I must admit that I found this place by pure accident. It was a Sunday afternoon and we were taking an "Initial D" fact-finding tour. The first stop we made was Mt. Akagi, the touge where the RX-7 driving Takahashi brothers were supposed to reside. It's pretty cool; it looks just like the cartoon. The next stop was Mt. Haruna. This is the mountain where the hachi-driving, tofu delivery boy, Takumi, makes his home base. The name of this mountain was cleverly changed from Harunasan (Spring Mountain) to Akina (Fall Mountain) in the cartoon. I could see why; there was a grip of drift cars driving around, taking in the "Initial D"-inspired sights. It must drive the locals crazy. The one thing I could not help noticing throughout the drive were these peculiar billboards all over the place, which had the same drawing of a Toyota 2000GT, a teddy bear and a piece of candy. Since I don't read Japanese, I finally had to ask, "What the hell are these billboards for?" The answer I got: "Those signs are for a museum named the M. Yokota Collection."
Being that I'm a sucker for candy, classic cars and tourist traps, we made an immediate detour and started to follow the signs to the M. Yokota Collection. Keep in mind we were in the middle of the boonies (130 km north of Tokyo) and I was expecting to see a Japanese-style barn next to a rice field that housed a couple of dolls, a little store front that sold candy, a dusty Toyota 2000GT and a little obachan (grandma) sitting in the corner, collecting entrance fees. My past experiences from following signs like the ones for the U.S. tourist traps like "The Thing" in New Mexico or the "Snake Farm" in Central Texas resulted in me being not so impressed. This time I was pleasantly surprised to pull up to this huge castle-like museum. It was obvious that there were some deep pockets backing this spot.
The decor of the museum is very interesting, to say the least. It is a combination of high-end European flavor with some 1950s Japanese street scene thrown in the mix. Honestly, this place gives museums like the Toyota-backed Mega Web's History Garage and the Honda-owned Twin Ring Honda Museum a run for their money.
The museum starts you out in a toy section and, being that the signs had teddy bears on them, I was expecting to breeze right through. But I was wrong; there were a lot of the old school JDM action figures and posters that brought back memories of watching "Go Rangers," "Kikaida" and "Ultraman" on TV, not to mention other notable movie stars, like Godzilla, Mothra and Giant Robot. Also included in this section are hundreds and hundreds of cool car models from all over the world and some U.S.-influenced musical hipsters from Japan's post-WWII era. The collection also housed some pretty scary-ass dolls and masks that still give me nightmares to this day, and there's even a shooting gallery. The coolest part of the toy section is the gift shop, where you can purchase some of the coolest old school toys around. They also sell a weird assortment of stickers for your cell phone. I guess these stickers were made to show the rebellious side of the Japanese people, and what better way to do that than with a penis sticker in the shape of the Pepsi logo or a cocaine sticker in the shape of the Coke logo stuck to the back of your phone?