1993 as a satellite of the Edo-Tokyo Museum, set up to rescue buildings threatened with demolition. On roughly seven hectares it gathers 30 reconstructed structures from the late Edo period to the Showa era, including farmhouses, shops, a public bathhouse and the main residence of former prime minister Korekiyo Takahashi. Hayao Miyazaki used the museum as inspiration for the bathhouse scenes in Spirited Away, and an entrance display acknowledges this. The western quarter features a historic shopping street with sake merchants and barbers. Visitors can enter the buildings, and a cafe in an Edo farmhouse serves traditional sweets.