This is why we can’t have nice things. A toy museum in Niigata Prefecture is closing in February because its owner says customers can’t help themselves from breaking stuff and stealing parts.
The Izumozaki Retro Museum in Izumozaki, Niigata Prefecture specializes in collecting toys from Japan’s Showa era (1926-1989). Owner Nagano Kenichi says on the Museum’s website that he wanted to keep this era of analog toys alive for a generation that’s grown up on digital entertainment.
However, that’s proven impossible due to the behavior of some customers. Nagano showed NST TV in Niigata multiple toys where customers had broken off and stolen parts. One game was missing a button, which Nagano told reporters he discovered just the day before.
Nagano has tried his best to keep the games in one piece. However, it’s a lot of manual labor, given that no one makes parts for any of the old products he stores.
He says he’s struggled to get some parents to control their kids. In one case, Nagano says, he asked a parent whose child dropped a toy to help the child be more careful. The parent snapped, “Then you shouldn’t leave these out where kids can touch ’em!”
“That broke my heart,” he confessed.
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Nagano also says some parents themselves get enthralled in games such as old pachinko machines, playing for ages and leaving their kids unsupervised to wreak havoc.
As a result, Nagano says he has no choice but to close the store in February. According to the Retro Museum’s website, the store is currently open only to elementary school students so they can enjoy the old toys one last time. It will close on February 3rd.
Yahoo! News JP has nearly 3,000 comments lamenting the closure, with commenters noting how sad it is that a few inattentive parents have to ruin it for everyone else.
Nagano says he plans to open a new Showa Retro museum. However, guests won’t be allowed to touch anything.
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