One of my favorite activities from our most recent trip to Tokyo was our visit to the Postal Museum Japan. The museum recently moved from its old location into a shiny new floor at the Tokyo Skytree, making it super convenient for visitors. It’s not a large museum, but we spent a couple of hours inside looking through Japan’s interesting postal past.
We looked at postal transportation (original cart & basket, and motorbike delivery)…
And old postal uniforms…
A fantastic letter sorter…
Old Japanese Post advertising…
Old letter bins and bags…
Detailed postmarks…
And there was an array of old mailboxes…
Aren’t they beautiful? I love all of the floral gold details on the last one.
As if the museum wasn’t wonderful enough, there was a mini post office in the gift shop and a modern mailbox at the exit. All mail sent from the museum gets stamped with a special Tokyo Skytree/Postal Museum postmark.
Of course that meant taking some time to write a few postcards at the museum. (Thankfully I had my tiny blue traveling address book with me!)
I think our entrance fees might have been the best ¥300 we spent all vacation! If you are in Tokyo and you love all things mail, you have to visit. Send me a postcard! 🙂
That’s the best place I’ve ever seen! Those posters, that postbox! I must save up for a Japan trip 🙂
What an awesome trip report, and great pictures! The next best thing to visiting, but someday I’ll go. 🙂