Japan Football Museum, Tokyo

For lovers of football or for those with an interest in J-League and the Japanese national team, the slightly quirky Japan Football Museum is well-worth checking out.  

Housed in the Japan Football Association building, on aptly named Football Avenue, the museum is a celebration of this country's achievements in the game. True, rivals such as Brazil and Italy are far in advance on the medals count; nevertheless, there is still much to be proud of here, particularly with the recent success in the Women's World Cup.

In homage to the big guns of the sport, there is a Hall of Fame. The names and faces on the plaques were, admittedly, totally unfamiliar to me, but it was still a pleasure to stroll down the corridor and look into the earnest faces of the local legends of the game.  

There is also the chance to watch some football in 3-D, either in comfortable viewing pods or on an almost cinema-sized screen. This was a first for me. I watched some of the action from the last World Cup, and it looked pretty good.  

Naturally, there is memorabilia aplenty. There are autographed balls, shirts and scarves, together with a cabinet full of trophies. I had never heard of many of the competitions, but it would seem that Japan had indeed won them. In common with many museums in Japan, however, much of the accompanying information is in Japanese only, which can prove to be frustrating if you are not fluent.  

Worth looking out for is a small collection of reprinted photographs dating back to the 1930s. Included are some interesting shots of a tour to Manila in the Philippines, and of the 1936 Berlin Olympics; Japan made it through to the quarter finals but then came a cropper against Italy, when they lost 8-0.  

To hone visitors' skills on the pitch, both table football and a Playstation football game have been provided and are free to use. Sadly but perhaps predictably, I steered my team to an ignominious 0-1 home defeat.  

To cover the museum in its entirety takes about an hour, depending on how deeply sucked in you become by the Playstation, and at only 500 yen it's well worth a look.