Nara is best known for the four-legged locals that roam freely around its 660-hectare park. But friendly deer aren’t the city’s only animal attraction. Visitors can also get up close and personal with 3,000 goldfish and a variety of cute reptiles at two museums in a nearby shopping mall.
Just a short bus ride from Nara Park, Mi Nara (stylized as M! Nara) boasts two attractions: the Nara Kingyo Museum and the Nara Ikimono Museum. The mall also has a food court, a bowling alley, and a variety of stores where tourists can enjoy duty-free shopping. It’s a great place to chill for a bit and grab a bite to eat, or, in our case, take shelter from the rain.
I was visiting Osaka but had taken the train to meet up with my friend, Kyohei, who was coming from Kyoto to join me at Nara Park. Alas, the city had greeted us with rain and wind, so we decided to wait out the bad weather.
The Nara Kingyo Museum is Japan’s largest goldfish museum, or entertainment aquarium. And it’s fitting that it’s located in Nara, because it’s one of the country’s top goldfish cultivation areas. The museum is divided into seven different artistic spaces that use projection mapping, special lighting, stained glass, and mirrors to create fantastical art with the goldfish at its center.
Is it good for the goldfish? That’s a question worth pondering as you meander down a recreated Edo streetscape, through an “Aquarium Disco,” and past a display of Yanai Goldfish lanterns from Yamaguchi. The museum also has various photo spots, including trick art, where you can score the perfect social media shot. And there’s a small gift shop at the exit with a variety of goldfish-themed souvenirs to take home.
The Nara Ikimono Museum, or the “Nara Museum of Living Things,” is a much more tactile experience. Here you can pet and hold a variety of reptiles, like tortoises and bearded dragons. There’s also other curious creatures to meet, including chameleons, lizards, axolotls, scorpions, spiders, and snakes.
If you’re like me and prefer furry animals to scaly ones, this might just be the experience that changes your mind. It certainly did mine. Who knew reptiles could be such docile and affectionate creatures? The many people who keep them as pets, I suppose. Well, I totally get why now.
One of my favorite parts of the Ikimono Museum is the “Forest Library” where you can grab a book to read about the many creatures you just met. We were too hungry to just sit and relax, though, so we headed back downstairs to the food court. There, I tried Burger King for the first time before catching the bus to Nara Park.
Visit the Nara Kingyo and Ikimono Museums
The museums are located on the fourth floor of the Mi Nara shopping mall. They’re open year-round from 10:00–18:00. If you plan on visiting both, you can get a special discounted ticket.
