If you’re looking for an unforgettable only-in-Japan experience that most people who come to Japan have never heard of, get thee to the Tokyo Trick Art Museum! Not only will you go home with the most excellent vacation snaps ever, I guarantee you’ll have tons of fun doing it.
This is the best place to get the most killer profile pix ever! The Tokyo Trick Art Museum is truly only-in-Japan, in every way. There are 54 life-sized illusions that are so meticulously painted, everyone does a double take the first time they see those pictures of you performing a death-defying feat, and many scenes have excellently Japanese themes.
They change the artworks every six months, so my friend and fellow author Susan Spann and I went back last week to check out the latest rotation. Here we are in the lobby, enjoying a sit-down under a parasol and drinking tea with a couple of traditional characters…or are we?
Everything but us—including the bench—is actually painted on the wall behind!
As we venture into the museum, you can see how each “exhibit” is one fun illusion after another, painted on the walls and floors for maximum 3-D effect…
so when you line things up right in your camera, it looks like I took tiger riding lessons from a beast that’s stepping right off a famous Japanese screen!
You can scare the pants off of other famous Japanese artworks…
or battle demons…
make clueless tourist mistakes…
come face to face with ninjas…
who pop out when you least expect it…
and ambush unwary visitors at every turn!
In addition to being menaced by exotic Japanese ghosts…
you can be trapped by vampires…
do shots with a demon…
test your balance on a pickle barrel…
and get caught in a typhoon.
Hey, wait a minute, how did you get that one without using Photoshop or AI?
You’ll laugh when you see it…
because it’s diabolically simple! My gravity-defying escape from the trained assassins in the first photo turns out not to be so gravity-defying after all. The illusion is painted upside-down, so the “ceiling” is actually the museum floor. All you have to do is lie down and pose with your hands and feet clutching a couple of painted toeholds…
then flip the photo 180° after you snap it!
And how did I know what to do the first time I went there? Every illusion has a little photo on the wall next to it, demonstrating an excellent pose you can try yourself.
But you don’t have to do it their way…
Bet you can think of plenty more ways to meet a shark-infested end!
Most of the illusions are tromp l’oeil-style paintings, but there are a few that rely on other tricks. The old head-in-a-box magician’s trick, for example, relies on good old-fashioned smoke and mirrors…
and some that seem to rely on mirrors are (naturally) a trick, and are actually designed for you and a friend.
Note: Don’t get too attached to any of the scenes in this post, because they switch up the artworks every six months and by the time you go, there will be new (and better!) ones. Every time I’ve gone, they always have the “mirror room,” the shark, the vampire with the wine glass, and the head-in-a-box, but the others come and go.
Also, if you get stuck for ideas or you’re there solo, there’s plenty of staff around to help you pose or take that snap from the best position!
Can’t I just make pictures like this with AI now?
Yeah. You could. But where’s the fun in that? Because even though this place delivers laugh-inspiring posts that get more likes than that photo everyone takes at the Shibuya Scramble, it’s the experience of trying to think of outrageous ways to pose and seeing the resulting snaps in real life that makes great memories.
Tokyo Trick Art Museum
Open: Every day
Hours: 11:00 – 21:00
Admission: Adults ¥1200, Children ¥800
MAP
It’s on the 4th floor of the DECKS mall, next to Odaiba Kaihin-koen Station
FYI: The Trick Art Museum is in Odaiba, home of TeamLab Planets, the Small Worlds Miniature Museum and plenty of others—basically the greatest concentration of only-in-Japan experiences in Tokyo!
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And here are the other places I take my friends when they come to town
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly e-magazine Japanagram, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
Jonelle Patrick writes about Japan 