[Editor's note: Our intrepid Japan correspondent filed this report on Japan's traveling Godzilla museum. His new job starts next month trading derivatives in Tokyo. So, watch out world economy...]
The Godzilla thing took place in the event hall of the Takashimaya
Department Store in Osaka, and lasted for about three weeks. I went there on the last day. I think it was 300 yen to enter (about $2.20 U.S. at present exchange rates) and you had all the time you wanted to walk around. It may have been intended for kids, but just about everyone there was an adult and many people, including myself, brought cameras.
The exhibits were arranged in a large hall but they had set up walls to form corridors which led you around to the various displays (see brochure). The corridors had dimmed lights and video screens built into the walls that displayed select scenes from the many outstanding Godzilla movies. Thus, as you walked around the displays, you were bathed in the ambient light of the video screens and were always within earshot of the classic Godzilla growl.
Every video screen held a classic -- fights between Godzilla and Mothra, Godzilla and King Kong, Godzilla and Mecha-Godzilla, and Godzilla vs. other irradiated creatures. The midget Japanese chicks from Infant Island also were featured prominently. It was a veritable Godzilla-fest!
The displays were numerous. There were large (7 or 8 feet tall) replicas of various Godzillas that had appeared in the movies (normal Godzilla, baby Godzilla [Minilla] and even the new U.S. godzilla) (I don't know if these were just models or props used in the movies). There were also display cases with miniature Godzillas and movie posters from easily 25 different Godzilla movies (both in Japanese and English). The coup-de-grace was a huge room with large models of various Godzilla movie monsters. Some of the models moved back and forth and there was a large space ship with plasma cannons opposite the displays so that kids could take pot shots at the creatures. There whole room flashed and resounded with artificial lightning and thunder.
You can't go anywhere in Japan without encountering a souvenir shop, and the same was true here. After exiting the displays you walked through a shop that sold everything from $2 Godzilla pencil cases to $200 rubber and plastic replicas of the giant lizard himself. They had books and materials from many different Godzilla movies and even had a hardback book with black and white pictures of the production of the very first godzilla movie (unfortunately it cost $60).
That was pretty much it. It was pretty neat - especially for 300 yen. Of course, since transportation is so crazy here, I had to spend about $10 to get there and back.
The big guy...
Doesn't Space Godzilla
