Random House: Wine, Dolls, Squirrels, Cars

Rarely has more random a grouping been the theme of a single museum, but the M. Yokota Collection has all that and more. In fact, if you go by the sign in front of the building, it’s proper name is the “Toy & Doll Teddybear Confectionery & Chocolate Automobile Museum.” According to this photo tour, Mr. Yokota was a man whose apparent interest in collecting things was rivaled only by his massive amount of yen.

Plush bears, plastic model kits, tin toys, action figures from Astroboy to Ultraman, and a squirrel zoo are all well and good, but the only reason we’d make the two hour trek from Tokyo would be for the cars. From what we can see in the photos, this guy has enough cars to make Bruce Wayne jealous, including a pair of Toyota 2000GTs, Skylines both Prince and Nissan, Mazda Cosmo Sport, Honda S800, 240Z, Mitsubishi Galant GTO. Small cars: Subaru 360, a ’38 Datsun sedan, Mazda Carol and B360 pickup, Honda Vamos, Daihatsus Compagno Spider, Midget and Fellow. Race cars: Honda N360, Subaru 360, Nissan Sunny 1200, a Kurosawa-themed hakosuka Skyline, the ’71 Mitsu pictured, and many, many more.

Sadly, no photos of the squirrel zoo could be found. The M. Yokota Collection is located in the village of Ikaho, Gunma Prefecture.

[Source: M. Yokota Collection via Motor Trend]