Tokyo National Museum

Japan's oldest museum, opened in 1872, holding around 120,000 objects of which 89 are National Treasures and several hundred more are Important Cultural Properties. That is the largest such collection anywhere, and the important thing to understand before you go is that only a small fraction is on display at any time. Objects rotate every few weeks, partly to protect them and partly because there is no other way. Two visits a year will show you different museums.

Five buildings sit around a courtyard in Ueno Park. Honkan, the 1938 main hall, covers Japanese art chronologically up the stairs and by medium down them: swords, ceramics, lacquer, Buddhist sculpture, ukiyo-e, and a room near the entrance that shows one National Treasure at a time. Toyokan covers the rest of Asia and is usually half empty. Heiseikan has Japanese archaeology downstairs, where the Jomon flame-rimmed pots and the haniwa figures are worth the trip on their own, and the big special exhibitions upstairs.

The building most people miss is the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures, a Taniguchi Yoshio box from 1999 holding around 300 objects the temple gave the imperial household in 1878. Rows of small seventh-century gilt bronze Buddhas in dim glass cases, and almost nobody in there. It is the best hour in the museum.

Regular admission is around 1,000 yen and covers everything except special exhibitions, which are separately ticketed and can be very crowded. Allow three hours minimum. English labelling is good in the main halls and patchier elsewhere. The garden at the back opens for a few weeks in spring and autumn.