Inside the Incredible Fukui Dinosaur Museum – Travel in Japan 福井県立恐竜博物館 Sightseeing in Hokuriku
Hi everyone, David here! Welcome back
to the channel! Thanks for coming back for another video or welcome if it’s your first one,
Thanks for joining us! How are you doing? I’m doing OK. Just suffering through summer
still. It’s the middle of September, but we’re still hot. I heard it’s getting cooler from
now on, so fingers crossed. But anyway, today, I escaped Osaka. I’m on a mission,
one of the Expo passport stamp rally side missions. I’m off to Fukui Prefecture,
which is on the north coast of central Japan. This is what we call the Hokuriku
area, even though the Expo calls it the Kansai Pavilion zone. but yeah, Fukui is one of
the lesser visited prefectures in Kansai. I think it’s a little bit far away from Osaka and Kyoto.
But it’s easy enough to get there now. It’s just been connected up by the Hokuriku
Shinkansan. Although that only goes from Tokyo to Tsuruga in Fukui Prefecture. It doesn’t
actually have a connection to Osaka just yet, but I heard that’s coming in the future.
So I had a little road trip all the way up to the Fukui Dinosaur Museum. Now, you might think, a
“Dinosaur museum, that’s probably just fairly normal. Museums are not that exciting.”
This is a really good one. So, definitely check this out, this video, and I’ll show you
around inside, show you some food I had, the outside bits as well, and then I’ll talk
a bit more about it at the end. So, I’m just going to hand over to myself. Please like this video,
subscribe to the channel, share this channel to anyone who’s looking for different places to go
in Japan. And also leave a comment or question, I love to hear those and I want to help you. So,
I’m going to hand over to myself. See you soon! OK, so you’re joining us on the busy streets
of Fukui Prefecture. You can see a few little hints on the side of the road as to where we might be
going, but I have already told you. But anyway, you can see some dinosaur bones in the
hillside, some nice little dinosaur models too. So, yeah, the rumours are true. We are going
to Fukui Dinosaur Museum. And just to prove it, this is massive dinosaur in the front courtyard,
Very interesting and beautiful. So, it’s quite a large building. You can see all of
this around here. I don’t know what that big dome thing is on the side, but the main
building is in front of us with a sign for Prefectural Dinosaur Museum. And yeah,
it was a very hot day, kind of busy, I think. Was it a public holiday? I can’t remember now, this is
going back a little while. As you go in, you buy your ticket and you go down this large
escalator down to the, I think, basement floor. So there’s several floors of the dinosaur
museum. There’s special exhibits on the right, on the left there’s the museum and the shop
as well. We’ll get to those a bit later. And there’s the first sort of entryway. You can
see some of the old fossils of various trees and plants and footprints and whatnot and fish
skeletons. And the first thing you see is this a big dig site. I don’t know if these are real bones
or not. I think these are real ones or almost a complete dinosaur skeleton which you can look
at from the stairway as well, you get a nicer view from there. But the first thing you really get to
see is this giant animatronic T-Rex as well. Very interesting. It’s kind of the centrepiece of the
whole museum floor. Very exciting. Otherwise, we get to see some of the dinosaur skeletons.
Some of them are replicas. Some of them are real bones. You tend to see the ones that are held
together by wires. Those are the original ones, but the ones that look a bit more complete
and fresh. They are the replicas. So, you can see some Triceratops there. I feel like
the American viewers are going to get at me for pronouncing things differently, but I don’t
know what some of these things are. Actually, I used to be a big dinosaur kid, but this was a
real one. I think this was in a display case. This is a real fossil. You can see some real
bones there, and the fossil of two dinosaurs that were killed fighting with each other. They’re
still a bit tangled up. So lots of interesting displays there. And of course, a very large room
as well. This huge kind of underground dome thing was really cool. There’s a little
LCD display thing. I don’t know what to call that. There’s a little story of dinosaur life.
You can see the raptors closing in on some poor unsuspecting herbivore. So, they’re going in
for the kill. Don’t worry, though. I think they were OK in the end. They tore off
rather large piece of skin there. Never mind. Don’t pick it. It’s not going to get better! Then
some rather large models, too. I think this is the… what’s this a brontosaurus? Have I been saying
that about all of them? I don’t know. Some little small dinosaurs. I don’t know what they’re
called. And some little animatronic areas. So, excuse me, sir. You mind if I bite you?
So yeah, so the raptors moving in on another unsuspecting herbivore. Yes, I would rather
mind you biting me. Yeah, they don’t really move that much. It was kind of
kind of fun to watch them though. I don’t know what this one was doing. I think it.. Oh, dear,
It’s got a bit of gas, I think. OK, very talkative, that one. So, you can see some of the moving
models and eventually work your way back around to the skeleton area. And was that
even moving? Very slowly moving. But otherwise, lots of interesting displays. Some skulls
and whatnot. I don’t know what that was. Nice teeth though. Very straight. Maybe they
got the Invisalign. I think this was a real one because this is the actual bones held
together by wires and things. The one slightly behind, I think that was a model one.
