We had a 4-day weekend this month, starting Friday, September 19th through Tuesday the 22nd. Mayu wanted to visit the Ikaho Toy and Car Museum, located in Ikaho in Gunma Prefecture. It's not far from home, and this was our third time to visit. I had recorded a video of the museum and uploaded it to my YouTube channel. I had also taken many pictures, but I somehow lost those.
Just like the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum, the Ikaho Toy & Car Museum is a Showa-period retro theme park of sorts. (The Showa Period of Japan was from 1926 to 1989, the 63-year reign of Emperor Hirohito.) As with the ramen museum, the layout of much of this museum emulates the look and feel of crowded back streets of the old Showa Period era. There's a dagashi-ya (Japanese-style candy store), a retro game arcade (games pre-dating anything with video screens), and faux storefronts of a pharmacy, post office, and others.
The museum contains the property from one man. The whole collection is his. All of the cars are his. As someone into plastic modeling, I like how next to a car there will be a plastic model of the car displayed next to it (if a model was made for it).
This museum features a recreation of the original Fujiwara Tofu shop that the story of the drift racing manga/anime Initial D was built around and used for the live action film, complete with a Toyota AE86 Trueno parked in front. Other cars from the series are also on display at the museum. The events of this series are based in Gunma Prefecture.
Next is yet another Star Wars rant
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