The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, a glass hall on the Odaiba waterfront whose centrepiece is a six-metre LED globe hanging in the atrium, showing live clouds and ocean temperatures drawn from satellites. Miraikan was created in 2001 under astronaut Mamoru Mohri and covers robotics, space, the brain and the climate with hands-on exhibits built for curious adults as much as for children.
Allow three hours. Follow the spiral ramp up around the globe, catch a robot demonstration, then see a planetarium film in the dome. It pairs well with the Gundam statue ten minutes away, and the quiet Aomi waterfront outside is a good spot for a sandwich.
Tips
- The Dome Theater's planetarium shows need a separate timed ticket, best bought on arrival
- Robot demonstrations run on a published schedule and the android exhibits are the ones children remember
- The Geo-Cosmos globe is seen best from the spiral ramp, where you can watch weather patterns play across the Earth