If you read my last post about the Ghibli Museum, I did mention that I went to two museums that first full day in Tokyo and the second museum was the Snoopy Museum in Roppongi. The friend I was traveling with is a huge Snoopy friend which is why we decided to go but I think our expectations and the actual museum were very different but I’ll go more into that in a little bit.
PURCHASING TICKETS
Tickets can be purchased on-site at the museum but they recommend that if you’re going a weekend to buy advanced tickets as they tend to sell out. I’m not sure how true this is since it seemed like on the day we were there that people were still buying tickets at the counter but better to be safe and purchase in advance if you know when you’re going which is what we did.
If you’re in Japan, you can purchase from Lawson but if you’re outside of Japan, you have two options and I chose to buy from JAPANiCAN. The process is pretty simple and you’ll be e-mailed a booking confirmation which is better than the Ghibli Museum where you only have the hard copy mailed to you.
THE LOCATION
The museum is located in Roppongi and about a 7 minute walk from the Roppongi Station and a 10 minute walk from Azabu Juban Station. For us, the Azabu Juban Station was more convenient to arrive at and also because we had intended to stop by a Taiyaki place nearby that station. I’m not sure how the walk from Roppongi Station is but there is a little but of uphill from the Azabu Juban Station on the way to the museum if you would prefer to avoid that. But you’ll walk up a small hill and then see a building on your left with a few Snoopy displays on the outside to let you know you’re there.
THE MUSEUM
When you enter the museum, you go up to the front counter and exchange your confirmation for tickets in the form of Peanuts comic strips and you’re let into a waiting room with tons of Peanuts strips and the iconic Snoopy on the doghouse on display.
Supposedly there are timed entries where only a certain amount of people are allowed in during each time slot but you can stay as long as you like. It was not very obvious while we were there but perhaps it was a slow day for them. However, the time slots are as follows:
- From 10:00 to 11:30
- From 12:00 to 13:30
- From 14:00 to 15:30
- From 16:00 to 17:30
- From 18:00 to 19:30
Eventually, a worker will let you into a small room and play a short clip with all the Peanuts characters (standing only) and then you’ll be released into the rest of the museum. Now this is where I was surprised. I’m not sure why but I assumed the museum would be a collection of Snoopy figurines, art, etc. similar to the Ghibli Museum but in actuality it’s really a museum of the comic strips.
Basically, they have enlarged comic strips on the walls in sections with Japanese translations underneath. So when you walk through, you’re reading all the comic strips. This was really unexpected for us. In the beginning, we were reading some of the strips but we would also be going through them a lot faster, probably because we were reading the enlarged strips directly while most of the Japanese visitors were having to read the translation, look back up at the strip and look back down at the translation. Eventually we just started skipping through. I think we kept expecting more than just the comic strips and there were a few displays at the end that did not just consist of comic strips but it was mostly just the enlarged comic strips.
I think the comic strip exhibits do change on occasion though so you could keep going back to see new exhibits. We were there early March so there was still a romance theme from Valentine’s day.
After all the exhibits, there is of course the Gift Shop. There were tons of Snoopy related items for all the fans out there and even Snoopy branded water bottles. After coming out of the gift shop there is a cafe that had a bit of a line so we decided to skip and instead walked outside where there was a small food truck and grabbed some drinks.
FINAL THOUGHTS
To be honest, I feel like the Snoopy Museum can be skipped or should be somewhere you go if you’ve already been to Tokyo a few times and just want to hit up somewhere new to pass some time. It really is mostly just reading comic strips which you could also do by picking up a Peanuts book at the book store.
Snoopy Museum
Hours: 10 AM to 8 PM (admission until 7:30 PM)
Admission: ¥2,000 on-site or ¥1,800 online with JAPANiCAN (Adults)
Address: Roppongi 5-6-20, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Nearest Station: Roppongi Station or Azabu Juban Station
one trip led to another 