Love everything dinosaur and traveling to Central Japan? Then Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum (FPDM) in Katsuyama, Fukui Prefecture is a must-visit. The largest dinosaur museum in Japan and one of top three biggest in the world, the museum is also located near to the on-going excavation site. Despite its remote location in a mountainous area, it welcomes around 700,000 visitors annually. Visiting the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum is one of the highlights of our 2017 Japan trip. With a son who thinks paleontologists have the coolest job in the world, it is not difficult to understand why.
Let’s start with a little background on dinosaurs in Fukui. Dinosaur excavation started in Katsuyama in 1989 after a complete crocodile skeleton was unearthed. In the first year of fieldwork, researchers discovered around 300 dinosaurs fossils. Do you know that to-date 5 species of dinosaurs from the early Cretaceous period have been discovered in Fukui? The 5 species are namely, Fukuivenator paradoxus, Koshisaurus katsuyama, Fukuiraptor kitadaniensis, Fukuisaurus tetoriensis and Fukuititan nipponensis, all named after Fukui. The locality of their discovery was designated as one of Japan’s national natural monument on 9th February 2017.
That’s enough information for now so I shan’t bore you with more facts about the dinosaurs. Let’s head on into the museum proper.
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Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum – Exhibition Halls
The museum’s exhibition area spans over 4 floors totalling 4,500 sq.m with an impressive collection of items. Take the escalator downwards and start touring the musuem from the Basement.
At the entrance to the exhibition is Dyno Street. Take a walk through this corridor with fossil specimens displayed on the wall like art pieces. There is no physical barrier installed between these fossils and visitors. I can’t help being amazed at how they trust their visitors to be disciplined enough not to cause any damage. At the end of Dyno Street, the fossil remains of a Camarasaurus discovered in the state of Wyoming, USA, is displayed.
The exhibition hall is divided into 3 zones: “The World of Dinosaurs”, “Science of the Earth” and “History of Life”. Once we enter the hall, we were greeted by a roaring robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex (or more commonly known as T-Rex), that looks really life-like. DL was kind of scared of it at first.
In “The World of Dinosaurs”, there are 44 dinosaur skeletons on exhibition, 9 of which are real skeletons!
This is a real set of dinosaur fossils, which is not difficult to spot. The real sets contain irregularly shaped bones, some chipped off or with missing pieces. Notice the small dino figurine below? The museum places small dinosaur figurines next to each skeleton so visitors can visualize how these reptiles may have looked. Here I took some time to admire the completeness of the skeleton and imagine what it could have been like millions of years ago when these giants roamed the Earth.
No, I’m not a dinosaur fanatic but things from long before our time never fail to amaze me. In addition to skeletons, there are also dinosaur eggs and poop on exhibition. Most of the museum labels are bilingual with Japanese and English description.
The corner where dinosaur fossil specimens and restoration skeletons from Fukui are on display. Fukui Prefecture’s Dinosaur Fossil Excavation Project has produced many dinosaur fossils of great scientific value.
In the “Science of the Earth” zone, minerals and gemstones are exhibited. Here visitors are introduced to the appearance of the Earth, the source of life from the aspects of “Water and Earth” and “Fire and Earth”. These topics don’t interest us as much, as we spent the least time in this zone.
Under the “History of Life” zone, we saw exhibits of real or replica fossils from Pre-Cambrian and Cambrian period and ice age animals. Having seen the dinosaurs, we were brought back to the time before they existed, with exhibits and information explaining the theory of how life began on Earth and fossils of trilobites, which existed for over 270 million years and disappeared before dinosaurs came into existence.
Then the story line moved on to Ice Age Animals. They even have a section on evolution of human beings. Talk about completeness!
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Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum – Fun Stuff
After lunch, we went for the fun stuff within the musuem.
Festive mood in the air with Santa Dino in town.
If you think you have the best smile in town (or in the museum, rather), try this challenge. Smile and allow the game to rank you among the other ‘challengers’ of the day.
If you’re curious about how fossils are prepared, check out the Fossil Preparation Lab where you can see what the scientists and technicians are doing through the window. We watched as they carefully remove rock matrix from specimens under microscope to reveal the fossils encased within. Lots of concentration is required for this technique as even the slightest slip of the needle may lead to irreparable damage.
Dino Lab is a hands-on type exhibition room with a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the center of the room. Here, we got to touch fossils, try quizzes on fossils and even step in a weighing scale to see how we weigh against certain species of dinosaurs.
