Railway Museum (鉄道博物館, Tetsudō Hakubutsukan)
If you're like me, you may have an image of trains being a legacy of the industrial revolution chugging freight across country but that utilitarian image is naive or at least incomplete. Modern train and subway technology rivals aeronautics and the history of these marvels of engineering is almost romantic. The Railway Museum (鉄道博物館, Tetsudō Hakubutsukan) has done an incredible job of showcasing the progress from the first steam locomotives in the late Edo period to the recent E6 shinkansen since it's opening in 2007. The museum is located in Omiya, Saitama the city North of Tokyo about an hour away from central Tokyo. From Omiya station there's a "new shuttle" line which takes you directly to the Museum station. British-built locomotive #1 from 1871. I wonder how hard it must have been to save all these trains from being turned into ships and planes for the war. In front of most exhibits are explanations in Japanese b...