Meiji Mura (Meiji Village)
| The Good | The Not-So Good |
| A lot to see and do | It’s a museum, basically |
| Interactive experiences for kids | It’s in Nagoya |
One of the special things about Japan is its long and troubled history, a turning point being the forced opening to foreign trade and influence by the USA that triggered the Meiji Restoration, a time of rapid westernization of Japan. The Meiji Village succeeds in creating an expansive open-air museum with reconstructions (in some cases shipped brick by brick from the original location) of many iconic buildings from that period.
The museum area is huge, with a number of period transport links (a stream trains and street car) as well as activities such as archery and old-style photo shoot complete with period costumes. There is an audio guide available, which is a must (not free thou). The English information site is either here or here (they seem to use a tourist information site for central Japan as their “English Homepage”).
Steam train only runs on weekends
Be careful if you want to ride the train. It only runs weekends. Also, buses arrive at the main gate only; the north gate is only for cars. So if you plan to ride the stream train, walk back via area 5 on the map below (i.e. don’t go to area 5 until you’ve ridden the stream train).
Map of the Meiji Village
You will enter from the main entrance in the south as this is where public transport arrives. The full course is a couple of kilometers in total however there is a bus that runs the length of the park as well as the “ride” transport.
Access to Meiji Village
The village has no train station so a bus is required from either Nagoya Station (Meitetsu bus station) or Inuyama Station. There are a series of special passes available that allow for unlimited travel on the Meitetsu trains and buses (the local company) and entrance to Inuyama Castle or Meiji Village. However, the shear number of pass options makes it quite difficult to figure out what is best.
Entrance to Meiji Village is ¥1,700 (adult) and the bus direct from Nagoya is ¥960 one-way (not included in the special passes). A special pass for Meiji Village is ¥3,800 (‘Meiji Village Time Trip Ticket‘) includes travel from Nagoya Station but requires you to travel by train to Inuyama Station and then get a bus to Meiji Village. The problem here is that this pass is a one-day pass and doesn’t include the Inuyama Castle entrance fee (there is a separate ‘Inuyama Castle Town Ticket‘ that also includes the train fair to Inuyama Station). If you get both passes, you double up on the train fair. There doesn’t seem to be a combined pass.
Therefore, your best bet is to set out early and buy the ‘Meiji Village Time Trip Ticket‘, walk around Inuyama area in the morning and then head over to Meiji Village in the afternoon. The discount ticket will cover all travel from Nagoya Station on the Meitetsu line to Inuyama Station and then onto Meiji Village (and all the way back again), including entrance fee to Meiji Village. If you are going to stay overnight in Inuyama, then don’t bother with the special passes. As it happens, Nagoya is a fairly ordinary city so staying in the more atmospheric Inuyama district is recommended.
Here is the translated timetable for the Inuyama Station -> Meiji Village bus. They don’t seem to provide one in English. Also, do check out the Google Maps 3D view for the area as it is quite impressive and shows off the amount of effort that went into creating the park.
Also don’t forget to try out baking your own rice crackers in the traditional style.
