"It looks bigger than
the real thing," explains Hiroshi Morimoto, the park's
gun-toting and cowboy-hatted entertainment director, from
the viewing area. "You can only see the real one [from this
vantage point] from a great distance. Because this one is so
close, you can see everything in more detail."
One can see Lincoln's nose in even greater detail:
A full-size replica of its Mount Rushmore depiction can be
found in the park's general store. It stands floor to
ceiling. Inside the proboscis, a small photographic exhibit
tells how the sculpture on Mount Rushmore was created.
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Families enjoy the scale reproductions of the world's
architectural wonders on view at Tobu World Square. |
World in miniature.Precise-scale reproductions and
an avowedly educational purpose also shape the entertaining
Tobu World Square. This park contains an impressive
collection of miniatures of world-famous structures, all
built to 1/25 scale. Buildings and complexes from twenty-one
countries are represented and range from Manhattan's World
Trade Center to the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal.
"These structures reflect the whole of human doing, culture,
sensitivity, and intelligence," says Hiroshi Mayahara,
executive director of the facility. "It is hard to visit
them all; therefore, we have combined them, in miniature, in
one park."
Mayahara argues that one of the park's purposes
was to develop a consciousness among the Japanese people for
the need to preserve and protect the world's historic
structures. Many of the original sites suffer from problems
caused by wars or pollution. Tobu World Square was intended
to be not only an amusement park but "an intelligent,
historical museum" he says. The park's founders wanted to
act in the same spirit that motivates UNESCO's efforts to
restore historic structures. Thus, thirty-five of the models
reproduce structures that UNESCO has designated for
preservation.
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