- Hakone’s Venetian Glass Museum – The Biggest Surprise in Town - 19 March 2026
- How to Fill in Your Visit Japan Web Arrival Documents for Japan - 18 March 2026
- The Beginners Guide to Getting on the Shinkansen - 16 March 2026
Also known as a Poop Museum, is Tokyo’s Unko Museum worth spending time in for your trip? Well, it’s not educational, and it’s not historic, but it could brighten up your social media and allow you to see a different side to the Japanese people. Here’s what you’ll find inside.
Any mistaken beliefs you had about the Japanese being an uptight race will disappear within five minutes of entering the Unko Museum in Tokyo’s Odaiba.
The first room sees you confronted with a row of brightly coloured toilets – but this is not one of those art displays you cannot touch.
Instead, you must sit on the toilet and mime producing your own coloured poop – with bonus points for noises! There’s no getting out of it, as there’s a colon-cleansing cheerleader there helping you along – and the three Japanese ladies in the twinsets who have arrived with me are throwing themselves into the task with gusto.
This sets the tone for what you’re about to experience for the next half an hour – a lot of brightly coloured plastic, things shaped like poop and laughing Japanese people!
Unlike Tasmania’s Pooseum, there is no real poop involved in this experience – instead, you’re entering a world of Max Unko Kawaii – cute poop – and what this means is that you’re about to enter a world where the poop emoji has come to life, but has turned brightly coloured or glowing, and at one point becomes adorably furry with a moving tail.
If you are going to Japan for the culture and spirituality, stop reading now, this is not your happy place! But, if you’re here for the slightly bonkers side of things, welcome home!
And you won’t be alone -1.6 million people have visited the Unko Museum since it opened in 2019.
What’s In The Museum?
There are 12 ‘exhibits’ overall in the poop museum, starting with the aforementioned poop maker, which provides you with a pastel coloured poop that you get to carry around on a stick for the rest of your visit and then find space for in your luggage as you’ve become weirdly attached to it.
There are seven main areas, including a ‘sh*tty games arcade’ (their words, not mine), where all the games are poo-themed, although forget learning anything about the workings of the digestive system, instead you’ll do things like try and catch falling poops – something it turns out that I am really bad at.
There’s also an interactive games arcade where you attempt to squish cartoon poops with your feet.
The place was made for Instagram! Every room is also full of fun photo opportunities – and I haven’t shown you everything in the pictures.
And while kids will love it, many of the people in here with me are grown adults also having a whale of a time – and once you get into the room where you must shout ‘unko,’ the grown-ups are potentially louder than the kids.
Sometimes it’s impossible to work out what’s going on without help – I mean, look at this? Is it a nurse, offering me a free colonoscopy, or some kind of dung-nanny – have I found Mary Poopins?
Actually, it’s a sales assistant in the Caca convenience store stocked with tasty-sounding items like Unko Potato Chips and Cookies and Uncola!
The same character appears later too – their name is Unberto and apparently, they are the guardian angel of the Unko Museum! By this point in the proceedings, that seems to make perfect sense which says a lot about the rest of what’s going on in here.
If you didn’t get tickets to teamLab Borderless, don’t worry, your friends might not notice the difference between their intricate art display and this room of glowing poos!
My Verdict
You need to enter the Poop Museum with your sense of humour and inner child firmly intact.
Kids will love it, I thought it was fun, but I am a giant child. However, not only did I have fun with the exhibits, I also really enjoyed watching the other people in there having the best time.
It did take quite a lot of willpower not to purchase an Unko Doubutsu, though.
Apparently, these are poop animals that are not normally visible to the naked eye – yet they have managed to capture and keep them here.
Since I visited, they have now made these mobile, and they race each other – which is frankly all the excuse I need to go back!
I’d love to have been in the planning meeting for this place. There’s no deep meaning for it, you’re not going to learn anything useful – except the Japanese work for poo – it’s just here for you to have fun and laugh. And I’m okay with that.
I do admit, it’s not the cheapest experience, especially as it is quite small. But, if you have kids, it could be the mental refresh they need to spend another day seeing Tokyo’s more serious sights – or before or after a trip to Kyoto.
Where is the Unko Museum?
You’ll find the Unko Museum on the ground floor of Diver City Mall in Odaiba.
To get here, connect to either the Yurikamome Line and get off at Daiba Station or take the Rinkai Line and disembark at Tokyo Teleport.
There is also a branch in Nagoya if that fits your plans better.
Save Money with Klook & Japlanease
If you plan on buying tickets or tours from Klook for when you’re in Japan, you could save up to 10 per cent by using the code JAPLANEASEKLOOK at the checkout. Click here to see what’s on offer.
T&Cs apply. Some items, including Tokyo Disney and USJ tickets, are not available for discounts.
Costs and Opening Hours
Ticket prices vary depending on the day you want to visit. Under 4s go free.
| Adults | Junior | Children | |
| Weekdays | 2,000 yen | 1,500 yen | 1,100 yen |
| Weekends | 2,200 yen | 1,500 yen | 1,100 yen |
| Holidays | 2,400 yen | 1,600 yen | 1,200 yen |
It’s open 10 am to 9 pm at weekends and holidays, 11 am to 8 pm in the week.
You can book in advance, and select a timed entry ticket.
I went on a weekday morning, and it wasn’t crowded at all, but according to Google crowd data, it gets busier from around noon.
Same-day tickets can be available at the door, but it does get busy at weekends and, as it’s quite small, numbers are limited, so I would book at a weekend, especially for sessions after lunch, just in case.
You won’t need more than about half an hour here, unless you want to play all of the games, in which case allow a bit more time for playing and waiting your turn. The Museum say most people spend around an hour here.
Is It Accessible?
The venue says yes. It is all on one level, although I think one or two exhibits might be a bit hard to navigate for wheelchair users.
Can You Visit Solo?
I did. There are plenty of options for selfies and the staff will take pictures of you if you ask.
To be honest, I’m not sure if the first poop-producing experience is better done with friends or with the blissful anonymity that comes from travelling solo!
What Else is Nearby?
Odaiba is full of things to do for kids and adults. Diver Mall is full of shops if anyone needs retail therapy, and the giant Gundam is located just outside.
The fantastic Small Worlds Tokyo is a short trip on the monorail away, and if you do want to have some kind of educational experience while you’re here, the Miraikan science museum is also close.
You can also combine the Unko Museum with visiting teamLab Planets (which will completely overload your phone battery for the day) or the restaurants at Toyosu.
Who Writes This Blog?
My name is Helen Foster, and I’m a journalist and author. My travel articles have appeared in publications including The Australian, Escape, RAC Horizons, Jetstar Magazine, Sainsbury’s Magazine, and more.
I’ve traveled to Japan eight times before – solo and with my partner and visited over 25 towns and cities. My last visit was November 2024 so, everything here is pretty up to date.
