The building housing the Museum of Maritime Science is shaped like a ship, complete with an observation tower atop its bridge. Appropriately enough, it's located on Odaiba, reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay, and offers a good view of Tokyo's container port nearby. The museum, which you can tour in about 3 hours, contains an excellent collection of model boats, including wooden ships used during the Edo Period; warships (such as the 1898 battleship Shikishima); submarines; ferries; supertankers (such as the Nisseki Maru, in use from 1971 to 1985 and the world's largest oil tanker at the time); and container ships. Technical explanations, unfortunately, are mostly in Japanese only, so it's totally worth spending the extra ¥500 for an audio guide. Children love the radio-controlled boats they can direct in a rooftop pond. Moored nearby is the Soya, constructed in 1938 as a cargo icebreaker; it served as Japan's first Antarctic observation ship and provides views of living quarters, the galley, and machine rooms. Those with a lot of time on their hands can also visit the Yotei Maru, which once ferried the waters between Aomori and Hokkaido before the opening of an underwater tunnel made its job obsolete. With the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation nearby, and a public swimming pool (July-Aug) next door, this area of Odaiba is a good destination for families.
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