Wasen Display 5.0 is now set up at the Japan Center Mall in the window of the Union Bank Community Room inside the East Mall building. At least, I think, it’s display 5.0. I’m starting to lose track.

This time, the display is just slightly smaller than last time as I decided not to include my Urayasu Boatshop model. I actually partially dismantled it in order to make some progress on the boat model that was in the display and bring it to the Nautical Research Guild Conference in San Diego several weeks ago.

Hacchoro, built from a Woody Joe kit. If you’ve been following my blogs, you might recall I had a chance to see one of the Hacchoro replicas in the port of Yaizu in September.

So, maybe this is more like Wasen Display 3.5. But, it’s the fifth one I’ve done now. It still features the Higaki Kaisen, Hacchoro and Yakatabune, all built from Woody Joe kits, and the Tosa Wasen from Thermal Studio.

This time, I took part of the roof off of the Yakatabune, so people can see the interior better.

I had hoped to include my own Urayasu Bekabune model as well as one that was given to me when I visited the museum near Tokyo. However, I just haven’t had time to work on my bekabune model or to build more display stands. So, they will have to wait for another time.

The Tosa Wasen is now a regular feature and is the largest model in terms of length as well as scale (1/10). The inclusion of the boatman silhouettes helps the viewer understand the models’ differing scales.

For those interested in building any of these kits, they are all presently available. The Tosa Wasen kit is only available direct from the manufacturer. You can see their website at thermal-kobo.jp, but you will have to email them to place your order.

The Hacchoro, Yakatabune and Higaki Kaisen kits are all available from the Japanese online seller Zootoyz.jp. Their prices are reasonable, service is very good, and you won’t get gouged on shipping fees.

Instructions for all these kits are in Japanese, but all but the Higaki Kaisen are pretty straight forward.

The current Japanese boat models display will run from November 1st through the 31st.