Tokyo Attractions｜250 million-year-old rare animal specimens get a second life in Japan—JP TOWER Academic and Cultural Comprehensive Museum "INTERMEDIATHEQUE"

#TokyoTravel Attractions: JP TOWER Academic and Cultural Museum "Intermediate" 📍Address: 2-7-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, KITTE 2nd and 3rd floors 🕰️Business hours: 11:00-18:00 (open until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays) 💰Average consumption: Free 💞Recommendation reason: Next to Tokyo Station, the JP Tower Academic and Cultural Museum in Kitte, a shopping mall converted from the old Tokyo Central Post Office Building, is a public facility jointly operated by the University of Tokyo's Research Museum and the Japan Post Office. It displays the academic assets accumulated by the University of Tokyo since its founding in 1877. The museum is located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of KITTE shopping center. There is also a lounge that was converted from the director's office of the old Tokyo Central Post Office. It is also a good place to take panoramic photos of Tokyo Station. Transportation Tips: KITTE Shopping Center is on the left after exiting the Marunouchi South Exit of JR Tokyo Station. The first time I came here was because I was waiting for my number to be called at the Nemuro Hanamaru conveyor belt sushi restaurant. I was walking around and discovered this museum. I can only say that I have been to Japan more than 30 times, and I am still as surprised and moved as Liu Laolao entering the Grand View Garden. There is a free museum in a shopping mall with a strong commercial atmosphere. The permanent exhibition hall displays specimens and materials from various disciplines such as anatomy, archaeology, biology, engineering, geography, geology, mathematics, contemporary art, and paleontology. The huge exhibition area also displays specimens of existing animals and extinct species such as dinosaurs, giraffes, false killer whales and crocodiles. In the windows on both sides, there are a large number of birds, insects and various plants and mineral specimens on display. The permanent exhibition hall "Gime Lume - The Amazing Little Room" is like a scene from Harry Potter, and even the cabinets that display specimens are of great significance. In 2015, the University of Tokyo Museum received six old display cabinets associated with Asian art collector Émile Guimet as a donation from the city of Lyon, France. The large glass cabinet installed in the Guimet Room was custom-made for the Guimet Museum in Lyon more than 100 years ago. It is said that the era of seeing things through glass began with the World Expo. The custom-made cabinets are from the beginning of the "clear glass age" and are built in an Asian style to display East Asian cultural artifacts. That is why it has a special value as a legacy of French "Japonisme". Therefore, the museum also carefully selects specimens of important value and places them in these cabinets. A historic French-made cabinet housing art from Far East Asia, the cabinet has found a second life in Japan as a 21st century display cabinet. At the same time, this is also the educational significance that the museum wants to convey. Museum spaces are places where visitors, especially the younger generation, can experience seeing, discovering, and being surprised with their own eyes, rather than through photos or SNS. This is the goal of the "Intermediatheque". In ancient times, humans discovered the new world by looking and touching. Now, these specimens of art are enjoying a second life. I was deeply moved after watching it and would recommend it to friends traveling to Tokyo.