Mechanical Pencil Museum

I love this story.  This university student has turned his passion since childhood into a museum so he can share this interest with others.

Since he was a young elementary school student, Kengo Hirose asked his father to take him to stationery stores. Kengo was fascinated by mechanical pencils. He is now 20 years old and a university student, majoring in architecture.  And, he still loves mechanical pencils. 

In June, he opened the Museum of Mechanical Pencils in Kyoto’s Nakagyo Ward. He has thousands mechanical pencils from Japan and abroad, many of them from the 1980’s, and no longer being made. Visitors are allowed to try out many of the pencils and he also has some pencils for sale. The museum is open from 1 pm to 7 pm on Sundays, with reservations in advance. Visit https://hiroseteppitudo.stores.jp/reserve/kyoto-512 

(Text in Japanese only) for reservations.

The Great Wave

I went to this exhibit at the Atami Museum of Art - “Hokusai Manga, The Great Wave and the Digital”. The museum building is built into the side of the mountain, so you have to go up multiple escalators. Midway up is a ceiling with constantly changing colors and a hexagon floor.

The exhibit was very large. Here are some of my favorites.

This is one of my current cross stitch projects - The Great Wave.

One room had two walls with changing projection pictures. It was really well done.

The next area had huge wall size pictures.

This was a fantastic exhibition. I’m so glad I was able to see it!

I am really fortunate to have so many great museums nearby.

Museum Exhibits for Visually Impaired

I have been impressed by accommodations for visually impaired people in Japan. The yellow tactile blocks, or Tenji Blocks, make it more easy to safely move around.

I see Braille signage at many places in Japan.

Now, museums in Japan starting to cater to the needs of visually impaired visitors.

The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo has started offering tours that allow visually impaired visitors to touch scale models and replicas of the original exhibits. A “Science Communicator” takes the tour participants around the museum for about two hours. 

According to the Japanese Association of Museums, exhibits at museums that cater to the visually impaired have increased in the last two or three decades, but experts say museums abroad do more. Today, more and more people are thinking of creative ways for museums to be more inclusive. Good news, in my opinion!

Suehiro, Port Sailors’ Lodge Museum

This is a free two story historical museum. I had visited once a long time ago and little had changed. It’s an interesting place.

Jirocho Shimizu (1820-1893) was well known in this area during his lifetime. He is said to have opened Japan's first English school in 1874. This museum is a restored version of the seamen's inn that Jirocho Shimizu opened in 1886.

The eyes never stop looking at you.

The old wood carvings are gorgeous.

On the second floor is the English school.

Nara Prison Hotel

I first posted about this prison to hotel project here in 2022. At that time, it was anticipated that the hotel would open in 2024, but due to an earthquake-resistance assessment, it was delayed. The end of June 2026, it opened for business.

The prison was one of five built by the government during the Meiji Era (1868-1912), showcasing modern prison facilities in Japan. It later became a juvenile prison, closing in 2017 because the aging facilities.

Hoshino Resorts, Inc. now runs the property as a luxury hotel, with 48 suites, which were created by combining former cells. The property is turning the prison into a tourist attraction. The site is near Nara Park, known for landmarks such as the Todai-ji temple complex and its free-roaming deer. 

A one night stay starts at 147,000 yen per suite room, which includes visiting the Nara Prison Museum. The hotel aims for an 80 per cent occupancy rate within three years. 

I would like to stay at this hotel, but it is a little out of my price range. Maybe I could just visit the museum.

Shizuoka Prefectural Archeological Center

The location of this museum is a 30 minute walk from Kambara Station in Shizuoka Prefecture. The building is a former school and is open Monday - Friday 9:30 - 4:30 and the third Saturday. When we arrived, my friend and I were given a scavenger hunt type paper where we could find the picture item and write the number of its location. (We each won a prize at the end for finding all of the artifacts.)

As we were looking at the exhibits, we were invited to join three other visitors for a tour of the whole facility. I felt very lucky to see what was behind the scenes.

We were first led to a large room containing documentation of everything in the most minute detail. I think this man is the museum director, or maybe the supervisor of the collections.

After that, we visited artifact workshop rooms.

I wasn’t good at keeping up with pictures of everything on our fast paced tour. There were rooms and rooms full of carefully packed items and specialized rooms for photography and documenting. Oversized items had special places, smaller items were packed in storage boxes.

Several gymnasiums were also used as storage areas. It is amazing how much there is, all labeled.

This place is amazing, and the behind the scenes tour was icing on the cake! And, it’s free.