Environment

Swarms of Visitors Go Bug-Eyed Over Creepy-Crawlies in Ueno, Tokyo; National Museum of Nature and Science Exhibits Vast Bug Collection

By Michael George / The Japan News

12:23 JST, October 8, 2024

Summer has ended and taken the bugs with it, but people in Tokyo are still swarming to see them.

Displays are seen in an area of the “Konchu Maniac” exhibition in Tokyo.

The National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno Park, Tokyo, is hosting an exhibition where visitors can come face-to-face with all kinds of creepy crawlies, from those native to Japan to those that build their homes abroad.

The “Konchu Maniac” exhibition is a hive of activity, with five areas — presented as “doors” — examining a different bug family.

“[Each area] has its own exhibition with its own highlights, such as giant models and displays filled with countless specimens,” said Hiroki Ohashi, who is in charge of the Konchu show.

Behind the Door of Wasps, viewers get a buzz out of seeing some of the world’s 300,000 species of Hymenoptera (bees and wasps) and Diptera (flies), culminating in a close-up view of the deadly Japanese giant hornet.

A selection of the world’s 52,000 spider species, including some of Japan’s 1,700 species, line the walls behind the Door of Spiders. Myriapods — which include centipedes and millipedes — are also found here, with a shockingly large centipede drawing gasps at the end of the route.

“A broad range of people, from kids to serious bug enthusiasts, have been coming to see the exhibition,” Ohashi said. “The showcase of living Phelotrupes auratus from the scarab beetle family, which sparkle like jewels, has been extremely popular.”

The exhibition offers English guidance via a QR code that takes users to a website with translations of the Japanese displays.

If visitors somehow work up an appetite during their foray through this world of tiny critters, they can even buy a bug-filled snack from the gift shop — though no one would blame them for making a beeline for the stationery.

The exhibition will continue through Oct. 14.

Tickets cost ¥2,100 for adults and university students and ¥600 for elementary, junior high and high school students.

■ For more details, visit the English website:
‘Special Exhibition INSECT’ (https://www.konchuten.jp/english/)