Tokyo Trick Art Museum

Ninja Angelo protecting his ninja house

We visited the Tokyo Trick Art Museum in September 2016. It cost JP¥ 900 for adults and JP¥ 600 for kids between 4 and 15. It’s located in Odaiba, which is a bit far to get to from Tokyo, but it’s such a beautiful place, I think it’s worth visiting anyway.

João also wrote a post about it, and you can read it here!

José ‘sitting’ where he wasn’t welcome

It was our first contact with trick art and we actually didn’t know what to expect. All we knew was that we’d see some paintings and drawings that looked 3D when seen from the right angle.

We had a lot of trouble trying to buy our tickets, but someone from the staff came around and helped us to buy our tickets and were guided to the entrance. There, a guide spoke in English with us. She showed us how the museum worked and left us free to roam.

Caught by a vampire….

She first showed us the lady at the entrance, which, looking from the line where we were, had a super long arm, short legs and was a bit chubby but looking from the other side of the room, was a completely regular lady.

There was a painting of some buildings and they ‘moved’ according to our perspective. It was pretty cool.

Feeding the giraffe, so much fun!

We were pretty amazed at the first room of the Museum but it was just the beginning.

Even though it isn’t a big place, we were able to spend 3~4 hours inside it. It has different rooms, like the Strange Tearoom, the NOT Scary Haunted Mansion, Edo Sumo, Edo Town, Ninja House, the Trick Art Gallery, the puzzle Area and the shop.

Hungry penguins….

We were expecting not being able to see the magic in some places, but they were all pretty perfect when you found the right spot. Some of them changed according to your viewing position, my kids were pretty amazed. Some of the photos needed to be rotated to show the magic and some of them were a bit of a mystery to us at the time and we only found out how it worked after we left.

* there are photo guides showing how you’re supposed to pose, rotate the photo and position the camera, but we didn’t read them all because we didn’t want to lose precious time. Silly.

DID YOU BREAK IT? – nah, it’s just trick art

Even though we aren’t really good actors, we were able to take some really cool photos, as you can see the post. All of the photos were taken with my phone because we forgot to charge the camera. I know, stupid. At least we didn’t forget any of the kids. And we had a phone working.

It was pretty fun piggybacking a polar bear cub and a koala, feeding a giraffe, sumo fighting, fighting ninjas, drinking with monsters, and being caught by a vampire.

We posted some of the photos on Instagram and Facebook and people thought they were real.

João becoming the meal of a Japanese monster….

Some of the paintings were a bit too old, and there are marks of where people keep touching, but most of the place was immaculate.

Even the shop had some trick art and it was pretty fun to see everyone being tricked.

We had a bit of trouble in some of the rooms, as they were a bit too small and we needed to wait for people to leave before entering, which took a long time. I don’t know if it’s the Japanese way of doing it, but they take one photo, go check it. Take another photo, check again. And repeat until the photo’s good enough. We usually go on, take around 10 photos continuously, give the space to other people while we check and if needed, take some more photos afterward. I think it’s faster but I’m probably the only one as we had the same problem EVERYWHERE we went in Japan.

After we left Japan, we found out that there is another Trick Art Museum in Tokyo. It was so much fun we’d consider going too!

Sumo room, see how big Coral (4) is!

Do you know any other Trick Art Museums worth visiting around the world?