Asian Dinosaurs... I'm not talking about Shamosaurus or Indosuchus, but rather an introduction to the Asian-inspired dinosaur models in the Hihokan collection.

Photo 1 shows dinosaurs from China. The three in the foreground were gifts. The sparkly green one on the right is from Hong Kong, and it really looks the part. The two more subdued ones on the left are Taiwanese bamboo crafts. The one in the back center is a sake bottle shaped like a "Chinese Dragon Bird." It has a relief of a Sinosauropteryx fossil. I got three of these in a scramble during a Liaoning Province tour last year. The one to its right is also from that trip. The one on the far left is, surprisingly, an Ichthyostega that I found at a mineral fair! They must have made it seriously, but the Chinese flavor is unmistakable.

The three items in the foreground of Photo 2 were found during a business trip to Nepal, when I walked all over Kathmandu. The one on the far right has another dinosaur of the same shape inside its hollowed-out belly. The one in the back right is a souvenir from Bali, and the one on the left is from India, bought online. And the one in the plastic bag is an incredibly kitschy Indian toy that I bought at a candy store in Bhaktapur, an ancient city in Nepal, while the old woman running the shop watched my every move. I love it.

Perhaps this is what a "Japanese-style" dinosaur looks like? (Photo 3)
The four wooden kussies on the front left are particularly noteworthy. The one on the far left was hand-carved by an Ainu elder named Mr. Isori. It's a playful piece, with external genitalia (a human penis, no less) attached. The two brown kussies in the back have, for some reason, been sauropodized. On the right is a Shigaraki ware Styracosaurus, a work by Yasuyo Kobayashi. The smaller ones in the back are Nambu ironware, purchased at a folk craft center in Tono, the renowned village of folklore. The leaning item is a souvenir sold when the Nakazato Village Dinosaur Center in Gunma Prefecture (now renamed) first opened. It's probably something the villagers hastily put together when tourism suddenly boomed... it's delightfully rustic.