Japan Origami Museum, Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan
I’m a big fan of unusual things to do in airports, so when I heard on a recent stopover at Narita airport in Tokyo that the Japan Origami Museum was actually located within the airport walls, I made a beeline to check it out.
Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, in case you’re still wondering what the heck I’m talking about.
Located past security on the 3rd floor of the Central Building in Terminal 1 at Tokyo’s International Airport, the museum has over 400 origami exhibits. Some are traditional origami creations (paper cranes, origami flowers, and shapes such as cubes), while are others are decidedly non-traditional in design — origami Pinocchio anyone? Or maybe you’d be more interested in the ultimate in paper airplanes – an origami Star Wars X-wing fighter.
The detail and the amount of work folding the paper that went into these origami masterpieces is nothing short of amazing.
The Japan Origami Museum also sells a pretty huge variety of origami art kits, paper, origami designs, and instruction booklets. They also sell original origami art works – just in case you’re all thumbs.
Check out these Amazing Origami Art Creations:
Have you ever visited the Japan Origami Museum?
Which origami creation is your favourite?
Have you ever tried folding origami?
Oman 
I had the hardest time just creating one origmai crane! I absolutely can appreciate the amount of skill that it took to create this awesome origami.
I’ve never been to Japan, but once upon a time I knew how to fold flying cranes. Gave the glossy ad printed paper some purpose.
These are all incredible! I’m loving the shoes and the geisha women the most. My fingers aren’t nearly delicate enough to produce anything as beautifully intricate as these creations. Thanks so much for sharing ^.^
Supremely kewl!
Shoot, I may have to route myself through Narita – deliberately – on my next adventure (a tad out of the way for Mongolia from Vietnam, but still…)
Very cool. You know what else is very cool? Your Facebook Page Promoter lightbox thingy. How does a guy who I picture living out of a backpack find the time to find such neat little plugins for his site. Looked at your code to find out what it is, am steal idea now. Sorry.
I could definitely kill a few hours during a layover at this museum. When I was a kid, I used to do origami and was pretty good at it.
So cool! Sometimes I think airports are just as worth a visit as cities themselves.
I like the frog’s lifecycle – the simple origami – the best.
I tried origami – bought the paper, made the folds, looked at the results, decided to put the project to one side. That was a loooong time ago….
Fantastic, I love the last pic. They make for a nice original gift, but I guess they are not easy to pack right?
These are awesome! I love Origami…I was never great at it but I had a book when I was a kid and some nice papers and tried quite a few. Have always found the more complex ones to be amazing. Thanks for sharing so many beautiful shots of the exhibit!
Wow, it’s hard to believe it’s all just paper! My attention span is much too fast to even attempt origami…
Totally Awesome.I loved the antebellum ladies, but laughed out loud at the weight lifter and his rock of paper.
Wow. I have a hard enough time trying to fold a paper airplane, so I’m pretty stunned by origami art like this.
The paper shoes made me think that Tom’s is missing a golden opportunity.
Wow. That is the most comprehensive post of origami photos I’ve ever seen! I love it when airports go out of their way to not just be places stuffed full of miserable looking people. Here at least, the miserable looking people can look miserably at awesome origami
Wow. Just… wow.
That is some seriously impressive origami folding there… And I used to be quite proud of my origami crane, damn, need to learn some new ones
Those are really beautiful. I can’t even make a paper airplane though!
There must be some joke I can make about getting bent out of shape…
I’ll have to try and find that when I next go through there. Origami can be found in random places in Japan, train stations have a few, why not airports too I guess
I used to do origami when I was younger, but I have unfortunatly forgotten everything. I would love to visit this museum!
Its good to hear to that its near by an airport. Really cool art to learn. Thanks for sharing with us.
Wow these are so impressive. My Japanese aunt always used to bring over origami paper and try to teach me how to do things. The only thing I could ever do was make a box. I never even mastered the crane. My Japanese genes failed me.
As you probalby know by now, I lived in Kyoto, Japan for 6 years.. and loved every day of it.
I’ve seen a lot of origami, and even learned to make some for a while. Great stuff!
Of this collection, I”m most impressed with the roses and the multifaceted ball shapes. It’s much harder to make rounded shapes than flat. Thanks for sharing.
cheers, Lash