Let’s visit a museum together on a day trip from Ookayama Campus to the Ueno museums. And the best thing is, the entrance is free! Through the University Partnership Program, all you need to do is show your Science Tokyo student ID, and you are ready to explore. The museums are large, so you can easily spend the whole day here with your friends. If you have some time to spare, please check them out.
Benefits of being a Science Tokyo student
Being a Science Tokyo student gives us access to many facilities on campus, such as the library and our amazing Taki Plaza. However, did you know that being a student at Science Tokyo also gives you free access and discounts to many places outside the campus too? This can be a great idea if you want to hang out with friends from Science Tokyo or other universities in Tokyo. For a list of all places you can enter for free or at a discount, please visit this link.
Also note that other than the partnership museums mentioned here, there are many others that provide university student discounts. There are many opportunities for you to save money.
Ookayama station to Ueno station: Finding some discounted goods
Our day trip started at Ookayama Station in front of the campus. It takes around 40 minutes to get to our destination, Ueno Station. Most people might know Ueno Station for the lively Ameyoko Market and for the train line connecting to airports. It is a busy location with many shops, restaurants, entertainment complexes, etc. For us, this is a perfect place to use student discounts because of the countless options to choose from. The trick to finding discounts is to look for the word “Gakuwari (学割),” which translates directly as “student discount.” From my experience, the places where you will often find discounts are chain restaurants and karaoke joints. For this day trip, we had lunch at a yakiniku restaurant where we could get a free extra side dish with our student discount.
National Museum of Nature and Science
After getting out of the station, you will need to walk through the beautiful scenery of Ueno Park. This place provides a very refreshing walk even on very hot days. This park is very famous for its cherry blossoms, so if you like beautiful flowers, you could visit it during spring. But keep in mind that it will be crowded with flower lovers from all over the world. After walking past the National Museum of Western Art, we finally arrived at the National Museum of Nature and Science.
At the front of the museum gate, you can see the sign showing the universities participating in the University Partnership Program. You can see the name of Institute of Science Tokyo here along with many other universities.
At the ticket gate, all you need to do is show your ID to the staff. They will check it, and just like that, we get our entry ticket and are ready to enjoy our trip.
After entering the ticket gate, you are free to explore any buildings you want; there is no specific route. However, there are two activities I recommend you try. The first one is Theater 36O. It is easy to get to, as it is only a few meters walk from the ticket gate, so I recommend you check it out after getting your ticket. This theater shows a very interesting 360-degree science movie. The theme changes each month, so you will never get bored even if you have already visited the museum before. And for those who are not very confident with Japanese, the museum also has a convenient translation machine that you can borrow.
Another interesting experience I would like to recommend is the pop-up booth in the museum rooms. There will be an instructor who is very knowledgeable about the topic to give you an interactive lecture. On the day we went, we were very lucky to learn about elephant teeth from a very nice staff member. Although it was a bit hard for me since she was not able to speak English, we could still communicate through easy English and Japanese. It was very surprising to learn that elephants have many sets of teeth, and the way they change between sets is quite different from how human teeth work.
There are still many other activities in the museum you can enjoy, but I don’t want to give too much of a spoiler. However, I can guarantee you that it will be an amazing experience no matter your age or field of study.
Tokyo National Museum
After leaving the National Museum of Nature and Science, it takes only a few minutes to walk to our next destination, Tokyo National Museum. You can take a break strolling in the park, which we did. It was very fun to watch kids running around trying to befriend the pigeons by offering them a stick.
After arriving at the gate, the process is similar to what we did at the previous museum. You just show your ID to the staff at the ticket gate, get the ticket, and get ready to walk inside the museum. For me, the Tokyo National Museum feels like a mix of an indoor and outdoor spaces. The museum itself is very beautiful — both its exterior and interior. There are also many floors in each building, which represent a variety of topics, but the main topic is Japanese history and artifacts. Most of the areas have translations, so you don’t need to worry about not understanding the contents.
Other than culture-related artifacts, there are also many other interesting exhibitions, like the interpretation of dreams and fortune telling in different cultures. Although the main parts of the museum are non-interactive, we got the chance to try fortune telling using goat bones and all got bad luck. Maybe next time I visit the museum, I will pray, try again, and hope to get a better result.
After visiting all the buildings for a few more hours, we decided to call it a day and head back home. But if you still have some energy left, there are many things you can do, like karaoke, that offer student discounts. For us, after walking around the museum, we concluded that we’d had enough fun for the day. It was definitely an enjoyable excursion, and I always look forward to coming back no matter how many times I go.
The benefits of being a Science Tokyo student do not end here
Visiting world-class museums for free is just one of the many benefits of being a Science Tokyo student. You can also access a variety of facilities at little to no cost, such as the gymnasium, swimming pool, and library, as well as enjoy free access to numerous high-quality journal papers and more. For me, these benefits are incredibly useful as a student and make campus life both convenient and memorable, especially since I can spend quality time with friends.
So, if you have a student ID card and a free day with your friends, I hope this becomes one of your choices, as it won’t cost much to visit and you can also learn a lot.
[ Campus Member Programs ] – List of Museums for Science Tokyo students (as of October 2025)
- National Museum of Nature and Science
- Tokyo National Museum
- National Museum of Art
- National Film Archive of Japan (exhibition and some films)