It’s a bit suspicious if you can find all the bones. So that’s a little bit unrealistic.
Some very long necked dinosaurs down there. And yeah, it just kind of shows you how
big these dinosaurs were. This is a very large space they can fill up. So that’s most
of the main display room on the ground floor or the basement floor. But there are
some other displays I’m going to show you next. So for example, the kind of geology area. I think
this was on the same floor. You can see how the volcanic eruptions of Japan have helped
produce all sorts of different interesting gemstones & minerals. So, you can see all those
different kinds. It’s kind of cool though. I mean, I don’t know what that coral looking one was.
That was good. You can see your birth stones as well. You can take a look
at those. Some expensive looking ones! And oh, some dino DNA in there. Let’s
bring this museum to life in a few decades. And of course, Fukui is famous for its own
dinosaurs, the Fukuisaurus and Fukuiraptor and a few other Fukui dinosaurs. I think the
little, was that the Fukuiraptor bit? Oh, no, I’m not good at reading quick enough. Some very
large ones as well. This was just a leg but you can see how they might have lived in
prehistoric Fukui prefecture. It hasn’t really changed that much but it’s a little bit more
developed. And some other things like some little fossils here, the timeline of the fossil
record. So there we go. That’s the main area. So definitely check that out. The big
curved ceiling was really interesting because it diffuses the crowd noise so it
sounds all atmospheric and natural. Upstairs you get to see some of the mammals and amphibians and whatnot from prehistoric times. A happy little chappy there. Well, that
one’s not so happy. He’s probably looked better. It’s nice to kind of see the models side-by-side
with the skeletons, so you can kind of get an idea of what they may have looked like.
Of course, there are underwater animals too. And there’s some kind of Plesiosaur?
Maybe a giant old turtle. And I don’t know what his huge long necked one is. I guess that’s a
Loch Ness monster, maybe. Kind of gives you an idea of how big it was. You get to see some
of the scary old fish as well, as well as some of the flying dinosaurs. Some kind of Pterodactyl,
I guess that is a Pterodon? Speaking of which, you get to see the whole family tree on the side
of this display thing with some little models. And you get to see the evolution of birds as well.
Some little bird skeletons there. Spoiler alert, we end up with birds, this kind of falcon, I think
that’s a hawk. And then elsewhere, we get to see the history of mammals as well. You get
to see that nice mammoth, the giant moose, I think they’re still pretty big. And the most
dangerous animal of all, man. And man oh man, there’s a lot of skulls here showing all of the
old generations. So there we go. That’s the main museum bit done. So definitely check
out that area. I didn’t get into the special exhibition. We didn’t really have enough time.
But elsewhere back in that main hall on the other side this time. So on the right there is the
museum and restaurant. Gift shop’s pretty nice! There’s a large variety of interesting goods.
Some collaborations with Beams, which is a nice brand. Also kind of just bits and bobs
of all shapes and sizes, books, toys, some cute little toys like this one.
That one’s a bit a little bit angry. Oh dear, some scary looking more realistic
models of various dinosaurs. Very colourful. And, some little squiddy diddlies from underneath
the sea or in the air. So, basically, just pick the one you want. You can get some Dinosaur
Manju if you want, for your office worker friends. I think that’s what they were. Finally, we made
it to the restaurant. We were starving. There are a couple of other restaurants in this complex
but we chose this big one. So I had some kind of Katsu Curry thing, which was a little bit
expensive but it was all right. You get to see Dr. Dinosaur. He’s hanging out in Fukui City as
well. And very lucky they managed to find a T-Rex skeleton on the roof. So you can go up to the roof
and take a look at the dig site. I think that’s a genuine one. So there we go, an interesting
building. Definitely check out the Fukui Dinosaur Museum. Thank you for watching. I’ll hand
back over to myself and see you soon. OK welcome back. Thank you for staying all the
way to the end. I really appreciate that! So what did you think Fukui Prefectural
Dinosaur Museum? I think it’s a really good one. I’ve been to several museums in Japan and England and sometimes they can be a little bit bare bones and… well, that’s no pun intended.
They can be a bit simple and a little bit boring, But this was really well displayed.
That big room, the big giant room, the egg-shaped room was really good.
