Due to the nature of my profession, I occasionally have live tour jobs, and when I do, I make it a point to research museums and other places I can visit beforehand and go as often as possible. Of course, one of the main purposes is souvenir hunting. I'm always thrilled when I come across unique original goods, but most museums only have keychains or stationery with their name on them as "original" items. Confectionery like "Meika XX Dinosaur Manju" can be found everywhere, but I usually pass on them because they are difficult to preserve, they all look the same, and most of them don't look very appetizing. I'd love to just have the packaging, but that's not possible, so I've given up collecting them. If anyone out there is collecting dinosaur souvenir confectionery packaging, please contact me. It would give me peace of mind, as someone who aims for "dinosaur culture preservation (?), " to know that someone is collecting them.
As an aside, at the "Dinosaur Continent" exhibit in Makuhari that I recently visited, the large souvenir shop only had incomprehensible character dinosaur figures and sweets as original goods. All that caught my eye were the Favorite Collection skeleton models, which, given my position, I should have been happy about, but it was incredibly disappointing. I bought the catalog, the cheapest character figure (since I had no other choice), and the cheapest sweets, and trudged home.

Anyway, from this time on, I will be showcasing the specialty dinosaur souvenirs from various parts of Japan that I have collected over many years. Many of these stories are from long ago, and many of the items may no longer be available, so please bear with me.

Photo 1

Photo 2

First, from Hokkaido in the north. Around the time the snow melted in 1987 (for some reason, it left a strong impression on me), I extended a business trip to Sapporo and took the Horonai Line, which was scheduled to be decommissioned a few months later, to the Mikasa City Museum. The museum was deserted, but I thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent ammonite collection and the Ezomikasaurus, which at the time was still classified as a Carnosaur. However, there were no goods at the museum, and the "Kaseki Monaka" (Fossil Monaka) shown in Photo 1 was what I finally found at a shop in front of the station. It looks like a crumbling real fossil, but it's a monaka. It's kept frozen. Actually, I initially tried to collect and preserve sweets, but I realized that I couldn't fill my freezer with dinosaur sweets and gave up. This monaka even served as a prop when I was called upon as a suspicious dinosaur collector for a TV show during the release of Jurassic Park in 1993, allowing me to take it out of the refrigerator, brag about it, and emphasize my eccentricities. So, while it's confectionery not usually part of my collection, it's an exceptionally permanent preservation item.
Speaking of Hokkaido, about 20 years ago, I went to Lake Kussharo on a private trip to look for a wooden carving of Kusshie, and Photo 2 shows a display of the spoils of that trip. (Some of them also appear in Secret Treasure Museum Vol. 2.) I had the opportunity to revisit Lake Kussharo a few years ago during a concert tour, and the Brachiosaurus-like Kusshie on the far right of the photo was something I bought then. The sculpting is quite good, but a Kusshie with legs... I suppose that's about all the souvenirs I've acquired in Hokkaido, but there are still several museums in the prefecture, including Takikawa, that I haven't seen yet, so I'm looking forward to future visits.

Photo 3

Photo 4

Again, it was during a concert tour, when I was driving back to Tokyo from Kesennuma (the shark museum there is quite good), that I noticed a sign for Utatsu Town along the way. As I was thinking, "I've heard that name somewhere before...", I suddenly saw a sign for the "Utatsu Town Ichthyosaur Museum!" Fortunately, I had some free time, so I persuaded my band members to stop there. It was a small museum, but it left a good impression. The souvenir from that visit is this (Photo 3), an Utatsusaurus pin badge. It's well-made and not available anywhere else—this is exactly the kind of thing I want. They also sold a replica of an Ichthyosaur tooth from England for about 1000 yen, which is also hard to find elsewhere, so it was a great find.
Photo 4 is also from Miyagi Prefecture, but I didn't buy it there. I got it on Yahoo Auctions. It's a replica of a baby Protoceratops that was probably sold at the "Great Dinosaur Exhibition of the Gobi Desert" held at a department store (?) called "Endo" in front of Sendai Station in 1985. It's very roughly made and unpainted, but it seems to be a copy of an actual fossil displayed at the "Great Dinosaur Exhibition of the Gobi Desert" that toured the country that year, and the catalog describes it as "the world's smallest complete fossil of a dinosaur." Replicas of exhibition fossils are usually not sold, but this might have been an exclusive item only at "Endo" (perhaps they made it without permission?). If so... I'd be thrilled!

Photo 5

Photo 6

Iwaki Coal and Fossil Museum in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, is a place I have a connection with, as they previously exhibited my collection in a special exhibition. Besides the Nambu ironware Futabasaurus introduced in Secret Treasure Museum Vol. 31, the Nambu ironware Mamenchisaurus (Photo 5) also has a great charm. And the skeleton drawn on coal in Photo 6 is such a straightforward and endearing souvenir that it makes you want to exclaim, "It's exactly what it looks like!"
Next time, it's the Kanto edition.