Nintendo Museum Uji: What the Ticket Actually Costs, and Why You Can't Just Buy One
The Nintendo Museum in Uji runs on a monthly ticket lottery, not a box office. Real prices by age tier, how the lottery works, and what we found inside.
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Adult tickets to the Nintendo Museum in Uji are 3,300 yen, about $21 at current rates. Ages 12 to 17 are 2,200 yen, ages 6 to 11 are 1,100 yen. That part is simple. The part that trips people up is that you cannot walk up and buy one. There is no box office. Every ticket is assigned through a monthly lottery on Nintendo’s own site, and if you do not plan around that, the museum will not fit into your trip no matter how much you’re willing to pay.
How the lottery actually works
You apply during the month three months before your visit. Want to go in October, you apply in July. Results land on the first of the following month, so July applicants hear back August 1st. One entry per person per month, and tickets are non transferable, so reselling or gifting a winning slot isn’t allowed.
If you miss the window or don’t win, unclaimed and cancelled slots get released for direct purchase on the ticketing site roughly two weeks after results go out. Checking back during that stretch is a real way in, just not a guaranteed one.
You need a free Nintendo Account to apply, verified with a mobile number, through museum-tickets.nintendo.com.
What’s actually inside
We went in April 2026 and the girls didn’t want to leave. Each ticket prints with your own Mii on it, so the entry ritual alone is half the fun before you’ve seen an exhibit.
Admission comes with 10 digital play coins per person, spendable on the hands on floor. The giant controller challenge is 2 coins, the classic console corner (NES, SNES, and N64, over 80 games, period correct controllers) is 1 coin, and a card matching game built around old Nintendo hanafuda decks runs a rotating cast of coin costs. Ten coins goes further than you’d think for one visit, and nothing on that floor costs extra cash on top of your ticket.
The one genuinely extra cost is the hanafuda card workshop: 2,000 yen for a 60 minute session making your own deck, plus 500 yen if you want a guided round of the actual game afterward. We skipped it. Worth knowing it’s there and priced separately if card making is your kid’s thing.
What it costs for a family
| Ticket tier | Ages | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Adult | 18+ | 3,300 yen |
| Junior | 12 to 17 | 2,200 yen |
| Child | 6 to 11 | 1,100 yen |
Two adults and three kids in the 6 to 11 tier works out to 3,300 x 2 plus 1,100 x 3, or 9,900 yen, a little over $60. Add the hanafuda workshop for everyone and you’re looking at roughly 10,000 yen more. Always check the ticketing site for the current numbers before you plan a budget around this, Nintendo does adjust pricing.
Getting there
The museum sits in Uji, a short ride outside central Kyoto, not inside the city itself.
- Kintetsu Kyoto Line to Ogura Station: 20 minutes from Kyoto Station, 360 yen, then a 3 to 5 minute walk from the east exit.
- JR Nara Line to JR Ogura Station: 25 minutes, 310 yen, JR Pass eligible, then about a 10 minute walk.
JR Uji Station is closer to the town’s famous tea shops but a 30 minute walk from the museum, or about 1,000 yen by taxi.
Filling out the rest of a Uji or Kyoto day
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Uji is also where a lot of Japan’s matcha comes from, so pairing the museum with a tea house or a Byodo-in Temple stop nearby turns one lottery ticket into a full day out, worth planning around if you’re already making the trip out from Kyoto or Osaka.
