School turned museum recalls Showa-era shopping street

MIYAKO, Iwate Prefecture--A fitting venue, an old school here built more than 70 years ago, now houses a popular local museum that recreates a shopping street from the Showa Era (1926-1989), when the facility itself was in its heyday.

Masakatsu Terui, 62, opened the "Showa no Gakko" (Showa School) museum in 2008, using the old school building in the city's Hakoishi district. It has on display a collection of about 50,000 items, recreating an entire shopping street from bygone days.

The museum houses more than 20 "stores" lined up in former classrooms.

Notebooks, pencils and insect-collecting kits fill the store shelves of a stationery shop, while a toy store offers a collection of plastic models and model planes.   Read Here