Firstly, I have to clarify that I did not choose Izu just because they had a Teddy Bear Museum here, but I think God meant for me to come here. It was to my great joy when I discovered in the local Japanese guide regarding the existence of this museum! Y and I just couldn’t wait to come here.
LY was obviously not so keen, especially when she had accompanied Y and I a few year sago to the teddy bear museum in Jeju Island. But she didn’t have much choice ha ha. It was rather far driving here from Atami Sekitei where we stayed. It was all the way down south, it took us around 1 hour plus to get here.
Izu Teddy Bear Museum
〒413-0232 1064-2 Yawatano Ito City
Opening Hours: 9:30 – 17:00 (entrance by 16:30)
(Best to double check opening hours before coming here)
www.teddynet.co.jp
I was greeted at the entrance by a really tall elderly bear, seemed like she was the one in charge, and it was so heartwarming to see even a bear door mat greeting “welcome” on the floor.
Upon entering the museum, we were greeted by a really animated bear all dressed up in witches hat etc. It felt like he just came from the Harry Potter movie set.
Hello there, more bears dressed in Halloween themed outfit. Love how the Japanese really embrace all the different festive and fun holiday themes.
Loved how even there were paw prints leading to the toilets, how cool is that?
Even the tiles had teddy bears!
After a quick visit to the bear toilet, we did a tour of the museum. It’s much smaller compared to the one in Jeju Island near South Korea but was still a pleasant experience, as they had rather impressive bear moving installations.
We first walked through a few displays which took us through the history of teddy bears, showing the antique or classic teddy bear brands that are very well known in the world. Of course they also paid homage to the President Theodore Roosevelt. If you didn’t know, Teddy Bear the name actually came from his name.
Y said she would so love to have me and the rest of the bears live like that in her house with these nice vintage looking cabinets (see above). Hmm looks like we need to move house to do this.
This bear scared me, thought he was gonna fall on me.
The moving installations were rather impressive, from a teddy bear train to a teddy bear factory and even a circus.
I would so love to join them in the Teddy Bear Express, it reminded me of the Eastern & Orient Express train. Sigh!! Unfortunately, think I am a little too fat to fit in the train.
There were also many artist bears made by both local and foreign teddy bear artistes. I have included the ones I really like.
This sleepy bear greeted me on my way up to the 2nd floor.
There was a Totoro and his friends exhibition on the 2nd floor. What thrilled me was sitting on this giant cat! My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film and is very popular.
There was also a Teddy’s Garden with interesting Teddy Sculptures. It led to their souvenier shop and cafe, of course I had to buy back some cute bear related things for my home.
Y was telling R to make a sculpture like the one above for our home. He didn’t seem very interested in it.. hmm.
Y and I making our way through the gardens.
Another huge highlight and chance discovery was this soft ice cream store that greedy LY saw even before we turned into the Teddy Bear Museum. It was just next door, so we walked over here after we had done the tour of the museum. We each bought a soft ice cream and also bought this amazing Hokkaido Milk Roll that had the ‘moo-moo’ black and white print of the cow.
Yummy soft ice cream with caramelised nuts and wafer!
For more posts on eats and sights in Izu, remember to check out my posts on Day 1 and Day 2 in Izu!
