San Francisco's Super 7 Store and Japantown

Above, Mama mia! That's one big poster!

San Francisco's Super 7 Store and Japantown

by Armand Vaquer

This summer, Haruo Nakajima will be the guest of honor at the Godzilla & the Monsters of Mass Destruction film festival at the historic Castro Theater in San Francisco. It is being produced by August Ragone ("In August By August", eh?). For those of you who are thinking about attending but are currently sitting on the fence, besides seeing a good show at the Castro, you would also have the opportunity to wander about San Francisco, especially Japantown.

In February 2008, I went to San Francisco to check out a possible job opportunity (I got downsized out of a job in November 2007) and while there, I met up with Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters author August Ragone in the city's Japantown section. This was the first time I had been to San Francisco's Japanese enclave. We agreed to meet up at the Super 7 store located there. As luck would have it, Japantown was only a 20-minute walk from my hotel.

I arrived at the store a little bit early so I could browse around to see what they have to offer and I was impressed. I was greeted by the store's clerk, Hiro Hayashi (who is also an artist) when I entered the store. At the cashier's desk, there's a nicely-framed Italian one-sheet poster of Godzilla vs. Megalon.

The store (below) carries all varieties of kaiju and henshin toys along with books, magazines, videos, t-shirts, posters and pictures. They also publish the Super 7 magazine for Japanese collectibles.



Hayashi indicated that they would like to contact G-FAN for some possible advertising business, so I provided him with the information.

After August arrived, we headed over to a local Japanese mall for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Along the way, he pointed out many of the landmarks in the Japantown district. The district has its own pagoda, which was a gift from Japan.

Above, August poses in front of a model of a Japanese castle at a Japantown mall before he does his best Haruo Nakajima impersonation.

There are many Japanese restaurants and shops catering to Japanese-American clientele including bookstores, clothing stores, toy stores and nightclubs. Like many Japantowns and Chinatowns in the major cities of the United States, they constantly have to battle with outside developers to keep the district ethnocentric to Japanese-American residents. Too many cultural and ethnic centers such as Japantown have to struggle to preserve their identities.

If you plan to visit San Francisco for the Godzilla & the Monsters of Mass Destruction film festival or any time soon, make sure you include Japantown and Super 7 on your itinerary. Super 7 is located at 1628 Post Street, San Francisco, California 94115. Telephone (415) 409-4700. Their email address is info@super7store.com.