Head on to the theatre for some dinosaur themed Japanese cartoons, featuring the museum’s mascot, Professor Dinosaur, and characters. There was no English or Chinese subtitles to the cartoons. But even though we didn’t understand a word, but there was not a dull moment. The one we watched was about how Professor Dinosaur’s assistant went back in time to early 19th century to understand how paleontology began.
Can’t get enough of the dinos? Then bring home souvenirs from the museum shop which stocks everything dinosaurs, from dinosaur figures to replica fossils, from t-shirts to dinosaur-shaped cookies. The prices are on the steeper side. As a gauge, a postcard cost JPY150 and a small B5-size dinosaur print tote bag with accompanying postcard cost JPY864. DL had been saving for some time to splurge in this shop. So when this dinosaur fanatic went on to buy 2 small boxes of dinosaur figurines for more than JPY10,000, we did not stop him!
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Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum – Dinosaur Cafe
Feeling peckish? Then head on to the one and only F&B outlet in the museum,Dinosaur Cafe, for a meal. We had our lunch here. The food was delicious but nothing extraordinary though there’s novelty in the presentation.
Using dinosaur design plates and cutlery to dine on dinosaur-shaped rice cake, nuggets and buns are sure to make the little ones happy. Many of the items on the menu includes Japanese curry. This popular stew-like dish is milder and less spicy than Indian and Malay curries, hence appearing even in their kids’ meals. The following were what we ordered for our lunch.
CL’s kids meal of Japanese curry with rice at JPY1,030 with a drink.
DL’s Gao Gao Dog which is supposedly just like the Fukuivenator at JPY520.
Mummy went for a set meal of Fukui pork cutlet bowl and cold buckwheat soba noodles at JPY1,130.
Yi Yi’s Fukui saur’s Egg Curry at JPY900 looked so cute she could not bear to eat it.
Or choose a ‘boring’ meal of Pork Cutlet Curry (JPY1,030) like what Daddy and Po Po did. Drinks are priced at JPY350 to 500. These prices are already inclusive of Japan’s 8% consumption tax, so there is no need to do the math for total bill.
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Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum – Perfect Day Out
Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum is part of Katsuyama Dinosaur Forest Park. During spring to autumn months, 2-hour organised tours are conducted on an almost daily basis to Japan’s largest dinosaur discovery site near FPDM. The field station comprises of 3 areas where visitors can visit the Dinosaur Quarry. This Dinosaur Quarry is where the five new species were discovered and visitors can also learn about the excavation of dinosaur fossils through hands-in experience. We were quite disappointed to have missed out on this segment since our visit was in the winter season. Check out the tour schedule in the museum’s official website (link in useful information below) under Field Station.
The museum was not over-crowded with visitors on our day of visit. Though there were some tour coaches but overheard from the tourists, they were only given 2 hours in the museum. We think 2 hours is hardly enough for a thorough visit, however this is usually a problem with guided tours due to the numbers of places included in their itinerary.
We spent a good full day in the museum, from 10am to 4pm. Besides touring the museum, our visit coincided with it snowing outside. So instead of spending extra to visit a skii resort, the children had fun making snow men, throwing snow balls or simply enjoyed the snow flakes falling.
We enjoyed the museum too. The exhibitions in the galleries have a complete flow in their re-telling of the Earth’s natural history. Definitely worth to drop by even if you are not a dinosaur fan.
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Read about our trip itinerary and the places we visited in Japan Nagoya Itinerary 2017 .
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Useful Information
Address:Address: 51-11 Terao, Muroko, Katsuyama, Fukui 911-8601, Japan
Telephone: +81-779-88-0001
Official Website:: Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum
Admission Charge: Adults JPY720, Primary/Secondary School Students JPY260, High School and College Student JPY410, Seniors above 70 and children under 6 enter for free
Getting There:
To get to the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum from Fukui:
1. Take the Echizen Railway from Fukui Station to Katsuyama Station. The journey takes around an hour and cost JPY770 per leg. Alternatively, get the package ticket at JPY2120 per adult and JPY960 per primary school child, inclusive of train, community bus and museum admission. These tickets can be purchased at Fukui Train Station ticket counters.
Check out the train schedule in this link, there are 2 trains per hour.
2. Transfer to a community bus in the direction of Nagaoyama. The bus ride takes about 20mins, cost JPY100/ride. There is only one bus every 1-2 hours so plan your time well. If you have unfortunately missed the bus, catch a cab from the station to the museum at around JPY1,800 with a 10 mins ride.
3. Alight at Kyoryu Hakubutsukan-Mae bus stop in front of the museum.
Image Courtesy of Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum official website