* This information is current as of April 2024.
* Access to the Tokyo National Museum may be difficult for visually impaired individuals because it requires a walk through Ueno Park, which is very large. Visually impaired individuals visiting alone are encouraged to seek assistance at the park’s Information Center. Wheelchairs are available at the Ueno Park Administration Office, which is located a little far from JR Ueno Station and near the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan.
Exit from the Park Exit of JR Ueno Station, which tends to be crowded particularly on weekends. With your back to the station, the Tokyo National Museum will be roughly in the 2 o'clock direction. After exiting the ticket gate, go straight ahead and there will be tactile paving, which splits into three. Straight ahead is the path to the museum, and to the left is an information map of the park. After about 60 meters, the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan will be on your left and Ueno Park’s Information Center on your right, and that is where the tactile paving ends. On your right, past the Information Center, there stands the National Museum of Western Art.
After passing the museum, you will arrive at a small intersection paved with rough tiles. This intersection is reserved for pedestrians but vehicles with special permission occasionally pass through. Take a right at this intersection and proceed forward, passing the National Museum of Western Art on your right. Next to this museum is the National Museum of Nature and Science. The entrance to this museum will be on your right as you proceed down this path. It is recommended that you walk on the left-hand side of this path to avoid the crowds around the entrance.
After walking approximately 200 meters from the intersection, you may hear the sound of traffic. There will be a road ahead, running perpendicular to your path. A short distance before this road will be a row of thigh-high poles for keeping vehicles from entering the park. After proceeding forward and carefully passing in between these poles, the ground will change to asphalt. Take a left (there is tactile paving on your left, where you enter the sidewalk) and walk straight ahead for about 80 meters down the sidewalk until you reach tactile paving indicating a crosswalk, which will be to your right. Wait for the sound indicating that pedestrians may cross. When the timing comes cross the road to the other side.
On the other side of the road, you will first walk over a very shallow ditch running in between the road and the sidewalk. Over the shallow ditch, there are a number of thigh-high metal poles and uniquely shaped barriers along the ditch, so be careful not to bump into them. After passing in between these poles and barriers, you will be in front of the Main Gate of the Tokyo National Museum.
There is an information booth straight ahead, with the entrance to the Museum beside it. There is a museum shop to the right and ticket booths behind the shop to the right of the entrance. This area as a whole is called the Main Gate Plaza. To get to the ticket booths, you can either go through the museum shop or go around the shop and directly towards them.
Go rightward along the metal poles and barriers and proceed to the last and rightmost one, by which there is tactile paving. Following this paving, walk straight ahead and turn right, and you are in front of the museum shop. Its entrance has automatic doors with “push-to-open activation buttons.” After going through the automatic doors, on the wall directly ahead of you there is a tactile map of the Main Gate Plaza showing the museum shop, ticket booths, restrooms, etc. From there, through the museum shop, you can go to the ticket booths. The other way to get to the ticket booths does not require you to go inside the museum shop; follow the tactile paving and keep going forward past the turning point of the paving without turning right to face the museum shop, and you will reach the entrance to the museum grounds, with the ticket booths next to it on the right. Male staff are always present near the ticket booths during opening hours. Please do not hesitate to ask for assistance. You and one accompanying individual will receive free admission when you present an identification noting your disability at a ticket booth. You may be required to purchase tickets here, depending on your circumstances.
After you go through the entrance, you can borrow a wheelchair. After getting out of the building of the museum entrance, go leftward for about 5 meters, and then turn to your right. Straight ahead, about 80 meters from where you are, is the Japanese Gallery, called Honkan, which is the main building of the Museum. There is a large pond surrounded by a curbed lawn between where you are and the Japanese Gallery. Proceed around the pond, either to the right or left, towards the Japanese Gallery.
At the front entrance of the Japanese Gallery, you would need to climb one low step followed by six more, slightly higher steps. There is no tactile paving, but there are slopes on both sides of these steps. After a flat space, there are six more steps to climb. There is no tactile paving, but there is a slope to the left of these steps. Beyond these steps are three automatic doors: large one in the center and two on the sides. There are two more steps to climb beyond these doors, with a slope to the left. Beyond these final steps are another set of three automatic doors: large one in the center and two on the sides.
You will now find yourself in the Entrance Hall of the Japanese Gallery. There is a large staircase in front of you. To the left of this staircase there is an information counter where female staff are always present.
* “Written Instructions for Accessing the Tokyo National Museum from Ueno Station (15-Minute Walk)” was created with reference to “Access Map in Words (in Japanese)” by the Museum Access Group MAR.