Nintendo Museum in Kyoto to Open in 2024
When you think of Kyoto, you probably think of temples, shrines and bamboo groves. But next year Kyoto will have a very modern attraction — a new Nintendo Museum that's sure to bring in Nintendo fans from all over the world!
The new museum is being constructed at the Nintendo Uji Ogura Plant in Uji, Kyoto prefecture. Nintendo says it will be completed in March 2024. According to Nintendo, a wide variety of products from the company's history will be displayed at the new museum.
Kyoto is the home of the Nintendo company, which started in 1889 as a maker of playing cards.
More famous now for video games, Nintendo still makes both Western-style playing cards and hanafuda cards for traditional Japanese card games. These cards were previously made at the Uji Ogura Plant, where the new museum is being built.
The museum won't be the only site of interest in Kyoto for Nintendo fans.
Nintendo's modern headquarters are still located in Kyoto, and are a seven-minute taxi ride to the south of Kyoto Station. Although casual visitors can't actually go inside this building, some may want to view it from the outside and maybe take a picture.
However, the birthplace of Nintendo is located a 15-minute walk north of Kyoto Station — and you can actually spend the night there.
The original Nintendo building, which was made of wood, was replaced by an elegant art deco building in 1933, which was used as Nintendo's headquarters until 1959. This building remained empty for many years, but was converted into a hotel called Marufukuro in 2022.
Another attraction is the new Nintendo Store that will be opening in Kyoto on October 17 this year. This is the third Nintendo store in Japan after the stores in Tokyo and Osaka, and it will have some exclusive goods that can only be bought in Kyoto.
