Japan and possibly the world's only Unko (poop) museum in Yokohama was awesome and disappointing at the same time. A colorful, interactive and fun spot for kids and adults to see poop in a different light fell short considering the stink (pun intended) the media made about this temporary exhibit. I decided to visit and document my adventure for YouTube.
Located in the Aso building (I'm not making this up) and opened from March, this exhibit which was set to close in July was extended to September because of its popularity. Another similar exhibit is also set to open in August in Odaiba Tokyo. The museum is so popular that tickets need to be reserved in advance and have timed entrances to ensure a steady stream (once again pun intended) through the museum. Entrance is 1700 Yen for adults and 900 for kids which I felt was a bit over priced. And although the museum was separated into three or four different segments, I was able to experience the entire place in around 30 minutes.
In 2014 I visited the Tokyo Toilet Exhibit in Odaiba, which not only had a variety of amazing toilets (diamond and gold plated) but had exhibits of feces and how the body processes foods and how feces travel through the body. It featured a variety of interactive and educational exhibits as well as scientific experiments. The highlight of that exhibit was being able to wear a poop hat and slide down a giant toilet. You can see my video of me doing that here:
So maybe I had giant toilet size hopes for the Unko Museum but was let down by the new exhibit which was smaller than I expected and didn't really have any real museum aspect to it. It was more of a poop playground than a museum. Like a Chuck E. Cheese of poop minus the addictive pizza and sketchy animatronic animals.
Entering of the museum was quite fun though, I must admit. It started with a quick one minute animated video of colorful poop flying all around the place. Then groups of us were led into a room with a row of colorful toilets. We took turns sitting on a toilet and pretending to loosen our bowels. When we stood up there was a colorful poop we could pull out of the toilet with our hands and put on a stick as a souvenir.
Then the doors opened up to a wide play area. The main hall had a giant poop mountain in a plastic ball filled tub like you would find at a McDonald's playland.
Every 20 minutes or so there would be a countdown with music and lights which would end in a giant explosion of plastic poop shaped balls bursting out of the giant poop volcano.
Other features of this museum included the Unstagenic zone which had different backdrops like floating poop, neon poop, pair toilets, poop cake and other cute poop photo friendly displays.
There was the Unteractive area which had a holographic poop game where people could smash colorful turds with their feet. There was a microphone set up where people competed to yell "UNKO" which means poop, the loudest to see who could create the biggest poop. My poop was bigger than the Tokyo Skytree Tower. There were even poop video games where you could kick poop into a soccer net or catch falling poop from the sky with a toilet.
The final section called the UNtelligence section was probably the only thing that was close to being a museum. There were a display of poop related toys, clothing, food, games and dishes from different parts of the world as well as a wall where you could draw your own poop in a toilet. There was also a wall of manga artists, musicians, comedians and other famous Japanese people's renditions of poop art.
Finally, before leaving the museum you received a poop bag to place your poop on a stick and ended up at the very over-priced souvenir shop. There wasn't too much selection at the gift shop and even a simple poop shaped key chain was about 600 Yen.
Overall, the museum was awesome because just the concept of having a place where kids can go and have fun and play and interact with poop sounds unheard of. But considering the price, the size of the place and the fact there is not much educational value that comes with this "museum" it makes me hesitate to call it a worthwhile visit for anyone over the age eight.
But if you are looking to take your kids to a fun and interactive playground on a rainy day then this might be an option. Or if you are just pooped (my final pun) from sightseeing and the summer heat and looking to relax in an air conditioned playground watching your kids, than the Yokohama or Tokyo Unko Museums might be something to add to your to do list.
Here is the website in English where you can buy tickets or learn more about the museum.
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