If you drive into Katsuyama, you will notice a huge silver egg-shaped building among the hills. This building is for the Fukui Dinosaur Museum, which is the center for dinosaur research in Japan

It is one of the largest dinosaur museums in the world. It is the largest building in Japan, which qualifies it as one of the most popular tourist destinations in Fukui; It is visited by about 700 thousand people annually.

The Fukui Dinosaur Museum can be reached by bus or taxi from Katsuyama Station.

Take the mass transit bus to Nagaoyama and get off at Kyuryu Hakubutsukan-mae Station (20 minutes). Or take a taxi to get you to your destination more quickly.

Museum website

The entrance foyer of the museum is located on the third floor and includes a special exhibition hall, a cinema hall, and a dinosaur library.

There are three main exhibits at the Fukui Dinosaur Museum, the largest of which is the "Jurassic World" exhibit. Here you will find a life-size T-Rex (Tyrannosaurus Rex)

Built using animatronics, it guards the skeletons of over 40 dinosaurs.

You'll also see the skeletons and fossils of locally unearthed dinosaurs, including Fukui-raptor and Fukui-sur. Seven of them are original samples.

There is also the "Earth Sciences" exhibit, on the same level as the "Dinosaur World" exhibit, which tells you a lot of information about the globe

And how life arose on its back through practical displays and videos. There is also another area on the second floor called the "Dinosaur Lab" that allows you to touch some real fossils.

The third and final exhibition, “History of the Earth,” is located on the second floor. See the exhibits to discover more fossils

and dinosaur models that show how life evolved on Earth. Also on display are the skeletons of several large prehistoric mammals

Including the huge elk (the antelope) and the mammoth (the huge elephant), which are now extinct. This level provides a panoramic view of the first floor.

On the second floor you will find the Fossil Processing Lab. Technicians skillfully handle excavation cleaning tasks at the Kitadani Excavation Site

for research purposes or for the purpose of displaying it to the public. Visitors are allowed to watch them from the window while they are doing their work.

The museum is open to the public at all hours of the day only, and you must arrive by 4:30 pm; until you are allowed in.

The museum operates daily from the end of July until the end of August, and closes its doors on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month, and from December 31 to January 1.