The Kurayoshi Figure Museum was founded as an initiative to save the city's beloved, but vacant, round school building from demolition. It has been fully renovated and equipped with modern facilities, now hosting around 2000 different figures in all shapes and sizes as well as two shops for local souvenirs and, of course, figures. The museum is a stunning building on the inside, as much as on the outside, with its spiral staircase and fan-like rooms. I enjoyed the variety on display, which consisted not only of figures based on pop culture but also of animals, dinosaurs, and more. There is also a room where you can freely pick up and pose the figures to create unique pictures. One of the rooms is fitted as a classroom from the 1950s, and you can even get up to the roof and get a 360-degree view of the surroundings.

Tickets are available for the temporary exhibition (which was the "Kaiju Theater" when I visited) at ¥600 and for the permanent exhibition on the upper two floors at ¥1000. There is also a discounted ticket for all floors at ¥1200, which I would recommend to first-timers.

Even when you travel by public transport, it is easy to reach by bus from the Kurayoshi Station. Twice a day there is also a bus that goes to and from Gōshō Aoyama Manga Factory in just thirty minutes, so it's easy to visit both in a single day. Of course, other slower connections are also available throughout the day.