Are you looking for activities to do in Tokyo for free with your kids? A cool place we went to is the TokyoFire Museum, located in the Shinjuku ward. There are fire engines, trucks and helicopters you can go into. You can also learn about the fire disaster prevention, and the history of fire fighting in Japan.
The museum is connected to Yotsuya-Sanchome Station Exit 2 on the Marunouchi Line (which is the red underground line). Just type in “Tokyo Fire Museum” on Google Maps and you will find it.
It is open from 9:30 to 5pm and closed on most Mondays and some other days in the year so make sure you check the website before going.
It is absolutely free (yay!), and there is no need for a reservation (double yay!).
Check out my video at the fire museum:
We went on a Sunday around 9:40am and there weren’t many people. We spent about an hour and a half totally. By the time we left, it started getting pretty crowded so I would either go early or later on in the afternoon to avoid crowds (especially getting into the helicopter and doing the interactive activities which I’ll talk about later in the post).
Overall, my two year old son had a great time running around and looking at the big firetrucks and helicopters. I will say it was difficult for us, the adults, to actually read about the history and look at the details in the museum (well, anything is difficult to do with a two year old), but I still had a good time, and our main purpose for going was for my son so I was okay with that!
Floor Guide
The friendly staff recommend going from the 6th floor down. The 6th floor has special exhibitions which change frequently. You can check the website for what displays they have when you go.
Since it was still pretty empty when we arrived, we went straight to the 5th floor where you can go inside a helicopter out on the terrace. It was a very cool experience – although my son who just turned two years old was a little bit scared to go inside but he definitely enjoyed looking at it! This floor introduces fire extinguishing in the Edo period. And you can see how the people lived during that time.
The 4th floor had displays of the development of firefighting equipment, which looked quite cool, and my son had a great time zooming through this floor.
The 3rd floor was another favorite of ours, wherethey had a storytelling section and you can also go into a firetruck and another helicopter cockpit. We were also able to do an interactive activity of driving a firetruck to a fire location and putting out the fire. It was too difficult for my two year old son, but other kidswere having a blast. We did not need to queue too long, but I can imagine you would need to wait a long time when crowded.
The 2nd floor is not open to the public – it is the office of the fire station.
The 1st floor is where we entered from, and there is a huge helicopter on display. The bathrooms are also here.
Lastly, we wentto the B1 floor where there were displays of real life firetrucks from many years ago, and you can see how much they have changed over the years. There is also a small souvenir shop.
There are a few other floors in the building. We used the 10th floor which had a lounge with a nice view. You can buy some drinks at the vending machine. However you are not allowed to eat. Japan has many rules like that! Not sure if it’s because of Covid, or if the rule was in place from before. I used the nursing room for feeding my 4 month old. All you need to do is to change the wooden plaque to “occupied”, close the curtain and enjoy breastfeeding your baby in a private comfortable room. The chair was so soft!
Conclusion
Overall, it was fun for my kids, and free on top of that so will most likely visit again!