The most time saving way to get to know the history of the country you are staying in for a short while, to learn better its culture and its life style is, of course, to visit a few museums.

Tokyo is one of the most important culture centers of the world. The city is abundant in state, municipal and other museums, one of which is Japan?s biggest and most ancient museum, as well as over 400 picture galleries. You can find a list of the most well known Tokyo museums worth visiting below:

? Tokyo National Museum
? National Museum of Western Art
? Edo-Tokyo Museum
? Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum
? Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum
? Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in Kiba
? Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
? Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Ebisu Garden Place
? Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space
? Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
? Kokugikan Sumo Museum
? Fukagawa-Edo Museum in Koto Ward
? Japanese Sword Museum
? Tokyo Opera City
? Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills
? Museum of the Imperial Collections
? Gotoh Museum
? Shitamachi Museum
? Tokyo Naval Science Museum

Each of the above listed museums offers its unique approach to Japanese historical past and cultural heritage. Let?s pay some more attention to the three most interesting Tokyo museums..

Tokyo National Museum, established in 1872, also known as TNM, is certainly the oldest and the biggest and the most comprehensive museum all around Japan. It occupies a vast building in the middle of Ueno Park in the central Tokyo. The museum displays various precious pieces of art from ancient Asia, architecture exhibits. As of July, 2005 Tokyo National Museum possesses 110,000 exhibits, 87 of which are Japanese National Treasure objects and 610 objects are pieces of Important Cultural Objects.

National Museum of Western Art (NMWA) accommodates a vast number of art works by European artists. Its collection is unique and inimitable. NMWA is a public art gallery by its nature. Like Tokyo National Museum, NMWA is located Taito-ku district of Tokyo in a museum and zoo complex.
 
The famous Rodin?s Thinker sculpture is set by the gateway to the museum. The main building is divided into sections which display different schools of art. The museum collects, houses and preserves paintings by Veronese, Rubens and Fragonard, the celebrated XVIII century artists, a great variety of paintings by XIX and XX century artists like Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Moreau. The museum also features some works by the next generation of paiters, Marquet, Picasso, Soutin, Ernst, Miro, Dubuffet and Pollock are among them.

The next of the museums worth mentioning is Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum. As is seen from the title of it, Edo-Tokyo displays architectural objects of historical and cultural interest. The museum is located in Koganei locality of Tokyo. A famous Japanese anime director, Hayao Miyazaki, used to seek for inspiration in this place while working on his world known cartoon Spirited Away.