Where's the Internet? The defunct Communications Museum in Tokyo

 My how time flies. A year ago, I visited the Communications Museum located near Tokyo's Imperial Palace. In less than two months, the museum will reopen in a new location - the ninth floor of Solamachi, SkyTree's big shopping and entertainment complex - as the Postal Museum. Here's a look at the old museum, titled Communications Museum.

 The museum advertised itself as a combination of a telephone museum and a postal museum; the phones on display were really fun to see.

 How about some super-old style crank phones?

 Diagrams showed how the phones were wired.

 Mini phone boxes! Perfect places to put all those action figures you pick up in Akihabara!

 The displays included switchboard setups...

 ...and phone cables.

 Moving upstairs, you were greeted by a collection of international postboxes.

 And historical Japanese boxes to compare.

 Some of these boxes are pretty old! I wonder how long it would take before mail would be stolen from one of these today?

 Postal uniforms galore on displays with faceless mannequins.

 You, too, can dress up like an old postal worker, complete with robe and shoulder box.

 An old post office counter.

 A woman prepares a letter for mailing with post boxes behind it.

 The clerk is quite busy here.

 This counter is a little more secure.

 Have you ever wondered what the inside of a post box looks like?

 From the front, it seems so complicated, but inside it holds two laundry bags.

 A large portion of the floor had a modern day postal setup.

 What can you ship with the Japanese postal service? Pretty much anything. Package delivery in Japan is very efficient and can handle pretty much everything, including your bicycle!

 Cancel that envelope!

 Behind the counter.

 A postal mail sorter.

 A bigger postal mail sorter.

 Thousands of these little bikes hit the streets every day, delivering envelopes and packages.

 Some more styles of post boxes...

 The museum has quite an extensive international stamp collection!

 Heading back downstairs, the telecommunications continue. This is a telegraph display.

 More phones...

 And even more phones! Those are some massive mobile phones in the lower right corner.

More uniforms to finish off the display.

My links to the Communications Museum all direct to the new website for the postal museum (Japanese only right now). It seems that the old museum location has completely closed; there's no telling where all the telecommunications displays are going. And for stamp collectors and communications memorabilia lovers, the gift shop had some nice inexpensive souvenirs. It makes sense that it's moving, though - the old location is pretty far from any other tourist attraction (even the Imperial Palace is a good walk away). After the new museum opens, I'll give it a look-over and eventually get another post up!