Jim McMahon

Thrill seekers in Japan can now take on Godzilla himself. A new attraction at Nijigen no Mori, a theme park on Awaji Island, lets visitors pretend to be researchers studying the monster. They can even zip-line directly into the mouth of a 75-foot-tall replica. Godzilla has been a pop culture icon ever since he first appeared in a 1954 film in Japan called Gojira (combining the words gorilla and kujira, which means “whale” in Japanese). According to the story in the movie, Godzilla was created when radiation from a nuclear test leaked into the Pacific Ocean. Just nine years before the film’s release, at the end of World War II, the U.S. had dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so it was only natural that residents feared what nuclear weapons could do. But despite his dark origin story, Godzilla went on to become hugely popular all over the world, spawning more than 30 sequels and countless imitations. Now park officials hope the attraction will inspire fans to come to Awaji Island to learn more about the epic creature.