National Museum of Nature and Science

The National Museum of Nature and Science (Kahaku) in Ueno Park is one of Asia's leading natural history museums and Japan's oldest public research institution of its kind. Founded in 1877 as a branch of the Tokyo educational exhibition, it moved into the current Japan Gallery in 1931, a brick building shaped from above like an aeroplane, designated an Important Cultural Property in 2008. The collection holds some four million objects from meteorites and ammonites to the taxidermied Hachiko, the famously loyal Akita dog. The Global Gallery, opened in 2004, features complete dinosaur skeletons, a walk-through Ice Age tundra and a whale hall with a sperm whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling. The Japan Gallery presents the geology, flora, fauna and prehistory of the archipelago with classic cases and dioramas. Families can easily spend a full day here; in the forecourt stands the original D51 steam locomotive.