JapanNewbie

Parasite Museum in Meguro

Posted on 18. Nov, 2006 @ 10:09 pm by harvey in Tokyo Views: 644

I took a trip to the Meguro parasite museum! (目黒寄生中館)

The only parasite museum in the world, this place is a real gem for the Tokyo-ite looking for something different, or the Japan traveler with a “unique” idea of a good time.

Here you can see 8.8 meter tape worm specimens!

There are a wide variety of worms and other parasites on display at the museum, as well as tips on how to avoid getting infected yourself. Summary: Wash your hands, clean your room, and don’t eat uncooked pork.

Because everything on display was actually extracted from an animal or human, it’s really gross interesting staring at the pussy white bodies of these… bugs.

There are even handy diagrams on hand to show you exactly where these critters were pulled from.

Back to our 8.8 meter friend, here is a close up of the explanation of where the bug was found.

Sorry for the poor image quality. Here is my rough translation.

The parasite pulled out of a human being: 8.8 Meters in length.

This parasite was pulled out of the intestine of a person who ate an infected piece of trout sushi. Three months after eating the sushi, the worm was discovered when a piece of the body of the worm was discovered in the persons stool. (layman’s translation. Dude noticed he had a giant worm in his stomach when he noticed a piece of it in his doo-doo.) In august 1986, the person took some medicine, and the rest of the worm was ejected from his body. While infested with the parasite, the person was unable to feel a thing.

The train station attendant will give you this map to the parasite museum if you ask for directions.

The address to the museum is below.

Meguro – Parasite Museum
Parasite Museum
4-1-1 Shimo Meguro
Meguro-ku
Tokyo
Tel: +81 (03) 3716-1264
Meguro station (Namboku & other lines)
Open: daily (except Mon), 10am-5pm

Enjoy.

- Harvey