Do you like bags? Even if you're not a massive fan of bags, a visit to the World Bags & Luggage Museum in Asakusa will bowl you over.

As the name suggests, the World Bags & Luggage Museum displays bags from over fifty countries and five continents, all highly valued for their rarity. You can also learn about such things as the art of making bags, the varied characteristics of bags from different regions, and their history and culture.

Perhaps you're wondering if bags from different parts of the world are really so different? If you hear the word "bag", maybe in your head you get an image of the kind of bags you tend to see nowadays in big cities. Well, ok, but how about the bags of Oceania, which are traditionally made from tree bark, leaves, bird feathers and various other natural resources? Or, as an example of an Asian bag, the museum introduces the Japanese kinchaku. The kinchaku is a small cloth bag with a string threaded around the top which can be used to close it. The traditional bags with the different materials used to make them, and their various functions, all depending on the regions they come from, are really interesting.

The museum is run by the Japanese bag company Ace. The company's founder wanted to contribute to society by setting up the museum to communicate the diversity of different countries' cultures. As bags were his livelihood, he decided to do this by collecting bags from all around the world. Asakusa is an arts-and-crafts kind of town, and this museum really captures that side of the area. So if you're visiting Asakusa, please make sure to drop by.

Address: 1-8-10 Komagata, Taito-ku, Tokyo
*Please check in advance for business hours and holidays if you want to visit the museum.