When inbound foreign tourism restarts, Tochigi City is expected to lure these visitors to Mt. Iwafune, which is famous as a site to film explosion scenes for TV programs featuring special effects and hero characters.
Organizers of a project promoting the mountain as tourist spot recently held an event in which people engaging in inbound tourism-related businesses could experience the excitement of these explosions. After evaluating the feedback from the participants, business operators in the city will try to develop appropriate tourism plans.
On June 6, an explosion-impact event was held at Cliff Stage, on the side of Mt. Iwafune. About 20 people, mainly presidents of inbound tourism-related companies, participated in the event.
The participants, wearing hero character costumes, struck their favorite poses in front of cameras with billowing fire in the background, which rose up with explosive sounds.
It seemed that photos like scenes in fighting hero squadron TV dramas could be taken. The participants showed each other their photos in their camera monitors, saying such things as, "This instance is great."
The organizers of the event were Hikaru Sayama, 37, who mainly plans events in Tochigi City, and his acquaintance Ryotaro Sakurai, 47, president of LifeBridge Inc., which is a Sendai-based company conducting inbound tourism-related businesses in provincial regions.
In the event, six patterns of explosions, in which the colors and sizes of the flames are different, were prepared.
Owners of three eateries operating in the prefecture also took part by operating food trucks to serve pizzas, coffee and dorayaki Japanese sweets to the participants.
The participants could enjoy these drinks and snacks during the 20- to 30-minute intervals between the explosions. They praised the event, saying that they never got bored even during the waiting times.
Sayama voiced his expectation saying, "Such a large number of people felt satisfied. If we brush up the way of organizing, this may be able to become an event representing Tochigi City."
Based on the feedback from the participants, Sayama said they want to decide details of future events, such as fees, opening hours and flows of the tours, and also want to deepen cooperation with local governments.
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