Two Quiet Tokyo Museums for a Wet Afternoon

Tokyo’s famous rainy-day options are busy precisely when it rains. Every timed-entry attraction fills, every big museum queues, and the shelter-seeking crowd arrives at the same time you do.

These two don’t do that. The Nezu Museum in Omotesando and the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum in Shirokanedai are both calm, handsome, and reliably uncrowded — and both are a short walk from a station.

They also share a trap that rainy-day lists never mention, so we’ll deal with that first.

The catch: both are famous for gardens, and gardens are outdoors

Search either museum and you’ll find photographs of the garden. The Nezu’s is one of the most admired in central Tokyo; the Teien’s belongs to a former imperial residence.

Both gardens are entirely outdoors. If you go on a wet day expecting the thing the photographs sold you, you’ll be disappointed.

That doesn’t make them bad wet-weather choices — the galleries are indoors and substantial. It means you should go for the interiors, and treat the garden as a bonus if the rain lifts. Plan it that way and neither will let you down.

The Nezu Museum, Omotesando

What’s inside. A serious collection: more than 7,600 objects, including seven National Treasures, 93 Important Cultural Properties and 95 Important Art Objects. It spans calligraphy, painting, sculpture, metalwork, ceramics, lacquer, wood and bamboo, textiles, archaeological artefacts and mirrors, arms and armour.

Those designation numbers are the point. Seven National Treasures in a privately founded museum is remarkable — this is not a minor collection housed somewhere pretty.

Getting there. 6-5-1 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku.

• Omotesando Station, Exit A5 — 8 minutes on foot (Ginza, Hanzomon and Chiyoda lines).
• Exit B3 has a lift, and is 10 minutes.

Hours. 10:00–17:00, with entrance closing at 16:30.

Closed Mondays — opening instead if the Monday is a public holiday and closing the Tuesday — plus exhibition changeover periods and the New Year holidays.

Tickets. Timed, dated, bought online:

Two rules to know. Photography and phone calls are not allowed in the galleries. And the garden, museum shop and NEZUCAFÉ are for admitted visitors only — you can’t drop in for the café without a ticket. The teahouses in the garden are open only to people attending tea gatherings.

The Teien Art Museum, Shirokanedai

What’s inside. The building is the star. It’s the former residence of Prince Asaka, and the interiors are the reason to come — one of the few places in Tokyo where the architecture is as much the exhibit as whatever is hanging in it. Exhibitions rotate through the rooms.

Getting there. 5-21-9 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku.

• Meguro Station, East Exit (JR Yamanote Line) — 7 minutes on foot.
• Shirokanedai Station, Exit 1 (Toei Mita Line) — 6 minutes.

Hours. 10:00–18:00, last admission 17:30 — an hour later than the Nezu, which matters if you’re fitting this into the end of a day. The garden keeps the same hours.

Closed Mondays, opening instead if the Monday is a holiday and closing the following day, plus the New Year period.

Tickets (for the exhibition running at the time of writing):

Advance online purchase is requested for exhibition tickets — same-day tickets exist but are limited in number. The garden-only ticket needs no reservation and can be bought at the ticket office.

That ¥200 garden ticket is worth knowing about even on a wet day: if the shower passes and you happen to be nearby with half an hour, it’s the cheapest way onto the grounds of a former imperial residence.

Which one to choose

Pick the Nezu if you want the art itself. The collection is deeper and the designated works are genuinely significant. It also pairs better with a wet afternoon in Omotesando or Aoyama, where the covered shopping is.

Pick the Teien if you want the building, or if you’re running late — the extra hour, with last admission at 17:30, gives you room the Nezu doesn’t. It’s also the cheaper of the two.

Do both only if you have a full day. They’re close by Tokyo standards but sit in opposite directions from most itineraries, and each deserves 90 minutes.

Do neither on a Monday. Both close, along with the Tokyo National Museum. A rainy Monday needs a different plan.

One caveat on prices

Both museums price by exhibition, so the figures above are current rather than permanent — the Teien’s in particular are tied to the show running when we checked. Confirm on the day you book, and expect special exhibitions to cost more than collection displays.

Before you go

• Not a Monday.
• Book the Nezu’s timed ticket online; it’s the only route.
• Buy the Teien’s exhibition ticket in advance if you can.
• Go for the interiors, and treat the gardens as a bonus.
• Nezu closes admission at 16:30; the Teien at 17:30. Late in the day, that hour decides it.

For a full wet-weather day, see our rainy-day Tokyo itinerary.