So two nights ago, we made it out to Aoto with Dennis and his wife to finally visit "mecca" for me hehe, and my visit to the shop was so incredible, my trip to Japan has already been made perfect and it's only just begun!
We arrived on a rainy night, and you can see the shop lights from down the street. Walk in, and be bathed in the glow of every real head figure of your dreams. Mori is the nicest guy I have met while being involved in this hobby.
We stood around talking about toys for a bit, I showed him photos of my collection (which he loved haha..he was surprised I had a few of the pieces I think), but he was really excited about my complete oni head collection
So we were shooting the breeze and were admiring the new mummy and fly minis and he said " here take one each", and he gave us the minis as a gift! I was so stoked!
I bought a couple of new figures while there (the new kaiser head rules! keep an eye out for another coming soon
)We stayed for a while and talked about things from madballs to kitaro, and then towards the end of the visit I asked him a question about green oni head variants. Talked about that for a bit, and then saw one of the figures I've only seen in pictures...the clear blue oni head with white shirt and black pants!
So I asked about it, and he said it was a sample only. Then he said " Oh oni head is your favorite..." with a big smile. He reaches in back, and grabs one of the other sample colors and hands it over to me. "gift...for your collection". This was the second gift of the evening from mori, but also got another gift from a friend that will blow everyone away as well.
I was (and am still) completely blown away. He was so generous, and so nice to all of us, and it makes me so excited to see a toymaker who is so down to earth. It's tough to put all of it into words, but my collection means so much more now that I have seen where, and who, it comes from.
Best night ever. Words can't completely describe it.
If you can manage it, come over here and experience this country. It's the best thing I've ever done, the best trip I've been on!