I mentioned this a little bit, but the roof, because the roof’s curved and it’s a bit like an
egg shape. All the noisy kids screeching and making kid noises, it kind of diffuses all that
sound so it has this kind of weird soundscape going on. It sounds like you’re in a jungle or
something, which is how I feel when I’m near small kids anyway. Yeah, it was really good,
lots of good displays. The animatronics were really cool as well, especially that big T-Rex in
the middle. So yeah, get your dinosaur excitement. It’s not all skeletons as you can
see too. There are a few visual displays, the kind of CGI zone and you get to see
all the gemstones and things like that. There’s a few interactive things up there, too.
Yeah, so very nice. I wish I could have seen the special exhibition, but maybe I can go there
again one day. It is a little bit hard to get there. We went by car, thanks to my friend
Armando, if he’s watching. A little group of us went down there. And it takes
about three or four hours from Osaka by car. There are buses to Fukui Prefecture too,
but they tend to go to Fukui City. I think to get to the Prefectural Dinosaur Museum
from Fukui City, you need to take a special train. I think this is the Echizen train. Sorry, I should
research this. But that takes a little while, but not too long. And then there’s a shuttle
bus from the station as well. So, it’s a little bit of a trek if you’re not going by car.
But they’re trying to get people through the doors. So, I’m sure they’ll help you
with shuttle bus services. You can probably get a bus from Fukui station now I think about
it. The cost is pretty cheap. It’s only 1,000 yen for an adult. I think it’s a 200-yen discount
if you’re high school or university student. Half price if you’re a younger student and
under-6 I think is free and it’s cheap for senior citizens as well. So a very reasonable museum,
it probably takes a lot of money to get there. I might recommend bringing some food. There’s not really a place to have a picnic, but there are little outdoor grassy areas, because the restaurant was a bit expensive and crowded. Just be wary! If you don’t really mind, then just
take a ticket and go around the shop. It didn’t actually take us that long. Although we were
after rush hour, so I think it was kind of late afternoon when we’re having dinner or lunch.
So that was all right. It took us about 20 or 30 minutes to get in, I think.
So, yeah, definitely check that out. I’ll probably do another Fukui video one day. I’ll
take a proper Hokuriku trip and show you the ropes. But there are other things you can do in
Fukui. For example, Toujimbo, which is a kind of rocky plateau. It’s a bit like the Giants Causeway
in Northern Ireland. These kind of… I don’t know what kind of stone they are, but these kind of
hexagonal pillars come out of the ground due to crystallization and geology. You can go and
check that out by the sea. There’s also I forgot the name, Eikando? I think, or no,
what’s it called? Eihei-ji maybe that’s it. That’s a famous temple over there. Temple? Is that a shrine? Temple, I think. That’s very nice. I want to go there again because it was chucking down with rain last time and we had to go back early too. It’s famous for seafood. Hokuriku area is on
the Sea of Japan, so that’s famous for seafood, especially crab if you go in winter. So you can
go to Fukui for food. Also I think Sauce Katsu is the famous dish from Fukui, which I really like.
It’s a bit like Katsudon, but instead of the egg you just get the katsu sauce on top of it,
which is quite nice. It’s very thin katsu as well. It’s almost like Wiener Schnitzel, I think.
So yeah, I like Fukui. I want to go back there again. Hokuriku area is quite
good, actually, and they’re really pushing it at the moment, now the Shinkansen’s running.
So yeah, one day you’re going to see that again. I did get my stamp as well. I’m doing the Kansai
Pavilion extra stamps. So, I could get the main Kansai pavilion Fukui stamp inside the pavilion,
but the second one you can get from the from the museum itself, but only until the
middle of October because that’s when the Expo finishes. So, hurry up if you
haven’t done it already. OK, I think that’s enough for me. So, thank you for watching!
Please like this video, subscribe to the channel, share this channel to everybody who will
listen to you, and leave a comment or a question. I’ll help you out. Otherwise, thank you so
much and take care. See you next time. Bye-bye!
Today I’m taking a trip beyond the northern border of Kansai to Fukui Prefecture, to the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum.
Located deep in the Hokuriku countryside, the museum is a fantastic day out for the dino-crazy kids and adults. But why here? It’s the dinosaur capital of Japan, with fossils of several new species discovered in the area. You can see all those and more in this leading museum, which opened in 2000.
So today I’ll show you around inside, I hope you enjoy it!
Do you have any recommendations or requests for other things you’d like me to make a video of? Let me know in the comments! I just reached 1000 subscribers, thank you! Help me get even more by sharing this channel and favourite videos with your friends!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE press “like”, “subscribe” and make a comment – I want the YouTube algorithm to notice me!
#japan #fukui #fukuidinosaurmuseum #dinosaur #museum #dinosaurmuseum #hokuriku #sightseeing #japansightseeing #福井 #日本 #福井県立恐竜博物館 #恐竜 #恐竜博物館 #北陸
—-
Intro music by Coyote Kisses