Soshigaya-Okura is a residential area in Tokyo just less than 30 minutes west of Shinjuku on the Odakyu line. It’s ordinary in every way except that it’s the birthplace of Ultraman!!! Tell me that isn’t a good enough reason to sell my house and move there. Tsuburaya Pro, the film company that created Ultraman as well as Godzilla, was founded and is still located in the area. In April last year, the local merchants started to take advantage of this history and renamed their shopping street “Ultraman Shotengai.” They even have a blog about it. What a cool place.

Come out of the station and on the north side you’re greeting by Ultraman firing his Spacium Ray.

Turn left and walk about 20 metres and you arrive at the Ultraman Hiroba. This Ultraman is not as big as the one in Asakusa or Akasaka but it’s very nice. It was erected in March of this year. The plaque shows the lyrics for the Ultraman theme song. I prefer the Ultraman Seven song though.

(1) The shopping street is decorated with many flags of Ultraman (2) It says I have to walk 350 metres to see the Ultraman Zoffy Arch. Hmmm…350 metres is a long way to walk but what the heck.

I proceed down the street and begin to notice that many shops have one or two Ultraman items in their window (1)(2) This coffee shop had a big TV playing Ultraman Seven episodes and half the shop was converted to selling Ultraman goods (3)(4) I stopped at this Confectionary shop to admire the Ultraman figures when the Obasan came out and started telling me the history of each one and how old they were. According to her, these figures were all first edition ones purchased almost 40 years ago. Must be worth a fortune now. Maybe she should sell them and buy a better shop.

And sure enough at the end of the shopping street there was the Ultraman Zoffy Arch in all its glory. The guys who live in the buildings nearby get to look at it everyday. I’m sure real estate agents must use that as a selling point. :-)

I almost got hit by a car while trying to take closeups from underneath. If this were any other country I’m sure someone would have either vandalized or stolen it by now.

The real reason for visiting the area was actually to see the Ultraman Exhibit at the nearby Setagaya Literary Museum. The exhibit started in July and unfortunately will end tomorrow (1) These are some posters promoting the exhibit (2) Just outside the Museum. The Ultraman exhibit was advertised as a film festival but I didn’t see any theatre (3) At the entrance was Busuka. Nobody inside it though, I checked (4) The elevators were decorated with different monsters similar to the chogokin exhibit I went to in Harajuku. This is barutan-seijin which looks like a big lobster and is the second most popular Ultraman teki.

The exhibit was on the second floor and unfortunately they did not allow photography. I thought I could sneak a shot but there was a guard following me around the entire time. Guess the camera bag gave me away. The exhibit itself was great, there were posters of every Ultraman and every Monster showing all their vital stats and powers. Some guy was writing it all down in a notebook. And there were lots of production sketches of how they designed the rubber suits and many behind the scenes photos. In particular, I loved examining some of the aircraft models, helmets and guns used by the science police. The lines and colors in those retro designs are amazing and I wish I could have taken a few photos.

(1) A couple of the posters hidden in the corner which I managed to get a shot of (2) I was allowed to take a photo of this (3) A nice map showing places around the Setagaya area which have historic importance to Ultraman.

Some items in the gift shop (1) Cute little Pigmon trash can (2) Ultraman Kintaro-Ame. Very detailed (3) And look!! You can buy autographed photos of your favorite hero.

(1) They also had a big TV set up showing clips from the Ultra-Fight Ultimate DVD. That’s Ultraman Seven getting the crap kicked out of him (2) And this is one of those…um, I have no idea what these are called.

Outside the Setagaya Literary Museum there was a moat-like pond which had hundreds of big fat Nishiki-Koi. That’s my tax money paying to feed these fish.