Above, G-TOUR members at the Koriyama Museum.Today, five years ago, we got an early start to be bused to Koriyama, the hometown of spfx icon Eiji Tsuburaya, to the museum to see the "Since Godzilla" exhibit.
The bus trip was not an official part of G-TOUR, but an option that was added.
En route, we stopped at a roadside "welcome center" for breakfast.
The "Since Godzilla" exhibit was great (although I think most were more impressed with the gift shop filled with all kinds of Godzilla goodies including toys, books, posters, DVDs, video tapes, etc.) I picked up a book chock-full of photos (J.D. also picked one up and you can spot some of the photos from it in G-FAN on occasion) and a DVD of "Godzilla" (1954), which is the cleanest copy of the movie I have. Unfortunately, we were told by the museum staff that no photography of the exhibits would be allowed. However, I did manage to sneak some video footage of the exhibit.
That night, our dinner at T.G.I. Friday's was set. I was as "nervous as a cat on a hot plate" on the way back to Tokyo (since I was the one in charge of the dinner) and worried that we would be late. It was scheduled for 7:00 PM and we got there at 7:05, which wasn't that bad considering Koriyama is about 150 miles from Tokyo.
Of course, the highlight of the dinner was Yoshimitsu Banno's talk on his Godzilla in 3D project. We had a quick visit by former L.A. General Manager Masaharu Ina. Also attending were suitmaker Shinichi Wakasa, screenwriters Wataru Mimura and Hiroshi Kashiwabara, artists Hikari and Naoko Takeda (Modstoon) and director (and "Mr. G-FEST") Yoshikazu Ishii.
Following the dinner, tour members went back to the Shiba Park Hotel, but some returned to Roppongi for some "nightclubbing." It was a memorable day (and night) in many ways.
The next day was a "free" day in Tokyo. More on that tomorrow!
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