The intended purpose of this website is to serve as a supplement to Dr. Shigeru Miyagawa's StarFestival. StarFestival is an interactive multimedia CD-ROM that teaches users about modern Japan and its cultural heritage. Specifically, this site supplements Site 7 of StarFestival-- The Model Shop.

In Site 7, The Model Shop, the StarFestival user watches an interview with a small model shop owner. The owner explains that he opened his shop after World War II as a means of helping the children of Japan become brighter and better builders. He somewhat sadly informs the interviewer that children no longer patronize his store. Rather, he now interacts primarily with adults who grew up enjoying models. He says that today children enjoy other toys, especially video games.

The purpose of this site is to act as an extension of the model shop site, providing further exploration of toys in Japan. The site discusses traditional Japanese toys, many of which are still enjoyed by children today, and provides links to sites relevant to this topic. In addition, the site provides a glimpse of popular modern Japanese toys and will direct, you, the visitor to various websites that market these toys and others. In doing so, we attempt to answer the question inevitably raised by Site 7 of StarFestival: If children are no longer playing with model toys anymore, with what are they playing?